An efficient design methodology in accordance with the present invention is described for reducing the leakage power in CMOS circuits. The method and apparatus in accordance with the present invention yields better leakage reduction as the threshold voltage decreases and hence aids in further reduction of supply voltage and minimization of transistor sizes. Unlike other leakage control techniques, the technique of the present invention does not need any control circuitry to monitor the states of the circuit. Hence, avoiding the sacrifice of obtained leakage power reduction in the form of dynamic power consumed by the additional circuitry to control the overall circuit states.

One of the most popular Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) technologies available today is the complementary MOS (metal oxide semiconductor), or CMOS, technology. This technology makes use of both P and N channel devices in the same substrate material. Such devices are extremely useful, since the same signal that turns on a transistor of one type is used to turn off a transistor of the other type. A MOSFET transistor consists of three regions, referred to as the "source", the "gate" and the "drain". In an N-type transistor, the source and drain regions are doped with N type material and the substrate doped with P type material. In a P-type transistor, the source and drain regions are doped with P type material, and the substrate is doped with N type material. The source and drain regions are quite similar, and are labeled depending on to what they are connected. The source is the terminal, or node, which acts as the source of charge carriers; charge carriers leave the source and travel to the drain. In the case of an N channel, of N-type, MOSFET, the source is the more negative of the terminals; in the case of a P channel device, it is the more positive of the terminals. CMOS logic uses a combination of p-type and n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) to implement logic gates and other digital circuits found in computers, telecommunications and signal processing equipment.
Power dissipation is an important consideration in the design of CMOS VLSI circuits. High power consumption leads to reduction in the battery life in the case of battery-powered applications and affects reliability, packaging and cooling costs. The main sources of power dissipation are: (i) capacitive power dissipation due to the charging and discharging of the load capacitance (ii) short circuit currents due to the existence of a conducting path between the voltage supply and ground for the brief period during which a logic gate makes a transition and (iii) leakage current.
Leakage current in CMOS circuits is defined as the drain current when the gate-source voltage is zero. Leakage current consists of two main sources, reverse bias diode currents, which are due to stored charge between the drain and bulk of active transistors and sub-threshold currents, which are due to carrier diffusion between the source and drain of the off transistors. Of these two sources of leakage current, the sub-threshold current is the major component of leakage current and therefore of greatest concern.
There are techniques known in the art to reduce the power dissipation in CMOS circuits. It is known in the art that the short circuit power dissipation can be reduced to 10% of total power dissipation by designing the circuit to have equal input and output rise/fall edge times. The power dissipation resulting from switching activity is the dominant component for technology processes having feature size larger than 1 μm. With technology processes maturing towards deep submicron regime, the feature size of the transistors are being reduced, thereby reducing the load capacitances. The reduction in feature size also forces a reduction in the supply voltage because the reduced feature size cannot withstand the high supply voltages, thereby forcing supply voltage scaling. The quadratic dependence of switching power on supply voltage is taken benefit of by voltage scaling techniques for dynamic power savings. However, this technique also drastically increases the delay as the supply voltage approaches the threshold voltage (Vt) of the devices. In order to facilitate voltage scaling without affecting the performance, the threshold voltage must also be reduced. In general, the ratio between the supply voltage and the threshold voltage should be at least five so that the performance of the CMOS circuits is not affected. This ratio also leads to better noise margins and helps to avoid the hot-carrier effects in short channel devices.
Scaling down of the threshold voltage (Vt) results in an exponential increase of the sub-threshold leakage current. It can be seen from FIG. 1 that the leakage power is only 0.01% of the active power for 1 μm technology, while it is 10% of the active power for 0.1 μm technology. As such, there is a five-fold increase in leakage power as the technology process advances to a new generation of deep submicron and nanometer circuits. Projecting these trends, it can be seen that the leakage power dissipation will equal active power dissipation within a few generations. Hence, efficient leakage power reduction methods are very critical for the deep submicron and nanometer circuits.
Numerous methods for leakage power control have been reported in the literature. Known work in the art makes use of the dependence of the leakage current on the input vector to the gate of the transistor. With additional control logic, the circuit is put into a low-leakage standby state when it is idle and restored to the original state when reactivated. The use of a reactivation state forces the need to remember the original state information before going to low-leakage standby state. This requires special latches, thereby increasing the area of the circuit by about five times, in the worst-case. Additionally, the amount of time for which the unit remains in idle state should be long enough so that the dynamic power consumed in forcing the circuit to a low-leakage state and the leakage power dissipated in the standby state together is less than the leakage power without the technique.
Another technique for leakage power control known in the art is referred to as power gating. Power gating turns off the devices by cutting off their supply voltage. This technique makes use of a bulky NMOS and/or PMOS device (sleep transistor) in the path between the supply voltage and ground. The sleep transistor is turned on when the circuit is active and turned off when the circuit is in an idle state with the help of a sleep signal, thereby creating virtual power and ground rails in the circuit. Hence, there is a significant detrimental effect on the switching speed when the circuit is active. The identification of the idle regions of the circuit and the generation of the sleep signal require additional hardware capable of predicting the circuit states accurately. This additional hardware consumes power throughout the circuit operation even when the circuit is in an idle state to continuously monitor the circuit state and control the sleep transistors.
The use of multiple threshold voltage CMOS (MTCMOS) technology for leakage control is also known in the art. With this method, the transistors of the gates are at a low threshold voltage and the ground is connected to the gate through a high threshold voltage NMOS gating transistor. The logical function of a gating transistor is similar to that of a sleep transistor. With this method, the existence of reverse conduction paths tends to reduce the noise margin or in the worst case may result in complete failure of the gate. Moreover, there is a performance penalty since high threshold transistors appear in series with all the switching current paths. A variation of the MTCMOS technique is the Dual Vt technique, which uses transistors with two different threshold voltages. Low threshold transistors are used for the gates on the critical path and high threshold transistors are used for those not in the critical path. In both MTCMOS and Dual Vt methods, additional mask layers for each value of threshold voltage are required for fabricating the transistors selectively according to their assigned threshold voltage values. The use of additional mask layers makes the fabrication process increasingly complex.
In addition to these limitations, the techniques discussed above suffer from "turning on latency", that is, when the idle subsections of the circuit are reactivated, they cannot be used immediately because some time is needed before the sub-circuit returns to its normal operating condition. The latency for power gating is typically a few cycles, and for Dual Vt technology, can be much longer. Also, the techniques known in the art are not effective in controlling the leakage power when the circuit is in active state.
It is additionally known in the art to use the concept of forced stacks for leakage control. Forced stacking introduces an additional transistor for every input of the gate in both N- and P-networks. This ensures that two transistors are Off instead of one for every Off-input of the gate and hence, makes a significant savings on the leakage current. However, the loading requirements for each input introduced by the forced stacking, reduces the drive current of the gate significantly. This results in a detrimental impact on the speed of the circuit.
In one prior art method, a combination of sleep transistors and the stacking effects are used to reduce leakage power. This method identifies a circuit input vector for which the leakage current of the circuit is the lowest possible. The sleep signal controlled transistors are inserted away from the critical path where only one transistor is Off when low leakage input vector is applied to the circuit. Hence, this technique is input vector dependent. Moreover, as this technique uses sleep transistors, it requires additional hardware to control the sleep transistors. The additional hardware consumes power in both idle and active states of the circuit.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an efficient leakage power reduction method for deep submicron and nanometer circuits that is input vector independent, minimizes the additional hardware required, is effective in both idle and active states, has a minimal impact on switching speed of the circuit and does not add additional fabrication complexity to the circuit.

Method and apparatus for reducing leakage in integrated circuits


A flexible header joint for a high performance automobile is provided, wherein the first end of the joint receives a header collector and the second end of the joint receives an exhaust pipe. A cylindrical clamp maintains the joint in position to the header collector, the clamp having three spring retainers circumferentially positioned around the clamp. When the automobile is in motion, the clamp allows for the header to twist and rotate relative to the exhaust pipe while still maintaining the seal and thus preventing leakage of exhaust.

