A resonator of an electrodeless lighting system includes a body part formed in a prescribed shape; a transmission space part formed at one side of the body part and having an antenna of an microwave generator therein; a multi-step type resonating space part formed to be opened at one side, having a section gradually widening toward the opened side, receiving the microwave radiated from the antenna by means of an microwave feeder and resonating the microwave; and a stub formed at a certain height at an inner wall of the multi-step type resonating space part. Since the reflector for reflecting light has the enlarged size and is varied in its form to increase the amount of reflected parallel light, an illumination performance is enhanced. In addition, the impedance matching of the microwave exciting the gas filled in the electrodeless bulb and the resonance frequency are controllable.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrodeless lighting system and, more particularly, to a resonator of an electrodeless lighting system capable of increasing the size of a reflector reflecting light radiated from an electrodeless bulb, verifying forms of the reflector, and matching impedance of an electronic wave exciting gas-fill filled in the electrodeless bulb and controlling a resonance frequency.
2. Description of the Background Art
In general, in an electrodeless lighting system, gas-fill filled in an electrodeless bulb is excited to be converted into a plasma state, and a peripheral place is illuminated by light generated from plasma. The light generated by plasma is a natural light having an excellent illumination effect compared to the generally used incandescent electric lamp or a fluorescent lamp, and a life span of its bulb is longer.
FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a general electrodeless lighting system, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line A-B of FIG. 1.
As shown in these drawings, the electrodeless lighting system includes: an microwave generator 10 for generating microwave energy; a resonator 20 having a resonating space 21 for resonating microwave generated from the electromagnetic generator 10; an microwave feeder 30 mounted in the resonating space 21 of the resonator and guiding microwave generated from the microwave generator 10 into the resonating space 21; an electrodeless lamp 40 positioned in the resonating space 21, connected to the microwave feeder 30, and generating plasma light by the resonated microwave energy; a reflector 50 for reflecting light generated from the electrodeless bulb 40 in a forward direction; and a transparent cover 60 mounted at a front side of the reflector 50 to prevent leakage of microwave and protect the electrodeless bulb 40.
The resonator 20 includes a main body 22 formed in a prescribed shape; the resonating space 21 formed in a cylindrical shape and having prescribed inner diameter and depth at one side of the main body 22; and a transmission space 23 formed communicating with the resonating space 21 in a vertical direction at one side of the main body 2, in which an antenna 11 of the microwave generator is positioned.
The resonating space 21 is opened at one side, and its inner diameter has a prescribed form. An inner circumferential surface of the resonating space 21 is coated with a dielectric material.
A coupling part 24 is formed at the opening side of the resonating space 21, to which the cover 60 is coupled. The coupling part 24 has prescribed depth and area, which are the same as the thickness and the area of the cover 60.
The microwave feeder 30 includes a first conductor bar 31 having a prescribed length, positioned in the transmission space 23 and connected to the antenna 11; and a second conductor bar 32 connected to the first conductor bar 31 and positioned at the center of the resonating space 21.
A conductor ring 70 for concentrate microwave is coupled at a boundary region between the resonating space 21 and the transmission space 23.
The electrodeless bulb 40 includes a bulb portion 41 filled with gas-fill and a stem portion 42 extended with a prescribed length from an outer circumferential surface of the bulb portion 41. The electrodeless bulb 40 is connected to the second conductor bar 32 in such a manner that the stem portion 42 is positioned to be level with the second conductor bar 32.
The reflector 50 includes a curved-surface portion 51 with a reflection surface at its inner side, a fixing portion 52 forming a circumference of the curved-surface portion 51 and coupled to the cover 60; and an insertion portion 53 formed at one side of the curved-surface portion 51, into which the stem portion 42 of the electrodeless bulb is inserted.
The reflector 50 is positioned at the open side of the resonating space 21 and encompasses the bulb portion 41 of the electrodeless bulb.
The cover 60 has prescribed thickness and area. When the cover 60 coupled to the reflector 50, it is coupled to the coupling part 24.
The electrodeless lighting system as described above is operated as follows.
First, when microwave is generated from the microwave generator 10 and oscillated through the antenna 11, the microwave is transferred into the resonating space 21 of the resonator through the microwave feeder 30. As the microwave is resonated in the resonating space 21, a strong electric field is formed at the electrodeless bulb 40 and the gas-fill filled in electrodeless bulb 40 is excited to generate plasma.
Light is emitted by plasma generated from the electrodeless bulb 40 and reflected by the reflector 50 to illuminate the front side.
In the electrodeless lighting system, the structure of the resonator 20 resonating microwave oscillated from the electromagnetic generator 10 is very critical to enhance a light efficiency by plasma. That is, the resonator should have a structure that a strong electric field resonated in the resonator 20 is formed at the side of the electrodeless bulb 40.
If the resonated strong electric field is not formed at the area where the electrodeless bulb 40 is positioned, longer time is taken to light and re-light the electrodeless bulb 40, and a light efficiency in generating light is degraded.
In addition, the electrodeless lighting system is expected to generate various outputs depending on a place where the electrodeless lighting system is installed and its purpose, and accordingly, the size or the shape of the reflector 50 reflecting light generated from the electrodeless bulb 40 needs to be varied in diverse forms.
However, the conventional electrodeless lighting system has the following problems.
That is, since the reflector 50 is positioned in the resonating space 21 of the resonator having a prescribed inner diameter, the size of the reflector 50 is limited and can be hardly changed to various forms. If the size of shape of the reflector 50 is changed, it is difficult to match impedance or control a resonance frequency by the resonating space 21.
In addition, since the reflector 50 is positioned in the cylindrical resonating space 21, the size of the reflector 50 is limited. Then, the amount of parallel light emitted from the electrodeless bulb 40 is reduced, making the illuminated region narrow, so the illumination efficiency deteriorates.

Resonator of electrodeless lighting system


A vehicle incorporating a hybrid propulsion system. In one form, the vehicle may be an aircraft such that the system includes gas turbine engines as a first motive power source, and one or more battery packs as a second motive power source. Through selective coupling to an electric motor that can in turn be connected to a bladed rotor or other lift-producing device, the motive sources provide differing ways in which an aircraft can operate. In one example, the gas turbine engines can provide operation for a majority of the flight envelope of the aircraft, while the battery packs can provide operation during such times when gas turbine-based motive power is unavailable or particularly disadvantageous. In another example, both sources of motive power may be decoupled from the bladed rotor such that the vehicle can operate as an autogyro. In another mode of operation, the movement of a bladed rotor can be both decoupled from the sources of propulsion as well as fixed relative to the aircraft such that the aerodynamic surfaces formed on the bladed rotors can act as a fixed wing. In another particular form, the vehicle may be ground-based or water-based.

