A surgical apparatus for marking a location within tissue which includes (i) a needle including a housing and an elongated tube having a sharp distal end, (ii) an elongated cable configured and dimensioned to pass through a longitudinal passageway formed through the needle, (iii) an elongated tissue marker attached adjacent a distal end of the elongated cable such that the elongated marker is movable between a retracted orientation and a deployed orientation, and (iv) an actuator assembly operatively associated with the elongated marker, wherein movement of the actuator assembly from a first position to a second position moves the elongated marker from the retracted position to the deployed position. A method of marking a particular location in body tissue is also provided, which includes the steps of (i) inserting an apparatus into a section of body tissue, (ii) deploying an elongated marker having an elongated cable attached thereto from the apparatus into the tissue, (iii) retaining the elongated cable relative the distal end of the apparatus, and (iv) moving the elongated marker into an orientation substantially perpendicular to the elongated cable.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to tissue marking apparatus and method for identifying a particular location within a mass of body tissue.
2. Background of Related Art
Marking specific locations within body tissue, such as non-palpable lesions discovered within the body, and devices such as needles and wires for marking these lesions, are well known in the art. Such devices generally comprise a hypodermic needle or cannula which is inserted into the body and positioned adjacent to or in contact with the lesion. A wire marker is then passed through the needle or cannula and is anchored to the lesion marking it for subsequent surgical procedure, for example, excision or biopsy. Once the lesion is marked, the cannula is usually removed from the body, leaving the wire in place protruding from the body.
One of the most common procedures in which suspect tissue is marked is to locate potentially cancerous lesions found within a female patient's breast tissue. In such procedures, the subject breast is typically compressed during a mammographic tagging procedure. With some of the known devices, after the tissue marker is in place and compression discontinued, it is possible that the marker may dislodge or migrate from the position set during the tagging procedure.
Various tissue marking systems have been proposed to aid in locating non-palpable lesions within the breast and to prevent inadvertent dislodgment and/or migration of the needle. One such system includes a cannula needle and a wire guide made of a shape memory characteristic material which assumes a J-hook configuration. Such a device may be found, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,473 to Gatturna which discloses a needle inserted into the breast and advanced to identify the location of a lesion. Gatturna discloses a wire which is advanced inwardly allowing a J-hooked end to engage body tissue and immobilize the needle.
Devices utilizing such J-hook systems, however, have been unable to solve the problem of preventing migration of the tissue marker. For example, in such devices, the tissue marker can be displaced if pressure is applied to the breast during transportation of the patient to the surgical suite or during preparation of the patient for surgery. Also, if the strength or resiliency of the wire is less than that required to penetrate the lesion, the hook may not reform, allowing the marker to migrate.
Another example of existing tissue marking devices, referred to as a needle and hook-wire system, may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,084 to Ghiatas. Ghiatas discloses a tissue-marking needle system which includes a stainless steel wire having a hairpin hooked-end. Similar to the J-hook system, the needle is inserted into the breast tissue to locate the lesion and the wire is slid through the needle thereby engaging the body tissue and anchoring the wire at lesion's location.
In such devices, however, compression of the breast, e.g., as routinely done during mammographic filming of the breast, may result in migration or displacement of the needle. Although the hook will tend to prevent outward movement of the wire, it is not designed to prevent advancement of the wire further into the patient's breast tissue.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved tissue marking apparatus which overcomes the above-noted limitations of existing tissue marking devices, is easy to use and provides more reliability when marking suspect tissue.


A label inserter system for inserting and sewing a label or law tag into a border for a mattress or foundation during the formation of the border. The label inserter system generally includes a hopper, a label pre-feeder and a label transfer clamp subassembly that engages and moves the label from the hopper and inserts the label between, on top or on the bottom of the cut edges of the border prior to sewing the cut edges to finish the border, with the label being sewn therein.

In the manufacture of bedding such as mattresses, foundations or box springs, etc., sewing operations for forming and attaching borders, panels and other components traditionally have been extremely labor intensive, manual operations that further generally have required a significant amount of skill on the part of the sewing operator to cut, sew, and finish the bedding components. The more labor intensive and the greater the amount of skill required of the operator to form a component, however, the greater the cost and the more limited or slower the production of such components. As a result, there have been efforts to develop more automated sewing equipment that will enable less skilled operators to operate the equipment and form bedding components, and/or which can be operated with less operator control or intervention required, such that one operator can run multiple sewing stations at one time in order to increase production while decreasing the manpower and skill level of the operator required to form the desired bedding components.
In addition, governmental regulations require that labels or "law tags" be attached to mattresses and foundations or box springs. Such labels or law tags generally provide regulatory and warning information, as well as identify the particular manufacturer of the mattress or foundation. As a result, such law tags or labels are required by law to be sewn into every mattress or foundation during their manufacture. Typically, the insertion and sewing of a law tag or label into a mattress or foundation component has been a substantially manual operation, generally requiring careful placement and sewing of the law tag with a portion of the law tag extending or projecting inside the mattress or foundation. If the tag is removed from the mattress, etc. by the end user, a portion of the tag will remain inside the bed to provide necessary identification information relating to the mattress or foundation to which it is attached.


Systems and methods describe automated/robotic baggage portals as well as their use when synchronized with automated/robotic human security portals. When companion human and baggage portals are synchronized, baggage items belonging to a subject are not passed through to a secure area unless the subject is cleared by a companion human portal for passage. Likewise, unless the subject is cleared for passage by the human portal, baggage items belonging to the subject are not passed through to a secure area unless the subject is cleared by the companion human portal. Variations on synchronization, tracking, and coordination mechanisms and methods are described as well as variations on baggage portal mechanisms including conveyer arrangements and baggage chamber configurations.

A wide variety of security access control devices exist today which attempt to control access to secure areas. Security checkpoints at airports include metal detection and various forms of x-ray and scanning capability. However, if a person carrying a weapon was determined to pass through such a security checkpoint while knowing they would be instantly detected, they could do so, and until they were apprehended they could use their weapon within the airport. Metal detectors at the entrance to banks will warn if someone carries a gun into a bank, however it will not stop them from doing so.
Many security systems combine identification mechanisms such as cards, fingerprints, RFID, or optical scan of retina or facial features in order to identify an individual and allow them access. Unfortunately, the perpetrator of the crime is sometimes one normally allowed access to a facility or area, and use of an identification card will not hinder them. In the case of gathering places such as lecture halls at universities, schools in general, sporting events, airports, secure office buildings, and large business facilities, if a person with suicidal and/or murderous tendencies is determined to wreak havoc and destruction upon a large number of people, today's security access devices will not prevent them from entering if they are carrying a weapon and intend to use it.
Therefore, new security access control devices are needed that will not only detect a person carrying a weapon and attempting to pass through a security access point or portal, but will absolutely prevent that person and their baggage from passing if a decision is made to prevent them—that decision preferably being made automatically. When it is impractical to scan a person's baggage as they carry it with them through a human security portal, that baggage may be scanned separately. If an access control point utilizes robotic human portals that may operate unattended, it is therefore useful to have robotic baggage portals that operate unattended. To maximize security, when an automatic human portal detects that a person is a threat, that person's baggage should also be prevented from passing. Likewise, when a robotic or automatic baggage portal detects that an article of baggage represents a threat and prevents that article from passing, the person who placed that baggage into the baggage portal should also be prevented from passing.

Synchronized robotic baggage portal for secure access


A fiber optic cellular reflector is provided, including a honeycomb cell structure having a plurality of connected cells with reflective walls for reflecting light. One or more fiber optic strands is mounted within each of the cells, and there is a source of light for supplying light to the fiber optic strands in the cells. In addition, a control device adjusts the depth of insertion of the fiber optic strands in the cells for controlling the pattern of light reflected from the reflective walls of the cells.

Although fiber optic lighting is generally known for providing light in various applications, it would be desirable to provide a device for enhancing and controlling the lighting output of fiber optic devices.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fiber optic device in combination with a honeycomb cell structure to optimize the light output and to provide new applications.


A surgical procedure including making an incision in the patient's body, inserting at least two sutures close to the junction of the pericardium on the upper right pulmonary vein and making an incision in the pericardium substantially parallel to the ascending portion of the aorta. An incision is made between the sutures on the upper right pulmonary vein, an inflow cannula is inserted into the vein and through the mitral-valve into the left ventricular chamber and the inflow cannula is secured to the upper right pulmonary vein. The procedure includes inserting a blood pump having an outflow graft into the patient's body and cutting the outflow graft to a desired length, attaching a clamp to the aorta and then attaching the outflow graft to the aorta. The clamp is removed and air is flushed or removed from the outflow graft and the blood pump. The blood pump is then connected to the inflow cannula.