A common and inexpensive means of improving an automobile's performance is the addition of exhaust headers to the automobile's exhaust system. Exhaust headers improve performance of an automobile by reducing or eliminating backpressure from the exhaust system. When using exhaust headers, each cylinder in the automobile's motor emits exhaust through a separate cylinder exhaust pipe (instead of sharing an exhaust pipe with other cylinders, as is conventionally done). Each of these individual exhaust pipes lead into a collector, which in turn allows the exhaust to pass through an trailing exhaust pipe to the catalytic converter and muffler.
A common problem with high performance exhaust headers is the leakage of exhaust from the joint between the collector and the rest of the exhaust system (typically the joint is from the collector to the trailing exhaust pipe). This joint also acts as a reducer, as the diameter of the collector is typically larger than that of the rest of the exhaust system. This also increases pressure on the joint, as the exhaust is compressed in order to pass to the trailing exhaust pipe. It is common for this joint not to seal properly, thereby causing leakage. Furthermore, the seal on the joint is exposed to extremely high temperatures, frequent shaking, and movement of the engine within its mounts, further factors leading to the breakage of the seal and resultant leakage.
Flex type exhaust joints are commonly used in production vehicles. Stock production flex joints do not adapt well to use with high performance headers, as they tend to require high ground clearance, and do not provide for exhaust flow efficiency.
One attempt to provide a flexible joint is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,209 to Cromwell, entitled "Vehicle Exhaust Stack Joint Yieldable in All Directions". Cromwell discloses a vertical joint, which is designed to pivot when the vertical exhaust pipe strikes a barrier such as a tree limb, and return to position when the barrier is passed. Such a joint fails to address the issues raised in performance header exhaust systems as it is designed to temporarily open (and thus leak) rather than maintain the exhaust pipe without leakage.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,931,843 to Gilli discloses an exhaust unit for engines, particularly for high performance vehicles. Gilli discloses a plurality of pipes (one from each cylinder) joined to a manifold having an equal number of pipes.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,063,741 to Bockerman discloses a yielding joint for exhaust pipes. Bockerman also discloses a joint for a vertical exhaust system designed to yield when the pipe strikes a barrier, such as a tree limb.
Other related art includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,119 to Emmons et al., disclosing a pipe joint and seal therefor, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,067 to Cronje, disclosing a knuckle joint for an exhaust system.


An electric motor and a method of making the electric motor is disclosed herein. The motor comprises a stator and a rotor being arranged coaxially, with said rotor provided internally of said stator. The stator having one or more stator teeth extending radially inwardly towards said rotor. The rotor has a plurality of magnets forming an outer rotor surface. A first face of the or each stator tooth faces the outer rotor surface. An electrically-conductive non-magnetic damper bar is partially embedded in the or each stator tooth, the or each damper bar having an outer damper bar surface. A groove is formed in the first face of the or each stator tooth to at least partially expose the outer damper bar surface. The groove can improve flux linkage between the rotor and the damper bars and thus improve the damping of the electric motor.

Electrical motors may be used to actuate parts of a vehicle, such as steering wheels of the vehicle, for example. In such electric motors, it is often desirable to have a damping force. The damping force may be used, for example, to prevent 'shimmying' of the wheels. Shimmying is the word used to describe quick oscillation of steerable wheels about their direction of travel. The amplitude of these oscillations can quickly grow and cause instability of the vehicle.
In aircraft, shimmying can occur in the landing gear wheels. Other undesirable oscillations can occur in ailerons, slats, or flaps of the aircraft. In the past, when these parts were controlled by hydraulic means, hydraulic damping systems were employed. In recent years, there has been a move towards "all-electric" aircraft that do not use hydraulic systems for e.g. landing gears or controlling ailerons, flaps, or slats. Electric motors require different systems to perform the damping from those systems used in hydraulics.
To provide the damping force in electric motors, it is known to provide damper bars fixed relative to the stator of the electric motor. Damper bars are electrically conductive and consequently, when the motor turns, the magnets of the rotor induce currents in the damper bars which resist the turning of the rotor. This provides a damping force that varies with the speed of rotation of the rotor.
When oscillations occur in the part being controlled, e.g. shimmying of the landing gear wheels, the rotor is urged to rotate within the stator. The magnetic field from the magnets on the rotor thus induces currents in the damper bars and these currents set up a reaction force against the direction of motion of the rotor magnets and thus damp the shimmying of the wheels of the vehicle.
Such conventional damped electric motors have generally been considered satisfactory for their intended purpose. However, it is desirable to improve the cost, weight, and/or manufacturability of damped electric motors.
In known electric motors, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,068,623 and WO 2010/064978 A1 the damper bars are disposed outside the stator tooth/teeth.


A specimen collecting, processing and analytical assembly, designed for testing small volumes of body fluids, substances and secretions, said assembly comprising a one piece barrel assembly with a volumetrically graduated capillary tube having an open end, and optionally coated internally with an anticoagulant, a stabilizer or a preservative. The barrel assembly includes a filter membrane fitted above the capillary end at the junction of the barrel assembly and the capillary tube, a support means at the barrel's second open end, and an analytical testing means disposed there between. The invention also provides a sealed vial containing an analytical testing reagent, the vial being substantially airtight and sealed with a pierceable material, a first tip cap for closing the open end of the capillary tube, a second cap to close sealably the second open end of the barrel container and a lancet to induce capillary skin punctures.

There has been a growing interest in recent years in the non-intrusive clinical sampling of body fluids for detecting various chemical and biological substances. This is largely the result of improved analytical techniques and the realization that many of the components of physiological and/or pathological interest (pathogens, biologics, metabolites, drugs, etc.) contained in blood and blood product specimens obtained by intrusive means (e.g., venepuncture) are also contained in other body substances, secretions or fluids such as urine, sweat, tears, respiratory secretions, semen, vomitus, wound and ulcer drainage, or saliva, which can be obtained more easily and at reduced risk. Moreover, even when blood and blood products are used, the amounts of blood required to measure the levels of different components of interest are relatively small compared to the amounts drawn from different people.
In addition, saliva and urine samples may be advantageous for testing of some components of physiological interest. This may be illustrated by comparing the utility of urine and saliva samples to establish recent marijuana usage. Since marijuana can be detected in urine for up to 40 days after the last use of the drugs, while saliva will only show evidence of such usage within the last 48 hours, saliva samples are much more useful than urine samples for detecting recent use of the drug.
Body fluid sampling and testing typically involves four steps: 1) sample Collection 2) extraction of sample from the collection media 3) reaction of the sample with analytical reagents, and 4) detection and/or measurement of physiological or pathological active contents.
In the past, non-intrusive collection of body fluid samples has commonly been accomplished by the use of devices such as cotton swabs, absorbent papers and pads, which are used to absorb fluid samples. Once collected, these devices are placed in a vessel in which the sample is extracted into a suitable solvent by means of diffusion, with or without mechanical agitation. Sample extraction by means of unassisted diffusion is quite slow, usually requiring several minutes. If this process is sped up with agitation, extraneous material such as cotton or paper fibers may be entrained into the extraction fluid along with the sample and may have to be removed prior to the reagent reaction of step 3 above.
Chemical and biochemical analysis of liquids has been traditionally performed in specialized laboratories. The classical methods of analytical chemistry have been increasingly replaced by automated analysis designed for the processing of well-defined specimens. These procedures are typically still conducted in highly specialized institutions by technicians trained in operating particular integrated instruments.
The specimens collected and sent to these specialized clinical testing laboratories for medical diagnosis generally include specimens collected into tubes, vials or containers that hold anywhere from 5 ml to about 20 ml of the liquid sample. Specific amounts, which typically involve only a fraction of the volume collected are used directly or after centrifugation for the measurement of the test ordered. The rest of the specimen is discarded as a biohazard material.
An object of the present invention is to provide a plurality of assemblies for collecting liquid specimens in volumes sufficient to carry out triplicate tests of a specimen and to avoid collection of liquid specimens in excessive amounts, the majority of which is ultimately discarded. Specifically, the basic unit is a one piece barrel container comprising a variety of assemblies of the present invention that are designed to collect liquid specimens for analysis by using open capillary tubes to collect liquid specimens. The basic unit may further include a processing component involving dilution and filteration of the collected sample, and optionally provide an analytical means to analyze and carry out a specific test.
Blood collection for routine clinical testing is generally carried out by venepuncture and varying amounts of blood ranging from 5 ml to 20 ml are collected in vaccutainer tubes having color-coded stoppers. Any disruption of vascular endothelium such as venepuncture during blood collection is a potent stimulus to clot formation. The normal endothelial cell lining of the vessel wall plays an essential role in preventing thrombus formation. The endothelial cells are active metabolically in control of the blood flow, platelet aggregation and the coagulation cascade. Disruption of the endothelial cell surface results in unopposed smooth muscle contraction and vessel spasm. This sets the stage for thrombus formation and makes it difficult to draw blood by venepuncture. In some patients on chemotherapy, drawing blood by venepuncture is virtually impossible; and it makes it difficult to monitor drug levels.
A number of analytic procedures and devices are commonly used to test body fluids for the presence of substances of diagnostic value. Blood and urine are the body fluids most frequently tested. An advantage of blood as a test fluid is that analytes are often at relatively high concentrations and measurement of these concentrations can provide information about a patient's health.
Urine is useful for diagnostic testing when the blood component of interest (e.g., a drug or hormone) is concentrated during urine formation. However, the urine concentration of an analyte does not usually reflect the physiologically active amount of the analyte in the blood.
Not commonly used, but numerous studies have demonstrated that saliva and other types of oral fluid can provide a reliable sample for diagnostic testing involving antibodies or antigens specific for various human or animal pathogens. Oral fluids have also been shown to be useful in measuring the body levels of naturally occurring hormones or therapeutic and other drugs. A trained phlebotomist is not required as is the case with blood, nor are special arrangements for privacy-in-collection and custody of the sample required, as is the case with urine. Collection of an oral fluid sample obviates the hazard of handling blood-contaminated needles and tubes.
Virtually all samples for analysis of blood cells of their constituents such as hemoglobin, are collected into tubes containing potassium or sodium salts of elhylenediamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA). EDTA, an avid calcium chelator, serves as an effective anti-coagulant that inhibits activation of the coagulation system and production of fibrin clots. Samples with clots are not suitable for analysis of fluid components. Heparin can be used as an anticoagulant without introducing a dilution error but unfortunately, it causes platelet and leukocyte agglutination, which interferes with accurate cell enumeration. For these reasons, citrate and heparin are not routinely used for blood sample collection.
The field of competitive protein binding assays or specific binding assays has greatly expanded, as its importance in the diagnostic field has become recognized. The ability to be able to detect a specific compound and measure the compound quantitatively has permitted the monitoring of the administration of a wide variety of drugs, the determination of an imbalance in a wide variety of hormones, the quantification of physiologically active proteins, and the diagnosis of diseases through detection of a pathogen. The different techniques have been distinguished in requiring or not requiring separation steps, the nature of the signal developed by the label, the development of the signal in a solution or on a surface and the manner of the measurement for a quantitative determination. The various biochemical and immunologic procedures are set forth in scientific literature and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,900,663; 4,999,285; 5,030,558; 5,039,607; and 5,935,864.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,935,864 ('864 patent) describes a self contained unit for collecting and analyzing samples of liquid specimen including a specimen container having an open capillary end and an open top with a chamber disposed there between, the chamber including a means therein for analytical testing, and, a vial having a sealed top end, the top end being of pre-selected size to receive the lower end of the sample container in a substantially air tight arrangement upon being penetrated by the capillary end. This reference is incorporated in its entirety herein. However, the self-contained unit described, has several disadvantages. Since the capillary end does not have a coating of an anticoagulant, it is a disadvantage because once the sample is drawn into the capillary end, the operator or technician has to move with speed to carry out the analysis otherwise the blood will clot in the capillary tip.
Another disadvantage of the unit described is that there is no means of filtering the sample before it is contacted with the test strip, and therefore the sample may contain contaminants and particulate matter that may interfere with the analysis of the test component.
Yet an additional disadvantage of the unit described is the lack of a support cap for the test strip at the open end of the container, thereby not allowing the inversion of the tube to allow the sample to travel along the test strip not only by absorption but also by gravity.
An additional disadvantage of the unit described in the '864 patent is that it provides no graduated means of measuring the volume of the sample collected.
The above disadvantages have been overcome in the present invention.