The present invention relates generally to vehicles with hybrid propulsion systems, and more particularly to a combination of a gas turbine-based propulsion system and a stored electric-based power system that cooperates with rotational lift or thrust-producing devices to permit a vehicle to operate in numerous modes of movement.
Aircraft are broadly categorized as either fixed-wing vehicles (such as an airplane) or rotary-wing vehicles (such as helicopters and autogyros, the latter also referred to as autogyros or gyrocopters). Gas turbine engines (which are one form of internal combustion engine) are widely used to power both the fixed-wing and rotary wing forms of aircraft, where fixed-wing vehicles often employ turbofan, turbojet and turboprop variants, and rotary-wing vehicles often employ turboshaft variants. In all circumstances, the basic gas generator hardware is common, including a compressor, a combustor and turbine, where the compressor and turbine rotate on a generally common shaft (or set of concentric shafts) such that energy extracted from the turbine is used to power the compressor. Turbofans are very similar to turbojets, with the exception that they typically include an additional fan located upstream of the compressor. A turboprop engine, in addition to including the respective turbofan or turbojet componentry, also includes a fore-mounted drive shaft that spins in common with the shaft of the compressor and turbine. To match the high rotational speed of the compressor and turbine to that of a propeller, a gearbox is inserted between the front end of the drive shaft and a propeller shaft. Turboshafts also include similar components to the turbofans and turbojets, and additionally include a shaft rotatably responsive to another turbine stage. Both fixed-wing and rotary-wing vehicles contain advantages and disadvantages. The present invention seeks to combine these types of aircraft into one which can selectively take advantage of fixed or rotary-winged aircraft.
In turboshaft engines, power generated by the gas generator (which is spinning about a generally horizontal axis) is transferred to the shaft (which is spinning about a generally vertical axis such that it can turn a rotor made up of a series of blades that radially extend from a central hub) through a gearing mechanism, such as a beveled or worm gear. Shaft horsepower needs to produce a particular rotor rotational speed that varies depending on the aircraft type, size and intended mission. For example, the CH-47 Chinook is a popular twin-rotor helicopter designed for commercial and military heavy lifting. Rotor blade power requirements for helicopters such as this may be in the range of five thousand horsepower, while speed requirements of around two hundred and twenty five revolutions per minute (RPM) are typical.
Despite their widespread use, conventional gas turbine-based propulsion systems have significant drawbacks for certain types of aircraft. For example, in the event a turboshaft engine fails, a helicopter, gyrocopter or other inherently unstable aircraft has no way of returning to earth under its own power, and at best can expect to have to endure a controlled crash landing. Likewise, if a helicopter employing a turboshaft engine as propulsive power is flying or hovering over an area where terrorists, armed conflict or related hostilities exist, the extreme heat put out by the engine or engines may make the helicopter exceedingly vulnerable to attack from infrared (IR) seeking weaponry. Furthermore, to the extent that there are existing rotary-winged aircraft (such as the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey) that are configured to operate in both a helicopter mode of operation and in a fixed-wing aircraft mode of operation, significant mechanical complications abound, including the necessity of tilting the entire wing in order to shift between modes. Moreover, such a configuration does not provide the ability to operate as a gyrocopter, where additional fuel economy and related range may be possible. In addition, in situations where power may be lost, there is no ability with a design where the propeller is directly coupled to the engine to shift the rotors into a freewheeling position; this in turn imperils slow, controlled aircraft descents for emergency landings. Accordingly, there exists a need for an aircraft and a propulsion system that overcomes these and other shortcomings.

Aircraft using turbo-electric hybrid propulsion system for multi-mode operation


A neurostimulation system provides for capture verification and stimulation intensity adjustment to ensure effectiveness of vagus nerve stimulation in modulating one or more target functions in a patient. In various embodiments, stimulation is applied to the vagus nerve, and evoked responses are detected to verify that the stimulation captures the vagus nerve and to adjust one or more stimulation parameters that control the stimulation intensity.

Vagus nerve stimulation has been applied to modulate various physiologic functions and treat various diseases. One example is the modulation of cardiac functions in a patient suffering heart failure or myocardial infarction. The myocardium is innervated with sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves including the cardiac branches of the vagus nerve. Activities in the vagus nerve, including artificially applied electrical stimuli, modulate the heart rate and contractility (strength of the myocardial contractions). Electrical stimulation applied to the vagus nerve is known to decrease the heart rate and the contractility, lengthening the systolic phase of a cardiac cycle, and shortening the diastolic phase of the cardiac cycle. This ability of vagus nerve stimulation is utilized, for example, to control myocardial remodeling.
In addition to treating cardiac disorders such as myocardial remodeling, vagus nerve stimulation is also known to be effective in treating disorders including, but not limited to, depression, anorexia nervosa/eating disorders, pancreatic function, epilepsy, hypertension, inflammatory disease, and diabetes. To ensure efficacy of a vagus nerve stimulation therapy, there is a need to verify that the stimulation activates the target branches of the vagus nerve and control the stimulation parameters to result in effective modulation of target functions.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods and apparatus for adjusting neurostimulation intensity using evoked responses


A sheet cassette includes a cassette main body which forms a sheet accommodating region; an edge guide which is slidable to a position corresponding to a size of a medium; a guide groove which extends along a sliding direction of the edge guide and guides the edge guide in the sliding direction, and into which a portion of the edge guide is inserted; and a widening allowance groove which is provided with a predetermined distance from the guide groove, and allows widening of the guide groove when a portion of the edge guide is inserted into the guide groove.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a medium mounting mechanism mounting a medium and a recording apparatus including thereof.
2. Related Art
In a recording apparatus exemplified by a facsimile, a printer or the like, a sheet cassette which accommodates a recording sheet as a recording medium, a sheet feed tray provided at a rear portion of an apparatus, an automatic document feeder (ADF) in a scanner or the like is provided with an edge guide which regulates an edge of a sheet. The edge guide is provided to be slidable in a width direction, a length direction or the like of a sheet. The edge guide is positioned to an optimal position corresponding to a size of a sheet by a user and regulates the edge of the sheet at the position (JP-A-2009-73573 and JP-A-2009-73575).
The edge guide is guided by a guide groove formed on a bottom surface of a cassette. That is, a portion of the edge guide is inserted into the guide groove and accordingly the edge guide is guided by the guide groove.
Here, in order to prevent the edge guide from falling out, various structures may be employed in which a leading end of the portion of the edge guide being inserted into the guide groove (hereinafter, the portion is referred to as "insertion portion") is formed to be wider than the width of the guide groove, the guide groove is deformed in a widening direction to have the insertion portion inserted therein, and the insertion portion is engaged with the back surface of the cassette.
Here, considering the easiness of the insertion of the insertion portion into the guide groove, it is preferable that the width of the insertion portion be slightly wider than the guide groove. In this case, however, a catch amount after the insertion becomes small, and thus the insertion portion may easily fall out. On the other hand, when the width of the insertion portion is excessively wider than the guide groove, the insertion property is degraded and, depending on the case, the guide groove or the insertion portion may be damaged.

Medium mounting mechanism and recording apparatus


An automated method adapted to associate a consumer with a rewards program is described. The method includes: providing a bill to the consumer using a processing device; receiving payment information regarding the consumer; receiving biographical information regarding the consumer; and updating information regarding a user account associated with the rewards program. A software application adapted to process a payment and update rewards program information includes sets of instructions for: generating a bill for a set of goods or services provided to a consumer; receiving a method of payment from the consumer; determining an account associated with the method of payment; and updating the rewards program information associated with the account. An automated method of facilitating a redemption associated with a rewards program includes: receiving a bill associated with a consumer purchase; receiving payment information from the consumer; and applying at least a portion of a redemption balance to the bill.