Thousands of heart patients who suffer from severe left ventricular heart failure could benefit from cardiac transplantation. However, because of a shortage of donor hearts, most of these patients face a shortened life span characterized by frequent hospitalizations, severe physical disability, and death from congestive failure or cardiogenic shock.
One medical device developed to aid these heart patients is a heart pump such as a left ventricular assist device ("LVAD") which enables heart failure patients to return to prolonged and productive lives. Most heart pumps or cyclic delivery systems are physically large and complex and make implantation difficult or impossible for some patients. Even when the heart pumps can be implanted, the surgical implant procedure is highly invasive.
Conventional implant procedures use median sternotomy, and in some cases, thoracotomy to insert the heart pumps or LVADs in a patients' body. A median sternotomy is a lengthwise incision through the breastbone (or sternum) that is made when heart surgery or other invasive surgery in the chest cavity is performed. Similarly, a thoracotomy is a surgical procedure for opening the chest wall in order to access the lungs, esophagus, trachea, aorta, heart and diaphragm. Depending on the disease location, thoracotomy may be done on the right or left chest. Pump implants via sternotomy or thoracotomy are highly invasive procedures which are complex, expensive and require relatively long patient recovery time.
Accordingly, there is a need for a less invasive surgical heart pump implant procedure which is simple, less expensive and minimizes patient recovery time. The use of such an implant procedure has become possible due to the development of a specially shaped inflow cannula and a LVAD that has a small displaced volume.


A laminate comprising at least one layer of a first thermoplastic resin composition alternately stacked with at least two layers of a second thermoplastic resin composition, so that the outermost layers are the layers of the second thermoplastic resin composition, wherein the first thermoplastic resin composition, comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer and modified ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymers, and the second thermoplastic resin composition has a different composition from the first thermoplastic resin composition, and wherein, in any adjacent pair of the layer of the first thermoplastic resin composition and the layer of the second thermoplastic resin composition, the layer of the first thermoplastic resin composition and the layer of the second thermoplastic resin composition have a specific tensile modulus ratio and a specific thickness ratio.

Weight reduction of gas permeation preventing structures used in applications which require the prevention of gas permeation (for example, pneumatic tires, gas or fluid transporting hoses, etc.) has heretofore been desired. Generally, the amount of gas (for example, air) that passes through a layer of a thermoplastic resin composition or rubber composition decreases with the increase in the thickness of that layer. However, since the weight of the layer increases with the increase in the thickness of the layer, in applications, such as pneumatic tires, in which weight reduction is required in order to improve fuel efficiency, there have been many proposals for reducing the weights of the gas permeation preventing structures by using a material having high gas barrier properties (i.e., a material having a low gas permeation coefficient). For example, using a laminate comprising a gas permeation preventing layer comprising a thermoplastic resin such as ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH), which is known to have excellent gas barrier properties and an elastic surface layer or adhesive layer comprising a rubber or thermoplastic elastomer, etc., as an inner liner provided on the inner surface of a pneumatic tire to retain the inner pressure of the pneumatic tire is proposed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (JP-A) No. 1-314164, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (JP-A) No. 6-40207, WO 2007/083785, WO 2007/100159, and WO 2007/123220.
However, when an EVOH-containing layer is applied to the inner surface of a tire as a laminate with another layer having a low elastic modulus, such as a rubber layer, as proposed in the above patent documents, or when an EVOH-containing layer is directly applied to the inner surface of a tire, since EVOH has a significantly higher elastic modulus compared to rubber usually used in pneumatic tires, excessive stresses due to repeated, flex and tensile deformations during tire running are applied to the EVOH-containing layer, and as a result, cracks may occur in the EVOH-containing layer. The more the EVOH-containing layer tends to generate cracks, the less the fatigue durability, and therefore the less the air pressure retaining properties.
Accordingly, in the laminate comprising an EVOH-containing layer, it is necessary to have well balanced gas permeation preventing properties and fatigue durability (consequently air pressure retaining properties) by preventing the cracking of the EVOH-containing layer from occurring.

Laminated body and pneumatic tyre using same


A putting aid comprising two arms converging to an apex such that an acute angle is formed therebetween is herein described. The two arms have inner faces that include markings, such as a center stripe opposite the apex, that act to improve the visibility of the putting aid. Specifically, the putting aid is arranged to be positioned on a putting green such that the golf cup is between the two arms and the center stripe is approximately four inches behind the golf cup. The putting aid is then oriented such that the apex is opposite the direction of putting relative to the golf cup. The golfer then uses the center stripe as a target when aiming for the golf cup. As a result of this arrangement, the location of the golf cup is more visible and a golfer aiming for the center stripe will tend to putt harder, that is, so that the putt will travel approximately four inches further. The end result is a stronger and more accurate putt.

As any golfer will tell you, the quickest way to improve one's score is to improve one's putting. Specifically, it is often difficult to accurately estimate the distance between the ball and the cup. The end result is often that the golfer does not swing hard enough, resulting in a putt that stops short of the hole and adds strokes to the golfer's score. Clearly, a device is needed that improves the visibility of the cup, thereby allowing the golfer to better estimate the distance to the cup and adjust their putting stroke appropriately.


A system for assembling wire harnesses with their connectors utilizes a compact computer-based system that is linked to an engineering data base. The data base contains component information, such as harness number, associated wires, and pin location to connector. An integrated tool contains a light panel that is linked to a dummy connector. The dummy connector has a mating end for the connector being pinned. The connector is mated to the dummy connector such that pin holes in the connector align with the light rods in the dummy connector. The wires are identified by voice recognition, bar code, and/or optical character recognition. Once a wire has been identified, the system illuminates the appropriate pin location on the selected connector, thereby providing a visible point of light in which the selected wire is to be terminated.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to assembling complex wire harnesses and, in particular, to an improved system, method, and apparatus for assembling wire harnesses with a connector light array designator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many different industrial applications require the termination of large bundles or harnesses of wires into various types of connectors. In some applications, such as aircraft or automotive systems, each harness may contain more than 100 wires that must be routed and terminated in dozens of connectors throughout the assembly.
In the prior art, current wire/connector matching and termination methods begin by printing engineering data that displays the wire numbers and their related pin locations in the connector. A technician moves to the pre-selected wire harness, which may be remote or difficult to access, where he or she will perform the wire pinning operation. Such pinning operations typically comprise random selection of a wire from a harness of bundled wires. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, once the wire 21 has been identified by its label 23, the technician reads the engineering data 25 on the wire 21 to determine a pin location 27 on the connector 29 in which the wire 21 will be inserted. Once the pin location 27 on the connector 29 has been cross-referenced on engineering data 25, the task of locating the pin location 27 within the connector 29 must be done in order to insert the wire 21.
As illustrated in FIG. 3, this operation has a number of potentially high risk sources of error, including extremely small wire diameter, a large number of wires 21 per connector, close proximity of the wires in numerous harnesses 31, and limited work space 33, which creates awkward work positions. Thus, an improved system, method, and apparatus for matching harnesses of conductors with associated ones of apertures in connectors is needed.

System, for matching harnesses of conductors with apertures in connectors


Provided is an air heat exchanger capable of preventing an increase in ventilation resistance and a decrease in heat exchange efficiency due to condensation water generated on surfaces of heat transfer fins, without increasing thermal resistance of flat tubes and the heat transfer fins, and preventing scattering of water droplets downwind from the heat transfer fins. In the air heat exchanger including a plurality of flat tubes 2 and heat transfer fins 5 provided between the flat tubes 2 and on which air is blown, the flat tubes 2 include water draining grooves 4 on side surfaces on which the heat transfer fins 5 are provided and the heat transfer fins 5 include water guiding grooves 6 communicating with the water draining grooves 4. At least a groove wall 40 on the upwind side of an air blowing direction 10 among groove walls forming the water guiding grooves 6 is provided from a position of the upwind side from the water draining grooves 4 to the water draining grooves 4. The water guiding grooves 6 extend toward the water draining grooves 4 along the groove wall 40 on the upwind side and an area of a cross section perpendicular to an extension direction decreases toward the water draining grooves 4.

