Methods and apparatus (7) for monitoring the tension (17) and pinch force (19) associated with the contact of angled stub rollers (91) with a glass ribbon (23) are provided. The apparatus (7) includes a support member (39) which supports the shaft (13) of the stub roller (91). The support member (39) undergoes linear displacement (45) in response to tension (17) in the glass ribbon (23) and rotation (59) in response to a pinch force (19). The linear displacement (45) and rotation (59) are detected and converted to force values by a calibration procedure. By monitoring these forces, glass attributes such as residual stress can be improved which is of importance in glass sheets used in such applications as the manufacture of liquid crystal displays.

Glass ribbons are produced in various downdraw glass manufacturing processes, e.g., the fusion downdraw process, as well as in the float process. The tension in the ribbon and, in particular, the across-the-ribbon tension, is important in controlling the flatness of the ribbon as well as the residual stress in individual glass sheets produced from the ribbon. The across-the-ribbon tension can be controlled by, for example, contacting the surface of the ribbon with rollers oriented at an angle to the direction of motion of the ribbon (referred to herein as "stub rollers" or "stub rolls"). Such rollers stabilize the ribbon and apply a tension force to the ribbon in the across-the-ribbon direction, as well as a "pinch" force in a direction normal to the surface of the ribbon.
Prior to the present disclosure, there has been no known method of monitoring the forces exerted on the ribbon by such rollers. The present disclosure provides methods and apparatus for monitoring these forces in real time without adversely affecting the glass forming process. The data provided by these methods and apparatus can, for example, be used to provide feedback to process engineers so that adjustments can be made to the forming process, including adjustments that result in improved glass attributes, e.g., lower residual stress levels.


A collet chuck for holding a tool or workpiece on a spindle of a machine tool. The collet chuck has a hollow collet mount having a rear end to be attached to the spindle. A plurality of radially disposed holes extending from the exterior surface to the interior surface of the collet mount. A cam surface is disposed adjacent the front end on the interior surface. The chuck also has a two-piece, tubular collet with a collet cam adjacent the front end on the exterior surface for interacting with the cam surface of the collet mount. The two-piece collet comprises a collet head with an annular groove adjacent the rear end and a hook portion between the rear end and the groove, and a collet body with a flange portion at its front end. The flange portion of the collet body engages the hook and groove of the collet head. A slot associated with each radially disposed hole is provided in the collet body. The collet body has a draw bar adapter which is threaded to the draw bar mechanism of the spindle in such a way as to limit the stroke length of the collet. A stop member is disposed inside the tubular collet at a clearance from the interior surface of the collet. A pin passes through each radially disposed hole and associated slot and is fixed to the stop. A spring corresponding to each pin is provided for biasing the pin toward the rear of the collet mount. Screws are provided for adjusting the tension of the spring. When the collet is displaced, the collet cam interacts with the cam surface on the collet mount to close the collet, but the displacement of the collet does not affect the axial position of the stop.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a collet chuck for holding a tool or workpiece on the spindle of a machine tool. More particularly, the present invention relates to a collet chuck having a dead length work stop.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Collets are sleeves or collars used in various machine tools such as lathes for clamping or gripping workpieces or tools. Collets have conical surfaces or cams, which, when the collet is pulled back, interact with corresponding, opposing surfaces or cams on a mounting fixture or on the spindle. This interaction causes the collet to contract or expand to grasp or release a work piece or tool, depending on the direction of movement. Collet chucks have commonly been used in machine tools in place of other types of chucks. Collet chucks are typically more accurate and have a greater gripping characteristic than a typical jaw chuck, for example. An advantage of collets is that they continue to grasp the workpiece or tool even at high rotational speeds when jaw chucks would have a tendency to loosen their grip due to centrifugal force.
One problem encountered with collet chucks is that slight variations in the diameter of the workpiece or stock could cause the collet to position the workpiece differently. When and where a collet will grasp a work piece depends on the difference in diameter between the open collet and the diameter of the workpiece. Precise workpiece diameter is therefore required if the workpiece is to be positioned precisely and consistently in machining operations such as facing, side finishing or cutting to precise lengths.
Dead length stops of different kinds have been proposed in the art to solve the problem of workpiece positioning with machine collets. One such work stop is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,505,487 to Davignon et al. The work stop described in this patent comprises a number of fins radiating from the body of the stop in between the slots or segments of the collet. The fins serve to engage the inside of the spindle and therefore fix the stop in a given position. This structure has the disadvantage that it works inside of the spindle to fix the stop. Such a structure, while it may serve to provide a dead stop for a workpiece, is not capable of being incorporated into a collet chuck that can easily replace a normal chuck on a lathe. In other words, it can only be mounted inside the spindle in a lathe or other machine tool that is dedicated to the use of collet chucks.
A collet assembly capable of being mounted in front of the spindle in the manner of a jaw chuck is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,096,213 to Terwilliger et al. The assembly disclosed in this patent comprises a two-part collet having a collet head and a collet body. The collet head has a conical outer surface at its front end that interacts with a corresponding cam, on the collet mount, and an inside surface for gripping the workpiece. A flange portion at the front end of the collet body engages a hook and groove portion of the collet head, so that if the stroke of the collet exceeds a certain amount. As often happens when the chuck is mistakenly closed without a workpiece in place, the flange of the body "pops" out of the groove, possibly resulting in damage to the collet chuck assembly. This assembly has the disadvantage that there is no way of limiting the stroke of the collet before the flange pops out.
A collet chuck having a dead length stop is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,484 to Sandwick. The disclosed collet chuck has an outer collet body capable of being connected to the spindle of a lathe. A slotted collet, having gripping surfaces on the radially inward portion of the front end and cams on the radially outward portion of this end, is disposed inside the outer collet body. The collet closes in a conventional manner when it is pulled back by a tubular chuck actuating element. The cams of the collet then interact with an external flange at the front end of the outer collet body. The dead length stop is formed by a ring portion which is located radially inward of the collet and has a certain clearance from the collet. The ring is threaded around a cup-like stop. Centering pins, which are threaded into holes in the outer collet body, hold the ring and cup stop in place. The pins are located between the slots of the collet and therefore do not interfere with the functioning of the collet. The position of the stop can be adjusted by turning the externally-threaded cup stop relative to the ring until the stop reaches a desired axial position. A second, rod-like work stop is threaded into the cup-like stop at the axis of rotation and can be positioned independently of the cup stop.
There are, however, certain disadvantages of the above-described collet chuck. Firstly, there is nothing within the chuck itself to limit the stroke of the collet, and excessive stroke will result in damage to the collet. Secondly, variations during manufacture of such collet assemblies result in clearances which could cause the stop to migrate during a machining operation and result in slight variations in the length of pieces machined using this type of collet stop. Also, variations in the machining of the chuck itself can not be compensated for because the pins that position the stop threadedly engage the outer collet body.
In view of the above problems with the prior art collet chucks, it is an object of the present invention to provide a collet chuck that can be readily adapted for use with machine tools in which conventional jaw chucks are also used.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a collet chuck in which the length of the workpiece is determined independently of variations in diameter of the workpiece.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a collet chuck in which the work stop is adjusted independently of the collet.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a collet chuck in which the stroke of the collet can be limited to prevent damage to the collet.
It also is an object of the present invention to provide a collet chuck with a dead length workstop in which variations in the manufacture of the collet and stop do not affect the accuracy of the length of workpieces obtained using the chuck.