With recent advances in wireless communication and reduction in form factors of computing devices, it is becoming more and more common for users to be equipped with internet-connected devices at all places at all times. It is desirable to use the ubiquitous internet connectivity as a productivity tool and not simply for entertainment or social networking only.
For example, many establishments (e.g., retailers, restaurants, service providers such as automotive service establishments, online commerce sites (or "e-commerce" sites, mobile device commerce utilities (or "m-commerce" utilities), etc.) may offer various loyalty or reward programs (e.g., "registered card" technology) that may calculate reward measures (e.g., by tabulating "points" associated with amounts spent on various items and/or types of items) and allow consumers to apply the reward measures to purchases (e.g., using a "redemption balance" of points) or to receive a cash back reward. In many cases, a consumer may be asked to join such a program while making a payment to the establishment (e.g., while checking out of a store, when paying a restaurant tab, etc.). When joining, a user may typically be required to fill in a form, paper or online, answer a series of questions from an associate, and/or perform other tasks in order to provide registration information to the establishment.
After joining, a user may typically will have to provide a membership card (or a code associated with an account such as a phone number) in order to participate in the loyalty program. In addition, an existing user may be required to perform additional steps in order to redeem rewards (e.g., by reducing the bill by redeeming some reward balance using a registered card then paying the remaining portion of the bill by applying a separate payment using a credit card).
The internet connectivity of business, e.g., restaurants, grocery stores, etc. has gone beyond simply dialing up a bank server for credit card authorization, to having high bandwidth access to the internet, including various service providers' servers. Furthermore, many businesses have begun providing wireless internet access to their patrons, including wireless devices that make it convenient for patrons to pay bills, select and order menus and so on. Some inventors have begun recognizing usefulness of such advances in internet technologies.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,769,630 to Postrel ("Postrel") discloses a technique for issuing, aggregating and redeeming rewards based on merchant transactions. In Postrel, user cardholders make online purchases with credit cards that are pre-enrolled by the card issuer. The user registration is typically done prior and Postrel fails to provide technology for on-site card registration.
U. S. Patent Application 2012/0041808 to Hofer et al. ("Hofer") discloses a system that converts pre-existing, issuer funded, non-monetary rewards into a monetary currency to be spent at retail storefronts. Hofer, however, fails to provide techniques for real-time and automated program enrollment at a point-of-sale.
U. S. Patent Application 2007/0288311 to Underhill ("Underhill") discloses a method for flexible incentive programs in sales organizations. Underhill's technique is a business-to-business web based incentive program directed for use by suppliers trying to create loyalty with other businesses who buy the suppliers product. The enrollment technique uses an outbound email to existing customers who can enroll for the program. Underhill's system thus fails to provide technology for a point-of-sale, real-time decision making by a user.
U. S. Patent Application 2007/0083444 to Matthews et al. ("Matthews") discloses a technique for automatic reconciliation of transaction account spent in an online transaction. Matthews fails to provide technology to connect a physical storefront merchant to a backend transaction computer.
U.S. Patent Application 2012/0101881 by Taylor et al. ("Taylor") discloses methods for promoting loyalty by transforming consumer credentials and consumer opt-ins into a financial transaction and offer redemption outputs. A user of Taylor's system, however, is required to register a credit card before the use, i.e., not in real-time and apart from the point-of-sale.
U. S. Patent Application 2011/0307318 to LaPorte et al. ("LaPorte") discloses a mobile retail royalty network in which a code is generated from a transaction. A customer can scan/photograph the code and send it to a loyalty server outside of the point of sale. LaPorte thus requires a user to have a mobile device and be pre-enrolled in a loyalty program. Thus LaPorte's technology fails to provide a real-time, point-of-sale solution.
U. S. Patent Application 2007/0112632 by Voltmer et al. ("Voltmer") discloses a system for networked loyalty program. Voltmer discloses earning rewards benefits by a consumer on a network-wide level without the retailer's direct participation in the rewards feature. This is achieved by associating a consumer ID with a particular payment vehicle, such as a consumer's credit card, debit card account, and/or bank account. However, Voltmer fails to provide a real-time, point-of-sale solution.
Thus there exists a need for a solution that overcomes limitations of present day point-of-sale device technologies, including data processing terminals such as hand-held devices that allow credit card transactions (e.g., VeriFone devices).

Techniques for user-controlled real-time data processing


An electric junction box to prevent fluid such as water infiltrating inside the covers from adhering to a printed wiring board even if the upper cover and lower cover are stacked to each other in an orthogonal direction, comprises a metal board, the surface being arranged in a horizontal direction, and a main body accommodating the metal board. The main body includes an upper cover and a lower cover to be stacked to each other in a direction orthogonal to a surface of the metal board. On a side wall of the lower cover a locking projection is disposed. On a side wall of the upper cover a locking step is disposed with which the locking projection is locked. The upper cover includes an inner wall disposed inside the side wall of the lower cover, the lower end being disposed below the metal board.

In an automobile as a mobile body, generally, various electric devices are mounted like lamps such as a head lamp and a tale lamp, motors such as a starter motor and an air conditioner motor.
In order to supply power to the aforementioned various electric devices, junction blocks are located optionally in the automobile in position. The junction blocks are integrally composed of various electric circuit units such as a number of fuses or relays.
Note that the junction block is also called fuse block, relay block, or electric junction box collectively because it may include fuses, relays and bas bars. The aforementioned fuse block, relay block, and junction block is hereinafter called electric junction box.
An electric junction box conventionally employed includes a box main body, and a wiring unit accommodated in the main body. The main body is flatly box-shaped. The main body includes a lower cover and an upper cover attached to each other and accommodating a wiring unit. The lower cover and the upper cover are made of isolating synthetic resin and are formed by injection molding.
The wiring unit is provided with a printed wiring board, a plurality of connectors mounted on the printed wiring board, a fuse holder holding a plurality of fuses mounted on the printed wiring board, a plurality of relays mounted on the printed wiring board. Conductive trace of the printed wiring board electrically connects each of terminals of the connector, the fuses, and the relays according to predetermined traces.
The connector is exposed to outside the main body through a through hole passing an outer wall of the main body. At least one of the connectors is engaged with a connector attached to a power cable terminal connected to power source such as a battery or a power generator installed in the automobile. The other connectors are engaged with connectors attached to wire harness terminals connected with various electric devices mounted in the automobile.
The fuse holder is exposed to outside the main body through the through hole passing the outer wall of the main body. The fuse holder has a plurality of fuses. The relay is mounted on the printed wiring board, and accommodated in the main body.
The aforementioned conventional electric junction box makes power supplied from the connector connected from the power source branch into conductive traces of the printed wiring board, pass the aforementioned fuses and the relays, and supply with various electric devices via the wire harness.


A brake/differential lock pedal linkage includes a two-stage manual control that may lock a differential before progressively engaging a brake. The manual control may be a foot pedal or hand lever. The linkage may include a brake cam lever that pivots on a brake cam shaft in response to movement of the manual control, a differential lock link connected between the brake cam lever and an actuator that can move a differential lock shaft to lock the differential, and a lost motion coupling between the brake cam lever and the actuator allowing the brake cam lever to pivot to a differential lock position in which the actuator moves the differential lock shaft sufficiently to lock the differential, before the brake cam lever pivots further to progressively engage the brake.

Work vehicles such as agricultural and industrial tractors are sometimes equipped with a single internal brake. These work vehicles also may be provided with a differential lock for the primary drive axle. To make both drive wheels lock when the brake foot pedal is depressed, the differential lock must be engaged prior to actuating the brakes. Tractors commonly have a brake foot pedal and a separate differential lock foot pedal to lock the differential. For example, many tractors have a heel-actuated differential lock foot pedal.
It is desirable to simplify the operator's station of a work vehicle by reducing the number of controls and pedals. It also is desirable to provide a differential lock that can be engaged and disengaged quickly and easily by the operator.


A tagging machine acts to automatically insert label tags into selected compartments of a seed tray as the tray passes under the machine.. A cartridge loaded with tags feeds the tags one by one to a breach channel. A pair of extractor fingers lift the tag in the breach channel, onto a deflector which deflects the emerging end of the tag between a pair of displacement fingers. Once the displacment fingers have received the tag they drive the tag back along the channel in the opposite direction to discharge the tag into the seed tray.. As the tag is moved in a direction to be discharged from the channel it displaces the extractor fingers out of the channel. The fingers are only brought back into the channel to lift the next tag, when the displacement fingers return to their tag receiving position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for applying label tags for example to trays of seeds or seedlings.
2. Description of Prior Art
Tags carrying seed or plant identifications have long been used in the horticultural industry. Such tags comprise a flat elongate member with a pointed lower end to facilitate insertion into the soil. When inserted into the soil the upper end of the tag stands proud of the soil and carries plant or seed identifying designations, for example, a picture of a flower or its name or both.
Trays of seeds or seedlings need to be marked with such tags to identify the product being sold. To data such tags have been inserted by hand and this is a labour intensive process. With the advent of tags of plastics material, the tags have become thinner and handling has become more difficult. A number of attempts have been made to manufacture apparatus which will automatically insert tags into trays, but because of the difficulty in handling the tags, none of the attempts have to date met with commercial success.
It is an object of the invention to provide an automatic tag inserting machine.


A method is provided for evaluating the acceptability of idle roughness levels in a newly manufactured multi-cylinder internal combustion engine. The method involves calculating a plurality of metrics based upon the relative firing energies of individual cylinders in the engine and setting threshold values for each of the metrics, below which the engine is to be accepted. Similarly, threshold values are set for each of the metrics, above which the engine is to be rejected. The engine is then evaluated to determine if the engine is to be accepted or rejected based upon the calculated metrics and the threshold values for acceptance or rejection set for that metric. If the engine has not been previously accepted or rejected based on a particular metric the engine is evaluated using each of the remaining metrics. If the engine has not been rejected after all metrics have been evaluated the engine is finally accepted.