Specimen collecting, processing and analytical assembly


Selected regions of native instructions translated in a DBT environment from non-native instructions are compressed based on the independent compression of different fields of selected instructions using compression tables to reduce a length of selected fields. The regions of compressed instructions are stored and de-compressed into the native instructions during subsequent execution using de-compression tables. Specifically, for native instructions of a selected region, selected types of opcodes and/or operands may be compressed independently. The types may be selected by profiling the opcodes using benchmark programs and creating an opcode conversion table prior to compression, and scanning of the operands and creating an operand conversion table during compression of the opcodes.

1. Field
Dynamic binary translation of non-native code.
2. Background
A sequence of machine executable code or instructions, such as a computer program are typically written in a "language" such as an instruction set of a processor (e.g., part or all of the "machine"). A language may be all of the operations (jump, store, etc.) that a processor can or is able to perform. In other words, a single processor (embedded or otherwise) can usually only execute a given set of instructions (e.g., language). Normally, a program is developed in a higher-level language (e.g. C or C++) and then compiled to produce an executable file that will run on a target processor. If it is desired to run the program on a different processor, the higher-level language may be compiled with a different compiler to produce a different executable file for the second processor.
However, in some circumstances, the higher-level program may not be available; only the compiled program is available. In those circumstances, the compiled program, or regions of instructions thereof, may be either interpreted (the second processor emulates the original processor and calculates what the original processor would have done in response to each region of instruction) or translated (the region of instructions for the original processor are replaced with a region of instructions or instruction sequence that causes the second processor to perform the same operations that the original processor would have done). Typically, a program includes multiple "branches" or branch instructions delineating subroutines or "blocks" of instructions. A region of instructions may be one or more blocks of instructions. Thus, a region of instructions may be a sequence of one or more instructions or blocks of a program to be interpreted, translated, processed, and/or executed in succession in a dynamic binary translation (DBT) environment or by a dynamic binary translator.
For instance, in a DBT environment, a sequence of instructions or a computer program having instructions in one language (e.g., non-native instructions that can be executed or processed by a non-native machine or processor) may be "executed" or processed by a native machine or processor capable of processing another different language (e.g., such as a native processor for native instructions). Specifically, regions of instructions in the non-native language (e.g., "non-native" instructions) may be "dynamically" interpreted, and other regions may be translated into regions of instructions of the native language for processing by the native processor (e.g., such as by being compiled just-in-time during "execution" in the dynamic binary translation (DBT) environment).
Thus, compiled non-native instructions may be received in a DBT environment for processing by a processor other than the "non-native" processor for which they were compiled. Specifically, a DBT environment may exist where the non-native source code or higher-level program is not available (e.g., only the compiled non-native program is available). Also, a DBT environment may exist where a static compiler is unable to compile the non-native code into compiled native code. Next, a DBT environment may exist where, in a program or instruction sequence, regions of instructions are to be translated and regions of instructions are to be interpreted by a native processor. In this third case, a dynamic binary translator may cause some regions of non-native code instructions (e.g., instructions to control a processor capable of processing one type of code or language) to be translated to regions of native code instructions (e.g., instructions to control a different processor capable of processing a different type of code or language) and may cause other regions of instructions to be interpreted (e.g., the non-native instructions may be processed by the different processor). The goal of interpreting is to have the second processor emulate the original processor, calculate what task the original processor would have done in response to each region of instruction, and perform that task. The goal of translating is to replace the instructions the original processor is able to execute with instruction that the second processor is capable of executing.
For example, "hot regions" or hot code of a sequence of instruction may be small code regions of a program executed frequently at run time and all of the hot code may consume 90% of processor clocks (e.g., clocks of a central processing unit (CPU)) for processing the entire sequence. In a DBT environment non-native hot code regions may be "executed" by being translated into compiled native instructions "just-in-time" before execution or use by the native processor. The first time they are compiled, the non-native regions of hot instructions and the just-in-time compiled native regions of hot instructions are stored in a memory (e.g., in table or, code cache) for quick reuse to translate the non-native hot region to a native version next time that non-native region of instructions is encountered. However, this requires enough memory to store the non-native and the native regions of instructions in a memory/table for reuse. This memory requirement is tolerable because of the relatively high frequency of encountering or executing the regions of hot code and the relatively small portion or succession of the sequence that is the regions of hot code (e.g., it is more desirable to require more memory than to execute the hot code more slowly by using interpretation).
Correspondingly, "cold regions" or cold code in a sequence of instruction may be small code regions of a program executed infrequently at run time and consume few of processor clocks for processing the sequence. Thus, cold code or regions may be "executed" by being interpreted in a DBT environment. For instance, compiled non-native cold code regions can be interpreted into the functionality of native instructions during execution by the native processor. The extra time required to perform each interpretation is tolerable because of the relatively low frequency of encountering or executing the regions of cold code and the relatively large portion or succession of the sequence that is the regions of cold code (e.g., it is more desirable to require more time to interpret and less memory).