A parallel processing logic circuit for sensor signal processing includes sensors and processing units. The sensor and the processing unit are integrated in the same pixel and arranged in a matrix. The processing unit contains a logic structure that consists of a register and a combinational logic function to execute pixel-parallel processing, based on binary data for a sensor, other processing units, and itself. The combinational logic function performs only a predetermined logic function and its dual one exclusively, thereby sharing the circuit resource and reducing the size of the processing unit. The register focusing on compactness also contributes to the small unit.

The present invention relates to a parallel processing logic circuit for sensor signal processing, which parallelly processes outputs from a plurality of sensors laid out in a rectangular grid using a plurality of processing units corresponding to the sensors.
As shown in FIG. 76A, a system that consists of a pixel array 101 in which a plurality of pixels 110 each having a sensor for detecting light or a three-dimensional pattern on an object surface are laid out in a matrix, a controller 102 for controlling the pixel array 101, and a memory 103 which stores a control program has been proposed. The system reads an image or the surface shape of an object and processes the image.
As an example of the system, a fingerprint identification system matches a fingerprint image acquired by the sensors in the pixel array 101 with a template image stored in the array in advance, thereby authenticating a person. If a deviation from an ideal pattern, such as noise or local intensity variation, is contained in the acquired fingerprint image, the accuracy of matching with the registered image degrades. To prevent this, preprocessing of removing noise or local intensity variation from the acquired image and then matching it with the template image is necessary.
This preprocessing can be executed by two methods: 1) the acquired image is temporarily read out from the pixel array 101 and sequentially processed by a general-purpose microprocessor, and 2) the image is processed in parallel by processing units 110p, each of which is integrated in a pixel 110, as shown in FIG. 76B.
In method 1), it takes a long time to read out image data from the pixel array 101 to sequentially process the data by the external microprocessor. In addition, the power consumption of the microprocessor increases when the operating frequency is raised to accelerate the processing.
To the contrary, method 2) uses parallel processing. For this reason, processing can be executed in short steps. Since the processing speed need not be increased by raising the operation frequency, unlike method 1), power consumption does not increase. In addition, since the sampled fingerprint image need not be read out from the pixel array 101, any leakage of personal information can be prevented, and the privacy is secured.
When method 2) is employed, a general-purpose microprocessor has conventionally been used as the processing unit 110p integrated in each pixel 110. This microprocessor has a logic operation block with multiple functions and a storage circuit having a sufficient capacity. So, various image processing are possible. However, it is difficult to increase the resolution of image processing since the microprocessor occupies a large area because of the high functionality. Especially, when the feature length of an image pattern such as a fingerprint is fixed, the pixel size must be equal to or less than a predetermined value (about 50 μm or less) to obtain a resolution that reflects the feature length. In the conventional scheme, the size cannot be achieved.

Parallel processing logic circuit for sensor signal processing

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation


The present invention discloses an oral preparation of dyclonine hydrochloride for the endoscopic examination in upper gastrointestinal tract, which has the effects of anesthetization and lubrication, and an oral preparation comprising dyclonine hydrochloride that has the advantages of avoiding foam in the body cavity, preventing vomiting, and offering a clear view. The preparation of the present invention comprises, as main ingredients, 0.2%-3% weight percent of dyclonine hydrochloride, 1%-12% weight percent of polyvinyl alcohol, 1%-10% volume percent of glycerin, 1%-10% volume percent of a defoaming agent, and a balance of a pharmaceutically acceptable adjuvant. The viscosity of the preparation is in a range of 30 to 300 mpa·s and the pH value is in a range of 2.0 to 8.0.

Currently, a barium meal or Lidocaine Hydrochloride Mucilage is generally used when the endoscope examination in alimentary tract is performed clinically. While the barium meal is used for the endoscope examination in alimentary tract, patients are quite painful. Additionally the view is unclear, it is inconvenient for the physician to operate, which would cause a prolonged operation and increased pain of the patients. While Lidocaine Hydrochloride Mucilage, a local anesthetic, is used for the endoscope examination in upper gastrointestinal tract, lidocaine hydrochloride has a surface anaesthetization effect, alleviating the pain of the patients. However, Lidocaine Hydrochloride Mucilage has no effect of lubrication, which could not facilitate the inserting of an endoscope, avoid the foam in the body cavity, prevent vomit, or offer a clear view, which causes inconvenience in its clinical use. Therefore, there is a need for a preparation used for the clinical endoscope examination in alimentary tract, which should have not only an anaesthetization effect on the surface of the mucous membrane but also a lubrication effect, facilitate the inserting of an endoscope, avoid the foam in the body cavity, prevents vomit, and offers a clear view.