Perceived roughness is a common problem for some diesel engines when operating at idle conditions and light loads. Variation of fuel delivery to the different cylinders is one of the major sources of idle roughness. At the engine manufacturing facility it is desirable to conduct diagnostic tests to determine if the idle roughness is acceptable before the engine is shipped.
It has previously been known to provide diagnosis of idle roughness and quality at the engine manufacturing location. One common method, listening to the engine idle in a test cell, is not conclusive as to the level of idle quality. If the idle quality is checked after it is installed in the end vehicle application and found unacceptable, it can be very expensive to make the necessary changes to the fuel system. Some fuel systems do not have the capability to adjust the balance of fuel to the various cylinders at both no load and full load. Fuel injectors are typically calibrated at idle fuel on a test bench before installation in the engine. However, there is variability in the calibration. In addition, the injectors need to be indexed uniformly when installed in the engine and there is further variability in this procedure.
Generally, if the injectors are calibrated properly and if the indexing of the injectors in the engine is accurate, there is no problem with idle roughness. However, if these processes are not controlled, an unsatisfactory level of idle roughness can be present. Thus a method is needed to diagnose the idle roughness quality while the engine is still in the engine manufacturing facility so that problems can be addressed before the engine leaves the facility. A previous method used was a Fourier transform of the engine speed signal. This method worked for cases where the idle roughness was far out of specification. However, it was not sensitive enough to detect the vast majority of idle roughness problems.

Method for evaluating engine idle roughness


A method generates a stylized image of a scene including an object. A set of n input images are acquired of the scene with a camera. Each one of the n input images is illuminated by one of a set of n light sources mounted on a body of the camera at different positions from a center of projection of a lens of the camera. Ambient lighting can be used to illuminate one image. Features in the set of n input images are detected. The features include depth edges, intensity edges, and texture edges to determine qualitative depth relationships between the depth edges, the intensity edges and the texture edges. The set of n input images are then combined in an output image to enhance the detected features according to the qualitative relationships.

The object of the invention to generate stylized images from images acquired of real world scenes and objects. The stylized images can facilitate the viewer's comprehension of the shape of the objects depicted. Non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) techniques aim to outline shapes of objects, highlight moving parts to illustrate action, and reduce visual clutter such as shadows and texture details. Stylized images are useful for rendering low-contrast and geometrically complex scenes such as mechanical parts, plants or the internals of a patient undergoing examinations such as endoscopy.
When a rich 3D geometric model of the scene is available, rendering subsets of view-dependent contours of simple scenes is a relatively well-understood task, Saito et al., "Comprehensible Rendering of 3-D Shapes," Proceedings of SIGGRAPH'90, 1990, and Markosian et al., "Real-Time Non-photorealistic Rendering," Proceedings of SIGGRAPH'97, pp. 415-420, 1997. However, extending that approach to real world scenes, such as flowering plant, by first generating 3D models of the plant is difficult, if not almost impossible.
It is desired to bypass the acquisition of the 3D scene geometry. Instead, the object is to generate stylized images of real world scenes directly from images acquired by a camera.
In the prior art, the majority of the available techniques process a single image to generate a stylized image. Typically, morphological operations, such as image segmentation, edge detection and color assignment are applied. Some techniques aim for stylized depiction, see DeCarlo et al., "Stylization and Abstraction of Photographs," Proc. Siggraph 02, ACM Press, 2002, and Hertzmann, "Painterly Rendering with Curved Brush Strokes of Multiple Sizes," ACM SIGGRAPH, pp. 453-460, 1998, while other techniques enhance legibility.
Interactive techniques for stylized rendering such as rotoscoping are also known. However, it is desired to automate the process of generating stylized images, instead of requiring meticulous manual operations.
In aerial imagery, shadows in the scene are identified by thresholding a single intensity image, assuming a flat ground and an uniform albedo, to infer landscape and building heights, see Huertas et al., "Detecting buildings in aerial images," Computer Vision, Graphics and Image Processing 41, 2, pp. 131-152, 1988, Irvin et al, "Methods for exploiting the relationship between buildings and their shadows in aerial imagery," IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics 19, 6, pp. 1564-1575, 1989, and Lin et al., "Building detection and description from a single intensity image," Computer Vision and Image Understanding: CVIU 72, 2, pp. 101-121, 1998.
Some techniques improve shadow capture with shadow extraction techniques to determine shadow mattes, Chuang et al., "Shadow matting and compositing," ACM Trans. Graph. 22, 3, pp. 494-500, 2003, or to remove shadows altogether to improve scene segmentation, Toyama et al., "Wallflower: Principles and Practice of Background Maintenance," ICCV, pp. 255-261, 1999. Using intrinsic images, other techniques remove shadows without explicitly detecting the shadows, Weiss, "Deriving intrinsic images from image sequences," Proceedings of ICCV, vol. 2, pp. 68-75, 2001.
Stereo techniques with passive and active illumination are generally designed to determine depth values or surface orientation, rather than to detect depth edges. Depth edges or discontinuities present difficulties for traditional stereo techniques due to partial-occlusions, which confuse the matching process, Geiger et al., "Occlusions and binocular stereo," European Conference on Computer Vision, pp. 425-433, 1992.
Some techniques try to model the discontinuities and occlusions directly, Intille et al., "Disparity-space images and large occlusion stereo," ECCV (2), pp. 179-186, 1994, Birchfield et al., "Depth discontinuities by pixel-to-pixel stereo," International Journal of Computer Vision 35, 3, pp. 269-293, 1999, and Scharstein et al., "A taxonomy and evaluation of dense two-frame stereo correspondence algorithms," International Journal of Computer Vision, vol. 47(1), pp. 7-42, 2002.
Active illumination methods, which generally give better results, have been used for depth extraction, shape from shading, shape-time stereo, and photometric stereo. Unfortunately, those methods are unstable around depth discontinuities, Sato et al., "Stability issues in recovering illumination distribution from brightness in shadows," IEEE Conf. on CVPR, pp. 400-407, 2001.
One technique performs logical operations on detected intensity edges in images acquired under widely varying illumination to preserve shape boundaries, Shirai et al., "Extraction of the line drawing of 3-dimensional objects by sequential illumination from several directions," Pattern Recognition, 4, 4, pp. 345-351, 1972. That technique is also limited to uniform albedo scenes.
With photometric stereo techniques, it is possible to analyze intensity statistics to detect high curvature regions at occluding contours or folds, Huggins et al., "Finding Folds: On the Appearance and Identification of Occlusion," IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, IEEE Computer Society, vol. 2, pp. 718-725, 2001. That technique detects regions near occluding contours, but not the contours themselves. That technique assumes that the portion of a surface that is locally smooth. Therefore, that technique fails for a flat foreground object like a leaf or piece of paper, or view-independent edges such as corner of a cube.
Techniques that determine shape from shadow or darkness construct a continuous representation, e.g., a shadowgram, from a moving light source. Continuous depth estimates are possible from the shadowgram, Raviv et al., "Reconstruction of three-dimensional surfaces from two-dimensional binary images," IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, vol. 5(5), pp. 701-710, 1989, Langer et al., "Space occupancy using multiple shadowimages," International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 390-396, 1995, and Daum et al., "On 3-D surface reconstruction using shape from shadows," CVPR, pp. 461-468, 1998. That technique requires an accurate detection of the start and end of shadows. This makes it difficult to estimate continuous heights.
General reviews of shadow-based shape analysis methods are described by Yang, "Shape from Darkness Under Error," PhD thesis, Columbia University, 1996, Kriegman et al., "What shadows reveal about object structure," Journal of the Optical Society of America, pp. 1804-1813, 2001, and Savarese et al., "Shadow Carving," Proc. of the Int. Conf. on Computer Vision, 2001.
A common limitation of known active illuminations methods is that the light sources need to surround the object, in order to give the image significant shading and shadow variation from estimated or known 3D light positions. This necessitates a fixed lighting rig, which limits the application of these techniques to studio or industrial settings.
It is desired to extract depth edges from images in a manner that is complementary with known methods for determining depth and 3D surface shape, because depth edges often violate smoothness assumptions inherent in many techniques.
If locations of depth discontinuities can be detected reliably and supplied as input, then the performance of many 3D surface reconstruction processes can be significantly enhanced.
It is desired to detect depth edges without solving a correspondence problem or analyzing pixel intensity statistics with moving lights. It is further desired that NPR images can be generated from complex real world scenes where surface normals change rapidly, such as a potted plant, or a scene with high depth complexity or low intensity changes, such as a car engine or a human bone undergoing medical examination.