Compressing “warm” code in a dynamic binary translation environment


A new fiber optic cable splice for splicing optical fiber cables together and reconstructing fiber-optic cable that provide substantially enhanced reliability and broadened operating temperature range is disclosed. The disclosed cable splice offer reliable and user friendly solutions to applications in many harsh environments such as avionics, field vehicles, and defense related instrumentation. The cable splice consists of a preassembled one piece splice core and outer mechanical and thermal shielding layers. A simple splicing procedure and key fixtures are also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of optical fiber communication and more particularly to the reconstruction of an optical fiber cable.
2. Background Art
In the past decade, applications involving optical fiber based communication systems are becoming more practical and are gradually replacing copper based systems. A common task required by these applications is to repair damaged fiber optic cables. There are three prior art technologies that are used to repair fiber-optic cables and the most relevant patents to this invention appear to be the one by Thomas Scanzillo, Aug. 10, 2004, U.S. Pat. No. 6,773,167; by Toshiyuki Tanaka, Oct. 5, 1999, U.S. Pat. No. 5,963,699 and by Bruno Daguet, and by Gery Marlier, May 24, 1994, U.S. Pat. No. 5,315,682. These patents are thereby included herein by way of reference.
A typical prior art fusion spliced optical fiber is illustrated in FIG. 1. The splice consists of an input optical fiber 110 with a protective coating 120, and an output optical fiber 115 with a protective coating 125. The optical fibers are joined at the interface 130 using an automated apparatus following precision alignment and discharge induced fusion splicing process. In order to protect the splicing region, a rigid rod 150 is used and typically the splice and the rigid rod are both enclosed in a heat shrinking enclosure 140.
An alternative prior art mechanical fiber-optic splice is illustrated in FIG. 2. The splice consists of an input optical fiber 210 with a protective coating 220, and an output optical fiber 215 with a protective coating 225, a capillary glass tube 250 containing a precision through channel, placed in side of a protective outer tube 240 and with protective end caps 260 and 265. Typically, the input and output fibers are placed inside of the glass capillary, an index matching fluid 230 is used to form an air free contact. For certain splices, there is an added small perpendicular channel in the capillary tube 255. To aid the fiber insertion into the glass capillary tube, two ends of the capillary tube are normally tapered to form interfacing cones. The inner diameter of the capillary tube is made substantially close to the outer diameter of the optical fiber with typical tolerances within one micrometer for a single-mode fiber splice, and a few micrometers for a multimode fiber splice. The index matching fluid is transparent and has a refractive index very close to that of the core of the optical fiber. Frequently, the optical fiber cable-splice interfaces are further protected by flexible boots 270 and 275. The prior art fiber splice is often protected with a plastic outer package (not shown) for mechanical stability.
A related prior art fiber optic cable is illustrated in FIG. 3. The cable consists of a coating protected optical fiber 310, a buffer tube 320, a layer of cable strengthening fibers 380 and an outer jacket 390. These cables are designed for reliable operation in challenging environments.
Although most of the commercially available fiber optic splices do not reconstruct the broken fiber optic cable, prior arts do exist for undersea cable reconstruction. In such a case, reconstruction is typically welded, very bulky and extensive to protect extreme undersea water pressure. Due to the small temperature fluctuations in the undersea environment, materials with substantially different coefficient of thermal expansion (i.e., stainless steel and copper) can be employed without compromising splice reliability.
These prior art approaches have several areas for improvements. For example, the plastic protective outer package of an optical fiber splice has a very limited range of operating temperature. Furthermore, in avionics applications, a fast temperature-cycled environment requires additional packaging considerations to ensure stable and reliable operations. Additionally, in order to splice fiber optic cables such as the one illustrated in FIG. 3, one must have structure improvements such that the mechanical and chemical resistance properties of the cable restored. Such a restoration needs to provide a compact packaging, mechanical and chemical integrity, as well as a thermal protection of fast changing environmental temperature. There is a need, therefore, to make improvements to these prior arts, so that highly reliable fiber-optic cable splices and reconstructed fiber-optic cables can be realized.


A head positioning control system for use in a HDD and arranged to position a head in a target position has different seek control systems arranged to be operated respectively when a read access is made and when a write access is made. When the read access is made, the system using target velocity data for controlling read seek executes read seek control. When the write access is made, the system using target velocity data for controlling write seek executes write seek control. The read seek control allows the head to be moved to the target position at relatively high velocity. The write seek control allows the head to relatively stably and accurately reach the target position.

The present invention relates to a head positioning control system for use in, for example, a hard disk drive to control positioning of a head in a target position in accordance with servo data which has previously been recorded on the disk.
A disk storage system, for example, a hard disk drive (HDD) comprises a head for writing data on a disk (a storage medium) and reading data from the disk. To perform the operation for reading or writing data, a head positioning control system for controlling positioning of the head in a target position (a storage region to which an access will be made) on the disk is required.
Specifically, the target position is a specific track (a specific cylinder) on the disk of the HDD, the track (the cylinder) including a data sector to which a read access (an operation for reading data) or a write access (an operation for writing data) is made.
A HDD, as shown in FIG. 11A, has a multiplicity of tracks 100 formed concentrically on the data side of a disk 1 thereof. Servo areas 101 having servo data recorded thereon are formed at the same directional positions of the tracks 100. The servo areas 101 are formed in the circumferential direction of the disk 1 while being apart from each other at predetermined intervals. The servo area 101, as shown in FIG. 11B, is a sector (a servo sector) serving as a reference position for a plurality (for example, 50) of data sectors 104 included in one track 100. The servo area 101 has servo data mainly composed of a track code 102 and servo burst data 103 recorded thereon (when the HDD has been manufactured).
Servo data is used in an operation for controlling positioning of the head by the head positioning control system. That is, servo data is position data with which the position of the head is detected. The track code 102 is a gray code for indicating serial numbers called track addresses (or cylinder addresses) for identifying the tracks 100. The servo burst data 103 is a burst signal pattern with which a position in a range of each track 100 is detected.
When a target position on the disk, to which an access will be made, has been determined, the head positioning control system performs seek control (also called "velocity control") and track following control. The seek control is a controlling operation for moving the head to a position near a target position, the seek control being performed in accordance with a target velocity corresponding to the distance from the current position of the head to the target position. The head positioning control system detects the position of the head in accordance with the above-mentioned track code 102 read by the head to calculate the distance from the position of the head to the target position in order to determine the target velocity. Moreover, the system calculates the movement velocity in accordance with the detected position of the head so as to output an amount of a control operation (a digital value) determined in accordance with the difference between the movement velocity and the target velocity. Specifically, the amount of the control operation is a quantity for operating a head actuator for moving the head. That is, the amount of the control operation is the level of an electric current for rotating a voice coil motor (VCM) of the head actuator. The system forms a feedback control system for performing control until the target position and the current position of the head coincide with each other.
The track following control is a control operation for allowing the head to coincide with the target position. Specifically, the track following control is position control for positioning the head in a range of the target track. The system forms a feedback control system for detecting the position of the head in accordance with servo burst data 103 read from the head to perform a control operation until the position of the head and the target position coincide with each other.
When the head positioning control system has performed seek control, the head moves on a locus in the form of a curve shown in FIG. 9A. In FIG. 9A, an axis of abscissa stands for seek time which is taken for the head when a read access or a write access is made and axis of ordinate stands for positions of the head from the current position to a target position (TP). When the seek control is performed, the system outputs the amount CV of the control operation as shown in FIG. 9C.
When the seek control is performed, the head is moved in accordance with its movement velocity characteristic, as shown in FIG. 9B, composed of an acceleration mode (Ma) in an initial period, a constant velocity mode (Mc) in which maximum velocity is maintained and a final deceleration mode (Mr) after the head has approached a target position. The system is shifted from the deceleration mode (Mr) to a next operation for performing the track following control. As described above, the system executes the seek control in accordance with the target velocity. The target velocity is previously stored in a memory as target velocity data. That is, target velocity data is information in the form of a table for indicating the velocity with which the above-mentioned velocity characteristics composed of the acceleration mode (Ma), the constant speed mode (Mc) and the deceleration mode (Mr) can be obtained in accordance with the distance for which the head moves.
The seek control has been performed in such a manner that the amount CV of the control operation is adjusted in the deceleration mode in order to shorten the period of time required for the head to move to the target position. That is, as shown in FIG. 9C, the system outputs maximum amount CV of the control operation in the acceleration mode (Ma) and reduces the amount CV of the control operation in the deceleration mode (Mr) so as to adjust the amount CV of the control operation. To shorten the time required for the head to move to the target position, the head movement velocity is rapidly changed in the deceleration mode (Mr). However, the HDD encounters phenomenon called "overshoot" and "undershoot" with respect to the target position if the head is, adjacent to the target position, rapidly decelerated because of an error of its mechanical system or dispersion in the characteristics of the circuit system occurring owning to the tolerance in the manufacturing process. As a result, the head is caused to considerably deviate from the target position. Therefore, even if the time required for the head to move to a position near the target position is shortened, time (time to perform the track following control) required for the head to be made coincide with an allowable range in which data can be written or an allowable range in which data can be read is elongated undesirably. Thus, the read seek time (time for which the head performs seeking when a read access is made) and the write seek time (time for which the head performs seeking when a write access is made) are elongated.
If the system rapidly changes the head movement velocity in the deceleration mode during the seek control operation, the probability of occurrence of the overshoot phenomenon, which is a phenomenon for the head to pass the target position, and the undershoot phenomenon, with which the head cannot reach the target position, is increased. Accordingly, excessive deviation of the head from the allowable range in which data can be written or the allowable range in which data can be read is prevented by moderately setting the decelerating locus on which the head is moved in the deceleration mode. That is, stabilization for accurately moving the head to a position near the target position is given priority to shortening the seek time for the head.
The head must be positioned in a target position at different accuracy level between the read access and the write access. That is, as shown in FIG. 10A, an allowable range 201, into which the head must be positioned when the write access is made, is determined to be narrower than an allowable range 202 into which the head must be positioned when the read access is made if the range (the range for the target track) for the target position is the same. FIG. 10A shows a movement locus 200 for the head when the write seek control is performed. If the head reaches the range of the adjacent track when the head writes data on the range of the target track to perform a data writing operation by making a write access, the possibility of breakage of data recorded on the adjacent track is enlarged. Therefore, the allowable range 201 into which the head must be positioned is required to be relatively narrow when the write access is made. That is, positioning control more accurate than that required in the read access operation must be performed.
However, the conventional head positioning control system has been arranged to perform the seek control with the same velocity characteristic in both of the cases where the read access is made and the write access is made. That is, the feedback control system for the seek control has been designed by using the accuracy as a reference which is required when the write access (the operation for writing data) is made in which the allowable range into which the head must be positioned is narrow. Therefore, when the read access is made in which a wide allowable range 202 is permitted, the head moves on a movement locus 203 with remainder capacity as compared with the performance of the system for positioning the head, as shown in FIG. 10B. When the read access is made, the allowable accuracy range 202 for the head is relatively wide. Therefore, the performance of the system may be used to shorten the head seek time as compared with the positioning accuracy. Since the accuracy allowable range 201 for positioning the head is relatively narrow when the write access is performed, the performance of the system must be used to improve the positioning accuracy.