An air heat exchanger includes two tubular headers through which a cooling medium flows, a plurality of flat tubes arranged to couple the two headers, and a plurality of heat transfer fins provided between the plurality of flat tubes. Each of the flat tubes is orthogonal to the header and each of the heat transfer fins is orthogonal to the flat tube. A plurality of minute flow channels communicating from the headers are formed in the flat tubes. The cooling medium flows from the header to the flat tube through the flow channel. Each of the header, the flat tube, and the heat transfer fin is formed of a metal material having high thermal conductivity, for example, aluminum. These members are bonded to each other by a brazing material or an adhesive material. Air is blown on the air heat exchanger having such a structure using a fan and the air is introduced into the air heat exchanger.
In the air heat exchanger, a heat exchange of the cooling medium and the air is performed. The cooling medium is introduced into the header and is then distributed to the flat tube through the flow channel. Hot heat or cold heat of the cooling medium introduced into the flat tube is transmitted from the flat tube to the heat transfer fin to expand a heat transfer area and performs a heat exchange with the air flowing between the heat transfer fins.
However, when the air heat exchanger is used as an evaporator, temperatures of surfaces of the flat tube and the heat transfer fin are lower than a temperature of the air. For this reason, when the air passes between the heat transfer fins, moisture in the air condenses into the surface of the heat transfer fin. In the air heat exchanger in which the flat tubes are arranged to extend in a gravity direction and the heat transfer fins are arranged horizontally, condensation water generated on the surfaces of the heat transfer fins is rarely moved by an action of gravity and the condensation water is hard to be drained. In addition, if the condensation advances and a large amount of condensation water stays between the heat transfer fins, the condensation water may occlude between the heat transfer fins. If between the heat transfer fins are occluded, ventilation resistance of the air heat exchanger increases, which results in deteriorating heat exchange efficiency of the cooling medium and the air. In addition, the condensation water is swept by ventilation air and is scattered on the downwind side of the heat transfer fins and water droplets are blown out from the air heat exchanger.
For this reason, a structure for efficiently draining the condensation water generated in the heat transfer fins in the air heat exchanger is studied. For example, PTL 1 discloses an air heat exchanger in which openings are provided in heat transfer fins to drain condensation water on surfaces of the heat transfer fins. In addition, PTL 2 discloses an air heat exchanger in which condensation water is dropped by inclining heat transfer fins.

JOHNSON CONTROLS-HITACHI AIR CONDITIONING TECHNOLOGY (HONG KONG) LIMITED


A signal processing method and apparatus for performing special-effects processing on a 1 bit .SIGMA..DELTA. modulated signal in which, for amplitutde limiting a .SIGMA..DELTA. modulated 1-bit digital signal, the 1-bit digital signal is temporarily converted into a multi-bit signal. For re-quantizing the converted multi-bit signal, an integrator constituting a .SIGMA..DELTA. re-modulator is controlled by a limiter. This enables the 1-bit digital signal to be amplitude-controlled in the form of the digital signal without converting the 1-bit digital signal into an analog signal.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a special effect processing device for performing special-effect processing on a 1-bit digital signal obtained by .SIGMA..DELTA. modulation.
2. Description of the Related Art
A .SIGMA..DELTA. modulated fast 1-bit signal is of the form of an extremely high sampling frequency and a short data word length, such as a sampling frequency equal to 64 times 44.1 kHz and a data word length of 1 bit, thus exhibiting a broad transmission frequency range as compared to a so-called multi-bit digital signal with a sampling frequency equal to 44.1 kHz and a data word length of 16 bits so far used in conventional digital audio. The audio range of 20 kHz is sufficiently lower than the over sampling frequency equal to 64 times 44.1 kHz thus assuring a high dynamic range. This feature can be exploited for application in a high sound quality recorder or for data transmission.
A circuitry employing .SIGMA..DELTA. modulation itself is not new and is frequently used in an A/D converter because the circuit structure lends itself to IC implementation and enables an analog to digital converter to be produced relatively easily. A .SIGMA..DELTA. modulated signal can be passed through an analog low-pass filter having a simpler structure for conversion to an analog audio signal.
On the other hand, it has been difficult to directly apply a special effect processing, such as distortion processing, indispensable for a digital audio editor, to the fast 1-bit audio signal. Thus there is no alternative but to apply special effect processing to the analog signal and to convert the analog signal processed by .SIGMA..DELTA. modulation into a fast 1-bit audio signal.
Meanwhile, for producing the fast 1-bit audio signal, processed with special effect processing by the method described above, an analog effector device is required for applying a special effect processing on the analog audio signal. On the other hand, if an audio signal in a 1-bit form is processed with special effect processing, it needs to be reverted to an analog audio signal to which a special effect processing and .SIGMA..DELTA. modulation needs to be applied, thus complicating the circuit structure. In addition, the 1-bit signal is transiently converted into an analog audio signal, thus lowering the signal quality of the 1-bit audio signal.

Signal processing apparatus and method for sound field processing of .SIGMA..DELTA. modulated digital signal


The degree of fullness of a rotary mill is determined by measuring the variation in power consumption of the elector motor due to the lifting beams of the mill casing striking material in the mill during rotation of the mill casing.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for measuring the degree of fullness of an electrically driven mill, which method and apparatus make use of power variations affecting the electric motor of the mill.
In accordance with the disclosure in Canadian Patent 1,135,346, the power consumed by a mill driven by an electric motor, particularly an autogenous mill, varies periodically, and the amplitude of the periodic variation depends on the degree of fullness of the mill. Accordingly, the Canadian patent discloses a method and apparatus for measuring the degree of fullness of such a mill by continuously generating an electric signal representing the variation in electric power consumed by the mill within a relatively low frequency range 2-25 Hz. The degree of fullness of the mill is determined on the basis of the power signal, by utilizing test measurements performed earlier with different degrees of fullness.

Method and apparatus for measuring the degree of fullness of a mill with lifting beams by monitoring variation in power consumption


An apparatus is provided for adding a dither signal to an optical carrier modulated with an information signal. The apparatus includes a dithering element having an input and an output in series with an optical carrier modulated with an information signal. A differential element having an inverting input, a non-inverting input, and an output is coupled to the input of the dithering element. A signal generator, which is provided for producing a desired dither signal to be added to the modulated optical carrier, is coupled to the non-inverting input of the differential element. A feedback element produces a signal related to the output of the dithering element and couples the signal related to the output of the dithering element to the inverting input of the differential element.

Users of an optical communications system send signals to one another by modulating an optical carrier wave in a prescribed manner. In addition to the normal communications signals sent and received by users of an optical communication system, it may be advantageous for there to be other signals sent from one location within the optical communications system to another location in the system without interfering with the signals of the users. For example, it may be advantageous for the operator of the optical communications system to further modulate an optical carrier wave at a prescribed point within the communication system and monitor that modulated carrier wave at another prescribed point after it has passed through one or more components of the communications system to identify and isolate faults in the communications system. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,296,956 and 5,317,439.
To ensure proper and reliable operation of modem all-optical networks, the performance of its various nodes and links has to be continuously monitored, similarly to today's electrical networks, to detect and locate failures immediately after they occur to allow for quick repairs. Ideally such monitoring should be performed continuously during normal operation of the optical network without interrupting or interfering with the optical information signals carried over the network.
Moreover, modem optical networks simultaneously carry multiple optical signals at different wavelengths over each link. These wavelength-division-multiplexed optical information carriers will be separated and re-arranged at certain nodes in the network and may even be translated to different carrier wavelengths, if necessary, in order to be routed to their different designated destinations (locations). Such complicated networks require sophisticated schemes to track the proper routing of the various individual information carriers through the network and at the same time to monitor the performance of the nodes and links.
A method for monitoring the performance of an optical network that carries only one optical information signal over each line connecting the various nodes of the network is described in the U.S. Patents previously referenced. In this scheme, a unique, unambiguous optical maintenance signal either at the same wavelength as the optical carrier or at a different wavelength is injected at various points in the network and detected at one or more central locations in the network, allowing unambiguous detection and location of faults in the network.
Wavelength-multiplexed optical networks, however, may not allow injection of additional optical maintenance signals at wavelengths other than the predetermined optical carrier frequencies. More importantly, such additional maintenance signals do not permit monitoring of the proper routing of the various carriers since they cannot be selectively routed along the different paths of the re-arranged optical carriers. Common simultaneous modulation of the amplitudes of all multiplexed carriers entering or exiting a node provides for unique performance monitoring but will have to be repeated many times at each node and the modulation index will thus grow rapidly, eventually severely impairing the signal transmission. Moreover, such common modulation of the multiplexed optical carrier also does not permit end-to-end monitoring and tracking of their routing through the network.


A driving auxiliary circuit receiving an input voltage to control an output voltage of an operational amplifier via a first switch and a second switch is provided. A pull-low circuit turns on the first switch, including a first input terminal coupled to a high voltage source providing a high voltage and a first output terminal for controlling the voltage level of the output voltage. The output voltage is charged to be equal to the input voltage when the input voltage exceeds the output voltage. A pull-high circuit turns on the second switch, including a second input terminal coupled to the high voltage source providing the high voltage and a second output terminal for controlling the voltage level of the output voltage. The output voltage is discharged to be equal to the input voltage when the output voltage exceeds the input voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a driving circuit, and in particular relates to driving circuit with a high-driving auxiliary circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional operational amplifier, high slew rate is achieved by increasing the current or decreasing compensation capacitance. If the operational amplifier is used to drive a pixel in an LCD panel, the only way to increase slew rate is to increase the driving current. However, increasing the driving current may increase static current consumption and deteriorate the stability of the operational amplifier.