Stylized rendering using a multi-flash camera

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.


An apparatus and method for compensating power of electrical load in a vehicle using a high-capacitance capacitor is provided. The high-capacitance capacitor rapidly discharges current to compensate power when voltage output from a generator and battery has temporarily dropped while the vehicle is traveling and the capacitor is charged in a constant power pulse charging manner to prevent battery voltage instability due to generator overload caused when the capacitor is charged. The capacitor is temporarily stopped from being charged and discharges current to compensate power of electrical load if terminal voltage of the battery is reduced due to the electrical load when the capacitor is charged, resulting in compensation of power supply instability such as voltage decrease in real time to improve vehicle output and to prevent temporary deceleration, thereby not only improving driving characteristics but also significantly increasing fuel efficiency and performance and lifespan of various electric parts.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for compensating power of a power supply device in a vehicle using a high-capacitance capacitor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Although recent cars exhibit excellent performance, especially, near perfect combustion, due to development of various parts and Electronic Control Unit (ECU) software control technology, technical development is still needed to increase power transmission efficiency and to improve factors that affect the stability of ECU operation.
Future efforts should more focus on developing technical methods and mechanisms which can improve fuel efficiency (i.e., mileage) and performance of a vehicle by appropriately using engine force depending on travel situations when the vehicle travels.
For example, mileage is expected to be improved by 15% or more through eco-driving, i.e., by correcting inefficient drive behaviors such as sudden acceleration, sudden starts, sudden braking, and high-speed driving. However, such a mileage improvement method is not efficient since the effects of fuel economy-maximizing behaviors greatly vary among drivers and the effectiveness thereof is not always high.
That is, mileage improvement through change in driving behavior may not be effective since it is not practical to request such driving behaviors from drivers, regardless of traffic situations as in downtowns.
Technology in which a super capacitor is connected to a battery in a vehicle and voltage of the battery is stabilized using charged voltage of the capacitor has been introduced to solve such problems.
Electric Double Layer Capacitors (EDLC), which are high-capacitance capacitors, are advantageous over general batteries in that they exhibit performance of more than 100 times in supplying instantaneous peak power for a very small time although they can store smaller energy than batteries.
If such advantages are applied to the battery, it is possible to efficiently cope with instantaneous voltage decrease of the battery which occurs within several seconds, thereby supplying high-quality power to a sensitive load. This not only achieves power stability but also assists the battery, extending the lifespan of the battery.
However, since the high-capacitance capacitor has a high capacitance of several to thousands of farads (F), current in a range of tens to thousands of amperes (A) flow when the high-capacitance capacitor is charged, causing instantaneous voltage decrease. In addition, the high-capacitance capacitor also affects charged voltage of the battery due to overload of the generator, failing to improve mileage, although output and noise reduction are improved.
Since a power stabilization apparatus which simply uses the conventional high-capacitance capacitor causes battery or generator overload, exerting a negative influence on mileage, power stabilization apparatuses mostly employ a small-capacitance capacitor rather than a high-capacitance capacitor. However, it was found that the small-capacitance capacitor provides almost no improvement in mileage or performance when battery voltage instantaneously drops since fuel rate is determined after the ECU of the vehicle performs learning.

Apparatus and method for compensating power of power supply device in vehicle using high-capacitance capacitor


A system and method for feedforward control in thin film coating processes. A standard PID feedback control system that continuously monitors two or more process variables in a reactive sputtering process is combined with a feedforward control system to improve system performance. The control system enables much faster stabilization of the reactive sputtering process during target start-up, and improves control of the process once a steady-state operating condition has been reached following target start-up.

Reactive sputtering systems are finding increasing use for the manufacture of multi-layer thin film coatings. Multi-layer thin film coatings comprising alternating layers of two or more materials are typically formed in sputtering systems by alternate operation of two (or more) targets composed of the base materials. In a reactive sputtering system, a reactive gas is introduced into the sputtering chamber so that atoms of the material sputtered from the target onto the substrate(s) are converted into the desired compound such as a metal oxide or metal nitride. In reactive sputtering systems, it is desirable to operate the system so that all of the sputtered material is converted to the desired chemical compound without poisoning the sputtering target. However, it is difficult to maintain the target in the desired non-poisoned mode while still obtaining stochiometric oxidation of the sputtered material in the growing film. If an insufficient amount of reactive gas (e.g. oxygen) is present, the growing film will be absorbing and have incorrect stochiometry. If the amount of reactive gas is too large, the target becomes poisoned, i.e., the sputtering surface of the target reacts with the reactive gas to form a compound (e.g. an oxide). Once the target becomes poisoned, the deposition rate greatly decreases compared to an unpoisoned target.
It is critical to maintain a stable reactive gas concentration in the reactive sputtering chamber at the desired level for optimum performance of the sputtering system. Thus the reactive gas concentration provides one critical process variable. The use of a steady state control to admit the reactive gas into the sputtering chamber would not be an adequate control mechanism because the consumption rate of the reactive gas varies with the state of the target and the conditions inside the sputtering chamber.
It is well known to employ a control algorithm, such as a PID (Proportional, Integrative, Derivative) loop, to control the admission of reactive gas into the chamber to maintain steady state operation of the target. Control of the flow rate of reactive gas into a reactive sputtering chamber is important to ensure stochiometry of the thin film throughout a layer while maintaining the relatively high sputter rates of the target in an un-poisoned state.
The difficulty of maintaining steady state operation of the target in the desired mode are greatly increased during the first few seconds of operation after target start-up. In prior art reactive sputtering systems having a well-tuned PID loop to control the reactive gas concentration in the chamber, it typically takes between four to eight seconds to stabilize the reactive gas concentration at the desired steady-state level. These stabilization times are about the best that can be achieved due to the nature of the PID loop and computing hardware that is typically employed in prior art systems.
In the manufacture of multi-layer thin film coatings where the process of forming the coating requires repetitive target starts, the time required to achieve steady-state operation of a target can be crucial for accurate control of stochiometry, deposition rates, and hence the optical performance of the coating. Undesirably long stabilization times can result in poor optical performance of the completed film. In the ideal case, the target would achieve steady state, controlled operation sufficiently quickly that the substrates being coated are never subjected to film deposition during process stabilization.
The problem of film inhomogeneity during target start-up and stabilization are particularly acute in a drum configuration sputtering system where the drum carriage typically rotates at about 45 to 120 rpm. At these rotation rates, each substrate passes under the target between four and eight times during target stabilization, leading to significant deposition of inhomogeneous layers in the coating. This is particularly true of thinner layers where the time needed for target start-up and stabilization forms a significant percentage of the overall layer deposition time. For a drum configuration reactive sputtering system, it would be of significant advantage to have the target brought to stable, steady-state operation and to have the reactive gas flow stabilized in less time than required for one revolution of the drum, i.e., in less than one second.
Two general methods have been employed in the prior art to solve the problem of poor process control during target start-up. PID control of the oxygen flow during the main body of the layer deposition can be used, but during layer start-up the stabilization time of a PID loop is too long to provide good performance. To address the poor performance of a PID loop during target start-up, various approaches are used. One method includes ramping the power to the sputtering target on a pre-determined profile to reach the steady state value. The reactive gas flow may be ramped in accordance or set to a fixed value during stabilization, with reactive gas flow control being returned to the PID loop after target stabilization. However, neither of these approaches achieve steady-state operation of the target in a desirable time frame. This causes the film composition to be inhomogeneous over a complete layer. For multi-layer designs incorporating various layer thicknesses the contribution to the total thickness of any given layer can vary markedly, making the attainment of precision optical designs problematic.
Another method employed in the prior art includes the use of target shutters that shield the target during target start-up to prevent the deposition of target material on the substrates until the target stabilizes. Once the steady state condition has been achieved the target shields are removed and deposition on the substrates begins. The difficulty with this approach is that as soon as the shutters are removed, the conditions at the target change rapidly (influx of oxygen from areas beyond the shutters and so forth) requiring the system to reach a new steady-state operating condition. During this transition time, the substrates (or some portion of a large substrate) may be exposed to varying fluxes of sputtered material resulting in non-uniform deposition over the substrate or substrates. The shields also require undesirable extra mechanical hardware that must be manipulated in the vacuum environment, adding expense and requiring additional maintenance and downtime of the system.
The target start-up and time frame needed to reach a stable operating process is not the only area in which a standard PID loop provides insufficient control to maintain a coating system in a stable state. Metal oxides are commonly used as coating materials, with the stability of the system during coating being determined by various factors such as oxygen flow, pumping of the chamber, and the rate of consumption of the oxygen in the oxidizing process. For any given system (with no targets running and no film being deposited), a pumping curve showing pressure vs. reactive gas flow can be determined experimentally, the pressure for a given flow being dependent on variables such as the speed of the vacuum pump and the volume and configuration of the sputtering chamber. When the system is running and depositing material on substrates, the pressure for a given reactive gas flow changes because the film being deposited also functions as a "pump" for the reactive gas by consuming the free oxygen into the growing thin film.
The magnitude of the "pumping" effect the film has on the reactive gas pressure depends on several variables specific to each machine configuration and operating parameters. The behavior of a system at various flows of reactive gas follows a well known characteristic curve.
A set of such curves are shown in FIG. 1. With reference to FIG. 1, the pump line 10 shows the behavior of the system when no target is operating, while the other three curves 20, 30, and 40 show the system states for three different powers at which a target operates. The curve 20 shows that at a low power, when a relatively small amount of material is being deposited, there is little deviation from the standard pump curve. As the power to the target is increased, the pumping effect of the film becomes greater, leading to the characteristic S-shape seen in the curves 30 and 40. The regions of these S-shape curves having negative slopes correspond to non-equilibrium states of the system and, in practice, control is not sufficient to allow one to follow these curves as the reactive gas flow increases, especially for large industrial systems. Instead the target will poison, causing the system to suddenly jump from one point on the curve to another, as illustrated by the dashed arrow 45 on the curve 40. As the pressure decreases, the system will then jump back down to a metallic mode as illustrated by the arrow 47 resulting in a hysteresis curve. The behavior of reactive sputtering systems on these operating curves is well known.
It is also known that operating states giving the best film qualities often require one to operate very near conditions in which the system is no longer stable. Two such states are those that occur just below and just above the knee 42 on the curve 40. If the system is operating at a point along the curve 40 that is too far to the left of the knee 42, then the target is operating in the metallic mode which, although providing a rapid coating rate, often results in formation of absorbing films with materials such as Nb2O5 and TiO2 that are typically difficult to oxidize.
The closer the system is to the knee of the curve, the more oxidized the deposited film becomes, but the greater the likelihood that any perturbation in system conditions will cause the system to become unstable before a standard PID control system can compensate for the changed conditions. It is also possible to operate just above the knee of the curve where the target operates in a barely poisoned condition. This operating point also suffers from the difficulties in keeping the system stable and preventing any small change in conditions from moving the system into an unstable state.
There remains a need for improved control in reactive sputtering system. It is an object of the present invention to obviate the deficiencies of the prior art reactive sputtering systems. This and many other of the objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims, the appended drawings, and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.