Oral preparation of dyclonine hydrochloride

Yangtze River Pharmaceutical (Group) Co., Ltd.


A parallel-to-serial conversion circuit for converting pieces of parallel data into serial data, and a parallel-to-serial converting method thereof include: a shifter configured to sequentially shift an initiation signal to generate a plurality of transfer activation signals; a valid duration generator configured to define valid durations of the plurality of pieces of parallel data based on a clock and the plurality of transfer activation signals; and an output unit configured to receive the plurality of pieces of parallel data whose valid duration has been defined and to drive an output in response to a piece of data from among the received parallel data whose valid duration has begun.

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a parallel-to-serial conversion circuit for converting parallel data into serial data, and a parallel-to-serial converting method thereof.
Demands for high-speed operation of a semiconductor memory device are increasing day by day, but there are physical limitations in shortening the access time of a core region of the semiconductor memory device, which is a memory cell array region. Semiconductor memory devices overcome the physical limitations of the core region by processing data in parallel internally and serializing the parallel data when the data are inputted or outputted so that data can be inputted and outputted at a high speed. To this end, semiconductor memory devices are equipped with a parallel-to-serial conversion circuit for converting data processed in parallel internally into serial data and for outputting the serial data externally. Diverse integrated circuits other than semiconductor memory devices may perform a data parallel-to-serial conversion in a chip, or a system, if necessary.
FIG. 1 illustrates four parallel data signals converted into a serial data signal. The parallel-to-serial conversion is achieved as data in multiple parallel lines P0, P1, P2 and P3 are sequentially transferred to one line S. As shown in FIG. 1, when the four parallel lines P0, P1, P2 and P3 are loaded with pieces of data D0, D1, D2 and D3, the pieces of data of the four lines P0, P1, P2 and P3 are transferred to the serial line S one by one. Herein, signals CK0, CK1, CK2 and CK3, that determine the instants in time when the pieces of data D0, D1, D2 and D3 arrayed in the parallel lines P0, P1, P2 and P3 are transferred to the serial line S, are generated and used for the parallel-to-serial conversion.
A piece of data D0 of a line P0 is transferred to the serial line S at an instant in time when a signal CK0 is activated, and a piece of data D1 of a line P1 is transferred to the serial line S at an instant in time when a signal CK1 is activated. A piece of data D2 of a line P2 is transferred to the serial line S at an instant in time when a signal CK2 is activated, and a piece of data D3 of a line P3 is transferred to the serial line S at an instant in time when a signal CK3 is activated.
As described above, the parallel-to-serial conversion is performed as pieces of data loaded on multiple parallel lines are sequentially transferred to a serial line. The parallel-to-serial conversion necessarily requires signals that determine the instant in time when the pieces of data are transferred from the multiple parallel lines to the serial line. Such signals will be referred to as data selection signals hereafter. When a parallel-to-serial conversion of a ratio of 2^N:1, e.g., 2:1, 4:1 or 8:1, is performed, the signals for setting the instant of time when the pieces of data are to be transferred may be easily generated by dividing a clock. For example, the signals CK0, CK1, CK2 and CK3 of FIG. 1 may be easily generated by dividing a clock signal CLK into four clock signals.
A Double Data Rate 4 (DDR4) semiconductor memory device has a burst length (BL) of 10. This signifies that 10 pieces of data are to be outputted consecutively in series and that the parallel-to-serial conversion ratio of 10:1 must be achieved internally in the semiconductor memory device. However, signal division is basically performed in ratios of 2^N. Therefore, 10 divided clocks which will be used for the parallel-to-serial conversion of a ratio of 10:1 cannot be generated and it therefore becomes complicated to generate the data selection signals for the parallel-to-serial conversion of a ratio of 10:1. For instance, when 8 divided clocks are used as the data selection signals for the parallel-to-serial conversion of a ratio of 10:1, there is no problem in selecting from the first 8 pieces of data but a complicated control circuit is additionally required to select the last 2 pieces of data. Moreover, when the semiconductor memory device has diverse functions added thereto, the complexity of the parallel-to-serial conversion circuit increases at the ratio of a geometrical progression, which is problematic.

Parallel-to-serial conversion circuit and method thereof


The invention relates to a switch module comprising a selector lever that is pivotally mounted in a bearing housing. The selector lever comprises two opposing, projecting trunnions and the bearing housing has receiving openings, at least sections of the latter being configured in polygonal form. A force is exerted on the selector lever, together with its trunnions, in the direction of one vertex.

The invention concerns a switch module, in particular, comprising a control lever which is pivotably disposed in a bearing housing, the control lever having two opposite, freely projecting bearing pins and the bearing housing having receiving openings.
Switch modules of this type are used e.g. as steering column switches in automotive vehicles. Steering column switches of this type serve e.g. as light switches, indicator switches, windscreen wiper switches etc. Since the control lever is relatively long and since vehicles constantly vibrate, the bearings must meet high demands with regard to service life and lack of play. In particular, the bearing play causes noise which may be disturbing. Conventional bearings have a round receiving opening for receiving a round bolt. Due to the extreme temperature fluctuations to which such switch modules are subjected, jamming of the round bolt in the receiving opening must be reliably prevented to ensure proper pivoting of the control lever. For this reason, the round bolts disposed in the receiving openings always have play which can, however, cause the above-mentioned problems.
It is therefore the underlying purpose of the invention to provide a switch module which causes less noise.