Head positioning control system for use in a disk drive using different target velocity data for read and write seeks


An apparatus for remotely communicating with the vehicle to control functional circuits in the vehicle. The apparatus includes a pager based communication apparatus mounted in the vehicle for receiving a command signal from a pager service provider in response to a user generated telephone number, security code and a command. A microcontroller is responsive to the received command and, in response to a stored control program, generates outputs to various vehicle functional circuits. The microcontroller generates outputs in response to selected user generated commands to deactivate the vehicle engine in the event of a hijack command when the engine RPM drops below a prestored engine RPM magnitude. The microcontroller is also capable of generating outputs to control engine starting and stopping, door lock and unlock operations, and other vehicle accessories.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, to remote communication apparatus for vehicles.
2. Description of the Art
It is known to provide communication devices for remotely communicating with the occupant of a vehicle. Such devices include cellular and wireless telephones as well as pagers to provide two-way communication between a central telephone service provider and each remote telephone or pager disposed within a vehicle.
At the same time, it is also known to provide remote communication with certain operable circuits or functional elements of a vehicle. For example, it is known to use a remote transmitter to transmit signals to a receiver in the vehicle for starting and/or stopping a vehicle engine. Remote communications have also been employed to control other vehicle functions, such as remote locking and unlocking of vehicle doors, trunk release, as well as flashing of the vehicle lights.
Vehicle security systems have also been devised which automatically disable an engine to prevent the engine from being started upon the detection of an intrusion event. Remote control systems have also been provided to disable or stop an operating engine in the event of a vehicle hijacking.


An assembly defining a portion of an arcuate outer surface of a tire building drum, the assembly including first and second interlacing deck segments coupled to a central support member to be moved in a radially reciprocating manner, each of the interlacing deck segments including a plurality of center sections coupled together, a plurality of first grooves between the center sections, a plurality of first finger portions extending from the center sections away from the central support member, a plurality of second finger portions extending from the center sections in an opposite direction over the central support member, and a plurality of second grooves formed adjacent each of the second finger portions, wherein the second finger portions are arranged in parallel over the central support member, and the first grooves in each of the interlacing deck segments align with the second grooves of the other of the interlacing deck segments.

The manufacture of a vehicle tire commonly includes the steps of forming a tire carcass, forming a toroid-shaped belt and tread "package" of the tire separately from the carcass, and thereafter marrying the belt and tread package to the tire carcass to form a "green" tire. The green tire is thereafter treated to form the tread and various other features of a finished tire. Other supplementary steps, such as bonding the belt and tread package to the tire carcass (often referred to as "stitching" the belt and tread package), may be performed during the course of, or following, one or more of the aforementioned steps.
The formation of a tire carcass is typically performed using a tire building drum, of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,457,505. Such a tire building drum typically defines a radially expandable and contractible cylindrical working surface upon which a tire carcass is formed. Subsequent to the formation of the tire carcass on the cylindrical working surface, such tire carcass may be transferred to an expansion drum, of the type discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,602,372. The tire carcass is positioned surrounding the expansion drum, and a portion of the tire carcass is overlaid with the belt and tread package. The tire carcass is then inflated to a toroid shape resembling, though often not identical to, the shape of a finished tire. While the tire carcass is inflated, the belt and tread package is joined to the tire carcass.
Formation of a belt and tread package of a tire is typically accomplished using a belt and tread drum, of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,013,147. Such a belt and tread drum typically has an outer cylindrical surface, or circumference, comprising a plurality of elongated segments, about which one or more layers of the tire belt material (comprising, for example, reinforcement cords embedded in a polymeric binder) are laid to define the belt and tread package. The circumference of the belt and tread drum is preferably capable of expanding and contracting to allow, for example, removal of a completed belt and tread package from the drum. A completed belt and tread package is typically essentially non-expandable radially. However, a completed belt and tread package is typically flexible to the extent that, when unsupported, the toroid-shaped belt and tread package will deform and sag under the influence of gravity. Also, desirably, the adjustable circumference of the belt and tread drum enables a single drum to be used to form belt and tread packages of alternative diameters.
During formation of the belt and tread package on the belt and tread drum, it is not uncommon for the belt and tread drum and accompanying tooling to be configured such that the elongated segments of the belt and tread drum apply considerable pressure to interior surfaces of the belt and tread package, in part to assist in maintaining a uniform toroid shape of the tire component during formation. Such high pressures applied to the interior surfaces of the tire component can result in at least a portion of the arced exterior surfaces of the elongated segments becoming at least partially imprinted in the tire component, resulting in the formation of very slight imprints of the arcuate exterior surfaces of the elongated segments, and corresponding very slight bulges adjacent the imprints, in the tire component. Further, it is known that the radius of curvature of the various arcuate segments forming the belt and tread drum's outer cylindrical surface is fixed by the rigidity of the segments, thus rendering it impossible for the segments to be moved between radially expanded and contracted positions and collectively provide perfectly-formed cylindrical surfaces at each of these two positions. If, for example, the circumference of the drum is adjusted to a size at which the segments are positioned at a distance from the longitudinal axis which exceeds the radius of curvature of each segment arc, there will exist regions about the drum circumference where the circumferentially outward edges of the segments curve slightly radially inwardly from the central portions of the segments. Conversely, if the circumference of the drum is adjusted to a size at which the segments are positioned at a distance from the longitudinal axis less than the radius of curvature of each segment arc, there will exist regions about the drum circumference where the circumferentially outward edges of the segments project slightly radially outwardly from the central portions of the segments. In either case, the outer circumference of the belt and tread drum will be very slightly out of round. If these out of round regions are large enough (as may occur, for example, when the drum is expanded to allow manufacture of a tire of relatively large diameter), it is possible that the drum may produce undesirable alternating imprints and bulges of the slightly out-of-round exterior surface of the tire building drum on a tire constructed with the drum. Such imprints and bulges are undesirable in that they may later manifest as irregularities in a finished tire, which may, in certain circumstances, produce undesirable effects, such as for example vibration, noise, and/or resonance of the rolling tire.
Early drums for constructing belt breaker and/or tread packages, which may be referred to herein as BT drums, featured parallel segments commonly wrapped with a sleeve or utilizing gap shields. The diameter range of those BT drums was limited, radial run-out (deviation) was severe, and multiple deck segments were typically needed or used. To combat the problem of gaps between the segments when expanding the drum to its maximum diameter, segments were formed with interlacing finger segments extending between the segments to provide at least partial support when the drum is expanded. Such finger segments improved the overall package support, largely eliminated the need for sleeves, and reduced run-out, but the expansion range of the drum was still limited in that the finger segments would no longer interface in larger diameter positions, creating areas without support for the BT package. A dual deck BT drum extended the diameter range with relatively quick segment change-outs, which reduced run-out to some extent, but also required the storage of segments that were not in use, which greatly reduces convenience. A later developed high range BT drum extended the range by using telescoping linear rails, allowing a diameter expansion ratio of approximately 1.7:1.
Thus, in light of the above, an improved segment for a belt and tread drum which includes features for limiting deviation from the general cylindrical shape of the drum throughout expansion and contraction of the drum, thereby limiting the development of vibration, noise, and/or resonance of a tire manufactured using the belt and tread drum, is desired. An improved segment that allows larger expansion ratios while also limiting such deviations is also desired.