System and method for feedforward control in thin film coating processes


A retractable rigid window awning includes a number of U-shaped panels pivotally attached to a building on the sides of a window. In the retracted position, the panels are disposed above the window, in tiers. Each panel has a pair of actuators that enable its extension and retraction. Each actuator is attached to the panel at one end and to a movable nut at the other end via articulated joints. The nuts are installed on a driving screw attached to the building. The awning is extended by rotating the screw, which causes the nuts to travel along the screw. The actuators push their respective panels out and tilt them down. Depending on the length of actuators, panels travel different distances from the building creating a continuous shade over the window. The awning is retracted by rotating the screw in the opposite direction.

The present invention relates to rigid awnings that usually are installed over windows.
Awnings have been used for centuries to enhance aesthetic appeal of building exteriors and protect building interiors from excessive gain of solar heat through windows. Shading windows with awnings is one of the known methods of increasing energy efficiency of buildings. By lowering temperature inside the building during air conditioning seasons, awnings create savings in cooling energy and also may help lower cost of mechanical cooling equipment. These benefits of awnings are described in a report "Awnings in Residential Buildings" that was initiated by the Professional Awning Manufacturers Association (PAMA) and issued in September 2007 by the Center for Sustainable Building Research of the University of Minnesota with participation by the Windows and Glazings Program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). It is obvious that the same benefits are available for commercial and industrial buildings.
The same report notes that because awnings block desirable passive gain of solar heat during the heating season, the highest energy savings are achieved if awnings are kept in place in summer and removed or retracted in winter.
It is also advisable to remove or retract awnings in anticipation of high wind or storm conditions to reduce the load on and avoid possible destruction of the awnings and the associated building.
Because removing awnings for the winter season or before a storm is difficult and inconvenient, it is desirable to use retractable awnings. Such awnings are well known in the industry and usually are made of fabric. A retractable fabric awning is retracted by rolling the fabric up onto a roller rotatably attached to the building.
Even though retractable fabric awnings have been in use for decades, they are not sufficiently durable, as they require periodic replacement of the fabric; they are not able to withstand high winds or any significant snow or ice load.
The prior art also includes retractable or adjustable rigid awnings. One of such adjustable awnings is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,791,009 to Wagner. It is a louver type awning where louvers are operated by a link mechanism. Among the disadvantages of such awning is the existence of an excessive number of movable parts subject to weather elements, which makes it prone to malfunction. Also, such awning cannot be retracted for the winter season and therefore inevitably creates shade when it is not needed. A collapsible rigid awning is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,202,363 to Chang. It may be collapsed when shade is not required, however its operating mechanism is complicated, consisting of many movable parts subject to weather elements, and also is prone to malfunction. In addition, such awning does not lend itself to being used in any intermediate position between the fully extended and fully collapsed positions. Furthermore, when in the collapsed position, it requires additional space width-wise approximately equal to the length of its panels. Another type of retractable rigid awnings is available on the market in the form of roll-up awnings. Such awning consists of narrow aluminum strips connected to each other with ropes or bands and is retracted by rolling these strips up onto a roller, similar to fabric retractable awnings. This design does not allow for any side panels that may be desired, has many small movable parts and requires constant tension to be applied to the connecting ropes or bands to maintain the awning in a taut condition, which reduces the awning's durability.