Driving circuit with slew-rate enhancement circuit


An atmospheric pollution emission control effect evaluation method, device and storage medium, including: carrying out meteorological condition frequency statistics of data collected from meteorological station, obtaining meteorological condition frequency distribution information; obtaining pollutant concentration information, performing pollutant concentration distribution statistics to obtain pollution concentration distribution information and pollution concentration variation information; decomposing effects of meteorological factors and non-meteorological factors according to meteorological condition frequency distribution information, pollution concentration distribution information and pollution concentration variation information, to obtain meteorological and non-meteorological contribution information; constructing source emission control effect evaluation data set according to meteorological condition frequency distribution information, pollution concentration distribution information, meteorological and non-meteorological contribution information. Accordingly, emission control effect can be quantitatively evaluated based on observation data. Emission increasing effect and contribution of meteorological changes to variation of average pollution level can be quantified.

Air pollution is a complex pollution phenomenon, when a plurality of pollutants in atmosphere reach a certain concentration, the air pollution will have an adverse impact on human life, production and health. In order to ensure an air quality and protect public health, governments at all levels have adopted a series of measurements to reduce a plurality of anthropogenic emissions of the pollutants. However, since a plurality of factors affecting a concentration of the pollutants are very complex, also an effect of a plurality of emission factors and an effect of a plurality of meteorological factors are often mixed together, it is of a great significance for a government's air quality management to evaluate an emission control effect to air quality changes.
In the prior art, the effects to the air quality changes by the emission factors have been evaluated by a plurality of emission-based numerical models and a plurality of observation-based statistical methods. However, the numerical models are subject to a plurality of model errors and uncertainties of a model input, while for an observation-based regression statistical method, it is hard to reconstruct a factor reasonably representing an emission variation.
Therefore, the prior art needs to be improved and developed.

Evaluation method for impact of emission control on air quality, device and storage medium thereof

SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


Methods, systems, and computer readable storage mediums for presenting project information are disclosed. Project information may be presented by receiving electronic planning information associated with a project, the planning information including project resource data, transforming the received electronic planning information into a graphical representation of the received electronic planning information for visual presentation to a user and presenting the graphical representation of the received planning information for perception by the user, the presented graphical representation including one or more lines that varies in width symmetrically over time based on the project resource data.

A Gantt chart is a bar chart that uses a horizontal bar to represent a project schedule as a function of time. Different phases of a project may be represented on a Gantt chart by different bars. In tracking a project's schedule it may be useful to know additional information relating to phases of the project. Traditional Gantt charts only display the project schedule as a function of time. Other types of project tracking techniques tend to overly complicate the display of information. Therefore, there is a need for an improved method for displaying project information.

Project timeline visualization methods and systems


A first check valve has a narrow flow path portion (68) formed between an arcuate portion (46) of the outer periphery (45) of a support member and a second enlarged-diameter portion (11) of a casing. The narrow flow path portion (first portion of an intermediate flow path) is in fluidic communication with a back-pressure chamber (50) defined in the support member at the rear of the top of a valving element through a communicating passage (67) including a gap (66) between the outer periphery of the valving element and the inner periphery of a large-diameter portion (38) and grooves (27) on the rear surface of the top of the valving element. Thus, a low static pressure of fluid flowing through the narrow flow path portion is introduced into the back-pressure chamber to move the valving element by a large differential pressure during the supply of fluid, thereby allowing the valve opening to become larger than in the conventional apparatus and enabling a reduction of pressure losses. An intermediate chamber has a pressure chamber (130) defined therein by using a rigid partition. A high-pressure chamber (131) of the pressure chamber is in communication with the upstream side of the first check valve, and a low-pressure chamber (132) thereof is in communication with the narrow flow path portion. Thus, a valving element (136) is acted upon by a force larger than the differential pressure between the upstream side and an internal flow path (106) of the intermediate chamber, thereby allowing a relief valve (135) to be surely kept closed.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to backflow preventers and, more particularly, to a backflow preventer in which check valves are provided at the upstream and downstream sides, respectively, and a relief valve is provided in an intermediate chamber formed between the two check valves.
2. Background Art
As a conventional backflow preventer for use in the piping of a water supply system or the like, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 11-153300, for example, discloses a backflow preventer of pressure-reducing type in which check valves are provided at the upstream and downstream sides, respectively, and a relief valve is provided in an intermediate chamber formed between the two check valves. In this type of backflow preventer, the valving element of the relief valve is constantly acted upon by a spring in the direction for opening the valve. A valve stem extending from the body of the valving element is secured to a diaphragm. The diaphragm is acted upon at both sides thereof by the primary pressure and the intermediate-chamber pressure, respectively. The differential pressure between the two water pressures acts in the direction for closing the relief valve. Thus, the relief valve is normally closed by the action of the differential pressure. The relief valve is opened when the difference between the primary pressure and the intermediate-chamber pressure has become smaller than a predetermined value, for example, when sealing of the upstream check valve cannot be properly performed owing to an abnormality in the check valve, or when there is reduction in the upstream pressure due to the burst of the piping or the like. By opening the relief valve, water is discharged from the intermediate chamber to prevent backflow.
Check valves usually used in the above-described backflow preventer are of the type that a valving element that is movable in the flow direction is urged toward a valve seat by a spring or other urging member. When the backflow preventer is installed in the piping of a water supply system, the relief valve is open in a state where water has not yet been supplied therethrough. Therefore, when the supply of water is started for the first time, the supplied water will be undesirably discharged from the intermediate chamber unless the relief valve is closed before the first check valve opens. Accordingly, a fairly strong spring is used as the spring of the first check valve to prevent the first check valve from immediately opening when the supply of water is started for the first time. In the meantime, the water pressure at the upstream side of the diaphragm is introduced to act on the high-pressure side of the diaphragm, thereby allowing the relief valve to be surely closed before the first check valve opens. Further, the spring of the relief valve is set so that the relief valve is opened when the differential pressure reaches a set value, as has been stated above. Regarding the first check valve, the spring used therefor needs to be set so as to generate a differential pressure that can surely keep the relief valve closed against the spring of the relief valve. During the supply of water, it is also necessary to keep the relief valve closed by a differential pressure between the upstream and downstream sides. Therefore, the first check valve needs to generate a correspondingly large differential pressure. Due to these conditions to be met, considerably large pressure losses are produced in the conventional pressure-reducing backflow preventer.
A booster pump is used to supply water to the upper floors of a building. The pump has to do extra work correspondingly to pressure losses produced by pipes, valves, backflow preventer, etc. connected to the upstream and downstream sides of the pump. A large pressure loss is produced particularly in the first check valve of the backflow preventer, as has been stated above, which places a heavy load on the pump. Accordingly, if pressure losses due to backflow prevention are reduced, the load on the pump can be reduced to a considerable extent, and the power consumption can be reduced.
Standards are provided for backflow preventers. Among them is the pressure difference between the upstream and downstream (i.e. intermediate chamber) sides of the first check valve which will cause the relief valve to open. In this regard, if the pressure loss in the first check valve is reduced, the difference between the primary pressure and the intermediate-chamber pressure during the water supply may become smaller than the specified pressure difference, resulting in the relief valve undesirably opening during the water supply.