Expandable belt and tread drum with reverse offset fingers


A method and apparatus for a split detent tactile cueing control system comprising an inceptor, a position sensor, vehicle sensors, and a flight control computer. The inceptor can be moved into different positions measured by a position sensor. The vehicle sensors generate signals in response to detecting parameters about a vehicle during a flight. The flight control computer is coupled to the inceptor and the vehicle sensors. The flight control computer is capable of generating actuation signals used to generate tactile cues to generate a flight path hold detent and an altitude hold detent within the plurality of positions using a force feel profile and the parameters. An extension of a latch force from the flight path hold detent to the altitude hold detent is present during changes in vehicle direction. Series actuator compensation allows increased split detent separation with insignificant command overshoot.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to aircraft and in particular to a method and apparatus for controlling the flight of aircraft. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for controlling the flight of a helicopter with a precision adjust split detent.
2. Background
Inceptors are used to control various types of vehicles. For example, inceptors may be used to control helicopters and other types of aircraft. An inceptor may be moved or adjusted to maintain various desired vehicle states. These vehicle states include, for example, vertical velocity, airspeed, and other suitable states.
An inceptor may be part of an active control system emulating mechanical components, such as springs and friction clutches actuated by an electric motor or other actuation device. The actuation device may be controlled by a controller to provide tactile cues to the vehicle operator. A tactile cue may be, for example, an amount of force applied to the inceptor, or an amount of resistance to movement of the inceptor. The tactile cues may provide a perception of a force or counter force on the inceptor being manipulated by an operator.
As an example, with respect to the vertical velocity and the vertical position or altitude, an operator may adjust a vertical control inceptor to maintain a desired altitude or vertical velocity. Other inceptors, or the same inceptor, also may be used for other types of control, such as longitudinal, lateral, or directional control of the vehicle. In these examples, an inceptor used for vertical control of an aircraft also may be referred to as a collective control lever. By adjusting a collective control lever upward, a collective blade pitch may increase causing the vehicle to climb or ascend. By adjusting a collective control lever downward, the collective blade pitch may be decreased causing the vehicle to descend. The position of the collective control lever needed to maintain a constant velocity or altitude may be a function of various factors. The factors include, for example, vehicle velocity, acceleration, atmospheric conditions, and other factors.
Currently existing systems may provide for maintaining a vehicle in one of two states. These states include a constant vertical velocity or a constant altitude. The operator of the vehicle may command the vehicle control system to maintain one vehicle state or the other. Changes between these two states and commands within the states may be aided through the use of tactile cues.

Precision adjust split detent for a vehicle


A light-sensing apparatus in which a light sensor transistor in a light-sensing pixel is formed of an oxide semiconductor transistor for sensing light, a method of driving the light-sensing apparatus, and an optical touch screen apparatus including the light-sensing apparatus. The light-sensing apparatus includes a light-sensing pixel array having a plurality of light-sensing pixels arranged in rows and columns, and a plurality of gate lines which are arranged in a row direction and respectively provide a gate voltage to the light-sensing pixel. Each of the light-sensing pixels includes a light sensor transistor for sensing light and a switch transistor for outputting a light-sensing signal from the light sensor transistor, and gates of the light sensor transistors of the light-sensing pixels arranged in an arbitrary row are connected to a gate line arranged in a row previous or next to the arbitrary row.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate to light-sensing apparatuses, methods of driving the light-sensing apparatuses, and optical touch screen apparatuses including the light-sensing apparatuses.
2. Description of the Related Art
A touch screen apparatus is an apparatus for directly receiving input data from a display screen that executes particular software functions by sensing locations of the display screen touched by a hand or a stylus of a user. Generally, a touch screen apparatus is formed by adding a touch panel to a common display panel. Examples of touch panels include resistance film touch panel, electrostatic capacitance touch panel, surface acoustic wave (SAW) touch panel, infrared ray touch panel, piezoelectric touch panel, etc. Recently, such touch screen apparatuses are widely used in various fields as input devices replacing keyboards or mice.
A general touch screen apparatus requires a direct touch on a display screen by a hand or a pen. However, as the size of display apparatus increases, if a distance between a user and a display device increases, it may be difficult to apply such a direct touch. Therefore, an optical touch screen apparatus which may perform the same functions as conventional touch screen apparatuses by sensing light instead of touch by a hand or a pen has been suggested. An optical touch screen apparatus is expected to be useful not only for communication between a user and an apparatus, but also for communication between users.
To embody an optical touch screen apparatus, fine-sized light-sensing devices for sensing light are demanded. An example of generally used light-sensing devices includes an amorphous silicon thin-film transistor (a-Si TFT). However, in a case of an a-Si TFT, the change in current due to light is insufficiently large. Therefore, charges generated by a photodiode during the application of light are accumulated in a capacitor for a predetermined period of time and a signal related to light intensity is generated based on the amount of charges accumulated in the capacitor. In this case, sensing time may be delayed as much as a period of time for accumulating charges in the capacitor, and parasitic capacitance may increase as the size of an optical touch screen apparatus increases.

Light-sensing apparatuses, methods of driving the light-sensing apparatuses, and optical touch screen apparatuses including the light-sensing apparatuses


Disclosed herein is a control element, which can be arranged on a capacitive surface, for controlling a function of the capacitive surface, comprising a carrier structure, a rotary element rotatable about an axis of rotation with respect to the carrier structure, comprising at least one electrically conductive area, at least one electrically conductive contact element arranged on the carrier structure, wherein the contact element comprises a contact area which is arranged at least in some areas on an underside of the control element, so that the contact area, when the control element is arranged on the capacitive surface, is arranged at least partially touching the capacitive surface, wherein the electrically conductive area of the rotary element is in contact with a contact element in at least one rotational position of the rotary element. The rotary element can be moved along the axis of rotation with respect to the carrier structure.

Control elements for controlling functions in motor vehicles, particularly for controlling electrical vehicle components, for example, an air conditioning system, are generally known. Said control elements usually comprise mechanical rotary controls that, via sensors, determine the angular position of the rotary control and thus the user command. A processing unit causes a change in the prevailing setting of a vehicle component in accordance with the user command, for example, an adjustment of the temperature in the vehicle.
Touch screens have the advantage that areas of the touch screen can be assigned functions through programming. The same parts can thus be installed in different models or designs; however, different functions or representations of the functions can be implemented on the screen.
However, touch screens have the disadvantage that they usually have a smooth, even surface, so that a user can only see the stored functions but not perceive them haptically. Particularly with touch screens in a vehicle interior, it is therefore advantageous to arrange control elements on the touch screen that the user can perceive haptically so that he can continue to focus on the traffic situation while controlling vehicle functions.
For this purpose, haptically perceptible rotary controls arranged on a touch screen which comprise an element that slides on the touch screen are known in the prior art. The angular position of the element of the rotary control is detected by the touch screen. The rotary controls protrude from the smooth touch screen surface and are haptically perceptible.
However, such a design has the disadvantage that the sliding contact between the element and the touch screen wears and damages the touch screen and/or the element. This has both consequences that are aesthetically undesirable, for example, undesired scratches or furrows in the touch screen surface. In addition, wear and tear can lead to the electrical charges no longer being reliably transferred through the electrically conductive element to the touch screen and/or no longer being recognized correctly and reliably by the touch screen. A further disadvantage can be unwanted noises caused by friction. A further disadvantage could be that undesired, different settings can be activated briefly when the element is in contact with a corresponding area of the touch screen while the rotary control is being rotated.