Retractable rigid awning and operating mechanism therefor


A surgical instrument comprising an elongated tubular hollow shaft, first and second opposable jaws pivotable at the distal end of the shaft, and first and second opposable dissecting tips pivotable at the ends of the jaws. The jaws are generally pivotable in first and second parallel planes and the tips are pivotable in third and fourth planes which are generally perpendicular to the first and second planes, respectively. A first handle is fixedly attached to the proximal end of the hollow shaft, and a second handle is pivotably connected to the first handle. The jaws are opened and closed by a rod which extends through the hollow shaft and has one end connected to the first and second jaws and its other end connected to the second handle. The angle of the tips is adjusted by a trigger plate pivotably attached to the first handle, and first and second wires attached at one end to the trigger plate and at the other end to the first and second tips, respectively. The first and second wires extend through a hollow guide tube having a longitudinal axis parallel to the shaft longitudinal axis and affixed to the shaft.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an instrument for use in laparoscopic and endothoracic surgery. More specifically, the invention relates to an endoscopic or laparoscopic dissector which has a variable-angle dissecting tip.
2. Related Art
Numerous designs are known for endoscopic dissectors for use in laparoscopic and endothoracic surgery. However, all of the dissectors which are presently commercially available have one feature in common, a fixed dissecting tip. More precisely, the tips which carry the dissecting blades ar fixed in position except to the extent that they ar capable of reciprocatible movement to effect cutting or dissection. In general, the tips in their closed (non-cutting or non-dissecting) position are aligned with the main tube of the dissector lure are slightly bent with respect thereto.
Examples of commercially-available dissectors having fixed tips are the dolphin nose, Maryland, and right angle dissectors. Additional dissectors having fixed tips are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,127,948 to Wappler; U.S. Pat. No. 1,150,214 to London; and West German Patent No. 27 37 014 to Wolf.
USSR Patent No. 980,703 discloses a tissue cutting instrument having two cutters 4 and 5 which are activated by rack and pinion drives from finger levers, both for cutting and for rotation 360 degrees about their pivot axis. However, this type of instrument is suitable only for those applications in which cutting is to be achieved by a true scissor action, because rotation for both cutting and pivoting purposes occurs about a single pivot axis. It is not suitable for pivoting of opposable cutting blades such as those disclosed by Wappler.

Dissector for endoscopic and laparoscopic use


A method of manufacturing a semiconductor component includes providing a composite substrate (300) with a dielectric portion and a semiconductor portion and growing an epitaxial layer (400) over the composite substrate. The epitaxial layer has a polycrystalline portion (402) over the dielectric portion of the composite substrate and also has a monocrystalline portion (401) over the semiconductor portion of the composite substrate. A first dopant is diffused into the monocrystalline portion of the epitaxial layer to form an emitter region in the monocrystalline portion of the epitaxial layer while a second dopant is simultaneously diffused into the monocrystalline portion of the epitaxial layer to form an enhanced portion of the base region.

U.S. Pat. application No., 09/516,350, filed on the same date herewith and assigned to the same assignee, is a related application.
This invention relates, in general, to semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to a radio frequency bipolar transistor and method of manufacture thereof.
For a transistor to operate efficiently at high frequencies, the transistor should have, among other characteristics, a small base transit time, a low intrinsic base resistance, and a small, linear extrinsic base-to-collector capacitance. Radio frequency (RF) bipolar transistors typically have a plurality of emitter finger regions in a common base well. The frequency response of these transistors is lithographically established by a width of the emitter region in the common base well. However, these transistors have a large base transit time, a high base resistance, and an excessive, nonlinear extrinsic base-to-collector capacitance.
Accordingly, a need exists for a semiconductor component capable of operating efficiently at high frequencies. The bipolar transistors of the component should have smaller base transit times, lower intrinsic base resistances, and smaller, more linear extrinsic base-to-collector capacitances, when compared to the prior art.

Method of manufacturing a semiconductor component


A method and device for encoding and transmitting a clock signal, a supply voltage and bidirectional digital data from a master circuit to a slave circuit, including the steps of: holding a first conductor at a first voltage with respect to a second conductor; periodically raising the first conductor to a second voltage with respect to the second conductor, a fixed period after a previous raising to the second voltage; holding the first conductor at the second voltage for one of a number of predetermined periods, then returning the first conductor to the first voltage, the voltage of the first conductor not falling below the first voltage; controlling the predetermined periods to each have one of a number of fixed durations, each duration having a logical significance.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the transmission of digital data along a communications bus and, more particularly, to serial communications over a communications bus containing a minimum number of conductors.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Often, communications between two circuits take place over a communications bus between a "master" circuit and a "slave" circuit. In such an arrangement, the slave circuit typically sends data along the bus only in response to a request from the master circuit. This is particularly the case where a master circuit needs to communicate with a number of interchangeable or removable slave circuits. The slave circuits may include memory devices for storing information.
Such slave circuits may be, for example, tags used to identify articles, which are either brought only momentarily into contact with the communications bus, or which need to provide some information about themselves the first time that they are brought into contact with this bus.
Generally, a communications bus for use between a microprocessor master circuit and a memory device slave circuit comprises at least four conductors. A ground voltage supply, a power supply voltage, a clock signal and a bidirectional data conductor. Where chip select and deselect commands are needed, such conventional buses may include a dedicated combination of clock and data signals which are interpreted as chip select/deselect commands by the slave circuits.
Conventional communications buses are generally implemented as a two-wire communications bus. A typical two-wire communications bus is used in the Dallas Semiconductors DS2400 product. The communications bus includes one ground conductor and one signal conductor. The signals which are transmitted along the signal conductor typically comprise pulses of 0V to 5V relative to the ground conductor. A drawback to this known two conductor bus is that it does not efficiently transmit the power required by the slave circuit. Another disadvantage is that the master and slave circuits are not synchronized, as no clocking signals are common to both the master and slave circuits.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a communications bus which can communicate on as few a number of conductors as possible. This will allow simple installation of the bus, and allow the slave circuits to be packaged in very small, cheap packages.

Method and device for encoding and transmitting bidirectional data from a master circuit to a slave circuit


The invention relates to an apparatus for rolling a strip (21) comprising a first work roll (24), which is mounted from both ends with bearings (35) to the mill frame, a second work roll (25), which work rolls (24, 25) are forming a nip (26) in between them, one or more ring(s) (19, 20) closing inside at least one of the work rolls (24, 25), at least first intermediate roll (27, 39) mounted to the mill frame from both ends with bearings (36) and arranged in rolling contact between the second work roll (25) and inside surface (22) of the ring(s) (19, 20). The invention also relates to the method of producing a thin strip.

This invention relates in general to mills for rolling metal products such as strands and strips. More specifically, it relates to an apparatus of compact size for rolling a narrow strip and a method of producing a thin strip.
Rolling mills are used for reducing the thickness of metal strips. The simplest rolling mill is constructed with two large and heavy work rolls rotating in opposite directions and forming a nip in between. The mill is called 2-high mill. The term "nip" is used herein to refer to the region where the rolls are closest together. The high forces associated with the rolling are guided to the work rolls bearings, which therefore have to be strong, that are heavily build. For rolling thin strips it is for contrary necessary to use work rolls with small diameter. However, with small rolls there is not enough space for strong bearings, which are required due high rolling forces. This had led to various roll arrangements in rolling mills for thin strips.
For rolling thin strips the arrangements conventionally comprises two small diameter work rolls and several support rolls, which are carrying the rolling forces and directing them through the bearings to the rolling mill frame. Usually the work rolls are at least supported by backup rolls and sometimes with a system of intermediate rolls and backup rolls. The system comprising two work rolls and two backup rolls is the most common arrangement for rolling thin strips. It is called 4-high construction. The work rolls of such construction are kept in place with small bearings whereas the rolling force is carried by support/backup rolls fitted to big heavy-duty bearings in mill frame.
4-high rolling mills are quite useful for producing the thin strip but the problem is that the heavy backup rolls are requiring a big and solid frame. The overall size of the frame of such rolling mill can be 2 to 3 meters high. The main disadvantage of such mills is that also for narrow strips the rolling mill becomes big and expensive.
Above described rolling mills are disclosed for example in following documents. US 2003/0167818 A1 discloses a hot rolling mill where a thin steel strip is passed through work rolls, which are supported by backing rolls. The construction is typical 4-high rolling mill. Such a 4-high rolling mill constructions is disclosed also in US 2002/0043358 A1.
In US 2001/0018840 are disclosed a construction with small work rolls, bigger intermediate rolls and large backup rolls. With such construction the size of the frame becomes even bigger than with 4-high rolling mill.