The present invention has a hydrogen detection portion composed of a semiconductor and a hydrogen absorber provided at least a part of a surface thereof, and pairs of electrodes provided at the semiconductor so as to sandwich the place at which the hydrogen absorber is provided and so as not to be electrically connected to each other with the hydrogen absorber, wherein the presence of hydrogen can be detected by the change in resistance of the semiconductor in response to hydrogen absorption into the hydrogen absorber, the change in resistance being measured between said pairs of electrodes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hydrogen sensor and a method for detecting hydrogen, the hydrogen sensor being able to simply detect hydrogen at room temperature and to detect only hydrogen without receiving any influence from the presence of flammable gases such as a methane gas and an alcohol.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, gas detection elements using metal oxide semiconductors such as SnO2 and In2O3 as a gas sensitive member have been known, and among the gas detection elements of this type, as an element which is devised so as to selectively detect a H2 gas, for example, a hydrogen gas detection element described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 3-259736 has been known.
The hydrogen gas detection element disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 3-259736 has the structure in which an insulating substrate, an Sn oxide layer, comb-shaped electrodes, and a catalytic layer made of palladium are sequentially provided in that order on a heating element. In a final step of forming the above element, by performing heat treatment, besides improvement in sensitivity to a H2 gas, the sensitivity to gases other than a H2 gas is decreased. The hydrogen gas detection element described above has the structure in which comb-shaped Au electrodes are formed on a semiconductive Sn oxide film (SnO2), and on the films mentioned above, a catalytic layer of Pd (palladium) or Pt (platinum) formed by vacuum deposition and having a mass film thickness of approximately 1 to 5 nm is provided. The hydrogen gas detection element described above responds to an ethanol gas (C2H5OH), a propane gas (C3H8), and a carbon monoxide gas (CO) besides a hydrogen gas.
In addition, as an example of a hydrogen sensor having a different structure from the above structure, for example, the structure has been proposed in which on a surface of a gas sensitive member made of a metal oxide semiconductor such as SnO2 or In2O3, a thin film made of a non-flammable material such as Al2O3, SiO2, or Si3N4, is formed, the thin film preventing molecules other than hydrogen from permeating therethrough and easily permitting hydrogen molecules to permeate. A hydrogen sensor having the structure described above aims to realize a highly sensitive hydrogen selective sensor by forming a dense, uniform, continuous thin film (hydrogen selective permeable film) on a surface of a gas sensitive member so as to reduce interference caused by gases other than hydrogen.
Furthermore, as a hydrogen sensor having another structure, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-148112, the structure has been known in which comb-shaped electrodes of Pt, a thin-film gas sensitive member of In2O3, a powdered catalyst of Pd, and a partly poisoning agent of a Si oxide adhering to the exterior surface of the powdered catalyst are provided in that order on an insulating substrate to form a laminate structure. A hydrogen gas detection element disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-148112 is formed by sputtering on the surface of the gas sensitive member and that of the powdered catalyst, and in one example of the above Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication, the structure has been disclosed which is formed by the steps of forming comb-shaped electrodes of Pt having a mass film thickness of 500 Å and a catalyst of Pd having a mass film thickness of 10 Å on a gas sensitive member of In2O3 having a mass film thickness of 126 Å, and on these films thus formed, further forming a partly poisoning agent (mass film thickness of 10 to 12,000 Å).
Furthermore, in test results of the example and comparative example of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-148112, it has been disclosed that the sensitivity (change in resistance) to a H2 gas, a CO gas, and a C2H5OH gas is changed in accordance with the film thickness of the partly poisoning agent and the temperature of the element. In addition, as for the temperature of the element, the measurement was performed at temperatures from 60 to 300° C.
Furthermore, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2002-328108 and 2002-328109, a hydrogen sensor has been disclosed having the structure in which an insulating layer incorporating a heating element is provided on a silicon substrate, comb-shaped electrodes and a gas sensitive film are further provided thereon, and on this gas sensitive film, catalyst clusters and a partly poisoning agent are dispersed.
According to the hydrogen gas detection element disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-328108, the structure has been disclosed in which an insulating layer incorporating a heater is laminated on a silicon substrate, a gas sensitive film of SnO2 or In2O3 or of an oxide semiconductor primarily composed thereof is formed on the above insulating layer, comb teeth-shaped electrodes are disposed at an interface between this gas sensitive film and the insulating layer thereunder, catalyst clusters of a noble metal such as Pd are dispersed on the upper surface side of the gas sensitive film, and a powdered partly poisoning agent of Si is dispersed on the upper surface of the gas sensitive film and the catalyst clusters at the surface side thereof. In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-328108 disclosed that TiO2, ZnO, Cu2O, NiO, FeO, WO3, and the like may be used as the oxide semiconductor forming the gas sensitive film. According to description of performance evaluation, in a sample in which catalyst clusters (thickness of 2 nm) of Pd and a partly poisoning agent (Si film thickness of 2, 20, 50 nm) of a Si oxide film are formed on a gas sensitive film (thickness of 7, 13, 20 nm) of SnO2, detection of a hydrogen gas can be efficiently performed in a state heated to 220° C. In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-328109, in the structure similar to that in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-328108, the invention has been disclosed in which the film thickness of the partly poisoning agent is specified in a particular range.
The conventional hydrogen gas sensors described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 3-259736, 6-148112, 2002-328108, and 2002-328109 each have been well known as a sensor using the following basic principle. According to this basic principle, when the reducing gases (flammable gases) described above act on an oxide semiconductor material such as SnO2 or In2O3, since the reducing gases serve to pull oxygen out of the oxide semiconductor material, and hence electrons trapped with oxygen are allowed to remain in the semiconductor, the thickness of an electrical depletion layer is decreased, and a region in which charged carriers are present is increased, thereby causing the change in resistance. The technique described above relate to a technique in which the selectivity of hydrogen is improved as much as possible by decreasing influence of flammable gases other than hydrogen.
However, in consideration of the above basic operation principle, the hydrogen gas sensors having the conventional structure surely also react with reducing gases other than hydrogen, and hence a problem has occurred in that it is not possible to selectively detect only hydrogen. In addition, the hydrogen gas sensors of the conventional structure each have a problem in that after the hydrogen sensor once reacts with a hydrogen gas, in an environment other than an oxygen-containing environment such as the atmospheric environment or an oxygen gas environment, the resistance of the sensor is not allowed to return to an original level. For example, there has been a problem in that the sensors described above cannot be used when detection of hydrogen is to be continuously and repeatedly performed in an environment in which oxygen is not present, such as an inert gas environment.
Furthermore, since the hydrogen sensors having the conventional structure described above use a reaction between an oxide material and a reducing gas, the sensitivity tends to be improved at a high temperature, such as 200 to 300° C. Hence, a heater is generally incorporated in the hydrogen sensor so that detection operation is performed in a heated state, and in other words, this type of hydrogen sensor is difficult to be used at room temperature. In addition, for detection operation, since the oxide material must be heated to a high temperature, electricity must be applied to the heater, and as a result, electric power consumption is disadvantageously increased.
In addition, in the hydrogen sensors having the conventional structure described above, after hydrogen gas is depleted, although it is intended to allow the resistance to return to an original level in an oxygen environment, the resistance will not ideally return to the original level, and hence a problem has arisen in that repetitive use of this type of sensor itself is difficult to be performed. The reason for this has been believed that since gas detection is performed while the oxide material is being heated, oxidation of the oxide material is advanced by oxygen in air, and hence the resistance does not return to a predetermined initial value after detection of gases is performed, thereby causing drift of the output value.