Control element and system for controlling a function on a capacitive surface


A system and a method for power control are provided. In the present invention, a control switch is disposed in a power adapter, which is turned on/off by a monitoring device disposed in a portable electronic device. As a result, the power inputted into the power adapter can be controlled, and thus the power consumption during the portable electronic being shut down is reduced. In addition, the present invention controls the power providing for a battery according to a detected power on/off signal and the electric quantity of the battery. The control switch is turned off to stop the power adapter from providing power when the electric quantity of the battery reaches a reference value. Therefore, the overheating situation of the portable electronic device or the battery that may shorten their service life because of continuing receiving power can be avoided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and a method for power control. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and a method for power control by controlling a power to be switched on or off.
2. Description of Related Art
As the rapid development of science and technology, electronics have been increasingly prevailing. Portable electronics, such as notebook computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs) are the most favorite ones among the users, due to the features of being light, thin, short, and small and having multiple functions.
As for the portable electronic products, the power supply is an important part. In order to provide the portable electronic products with a battery having a long endurance and save the consumption of the battery, a rechargeable lithium battery is generally used as a source for the power supply in the conventional art. When the power of the lithium battery is not sufficient, it only needs to connect the electronic product to a transformer, which can charge the lithium battery.
However, the current transformers available on the market do not have the functions of automatically controlling the power on/off of the power thereof. That is to say, when the lithium battery has already been charged completely, the transformer will continuously supply the power. Even when the electronic product is powered off, the transformer still continuously runs, and thus the power is continuously consumed. As a result, the power is continuously consumed and the energy is wasted by the transformer, and thus leading to the overheating of the transformer and shortened service life of the transformer.
In order to solve the problems, the conventional art has proposed a set of solutions, that is, adding a manual switch in front of the transformer. When the user does not need the transformer to supply the power, he/she manually switches off the transformer, as described in ROC Patent Application No. M259392. However, the above method can only tackle the problem on the surface, not at the root. Each time when powering off the transformer, the user must manually turn off the switch of the transformer personally, which is not only considerably inconvenient for the user, but the situations that the user forgets to turn off the switch of the transformer also occurs, and thus, the switch disposed for the transformer are almost non-existed.
In view of above, all the relevant manufactures of the portable electronic products are anxious to seek for proper solutions to overcome the above problems.

Power control system and method for controlling power adapter to input power to portable electronic device


The present invention provides an IR-absorbing naphthalocyanine dye of formula (I):

IR absorbing dyes have numerous applications, such as optical recording systems, thermal writing displays, laser filters, infrared photography, medical applications and printing. Typically, it is desirable for the dyes used in these applications to have strong absorption in the near-IR at the emission wavelengths of semiconductor lasers (e.g. between about 700 and 2000 nm, preferably between about 700 and 1000 nm). In optical recording technology, for example, gallium aluminium arsenide (GaAlAs) and indium phosphide (InP) diode lasers are widely used as light sources.
Another important application of IR dyes is in inks, such as printing inks. The storage and retrieval of digital information in printed form is particularly important. A familiar example of this technology is the use of printed, scannable bar codes. Bar codes are typically printed onto tags or labels associated with a particular product and contain information about the product, such as its identity, price etc. Bar codes are usually printed in lines of visible black ink, and detected using visible light from a scanner. The scanner typically comprises an LED or laser (e.g. a HeNe laser, which emits light at 633 nm) light source and a photocell for detecting reflected light. Black dyes suitable for use in barcode inks are described in, for example, WO03/074613.
However, in other applications of this technology (e.g. security tagging) it is desirable to have a barcode, or other intelligible marking, printed with an ink that is invisible to the unaided eye, but which can be detected under UV or IR light.
An especially important application of detectable invisible ink is in automatic identification systems, and especially "netpage" and "Hyperlabel™" systems. Netpage systems are described in the following patent applications, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Synthetically expedient water-dispersible IR dyes

Abstract: wherein                M is selected from Si(A1)(A2), Ge(A1)(A2), Ga(A1), Mg, Al(A1), TiO, Ti(A1)(A2), ZrO, Zr(A1)(A2), Vo, V(A1)(A2), Mn, Mn(A1), Fe, Fe(A1), Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Sn, Sn(A1)(A2), Pb, Pb(A1)(A2), Pd and Pt;        A1 and A2 are axial ligands, which may be the same or different, and are selected from —OH, halogen, —OR3, a hydrophilic ligand and/or a ligand suitable for reducing cofacial interactions;        R1 and R2 are selected from H or C1-12alkoxy;        R3 is selected from C1-12alkyl, C5-12aryl, C5-12arylalkyl or Si(Rx)(Ry)(Rz); and        Rx, Ry and Rz may be the same or different and are selected from C1-12alkyl, C5-12aryl, C5-12arylalkyl, C1-12 alkoxy, C5-12aryloxy or C5-12arylalkoxy;        W is a hydrophilic group;        n1 is 0, 1, 2 or 3;        n2 is 0, 1, 2 or 3;        n3 is 0, 1, 2 or 3;        n4 is 0, 1, 2 or 3;provided that at least one of n1, n2, n3 or n4 is greater than 0.

Abstract: Dyes of this type are especially suitable for use in netpage and Hyperlabel systems.


A high voltage accelerating potential, which is supplied by a high voltage direct current power supply, is applied to the electrically conducting interior wall of an RF powered glow discharge cell. The RF power supply desirably is electrically grounded, and the conductor carrying the RF power to the sample held by the probe is desirably shielded completely excepting only the conductor's terminal point of contact with the sample. The high voltage DC accelerating potential is not supplied to the sample. A high voltage capacitance is electrically connected in series between the sample on the one hand and the RF power supply and an impedance matching network on the other hand. The high voltage capacitance isolates the high DC voltage from the RF electronics, while the RF potential is passed across the high voltage capacitance to the plasma. An inductor protects at least the RF power supply, and desirably the impedance matching network as well, from a short that might occur across the high voltage capacitance. The discharge cell and the probe which holds the sample are configured and disposed to prevent the probe's components, which are maintained at ground potential, from bridging between the relatively low vacuum region in communication with the glow discharge maintained within the cell on the one hand, and the relatively high vacuum region surrounding the probe and cell on the other hand. The probe and cell also are configured and disposed to prevent the probe's components from electrically shorting the cell's components.

The present invention relates to a radio frequency (RF) powered glow discharge sputtering source for mass spectrometric analysis of non-conducting solids as well as metals, alloys, semiconductors and the like.
The application of conventional direct current (DC) powered glow discharge devices for the direct analysis of conductive solids such as metals, alloys and semiconductors is well known in the art and is discussed as background to the discussion of the RF powered glow discharge devices and methods. Generally, these DC powered glow discharge devices employ low pressure, inert atmosphere plasmas to initiate cathodic sputtering of solid samples that atomizes the sample material and produces a so-called "negative glow," also called a "glow discharge." In the negative glow, sputtered material collides with electrons and metastable discharge gas atoms to produce excited state atoms and ionic species. The electromagnetic radiation produced during the decays from excited energy states to lower energy states is responsible for the "glow" phenomenon.
In a so-called "diode" design of a DC powered glow discharge device, the conducting sample being analyzed takes the form of a cathode, which is housed in a vacuum chamber along with an anode sleeve. The walls of the vacuum chamber are electrically conducting and usually also act as an anode. The vacuum chamber is filled with an inert gas such as argon. When a sufficiently high electrical potential exists between the sample forming the cathode and the chamber walls and/or sleeve forming the anode, this causes the gas to dissociate into electrons and positively charged ions, which form part of what is sometimes called the "glow discharge" or the "negative glow." Much of this atomic dissociation occurs in a particular spatial region inside the vacuum chamber, and this region is sometimes called the "discharge excitation region" or the "negative glow region."
Since the sample is the negatively charged cathode of a DC powered glow discharge device, the negative field potential attracts the positively charged ions to the sample's surface. The so-called "sputtering" phenomenon occurs when the positively charged ions are accelerated toward the surface of the sample and eventually hit the cathode surface and dislodge atoms, ions and molecules of the cathode material. By virtue of the electrical biasing created by the electrical field inside the vacuum chamber, all of the negatively charged species (e.g., electrons, negative ions, and negatively charged molecules) will be accelerated away from the negatively biased cathode surface and all of the positively charged species in the vicinity will be accelerated to the cathode surface. The vast majority of sputtered particles are not charged and can either diffuse back to the cathode surface or into the discharge excitation region. The percentage of atoms entering the discharge excitation region is a function of the discharge pressure and cathode geometry.
In theory, the sputtering process acts as a cascade of inelastic collisions with the incoming ion imparting some portion of its kinetic energy, which approaches that of the electrical potential applied to the cathode, into the cathode material's lattice structure. According to this theory, if the sputtering ion has sufficient energy and directionality, the cascade will propagate back to the surface and result in the ejection of cathode material. The atoms ejected from the cathode material diffuse into the glow discharge region and become part of the so-called glow discharge. Sputter yields, the ratio of the average number of sputtered atoms to incident ions, are a function of the relative masses of the collision partners, the incident angle and energy of the sputtering ion, and the cathode material's binding energy.
DC powered glow discharge devices are currently employed to enable the sample to be subjected to elemental analysis by atomic absorption, atomic emission, atomic mass spectrometry, and a number of laser-based spectroscopic methods. These DC powered glow discharge devices, known commonly as "sources," have been limited by the fact that the sample must be conductive in nature so that it may act as a cathode in a conventional DC diode type design of the device. In an effort to analyze nonconducting solids without dissolution, nonconducting powder samples have been mixed with a conducting powder matrix. The resulting powder mixture is pressed into a disc sample, which, because of the conductive portion, allows for the required flow of current, but which also permits the sputtering of atoms of the nonconductive material upon impingement by a discharge ion. However, the mixing of the original sample with the conducting material introduces certain problems. For example, the dilutive effect of the conducting material results in both a loss of sensitivity and an increase in the likelihood of contamination. Moreover, many nonconducting solids are not easily transformed into powders, and the transformation of the solid into a powder precludes any depth resolved analyses.
The use of a radio frequency (RF) powered, as opposed to DC powered, glow discharge in argon to sputter and ionize a solid hollow cathode sample for analysis has been described (Analytical Chemistry, 47 (9), 1528, (1975). However, the hollow cathode geometry requires that the sample itself be machined into a cylinder. Machining the sample into a cylinder requires considerable labor and prevents depth profiling analysis.
The use of any glow discharge sampling geometry in which the sample must be inserted into the vacuum chamber, automatically restricts the size and shape of the sample to be analyzed. In such instances, metals and alloys must be machined to the proper geometry. Machining and grinding eliminate the possibility of performing depth-resolved analyses. Electrically nonconductive materials such as glasses and ceramics are often nonmachineable. Nonmachineable bulk solids must first be ground into a powder and then pressed to form a solid powder sample of compatible size and shape. Additionally, the combination of powdered nonconductive samples with a conducting material results in both a loss of sensitivity and an increase in the likelihood of contamination.
A Grimm-Type high frequency powered glow discharge device (such as disclosed in Dec. 16, 1988 French Publication No. 2 616 545), which mounts the sample outside the vacuum chamber, disposes the cathode between the sample and the anode, and thus runs the risk of contamination from sputtering of the cathode material.
In order to analyze the sample in a mass spectrometer, the ionized sputtered material from the glow discharge must be transported from within the vacuum chamber of the glow discharge cell to the mass spectrometer. In a DC powered glow discharge source, a high DC voltage is applied to the walls of the vacuum chamber of the glow discharge cell in order to accelerate the charged sputtered material into the mass spectrometer. However, when this conventional method of applying a high DC voltage to both the sample and the discharge cell walls is tried in a RF powered glow discharge device, it destroys the ability of the device to maintain an analytically useful glow discharge.
Moreover, the RF glow discharge apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,006,706 and 5,086,226 to Marcus (commonly assigned to the owner of the present application) pertain to cells maintained at ground potential. Any attempt to raise all of the RF electronics (RF generator and impedance matching network) to the same high DC electrical potential as the vacuum chamber walls have required using an isolation transformer (such as proposed at column 8, lines 8-11 in U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,965 to Douglas). This fails to provide a satisfactory solution because it causes additional problems of high voltage hazard, inconvenience, and electronic noise. For example, maintaining the RF electronics at the typical high voltage applied to the discharge cell means that the laboratory workers are subjected to the potential hazards of a five to ten thousand volt shock. Precautions needed to avoid encountering such electrical shock result in practical inconveniences in the performance of the measurements on the sample. In addition, it becomes impossible to shield the mass spectrometer system electronics adequately from RF electronic noise. Such electronic noise poses detriments to the desired limits of detection, experimental precision, and instrument calibration. Such noise also adversely affects the operation of other electronic instrumentation in the vicinity of the RF electronics because of the propagation of radio waves through this space.