A camera of the present invention which is controllable by execution of a program therefor operates in accordance with the control program for controlling the driving of each constituent camera element, the program being one inputted from an external unit. The camera comprises inputting section for inputting the control program consisting of an English character/numeral string, detection section for detecting whether or not the English character/numeral string satisfies specified conditions, symbol-code producing section for producing a symbol code in the case where the English character/numeral string satisfies the specified conditions, memory section for storing, in the form of a set of data, the symbol code an the foremost address of a subroutine used to execute a control instruction represented by the symbol code correspondingly to this symbol code, searching section for searching the foremost address in accordance with the symbol code, and execution section for causing each constituent camera element to operate in accordance with the address searched by the searching section.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera controllable with use of a control program, to which the program for controlling the operation of each camera mechanism is inputted from outside the camera and in which a plurality of operations are successively carried out in accordance with such program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is a camera which has a function to cause each camera mechanism to operate through execution of programmed operations. In this type of camera, it is possible to change the contents of the program by sending from outside the camera to it a program intended to cause performance of operations other than the programmed operations stored in the camera.
The first technique of changing the aforesaid program contents is, as described in Japanese Patent Unexamined SHOWA Publication No. 64-2031 as filed by the applicant of this application to connect an external unit such as a computer to the camera, call a desired one control subroutine from among a plurality of control subroutines stored in a camera memory, and cause execution thereof thereby independently causing execution of the control operation for each camera mechanism.
The second technique intended to serve the same purpose is, as described in Japanese Patent Unexamined HEISEI Publication No. 2-941, to successively call each control subroutine from a plurality of control subroutines stored in a camera memory and cause execution thereof.
By using the above techniques, it is possible to cause execution of a desired subroutine, corresponding to the operation of each camera mechanism, stored in the camera connected to the external unit, in a give sequential order. This makes it easy to analyze a failure of the camera as well as to check the operational state of the camera.
However, since the aforesaid change of the program contents is performed by reading-out or writing-in of a control subroutine, it is necessary that a person who has a high level of knowledge on the flowchart of program, or a repairman who has a similar level of knowledge on the system, performs such change through handling the external unit. For this reason, an ordinary use having no such knowledge is still unable to change the contents of the program.
Further, there exists a problem that even a person having such knowledge fails to cause the camera to operate unless he inputs the address of a control subroutine for an operation of camera desired, by himself, to be performed, with use of predetermined language and in accordance with predetermined procedures.
Accordingly, in the above-described techniques, it was necessary to determine beforehand the sequential order of calling a control subroutine when sequentially calling it, by use of an external unit, from among a plurality of control subroutines stored in a camera memory, so as to prevent the camera from performing an erroneous operation.
Further, in the above-described techniques, when an operator erroneously operates to call a control subroutine in a sequential order causing the camera to perform an abnormal operation, this erroneous operation becomes unavoidable because the camera has no mechanism to check such an erroneous operation. In case of a single lens reflex camera in particular, since the members or elements such as those of a shutter mechanism or mirror wind-up mechanism are connected with each other in a complicated manner, the above-mentioned abnormal operations sometimes destruct, or break, such members or elements inconveniently.

Camera with display for displaying a control operation to be executed


A method of manufacturing a coreless packaging substrate is disclosed. The method can produce a coreless packaging substrate which comprises: at least a built-up structure having a first solder mask and a second solder mask, wherein a plurality of openings are formed in the first and second solder mask to expose the conductive pads of the built-up structure; and a plurality of solder bumps as well as solder layers formed on the conductive pads. Therefore, the invention can produce the coreless packaging substrate with high density of circuit layout, less manufacturing steps, and small size.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method to manufacture a coreless packaging substrate, particularly a method to manufacture a coreless packaging substrate that is applicable to non-through hole structures, to thereby increase density of circuit layout, and streamline manufacture process.
2. Description of Related Art
With the development of the electronic industry, the research is gradually turning to high integration and miniaturization to meet the demands of multi-function, high speed, and high frequency for electronic products. Accordingly in semiconductor packaging, the circuit boards providing circuit connections among active and passive components are evolving from single layer boards to multi-layer boards in order to expand available areas of circuit layout on circuit boards within limited spaces by interlayer connection techniques, so as to accommodate higher wiring density for integrated circuits.
The process of conventional electronic devices proceeds first with providing chip carriers suitable to semiconductor chips, such as substrates or lead frames, then the chip carriers are forwarded to semiconductor packagers to proceed with chip disposing, molding, and ball mounting, etc.; finally, electronic devices having requested functions are produced.
The semiconductor package structures known in the prior art are fabricated by mounting a semiconductor chip on the top of the substrate, followed by wire bonding or flip-chip packaging, and then forming solder balls on the back of the substrate to suffice electrical connections for a printed circuit board. Though high-number leads can be obtained compared with lead frames, usage on higher frequency and operations at higher speed are restricted due to limited performance of the package structure attributed to lacks of both shorter paths of leads due to the core thickness and higher wiring density due to the land width of through holes.
In the method to manufacture a packaging substrate, the whole steps of a conventional technique begins with a core substrate, which is then subjected to drilling, through hole electroplating, hole-plugging, and circuit formation to thereby accomplish an inner layer structure. A multi-layer carrier is then obtained through build-up processes. FIGS. 1A to 1E are schematic illustrations of a prior art. Referring to FIG. 1A, a core substrate 11 is prepared, which is composed of a core layer 111 having a predetermined thickness and a circuit layer 112 formed on the surface thereof. Meanwhile, a plurality of plating through holes 113 are formed in the core layer 111 to thereby electrically connect to the circuit layer 112. Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 1B, the core substrate 11 is subjected to a build-up process. First, a dielectric layer 12 is formed on the core substrate 11 with a plurality of openings 13 corresponding to the circuit layer 112. Then, as shown in FIG. 1C, a seed layer 14 is formed on the surface of the dielectric layer 12 by electroless plating or sputtering, and a patterned resistive layer 15 is formed on the seed layer 14, having a plurality of open areas 150 therein to thereby expose the parts of the seed layer 14. Subsequently as shown in FIG. 1D, a patterned circuit layer 16 and a plurality of conductive vias 13a are formed in the open areas 150 of the resistive layer 15 by electroplating through the seed layer 14, such that the patterned circuit layer 16 is electrically connected to circuit layer 112 through the conductive vias 13a; then the resistive layer 15 is removed and etching is carried out to thereby remove the seed layer 14 covered underneath the resistive layer 15, such that the first built-up structure 10a is formed. Finally, as shown in FIG. 1E, a second built-up structure 10b is formed on the surface of the first built-up structure by repeating the foregoing process, and layers are formed progressively in the same manner to obtain a multi-layer substrate 10.
However, in the process described above, a core substrate is formed by forming circuits on a core layer, followed by a build-up process on the core substrate, thereby forming a multi-layer substrate that complies with the required electrical design. As a result, the thickness of the final multi-layer substrate cannot be reduced, which is unfavorable to the developmental trend of a miniaturized semiconductor package structure. If the thickness of the core substrate is reduced to as thin as 60 μm or less, the manufacture of the multi-layer substrate will be seriously compromised, and the yield from the manufacture of substrate will decrease significantly.
In addition, there are extra steps in the manufacture of the core substrate, such as the hole-plugging and the scrubbing, which elevate the manufacture cost. More importantly, it is necessary to form a plurality of plating through holes in the core substrate; the diameter of the general through hole by drilling is approximately 100 μm or more, while the diameter of the conductive via (laser blind hole) is approximately 50 μm. In comparison, the process of plating through holes makes it more difficult to form a structure with finer circuits.
Moreover, in the process of multi-layer substrate described above, it is required to manufacture a core substrate prior to forming dielectric layers and circuit layers, which consequently complicates the process steps and increases the manufacture time, and raises the manufacture cost as well.
As a result, it is urgent for the industry to avoid the drawbacks of the previous technique, such as the increased thickness of substrate, low wiring density, low yield, complicated process steps, elevated manufacture time and cost.

Method to manufacture a coreless packaging substrate


There is provided a method of manufacturing a transistor, the method comprising: (a) providing a substrate having a semiconductor surface; (b) providing a graphene layer structure on a first portion of the semiconductor surface, wherein the graphene layer structure has a thickness of n graphene monolayers, wherein n is at least 2; (c) etching a first portion of the graphene layer structure to reduce the thickness of the graphene layer structure in said first portion to from n−1 to 1 graphene monolayers; (d) forming a layer of dielectric material on the first portion of the graphene layer structure; and (e) providing: a source contact on a second portion of the graphene layer structure; a gate contact on the layer of dielectric material; and a drain contact on a second portion of the semiconductor surface of the substrate.

Graphene is a well-known material with a plethora of proposed applications driven by the material's theoretical extraordinary properties. Good examples of such properties and applications are detailed in 'The Rise of Graphene' by A. K. Geim and K. S. Novoselev, Nature Materials, Volume 6, 183-191, March 2007 and in the focus issue of Nature Nanotechnology, Volume 9, Issue 10, October 2014.
Graphene is being investigated for a range of potential applications. Most notable is the use of graphene in electronic devices and their constituent components and include transistors, LEDs, photovoltaic cells, Hall-effect sensors, diodes and the like.
However, there remains a need for a method of manufacturing graphene-based transistors that are capable of delivering the potential that graphene offers, at least is terms of its theoretical electronic properties. There remains a need for a method of manufacturing transistors comprising graphene that allow for the production of improved field-effect transistors that have improved electronic properties, both in improved electrical conductivity (with reduced losses such as to heat) as well as improved gate function in the operation of the transistor to provide improved Ion/Ioff ratios.
US 2018/0012962 A1 discloses FET devices having a black phosphorus layered material which is a semiconductor with a direct band gap ranging from about 1.5 eV for a monolayer to 0.59 eV for a five-layer stack (where such a band gap is not present in graphene) for improved switching, and seeks to address problems with contact resistance.
EP 3206232 A1 relates to a FET comprising fluorinated graphene and seeks to overcome problems with known dielectric layers such as SiO2, Al2O3 and graphene oxide.
CN 106952949 A relates to a graphene field effect transistor.