A tray and electronic supplying apparatus comprising a tray feeder for feeding a tray containing electronic parts; and an electronic parts feeder for transferring electronic parts in the tray, both the tray feeder and the electronic parts feeder being adjacent to a chip mounter and arranged in a board transferring line.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tray and electronic parts supplying apparatus, and particularly to a tray and electronic parts supplying apparatus having a tray feeder which feeds a tray containing electronic parts therein, and an electronic parts feeder which transfers and feeds electronic parts contained in the tray.
2. Related Art Statement
This kind of tray and electronic parts supplying apparatus has been often used together with a chip mounter which mounts electronic parts such as semiconductor integrated circuit devices onto a circuit board etc.
In that case, the tray feeder for feeding trays is installed facing the front or the rear of the chip mounter, or being arranged on the side of and away from the board feeding line for the chip mounter.
In general, electronic parts in a tray fed by the tray feeder are transferred and fed from the tray to a mounting position of the mounter and then mounted onto a circuit board.
However, according to the prior art, both the tray feeder and the electronic parts feeder occupy the area for supplying electronic parts for the chip mounter, and hence, the space for installing other supplying devices is narrowed.
As a result, even if, for example, it is intended to install an increased number of tray feeders, there has been a disadvantage that the potential electronic parts supplying capability for the chip mounter is not fully effected because of space problem.

Tray and electronic parts supplying apparatus


Whether a receiver supports blind data channel detection is determined, and transmission of control channel information associated with a data channel is disabled if the determining step determines the receiver is capable of detecting the data channel without the use of control channel information. Data is transmitted to the receiver on the data channel without the control channel information after disabling of the transmission of the control channel information.