Radio-frequency powered glow discharge device and method with high voltage interface


Separation determination systems for determining the separation between a base station and a transponder, whereby the base station includes an oscillating signal source, for generating a signal and a transmission device for broadcasting the signal. The transponder includes a receiving device, for receiving the signal from the base station, an oscillator, for generating a signal which is phase-coherent therewith and a transmission device for broadcasting the phase-coherent signal. The base station furthermore includes a receiver device, for receiving the phase-coherent signal from the transponder and a separation determination device for determining the distance between base station and transponder. The system and components may be improved whereby the oscillator in the transponder is energized with the received signal in order to generate a quasi-phase-coherent signal.

Transponder systems, together with methods and arrangements for the exchange of data and for the measurement of the distance from a base station to a modulated transponder, exist in diverse forms, and have long been known. General forms of embodiment and principles will be found, for example, in "K. Finkenzeller, RFID-Handbuch, 2 ed. Munich, Vienna: Carl Hanser Verlag, 2000". Common as transponders are, for example, so-called back-scatter transponders, which do not have their own signal source but simply reflect back the signal they receive, sometimes in amplified form.
In the text which follows such systems, which can be used to measure the distance between the base station and the transponder, are generally described as radio frequency localization systems or RFLO systems (Radio Frequency LOcalisation), by analogy with RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification). Advantageous embodiments of RFLO arrangements of this type, which are based on the principle of the FMCW radar (Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave) or related principles, are described in detail in, for example, "M. Vossiek, R. Roskosch, and P. Heide, Precise 3-D Object Position Tracking using FMCW Radar, 29th European Microwave Conference, Munich, Germany, 1999" and in DE 199 46 161, DE 199 57 536 and DE 199 57 557. DE 199 46 161 indicates methods for the measurement of the separating distance from a transponder, with the classical forms of FMCW backscatter transponders and systems being described here. DE 199 57 536 and DE 199 57 549 describe vehicle access systems, in particular anti-theft systems, embodiments and application, some of which also use FMCW backscatter transponders.
A disadvantage of RFLO backscatter systems of this type is that the signal which is transmitted must propagate across the path from the base station to the transponder and back and accordingly, as determined by the radar equation, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the entire transmission path falls off in proportion to the 4th power of the distance. The free field attenuation, which increases sharply with the frequency, makes it almost impossible to realize very high frequency passive backscatter transponders in the GHz range, in particular, with a satisfactory signal-to-noise ratio. One particular reason why this is unsatisfactory is because it would in principle be very advantageous to use GHz systems, because of the high available bandwidth, both for distance measurement and also for fast data transmission.
If a separate source is used in the transponder to generate a new signal, based on and phase-coherent with the received signal, then each signal must traverse the base station/transponder path only once. In this case, the signal-to-noise ratio is only inversely proportional to the square of the distance. An additional factor is that the miscellaneous attenuations and losses on the transmission path affect the signal which is transmitted back only once, and not twice. As a result, particularly where the distances are large, the signal-to-noise ratio is larger by orders of magnitude than for simple backscatter systems. However, systems of this type are very much more expensive than the passive backscatter arrangements cited, for example in terms of circuit components, current consumption, manufacturing and maintenance costs, and consequently cannot be considered for many applications.
A further fundamental problem, of RFLO backscatter systems consists, as will be seen from DE 199 46 161 and "M. Vossiek, R. Roskosch, and P. Heide, Precise 3-D Object Position Tracking using FMCW Radar, 29th European Microwave Conference, Munich, Germany, 1999", in the fact that they are frequently not in a position to measure reliably very short distances between the transponder and the base station. However, it is precisely such short distances which are of particular interest, for example, for access systems and local positioning systems (LPS). The problem is that that it is not possible, mainly for legal but also for technical reasons, to use arbitrarily large modulation bandwidths, B.
As described in the literature sources cited there are, for example with FMCW backscatter RFLO, two spectral components, the distance between which in terms of frequency or phase is proportional to the distance "dist" between the transponder and the base station. The effect of the limited modulation bandwidth is now that the spectral components are not arbitrarily narrow but, when subjected to the usual analysis by a Fourier transformation, have a width of at least Δp=c/(2*B) for physical reasons, where c is the speed of light, B the modulation bandwidth and Ap is the distance here converted to meters.
The physically meaningful frequency of a spectral component corresponds to its maximum value, which normally lies in its center. When the distance is less than a certain minimum, the spectral components overlap. The result of this is that the maximum of the spectral components no longer corresponds to the physically meaningful frequency, and hence there is no magnitude which can be simply read off to determine the frequency, so that the distance can no longer be determined exactly. It is also possible that the two spectral lines extend so far into each other that they are no longer recognizable as separate lines. If the measurement is made with a bandwidth such as 80 MHz, for example, which is the maximum available at 2.45 GHz in the common ISM radar band (ISM=Industrial-Scientific-Medical), which is available worldwide and standardized, then with simple arrangements it is normally no longer possible to detect exact measurement values below a minimum spacing of about 2 m. In practice, indeed, it is normally not possible below 4 m, because in order to calculate the Fourier transformation the time signal is normally weighted by a window function, which has the effect of further degrading the resolution.
According to "M. Vossiek, R. Roskosch, and P. Heide, Precise 3-D Object Position Tracking using FMCW Radar, 29th European Microwave Conference, Munich, Germany, 1999", this problem can be solved by the use of a delay line, which enforces a fixed basic propagation time for the signal. However, apart from the extra circuitry costs, every dead time in the transponder causes substantial problems in respect of drift and the measurement inaccuracies which result from this.

Transponder system and method for measurement of separation