The present disclosure is directed to a system for battery management and protection. A battery protection circuit may include a power semiconductor switch and a control integrated circuit (IC). The battery protection circuit may be configured to regulate the charging and/or discharging of a battery and further prevent the battery from operating outside of a safe operating area based on a protection trip point (e.g. overcurrent detection point) of the protection IC. The protection IC may be configured to calibrate a protection trip point so as to compensate for process and temperature variations of on resistance (RSSon) of the power semiconductor switch.

Various monitoring systems for batteries exist. For example, battery management systems may be configured to manage a battery (cell or battery pack), such as by monitoring the battery state, calculating and reporting secondary data, protecting the battery, controlling the battery's environment, and/or balancing the charge/discharge of the battery. Some battery management systems may monitor the state of the battery as represented by various parameters, including, but not limited to, voltage (e.g. total voltage, voltage of periodic taps or voltages of individual cells), temperature (e.g. average temperature, coolant intake temperature, coolant output temperature or temperatures of individual cells), state of charge (SOC) or depth of discharge (DOD) to indicate the charge level of the battery and current in and/or out of the battery.
Some battery management systems include protection mechanisms configured to prevent the battery from operating outside of a predefined safe operating area. Battery protection mechanisms have become increasingly important, particularly as technology has advanced and many everyday consumer products rely on rechargeable batteries, such as, for example, lithium ion batteries, for power. If a lithium ion battery, for example, overcharges, strong exothermic reactions are possible and the potential for causing a fire increases, presenting a dangerous condition for the user.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

System for battery management and protection


A manifold apparatus, system and method for thermally controlling a substrate whereby a manifold body having a microjet array and a drain array traversing there-through in a direction orthogonal to a substrate surface and parallel to each other is attached to the substrate surface for heating or cooling thereof. A cavity of the manifold body resides over the substrate surface such that liquid is emitted from the liquid microjets into the cavity for contact with the substrate surface, while the drains orthogonally remove spent liquid from the cavity. The manifold body is designed and configured into a plurality of cooling cells, whereby each cooling cell has a liquid microjet surrounded by at least three drains for preventing interactions between adjacent liquid microjets within adjacent cooling cells. Gas microjets may also traverse through the manifold body to form an atomized liquid spray for contact with the substrate surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic devices, and in particular, to a cooling structure for transferring heat out of electronic components and methods of manufacturing such cooling structure.
2. Description of Related Art
Modern electronic devices often employ chips having increased power densities due to the continually increasing transistor densities, chip operating frequencies and current leakages. However, current cooling structures and capabilities are generally not scalable to meet the demands of these increased power densities.
Conventional thermal technologies for cooling electronic devices include the use of heat spreaders, heat sinks, and associated thermal interfaces. However, these conventional technologies are insufficient for cooling electronic devices when the cooling fluid thermal budget is small. Conventional cooling technologies are also insufficient for cooling electronic devices having high average power flux, and/or high local power flux (hot spots), such as those having average power flux above 200 W/cm2 and even very high average power flux exceeding 400 W/cm2. For instance, in electronic devices having such high average power flux, a high power hot spot may dissipate 300 to 500 W/cm2, while a very high power hot spot may dissipate more than 500 W/cm2. Under such processing conditions, if the cooling method is primarily based on a heat conduction mechanism, the power flux will be sufficiently large such that it generates significant thermal gradients along the cooling axis.
In these high power flux situations that generate significant thermal gradients along the cooling axis, acceptable cooling techniques typically require the use of single phase fast forced convection and/or two phase evaporation based devices with a circulating fluid. However, higher cooling solutions often require higher fluid flow rates which result in an increase in pressure drop on the cooler. Yet, known cooling solutions based on a circulating fluid have a maximum operating pressure for preventing fluid leakage and/or mechanical damage to the system. Thus, in both cases, the extendibility of known cooling solutions is deleteriously limited by the pressure drop required to operate the cooler in high power flux situations.
For instance, FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art heating/cooling device 5 that includes a cluster or array of fluid jets 11 impinging orthogonally on a surface 7 of an electronic component 9, such as a semiconductor chip, and a lateral drain 12 for removing the spent fluid. The fluid jet array 11 provides a high heat transfer rate when used to heat or cool the surface 7, as compared to conventional convection heating and/or cooling processes.
In this scenario, the high kinetic energy of the array of fluid jets 11 provides fresh jet fluid in close proximity to surface 7 in the region directly below the array of jets, generally at the center of the electronic component, thereby enabling high heating or cooling rates at such regions. However, this high heating/cooling transfer rate decreases rapidly in areas of surface 7 not residing directly below the surface area impinged by the jet fluid. This undesirably results in uneven cooling across the surface of the electronic component, particularly from the center to the edge of the electronic component.
These conventional heating/cooling devices that employ a cluster of fluid jets in combination with the lateral drain 12 are also insufficient for cooling high power flux situations due to the lack of proper spent fluid drainage. These lateral drains remove the spent fluid in a radial flow pattern away from a fluid jet at the center of the surface. In so doing, the drain velocity increases approximately linearly with the number of fluid jet rows encountered from the central jet row(s) to the fluid drain outlet located at the periphery of such jet array, thereby reaching a maximum velocity at such periphery.
These types of conventional fluid jet arrays are also impractical for cooling high power flux situations due to their structural designs. Conventional single-phase jet array structural designs limit the drain velocity such that it does not exceed 50% of the fluid jet array velocity. Drain velocities above 50% of the fluid jet array velocity undesirably force the fluid jets to move away from the desired orthogonal orientation, thereby reducing the heat transfer rate by more than 20% relative to the heat transfer rate of a fully orthogonally oriented jet. This problem increases significantly in two-phase coolers, where the gas phase volumetric flow can be up to three orders of magnitude larger than the liquid flow.
The thermal performance of prior art fluid jet arrays has been studied extensively, both theoretically and experimentally, particularly those having high jet Reynolds numbers, e.g., jet Reynolds numbers over 2000. In so doing, it has been found that high jet Reynolds numbers, along with optimization of the fluid jet array, can maximize the thermal performance of a given jet cluster geometry. However, such high jet Reynolds numbers can also undesirably result in a large pressure drop on the cooling device, thereby rendering it useless for its intended purpose.
Further, in conventional fluid jet arrays of current cooling/heating devices, an evaluation of the thermal performance thereof. Indicates that the heat transfer coefficient increases with decreasing jet diameter. However, existing optimization guidelines for current fluid jet arrays requires well-defined jet pitch and gap height (i.e., spacing between the jet array and the target surface) to maximize heat transfer rates. This, often requires fluid jet diameters as small as feasible, with a maximum jet velocity limited by keeping the cooler total pressure drop below a given practical limit, for example 10 psig, and operating as close to the surface as required by the geometric optimization algorithm.
Unfortunately, these parameters critically limit conventional fluid jets to have fewer than approximately 200 individual jets if a relatively uniform and high heat transfer rate is desired. For example, to maximize the cooling capability of a high power silicon chip with a hot surface area of 400 mm2 using a conventional cooling device, the cooling device should have 196 fluid jets with a minimum jet pitch of about 1400 microns, jet diameter of 400 microns or more, and minimum gap height of 1600 microns. Any deviations to smaller dimensions will undesirably result in lower thermal performance, thereby resulting in insufficient cooling of the chip. Further, using these conventional devices, cooling is undesirably varied across the surface of the chip. For instance, if the coolant is water with an inlet temperature of 22° C. and average jet velocity of 2 m/s, and the chip has a thickness of about 0.75 mm with a maximum junction temperature at 85° C., then the maximum average heat flux capability of the cooling/heating device at the chip center is approximately 170 W/cm2, while this capability will get reduced to less than 135 W/cm2 at the chip edge.
Accordingly, a need exists for improved methods of maximizing the heat transfer rate of fluid jet arrays for cooling, or heating, components having high power flux, which generates significant thermal gradients along the targeted surface.