Compact rolling mill and a method of producing a thin strip


A light emitting diode comprising: a base substrate having a pair of electrodes; a reflection cup installed on the base substrate; a light emitting element arranged at a bottom of the reflection cup; and a resin sealant enclosing the light emitting element; wherein the light emitting element is electrically connected to the electrodes through an opening formed in the bottom of the reflection cup; wherein the reflection cup comprises a film body held in a cup shape and a metal film formed on a surface of the film body. This construction makes the control of light directivity easy and can produce light with a narrow directivity.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light emitting diode used for illuminating a variety of electronic devices and also in recent years for illuminating Panel meters of automobiles, and in particular, relates to a light emitting diode provided with a reflection cup to give an illuminating light a desired directivity.
2. Description of Related Art
An example of light emitting diode of this kind is disclosed in Japanese Patent Disclosure No. 2002-324917. This light emitting diode, as shown in FIG. 1, comprises a base substrate 2 surface-mounted on a mother board 1, a light emitting element 3 put on an upper surface of the base substrate 2, a reflection cup 4 arranged to surround the light emitting element 3, a resin sealant 5 sealing the light emitting element 3 and the reflection cup 4, and a dome-shaped light collecting member 6 placed on the resin sealant 5.
In such a light emitting diode, light emitted from the light emitting element 3 is reflected by an inner circumferential surface of the reflection cup 4 to be given an upward directivity and then passes through a lens portion 7 of the light collecting member 6 to have a stronger directivity.
In recent years, there is a growing demand for a light emitting diode with a so-called narrow directivity, which focuses light emitted from a light emitting element and illuminates the focused light on a point. To realize such a narrow directivity using only a reflection cup requires a roughness height rating of the reflection cup surface to be less than or equal to one-half the wavelength λ of light emitted from the light emitting element in order to control the light directivity.
Roughness height rating is defined as a measure of the surface finish or the arithmetical average from a true flat surface.
However, with the conventional light emitting diode described above, since many of the reflection cups are resin-molded products, there is a limitation on the roughness height rating of their cup surfaces. Even if the surface of the reflection cup is deposited or plated with a metal film, the surface roughness height rating which is less than or equal to one-half the wavelength λ of light emitted from the light emitting element, required for the control of light directivity is difficult to achieve. Thus, the conventional reflection cup produces scattered rays of light, making it impossible to realize a desired narrow directivity with only the conventional reflection cup. It has been therefore necessary to provide an additional member such as the light collecting member 6, rendering the device that much costly. Other problems of the conventional device include a nonuniform color of emitted light due to chromatic aberration and an increased size of the light emitting diode.


The invention is directed to a clutching mechanism for a coax connector. The device comprises an extended nut having a standard connector contained within. The extended nut comprises internal threads and a first clutch face and the internal standard connector comprises a connector body having a second clutch face. In operation, the first clutch face and the second clutch face are engaged by forcing the nut toward the connector body/cable, thereby serving as an interlocking mechanism. The device further comprises a compression sleeve between the nut and the connector body, serving to secure the cable to the connector.

Numerous connecting assemblies are currently available for connecting a cable, such as a coaxial cable, to an externally threaded connecting port. Additionally, externally threaded connecting ports may be located either indoors or outdoors, and often vary considerably.
A commonly utilized assembly for connecting a cable to a port is a nut, aligned with, and rotated relative to, an externally threaded connecting port. This assembly configuration allows the installer to selectively secure the cable thereto and release the cable therefrom. Loosely connected cables are a common problem in connecting cables to ports. This problem persists outdoors on taps and splitters, as well as inside the home behind the TV. While a loose outdoor connection can create undesired broadcasting of the signal, or allow moisture to enter the cable to cause corrosion within the connection and the equipment, a loose indoor connection may allow electromagnetic interference of all types to degrade the signal, resulting in poor picture quality.
Whether indoors or outdoors, the aforementioned loose connections often require cable operators attention and visits to sites resulting from loose connections contribute substantially to a system's operating expense. Cable companies endeavor to teach various installation techniques to service professionals to assure the proper attachment of connectors. Such techniques typically include the use of a torque wrench, having a preset limit sufficient to ensure proper tightness. However, the use of a torque wrench may be inconvenient at the installation site, or simply foregone in the interest of time. As a result, the connectors may be inadequately tightened on the equipment ports. The typical technician is only able to achieve 2-5 in-lbs. of torque with fingers on a conventional 7/16 hex nut with the best of access. This is far below the recommended specification of 30 in-lbs., and sometimes not even enough to overcome thread roughness, thus leaving an actual gap between contacting surfaces of the port and connector.
Therefore, what is needed in the art is an apparatus and method for attaching a coax connector to a threaded port that requires no special tooling and allows the installer to generate more torque using only his hands thereby providing a better connection.
Additional what is needed in the art is an apparatus and method for attaching a cable to a connector that is relatively easy and requires no additional specialized tooling.

Coax connector having clutching mechanism


The option management approach for SDRs includes control of installation and/or access to waveform features and/or platform features. A software-defined radio may include an antenna, a radio transceiver coupled to the antenna, and at least one memory storing a master feature database including a plurality of selectable waveform features and a plurality of selectable platform features, and a selected options database including selected waveform features and selected platform features from the master feature database. A controller cooperates with the at least one memory to configure the selected options database based upon an input options file and to permit reconfiguration of the selected options database based upon a subsequent input options file. The controller also cooperates with the radio transceiver and the selected options database to operate the SDR based upon the selected waveform features and the selected platform features.

Software Defined Radio (SDR) works much like desktop computing, where a single hardware platform can carry out many functions based on the software applications loaded. SDR uses software to perform radio-signal processing functions instead of using resistors, capacitors, feedback loops, or application-specific integrated circuits. Frequency tuning, filtering, synchronization, encoding and modulation are performed in software on high-speed reprogrammable devices such as digital signal processors (DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), or general purpose processors (GPP). RE components may still be needed for generation of high frequencies or for signal amplifications and radiation.
At the center of SDR technology is the software architecture on which the radios must be built and communication protocols implemented. Many proprietary architectures exist, but to ensure portability and interoperability of the protocols on the different radios, an open architecture was developed. The Software Communications Architecture (SCA) is a set of specifications describing the interaction between the different software and hardware components of a radio and providing software commands for their control. The SCA has been developed by the U.S. Department of Defense Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) project. The SCA is an open architecture framework that specifies how hardware and software components are to interoperate so that different manufacturers and developers can readily integrate the respective components into a single device.
So, SDRs can be typically implemented with relatively standard processor and hardware components. One particular class of software radio is the Joint Tactical Radio (JTR), which includes relatively standard radio and processing hardware along with any appropriate waveform software modules to implement the communication waveforms a radio will use. JTR radios also use operating system software that conforms with the SCA specification (see www.jtrs.saalt.mil), which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The JTRS SCA defines a set of interfaces and protocols, often based on the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), for implementing an SDR. In part, JTRS and its SCA are used with a family of software re-programmable radios. As such, the SCA is a specific set of rules, methods, and design criteria for implementing software re-programmable digital radios.
The JTRS SCA specification is published by the JTRS Joint Program Office (JPO). The JTRS SCA has been structured to provide for portability of applications software between different JTRS SCA implementations, leverage commercial standards to reduce development cost, reduce development time of new waveforms through the ability to reuse design modules, and build on evolving commercial frameworks and architectures.
The JTRS SCA is not a system specification, as it is intended to be implementation independent, but a set of rules that constrain the design of systems to achieve desired JTRS objectives. The software framework of the JTRS SCA defines the Operating Environment (OE) and specifies the services and interfaces that applications use from that environment. The SCA OE comprises a Core Framework (CF), a CORBA middleware, and an Operating System (OS) based on the Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) with associated board support packages. The JTRS SCA also provides a building block structure (defined in the API Supplement) for defining application programming interfaces (APIs) between application software components.
The JTRS SCA Core Framework (CF) is an architectural concept defining the essential, "core" set of open software Interfaces and Profiles that provide for the deployment, management, interconnection, and intercommunication of software application components in embedded, distributed-computing communication systems. Interfaces may be defined in the JTRS SCA Specification. However, developers may implement some of them, some may be implemented by non-core applications (i.e., waveforms, etc.), and some may be implemented by hardware device providers.
The JTRS approach includes provisions to install/uninstall a waveform application to add or alter a feature set. However, the JTRS radio architecture has no provisions to control installation or access to features and/or waveforms. The current approach does not address modifications of a feature set within a waveform, control of waveform or features to specific customers or specific orders, and/or control of features requiring royalties.

Option management in a software-defined radio