Third generation (3G) wireless communication protocol standards (e.g., 3GPP-UMTS, 3GPP2-CDMA2000, etc.) may employ a dedicated traffic channel in the uplink (e.g., a communication flow between a mobile station (MS) or User Equipment (UE), hereinafter referred to as a user, and a base station (BS) or NodeB). The dedicated channel may include a data part (e.g., a dedicated physical data channel (DPDCH) in accordance with UMTS Release 4/5 protocols, a fundamental channel or supplemental channel in accordance with CDMA2000 protocols, etc.) and a control part (e.g., a dedicated physical control channel (DPCCH) in accordance with UMTS Release 4/5 protocols, a pilot/power control sub-channel in accordance with CDMA2000 protocols, etc.).
Newer versions of these standards, for example, Release 6 of UMTS provide for high data rate uplink channels referred to as enhanced dedicated channels (E-DCHs). An E-DCH may include an enhanced data part (e.g., an E-DCH dedicated physical data channel (E-DPDCH) in accordance with UMTS protocols) and an enhanced control part (e.g., an E-DCH dedicated physical control channel (E-DPCCH) in accordance with UMTS protocols).
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional wireless communication system 100 operating in accordance with UMTS protocols. Referring to FIG. 1, the wireless communication system 100 may include a number of NodeBs such as NodeBs 120, 122 and 124, each serving the communication needs of a first type of user 110 and a second type of user 105 in their respective coverage area. The first type of user 110 may be a higher data rate user such as a UMTS Release 6 user, referred to hereinafter as an enhanced user. The second type of user may be a lower data rate user such as a UMTS Release 4/5 user, referred to hereinafter as a legacy user. The NodeBs are connected to an RNC such as RNCs 130 and 132, and the RNCs are connected to a MSC/SGSN 140.
The RNC handles certain call and data handling functions, such as, autonomously managing handovers without involving MSCs and SGSNs. The RNC also manages UE and NodeB capabilities, such as, transmitter and receiver capabilities. This may include, for example, determining whether a particular user is an enhanced user or a legacy user. The MSC/SGSN 140 handles routing calls and/or data to other elements (e.g., RNCs 130/132 and NodeBs 120/122/124) in the network or to an external network. Further illustrated in FIG. 1 are interfaces Uu, Iub, Iur and Iu between these elements.
FIG. 2 illustrates an example frame structure for the E-DCHs (e.g., E-DPCCH and E-DPDCH) in the uplink direction.
Referring to FIG. 2, each frame 200 may have a length of, for example, 10 milliseconds (ms) and may be partitioned into 5 sub-frames each including 3 slots. Each slot 205 may have a length of, for example, 2560 chips, and may have a duration of, for example, 2/3 ms. Consequently, each sub-frame may have a duration of 2 ms. As discussed above, an E-DCH includes an E-DPDCH 240 and an E-DPCCH 220, and each of the E-DPCCH 220 and the E-DPDCH 240 may be code multiplexed.
The E-DPCCH 220 carries control information for an associated E-DPDCH 240. This control information includes three components: a re-transmission sequence number (RSN), a transport format indicator (TFI) and a happy bit. The RSN may comprise 2 bits, the TFI may comprise 7 bits and the happy bit may comprise 1 bit. These components are well-known in the art, and therefore, a detailed discussion will be omitted for the sake of brevity.
FIG. 3 illustrates a conventional UMTS uplink transmitter 300 located, for example, at the enhanced UE 110 of FIG. 1 and a receiver 350 located at one of the NodeBs 120/122/124. The conventional transmitter 300 and receiver 350 of FIG. 3 may transmit and receive E-DCHs, respectively.
As shown in FIG. 3, data associated with an upper layer enhanced dedicated transport channel (E-DTrCH) may be processed into E-DPDCH frames at the transmission channel processing block 303. The frames may be binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulated and orthogonally spread at the modulation and orthogonal spreading unit 304. The spread modulated frames are received by the gain unit 315 where an amplitude of the spread modulated frames may be adjusted. A combiner 320 receives the output of the gain unit 315.
Still referring to FIG. 3, the 2 RSN bits, the 7 TFI bits and the 1 happy bit are mapped into a 10-bit E-DPCCH word, which may be control information for an associated E-DPDCH frame having a TTI of, for example, 2 ms or 10 ms.
The 10-bit E-DPCCH word includes a happy bit set to a given value (e.g., '1' or '0'), a format indicator or TFI having a value corresponding to a data format for the transport channel carried by the associated E-DPDCH frame (e.g., transport block size, transmission time interval (TTI), etc.), and an RSN value between 0 and 3. The happy bit and the TFI may be referred to as control data.
The 10-bit E-DPCCH word may then be coded into a 30-bit coded sequence at an FEC unit 301. The 30-bit coded sequence is modulated at a BPSK Modulator 305 and orthogonally spread at an orthogonal spreading unit 310. The output from the orthogonal spreading unit 310 is gain adjusted at a gain unit 316 and output to the combiner 320.
Similar to the above E-DPCCH, well-known DPCCH frames used in determining, for example, channel estimates, are modulated at a BPSK Modulator 306, and the modulated frames are orthogonally spread at an orthogonal spreading unit 311. The spread modulated frames are received by a gain unit 317 where an amplitude of the spread modulated frames may be adjusted.
The outputs of each of the gain units 315, 316 and 317 are complex signals and are combined (e.g., code-division and/or I/Q multiplexed) into a combined signal by a combiner unit 320. The combined signal is scrambled and filtered by a shaping filter 325, and the output of the shaping filter 325 is sent to the receiver 350 via a propagation channel 330 (e.g., over the air).
After the transmitter 300 transmits the combined signal over the propagation channel 330, the transmitting UE awaits an ACK from the NodeB indicating that the transmitted signal has been successfully received and decoded.
If an ACK is received by the user, the transmitter 300 may transmit new E-DTrCH data. If an ACK is not received or an NACK is received, the UE may retransmit the same TrCh packet and similar control information via an E-DPDCH frame and corresponding E-DPCCH frame, respectively.
After retransmitting the data and associated control information (e.g., via an E-DPDCH frame and a corresponding E-DPCCH frame, respectively), if still no ACK is received from the NodeB or a NACK is received, the UE may retransmit the data and similar control information again via another E-DPDCH frame and E-DPCCH frame, respectively. The UE may continue to retransmit the non-acknowledged data until an ACK is received, or the number of re-transmissions reaches a threshold value.
At the receiver 350, the transmitted signal is received over the propagation channel 330, and input to the E-DPDCH processing block 335, E-DPCCH soft-symbol generation block 345 and a DPCCH channel estimation block 355. As is well-known in the art, the DPCCH channel estimation block 355 generates channel estimates using pilots transmitted on the DPCCH. The channel estimates may be generated in any well-known manner, and will not be discussed further herein for the sake of brevity. The channel estimates generated in the DPCCH channel estimation block 355 may be output to each of the E-DPDCH processing block 335 and the E-DPCCH soft-symbol generation block 345.
At the soft-symbol generation block 345, the received control signal may be de-scrambled, de-spread, and de-rotated/de-multiplexed to generate a sequence of soft-symbols. The E-DPCCH soft-symbols may represent an estimate of the received signal, or in other words, an estimate of the 30 symbols transmitted by the transmitter 300. The E-DPCCH soft-symbols may be further processed to recover the transmitted E-DPCCH word.
The E-DPCCH soft-symbols are output to an E-DPCCH discontinuous transmission (DTX) detection unit 365. The E-DPCCH DTX detection unit 365 determines whether the signal received on the E-DPCCH actually includes control information using a thresholding operation.
For example, the E-DPCCH DTX detection unit 365 may normalize a signal energy for a received E-DPCCH frame (e.g., the signal energy over a given TTI of 2 ms) and compare the normalized signal energy to a threshold. If the normalized signal energy is larger than the threshold, the E-DPCCH DTX detection unit 365 determines that a control signal is present on the E-DPCCH; otherwise, the E-DPCCH DTX detection unit 365 determines that a control signal is not present on the E-DPCCH and, subsequently, declares a discontinuous transmission.
If the E-DPCCH DTX detection unit 365 detects that a control signal is present on the E-DPCCH, the soft-symbols output from the soft-symbol generation block 345 are processed by the E-DPCCH decoding block 375 to recover (e.g., estimate) the 10-bit E-DPCCH word transmitted by the transmitter 300.
For example, in recovering the transmitted 10-bit E-DPCCH word, the E-DPCCH decoding block 375 may determine a correlation value or correlation distance, hereinafter referred to as a correlation, between the sequence of soft-symbols and each 30-bit codeword in a subset (e.g., 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc.) of all 1024 possible E-DPCCH codewords that may have been transmitted by the transmitter 300. This subset of codewords may be referred to as a codebook.
After determining a correlation between the sequence of soft-symbols and each of the codewords in the codebook, the E-DPCCH decoding block 375 selects the 10-bit E-DPCCH word corresponding to the 30-bit E-DPCCH codeword, which has the highest correlation to the E-DPCCH soft-symbols. The 10-bit E-DPCCH word is then output to the E-DPDCH processing block 335 for use in processing the E-DPDCH.
If the E-DPDCH is successfully received and decoded at the receiver 350, the NodeB transmits an ACK to the transmitting UE in the downlink; otherwise, the NodeB transmits a NACK (e.g., if the NodeB is a serving NodeB) or nothing (e.g., if the NodeB is a non-serving NodeB).
In the above description, TrCh packet data is detected and decoded using associated control information. However, some enhanced receivers may perform blind detection of E-DPDCH frames carrying TrCh packet data, without the use of corresponding control information normally transmitted in an associated E-DPCCH frame. Some methods for blind detection include single-frame complete decoding, blind (multi-frame) E-DPDCH detection without the need of E-DPCCH, MAP (multi-frame) decoding of E-DPCCH with E-DPCCH power de-boosting, ML (multi-frame) decoding of E-DPCCH, E-DPDCH-assisted ML (multi-frame) decoding of E-DPCCH, self-assisted ML (multi-frame) decoding of E-DPCCH and hybrid ML and decision-directed (multi-frame) decoding of E-DPCCH.
These above methods are used in conjunction with the current E-DCH format defined in Release 6 standards. However, these methods may result in unnecessary processing burdens at the NodeB and/or UE because even during blind detection, transmitters and receivers may unnecessarily process control channel information. For example, in the uplink, when the UE is no longer transmitting control information on the E-DPCCH, the NodeB may continue to process the E-DPCCH.