High performance integrated MLC cooling device for high power density ICS and method for manufacturing

International Business Machines Corporation


A method and apparatus is provided for stabilizing output beam parameters of a gas discharge laser by maintaining a constituent gas of the laser gas mixture at a predetermined partial pressure using a gas supply unit and a processor. The constituent gas of the laser gas mixture is provided at an initial partial pressure and the constituent gas is subject to depletion within the laser discharge chamber. A parameter such as time, pulse count, driving voltage for maintaining a constant laser beam output energy, pulse shape, pulse duration, pulse stability, beam profile, bandwidth of the laser beam, temporal or spatial coherence, discharge width, or a combination thereof, which varies with a known correspondence to the partial pressure of the constituent gas is monitored. Injections of the constituent gas are performed each to increase the partial pressure by a selected amount in the discharge chamber. A number of successive injections is performed at selected intervals to maintain the constituent gas substantially at the initial partial pressure for maintaining stable output beam parameters.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for stabilizing output beam parameters of a gas discharge laser. More particularly, the present invention relates to maintaining an optimal gas mixture composition over long, continuous operating or static periods using very small gas injections.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Pulsed gas discharge lasers such as excimer and molecular lasers emitting in the deep ultraviolet (DUV) or vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) have become very important for industrial applications such as photolithography. Such lasers generally include a discharge chamber containing two or more gases such as a halogen and one or two rare gases. KrF (248 nm), ArF (193 nm), XeF (350 nm), KrCl (222 nm), XeCl (308 nm), and F2 (157 nm) lasers are examples.
The efficiencies of excitation of the gas mixtures and various parameters of the output beams of these lasers vary sensitively with the compositions of their gas mixtures. An optimal gas mixture composition for a KrF laser has preferred gas mixture component ratios around 0.1% F2 /1% Kr/98,9% Ne (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,393,505, which is assigned to the same assignee as the present application and is hereby incorporated by reference into the present application). A F2 laser may have a gas component ratio around 0.1% F2/99.9% Ne (see U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/317,526, which is assigned to the same assignee as the present application and is hereby incorporated by reference into the present application). Small amounts of Xe may be added to rare gas halide gas mixtures, as well (see R. S. Taylor and K. E. Leopold, Transmission Properties of Spark Preionization Radiation in Rare-Gas Hailde Laser Gas Mixes, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, pp. 2195-2207, vol. 31, no. 12 (December. 1995). Any deviation from the optimum gas compositions of these or other excimer or molecular lasers would typically result in instabilities or reductions from optimal of one or more output beam parameters such as beam energy, energy stability, temporal pulse width, temporal coherence, spatial coherence, discharge width, bandwidth, and long and short axial beam profiles and divergences.
Especially important in this regard is the concentration (or partial pressure) of the halogen, e.g., F2, in the gas mixture. The depletion of the rare gases, e.g., Kr and Ne for a KrF laser, is low in comparison to that for the F2. FIG. 1 shows laser output efficiency versus F2 concentration for a KrF laser, showing a decreasing output efficiency away from a central maximum. FIG. 2 shows how the temporal pulse width (pulse length or duration) of KrF laser pulses decrease with increasing F2 concentration. FIGS. 3-4 show the dependence of output energy on driving voltage (i.e., of the discharge circuit) for various F2 concentrations of a F2 laser. It is observed from FIGS. 3-4 that for any given driving voltage, the pulse energy decreases with decreasing F2 concentration. In FIG. 3, for example, at 1.9 kV, the pulse energies are around 13 mJ, 11 mJ and 10 mJ for F2 partial pressures of 3.46 mbar, 3.16 mbar and 2.86 mbar, respectively. The legend in FIG. 3 indicates the partial pressures of two premixes, i.e., premix A and premix B, that are filled into the discharge chamber of a KrF laser. Premix A comprised substantially 1% F2 and 99% Ne, and premix B comprised substantially 1% Kr and 99% Ne. Therefore, for the graph indicated by triangular data points, a partial pressure of 346 mbar for premix A indicates that the gas mixture had substantially 3.46 mbar of F2 and a partial pressure of 3200 mbar for premix B indicates that the gas mixture had substantially 32 mbar of Kr, the remainder of the gas mixture being the buffer gas Ne. FIG. 5 shows a steadily increasing bandwidth of a KrF laser with increasing F2 concentration.
In industrial applications, it is advantageous to have an excimer or molecular fluorine laser capable of operating continuously for long periods of time, i.e., having minimal downtime. It is desired to have an excimer or molecular laser capable of running non-stop year round, or at least having a minimal number and duration of down time periods for scheduled maintenance, while maintaining constant output beam parameters. Uptimes of, e.g., greater than 98% require precise control and stabilization of output beam parameters, which in turn require precise control of the composition of the gas mixture.
Unfortunately, gas contamination occurs during operation of excimer and molecular fluorine lasers due to the aggressive nature of the fluorine or chlorine in the gas mixture. The halogen gas is highly reactive and its concentration in the gas mixture decreases as it reacts, leaving traces of contaminants. The halogen gas reacts with materials of the discharge chamber or tube as well as with other gases in the mixture. Moreover, the reactions take place and the gas mixture degrades whether the laser is operating (discharging) or not. The passive or static gas (i.e., when the laser is not discharging, or operating) lifetime is about one week for a typical KrF-laser.
During operation of a KrF-excimer laser, such contaminants as HF, CF4, COF2, SiF4 have been observed to increase in concentration rapidly (see G. M. Jurisch et al., Gas Contaminant Effects in Discharge-Excited KrF Lasers, Applied Optics, Vol. 31, No. 12, pp. 1975-1981 (Apr. 20, 1992)) For a static KrF laser gas mixture, i.e., with no discharge running, increases in the concentrations of HF, O2, CO2 and SiF4 have been observed (see Jurisch et al., above).
One way to effectively reduce this gas degradation is by reducing or eliminating contamination sources within the laser discharge chamber. With this in mind, an all metal, ceramic laser tube has been disclosed (see D. Basting et al., Laserrohr fxc3xcr halogenhaltige Gasentladungslaserxe2x80x9d G 295 20 280.1, Jan. 25, 1995/Apr. 18, 1996 (disclosing the Lambda Physik Novatube, and hereby incorporated by reference into the present application)). FIG. 6 qualitatively illustrates how using a tube comprising materials that are more resistant to halogen erosion (plot B) can slow the reduction of F2 concentration in the gas mixture compared to using a tube which is not resistant to halogen erosion (plot A). The F2 concentration is shown in plot A to decrease to about 60% of its initial value after about 70 million pulses, whereas the F2 concentration is shown in plot B to decrease only to about 80% of its initial value after the same number of pulses. Gas purification systems, such as cryogenic gas filters (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,034) or electrostatic particle filters (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,134) are also being used to extend KrF laser gas lifetimes to 100 million shots before a new fill is advisable.
It is not easy to directly measure the halogen concentration within the laser tube for making rapid online adjustments (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,149,659 (disclosing monitoring chemical reactions in the gas mixture)). Therefore, it is recognized in the present invention that an advantageous method applicable to industrial laser systems includes using a known relationship between F2 concentration and a laser parameter, such as one of the F2 concentration dependent output beam parameters mentioned above. In such a method, precise values of the parameter would be directly measured, and the F2 concentration would be calculated from those values. In this way, the F2 concentration may be indirectly monitored.
Methods have been disclosed for indirectly monitoring halogen depletion in a narrow band excimer laser by monitoring beam profile (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,374) and spectral (band) width (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,436). Neither of these methods is particularly reliable, however, since beam profile and bandwidth are each influenced by various other operation conditions such as repetition rate, tuning accuracy, thermal conditions and aging of the laser tube. That is, the same bandwidth can be generated by different gas compositions depending on these other operating conditions.
It is known to compensate the degradation in laser efficiency due to halogen depletion by steadily increasing the driving voltage of the discharge circuit to maintain the output beam at constant energy. To illustrate this, FIG. 7 shows how at constant driving voltage, the energy of output laser pulses decreases with pulse count. FIG. 8 then shows how the driving voltage may be steadily increased to compensate the halogen depletion and thereby produce output pulses of constant energy.
One drawback of this approach is that output beam parameters other than energy such as those discussed above with respect to FIGS. 1-5 affected by the gas mixture degradation will not be correspondingly corrected by steadily increasing the driving voltage. FIGS. 9-11 illustrate this point showing the driving voltage dependencies, respectively, of the long and short axis beam profiles, short axis beam divergence and energy stability sigma. Moreover, at some point the halogen becomes so depleted that the driving voltage reaches its maximum value and the pulse energy cannot be maintained without refreshing the gas mixture.
It is desired to have a method of stabilizing all of the output parameters affected by halogen depletion and not just the energy of output pulses. It is recognized in the present invention that this is most advantageously achieved by adjusting the halogen and rare gas concentrations themselves.
There are techniques available for replenishing a gas mixture by injecting additional rare and halogen gases into the discharge chamber and readjusting the gas pressure (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,514). A more complex system monitors gas mixture degradation and readjusts the gas mixture using selective replenishment algorithms for each gas of the gas mixture (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,578). A third technique uses an expert system including a database of information and graphs corresponding to different gas mixtures and laser operating conditions (see U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/167,653, assigned to the same assignee as the present application and hereby incorporated by reference into the present application). A data set of driving voltage versus output pulse energy, e.g., is measured and compared to a stored xe2x80x9cmasterxe2x80x9d data set corresponding to an optimal gas composition such as may be present in the discharge chamber after a new fill. From a comparison of values of the data sets and/or the slopes of graphs generated from the data sets, a present gas mixture status and appropriate gas replenishment procedures, if any, may be determined and undertaken to reoptimize the gas mixture. Some gas replenishment procedures are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,977,573, which is assigned to the same assignee as the present application and is hereby incorporated by reference into the present application.
All of these techniques generally produce undesirable disturbances in laser operation conditions when the gas is replenished. For example, strong pronounced jumps of the driving voltage are produced as a result of halogen injections (HI) as illustrated in FIG. 12. The result is a strong distortion of meaningful output beam parameters such as the pulse-to-pulse stability. For this reason, the laser is typically shut down and restarted for gas replenishment, remarkably reducing laser uptime (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,436).
It is an object of the invention to provide an excimer or molecular laser system, wherein the gas mixture status may be precisely and periodically determined and smoothly adjusted.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a technique which automatically compensates gas mixture degradation without disturbing laser operation conditions when the gas is replenished.
It is another object of the invention to provide an excimer or molecular laser system capable of running continuously while maintaining constant output beam parameters.
A gas discharge laser system is provided to meet the above objects which has a discharge chamber containing a first gas mixture including a constituent gas, a pair of electrodes connected to a power supply circuit including a driving voltage for energizing the first gas mixture, and a resonator surrounding the discharge chamber for generating a laser beam. A gas supply unit is connected to the discharge chamber for replenishing the first gas mixture including the constituent gas. The gas supply unit includes a gas inlet port having a valve for permitting a second gas mixture to inject into the discharge chamber to mix with the first gas mixture therein. A processor monitors a parameter indicative of the partial pressure of the constituent gas and controls the valve at successive predetermined intervals to compensate a degradation of the constituent gas in the first gas mixture. The pressure of the first gas mixture is increased by an amount between 0.01 and 10 mbar, and preferably between 0.1 and 1 or 2 mbar, as a result of each successive injection. The second gas mixture preferably comprises 1% of the first constituent gas, preferably a halogen containing species, and 99% buffer gas, so that the partial pressure of the constituent gas in the discharge chamber increases by between 0.0001 and 0.1 mbar, and preferably between 0.001 and 0.01 or 0.02 mbar, as a result of each successive injection. The processor monitors the parameter indicative of the partial pressure of the constituent gas wherein the parameter varies with a known correspondence to the partial pressure of the constituent gas. The small gas injections each produce only small variations in partial pressure of the constituent gas in the first gas mixture, and thus discontinuities in laser output beam parameters are reduced or altogether avoided.
A method is also provided for stabilizing laser output by maintaining a constituent gas of the laser gas mixture at a predetermined partial pressure within the discharge chamber of the gas discharge laser using a gas supply unit and a processor. The method begins with providing a laser gas mixture including a constituent gas at an initial partial pressure which is subject to depletion within the discharge chamber. Next, a parameter which varies with a known correspondence to the partial pressure of the constituent gas is monitored. A value of the parameter corresponding to a selected partial pressure or partial pressure reduction of the constituent gas is selected and injections of the constituent gas, or a gas mixture including the constituent gas, are performed when predetermined values or changes in value of that parameter are measured. The gas pressure within the discharge chamber is increased by between 0.01 and 10 mbar, or preferably between 0.1 and 1 or 2 mbar, with each injection, when a gas mixture including around 1% of the constituent gas is injected. The constituent gas partial pressure increases by between 0.0001 and 0.1 mbar, or preferably between 0.001 and 0.01 and 0.02 mbar, with each injection. The injections are performed at intervals sufficient to maintain or return the constituent gas substantially at or to the initial partial pressure within the laser gas mixture.
The constituent gas is typically a halogen containing species such as fluorine or hydrogen chloride. The constituent gas may be an active rare gas or gas additive. The monitored parameter is preferably selected from the group including time, pulse count, total accumulated energy input to the discharge, driving voltage for maintaining a constant laser beam output energy, pulse shape, pulse duration, pulse stability, beam profile, bandwidth of the laser beam, energy stability, moving average energy close, temporal pulse width, temporal coherence, spatial coherence, discharge width, and long and short axial beam profiles and divergences, or a combination thereof. Each of these parameters varies with a known correspondence to the partial pressure of the halogen, and that halogen partial pressure is then precisely controlled using the small gas injections to provide stable output beam parameters.
In the present invention, the gas supply unit preferably includes a small gas reservoir for storing the constituent gas or second gas mixture prior to being injected into the discharge chamber (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,514, which is assigned to the same assignee as the present application and is hereby incorporated by reference into the present application, for a general description of how such a gas reservoir may be used). The reservoir may be the volume of the valve assembly or an additional accumulator. The accumulator is advantageous for controlling the amount of the gas to be injected. The pressure and volume of the second gas mixture are selected so that the pressure in the discharge chamber will increase by a predetermined amount less than 10 mbar, and preferably between 0.1 and 2 mbar, with each injection. These preferred second gas mixture partial pressures may be varied depending on the percentage concentration of the halogen containing species in the second gas mixture.
Injections may be continuously performed during operation of the laser in selected amounts and at selected small intervals. Alternatively, a series of injections may be performed at small intervals followed by periods wherein no injections are performed. The series of injections followed by the latent period would then be repeated at predetermined larger intervals.