Power reduction methods in enhanced transmitters and receivers


The present invention refers to a luminaire comprising a plurality of directed light sources arranged in a surface of a three-dimensional body and a controller for controlling the operational state of the luminaire. The controller comprises a three-dimensional touch-sensitive surface. Each point on the touch-sensitive surface is allocated to a position of the body surface such that an operational state of at least one light source at a position of the body surface is changeable by touching a point on the touch-sensitive surface allocated to this position. A corresponding method for controlling a luminaire comprises the steps of detecting a touch at a point on a three-dimensional touch-sensitive surface and changing an operational state of at least one light source at a position of the body surface allocated to the touch point on the touch-sensitive surface.

Luminaires are known in a large variety of designs, being equipped with a number of light sources to illuminate a room and to create a pleasant atmosphere. Different kinds of light sources can be provided for different tasks. For example, a luminaire can comprise one or more directed light sources as a reading light and/or another light source to create an ambient light to illuminate the room. These different light sources of the luminaire can be controlled independently by corresponding control device.
In most cases the control devices for such luminaires provide a simple construction with on/off switches or dimming/boosting devices to change the light intensity of the different light sources. With an increasing number of light sources, the construction of the control device necessarily becomes more complex, making it more difficult to control the luminaire as desired, especially when additional parameters of the operational state of the light sources shall be controlled, like for example, color, hue and saturation. Incorporating a large variety of lighting functions into one luminaire, like the integration of various task lights and lights for atmosphere creation, almost necessarily goes along with increasing complexity of control. However, it is desired to control the direction of the task lights integrated into the luminaire easily. This is especially the case with LEDs as directed light sources, which offer a large variety of functions to change these light conditions.
On the other hand, user friendliness is an item of increasing importance in the consumer market. Especially in the senior market for elderly people, it is highly important to offer products which can be controlled easily in an intuitive way. The user interfaces for controlling such products should be based on a simple concept, even when a number of complex functions of the device in question is to be controlled. The known luminaires do not fulfill these requirements, since with an increasing number of light sources, possible lighting directions and operation parameters, the controllers become complicated to use.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a luminaire wherein a large number of functions can be controlled by means of a simple user interface, which enables an intuitive way of controlling lighting functions of the luminaire. Another object lies in the creation of a simple and intuitive control method for a luminaire of the described kind, especially for a luminaire comprising a variety of lighting functions for different purposes.