Method and procedure to automatically stabilize excimer laser output parameters


A distributed wireless phase locked loop system for synchronizing the transmit carrier's modulating waveform, such as the transmitter pulse timing in a pulsed EAS system and the transmit sweeping function for swept RF synchronization, is provided. To remove the effect of phase noise on the power line signal, a phase locked loop is used to filter this signal. The filtered output is used as a reference to a second phase locked loop tied to a numerically controlled oscillator and the received signal to provide a distributed phase looked loop algorithm that is wireless, and automatically synchronizes adjacent EAS systems.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the operation of multiple electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems, and more particularly the wireless synchronization of EAS systems operating in the same vicinity of each other.
2. Description of the Related Art
EAS systems in close proximity often must be carefully synchronized to avoid adverse interactions. There are several different levels of synchronization possible. The transmitter's carrier oscillator can be synchronized, or the transmitter's modulating waveform can be synchronized. In more complex systems, such as those sold by Sensormatic Electronics Corporation under the trademark ULTRA*MAX, the transmitter configuration sequence can be synchronized between multiple systems.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,201,469, issued Mar. 13, 2001, by Sensormatic Electronics Corporation, covers synchronization of the transmitter configuration sequence. Synchronizing the transmitter sequence is important for EAS systems that are in very close proximity to each other such that their interrogation zones overlap. As disclosed in that application, the transmit burst timing is tied directly to the power line zero crossing function, for which the phase is manually adjusted.
There is a need for synchronizing the transmit carrier's modulating waveform for EAS systems in close proximity, even if their interrogation zones are not overlapping. In swept RF systems this means synchronizing the sweeping function between multiple transmitters. In pulsed systems, such as ULTRA*MAX, this means synchronizing the transmitter pulse function between multiple systems.
Pulsed EAS systems positioned within hundreds of feet of one another must have their transmit burst timing precisely aligned or the transmitters will interfere with one another's receivers, decreasing sensitivity or causing false alarms. In prior systems this has been accomplished by using the three phases of the power line for synchronization. Each system is plugged into the 60 (or 50) hertz power system, which is divided into three phases. Each phase is a sinusoidal function nominally offset from one another by 1/180 of a second (or 1/150 of a second for 50 hertz systems) apart. The zero crossing of the power line is used as a timing reference, assuming that this 1/180 second separation is correct. However, due to variations of loading conditions across the three phases of the power line, often they are not exactly spaced 1/180 seconds apart. This causes the systems to interfere with each other, which in turn causes a service call to local technicians. The technicians must come and manually adjust the timing of the systems. If loading conditions on the power lines change, the process repeats itself at great expense to the company.
Another problem with using the power line as a timing reference is that the power line is not necessarily sufficiently stable. In particular, the zero crossing has a significant amount of phase noise. This phase noise is translated directly to timing jitter on the system transmitters. Since the phase noise on the three line phases may not be correlated, the jitter experienced by multiple systems compounds the problem.
In swept RF systems whose interrogation zones overlap, interference of the two transmit signals can cause decreased performance. In the worst case, one transmitter may be sweeping low while the other is high, and visa versa. The envelope of the two transmitters (i.e., the carrier's modulating function) must be synchronized for best performance.
Synchronization of adjacent EAS systems can be accomplished by hardwiring the systems so that timing of each EAS system can be precisely controlled. Hardwiring of adjacent EAS systems is not always feasible or cost effective. Manual adjustment coupled to and power line zero crossings include the limitations described hereinabove. A wireless, automatic method of synchronizing the transmit carrier's modulating waveform for an EAS system is needed.

Automatic wireless synchronization of electronic article surveillance systems