Luminaire and method for controlling a luminaire


A III-nitride light emitting layer in a semiconductor light emitting device has a graded composition. The composition of the light emitting layer may be graded such that the change in the composition of a first element is at least 0.2% per angstrom of light emitting layer. Grading in the light emitting layer may reduce problems associated with polarization fields in the light emitting layer. The light emitting layer may be, for example InxGa1−xN, AlxGa1−xN, or InxAlyGa1−x−yN.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor light emitting devices, and more particularly to improve the light output of the active region of a semiconductor light emitting device.
2. Description of Related Art
Semiconductor light-emitting devices including light emitting diodes (LEDs), resonant cavity light emitting diodes (RCLEDs), vertical cavity laser diodes (VCSELs), and edge emitting lasers are among the most efficient light sources currently available. Materials systems currently of interest in the manufacture of high-brightness light emitting devices capable of operation across the visible spectrum include Group III-V semiconductors, particularly binary, ternary, and quaternary alloys of gallium, aluminum, indium, and nitrogen, also referred to as III-nitride materials. Typically, III-nitride light emitting devices are fabricated by epitaxially growing a stack of semiconductor layers of different compositions and dopant concentrations on a sapphire, silicon carbide, III-nitride, or other suitable substrate by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), or other epitaxial techniques. The stack often includes one or more n-type layers doped with, for example, Si, formed over the substrate, a light emitting or active region formed over the n-type layer or layers, and one or more p-type layers doped with, for example, Mg, formed over the active region. III-nitride devices formed on conductive substrates may have the p- and n-contacts formed on opposite sides of the device. Often, III-nitride devices are fabricated on insulating substrates, such as sapphire, with both contacts on the same side of the device. Such devices are mounted so light is extracted either through the contacts (known as an epitaxy-up device) or through a surface of the device opposite the contacts (known as a flip chip device).
The crystal layers in III-nitride devices are often grown as strained wurtzite crystals on lattice-mismatched substrates such as sapphire. Such crystals exhibit two types of polarization: spontaneous polarization, which arises from the crystal symmetry, and piezoelectric polarization, which arises from strain. The total polarization in a layer is the sum of the spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization.
FIG. 1A is a sectional view schematically illustrating a typical conventional strained wurtzite nitride double heterostructure semiconductor, described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,313. According to U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,313, the illustrated substrate layer 1 may be any material suitable for growing nitride semiconductors, including spinel (MgAl2O4), sapphire (Al2O3), SiC (including 6H, 4H, and 3C), ZnS, ZnO, GaAs, AlN and GaN. The substrate thickness typically ranges from 100 μm to 1 mm. A buffer layer 2 on the substrate 1 can be formed of AlN, GaN, AlGaN, InGaN or the like. The buffer layer accomodates possible lattice mismatches between the substrate 1 and an overlying conductive contact layer 3. However, the buffer layer 2 may be omitted if the substrate has a lattice constant approximately equal to that of the nitride semiconductor. The buffer layer 2 may also be omitted with some nitride growth techniques. Depending upon the material composition, the buffer layer energy bandgap may range from 2.1 eV to 6.2 eV, with a thickness of about 0.5 μm to 10 μm. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,313, column 2, lines 31–48.
The n-type contact layer 3 is also typically formed from a nitride semiconductor, preferably GaN or InGaN with a thickness ranging from 0.5 μm to 5.0 μm, and a bandgap of approximately 3.4 eV for GaN and less for InGaN (depending upon the Indium concentration). A lower n-type or undoped cladding layer 4 on the conductive layer 3 conventionally comprises GaN or AlGaN, with a bandgap of 3.4 eV for GaN and greater for AlGaN (depending upon the Al concentration). Its thickness can range from 1 nm to 100 nm. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,313, column 2, lines 49–58.
Nitride double heterostructures typically employ InGaN as an active region 5 over the lower cladding layer, with a thickness of 1 nm to 100 nm. The bandgap of this layer is typically 2.8 eV for blue emission, but may vary depending upon the Indium concentration. A top p-type or undoped cladding layer 6 over the active region is generally comprised of AlGaN or GaN, with a thickness and bandgap energy similar to that of the lower n-type cladding layer 4. A p-type GaN conductive contact layer 7 on the cladding layer 6 has an energy bandgap of about 3.4 eV and a thickness of about 10 nm to 500 nm. A polarization-induced sheet charge occurs at the interface between layers due to different constituent materials. Of particular concern for the operation of a light emitter are the polarization-induced sheet charges adjacent to the active region 5. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,313, column 2 line 59 to column 3 line 7.
With the compound semiconductor illustrated in FIG. 1A, a negative polarization-induced sheet charge density σ1, with a magnitude such as 1013 electrons/cm2, is typically formed at the interface between the active region 5 and the lower cladding layer 4. A positive sheet charge density σ2 of similar magnitude is formed at the interface between the active region 5 and the upper cladding layer 6. The polarities and magnitudes of these charges depend upon the crystal symmetry and composition differences of the crystal layers. In general, the density of a sheet charge will depend upon both the spontaneous polarization and the piezoelectric polarization due to strain between the two adjacent layers. For example, σ1 between an In0.2Ga0.8N active region 5 and a GaN cladding layer 4 is about 8.3×1012 electrons/cm2. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,313, column 3, lines 8–26.
FIG. 1B illustrates the energy bands corresponding to the device structure of FIG. 1A. When the device is operating, the naturally occurring polarization field across the quantum well generated by σ1 and σ2 reduces the efficiency in a number of ways. First, the electric field in the quantum well leads to a spatial separation (movement in the opposite direction) of electrons and holes within the region. As illustrated, holes in the valence band Ev are attracted to the negative sheet charge σ1 at one end of the active region 5, while electrons in the conduction band Ec are attracted to the positive sheet charge σ2 at its other end. This spatial separation of carriers lowers the probability of radiative recombination, reducing light emission efficiency. Second, the energy barriers of the conduction and valence band are reduced by tilting of the band associated with the electric field. Thus, carriers below Ev and above Ec escape the well through the paths indicated by dashed lines A. Third, the presence of polarization-induced fields also leads to carrier overshoots, illustrated by carrier trajectories B, from the higher Ec level on the σ1 side of the active region to the lower Ec level on the σ2 side, and from the lower Ev level on the σ2 side of the active region to the higher Ev level on the σ1 side. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,313, column 3, line 56 to column 4 line 10.
Another issue of concern for applications engineers is the stability of the emission wavelength as the applied bias is increased. If strong polarization-induced fields are present, the emission wavelength will blue-shift as the device bias is increased. As the device bias is increased, more carriers accumulate in the conduction and valence band wells. Since the carriers are spatially separated, they will themselves form a dipole that opposes, or screens, the built-in polarization induced field. As the net electric field is reduced, the quantized energy states of the quantum wells change, resulting in a blue-shift of the emission wavelength. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,313, column 4, lines 11–21.
In order to reduce or cancel the effect of the crystal's naturally occurring polarization induced charges to improve carrier confinement, to reduce their spatial separation, and to reduce carrier overshoot, U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,313 proposes that one or more layers in or around the active region be graded in composition or doping to generate space charges that oppose the polarization-induced charges. Specifically, at column 10, lines 31–34, U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,313 teaches "the active region has a continuously graded Indium concentration from a low of 5% to a high of 10%, with a gradient of approximately 1%/nm" or 0.1%/Å.
Published U.S. Application 2003/0020085, application Ser. No. 09/912,589, filed Jul. 24, 2001, assigned to the assignee of the present application, and incorporated herein by reference, also proposes composition grading in the active region. Paragraph [0036] teaches "quantum well layer 40 is about 40 Å thick, and the mole fraction of indium in InxGa1−xN quantum well layer 40 grades linearly from a mole fraction of about x=0.4 near its interface with barrier layer 38 to a mole fraction of about x=0 near its interface with barrier layer 42[,]" corresponding to a grading slope or gradient of 1%/Å.

Semiconductor light emitting devices with graded composition light emitting layers


A ginning plate for a crop analytics research cotton gin, wherein the ginning plate comprises a body fabricated. The body includes a front face, a back face, a top end, a bottom end, and opposing sides. The ginning plate additionally comprises a plurality of blade slots extending through the body. Each blade slot comprises an elongated midsection, a mouth disposed at a top of the midsection, and a tail disposed at a bottom of the midsection. The midsection has a first width throughout its length, the mouth has a second width that is greater than the first width, and the tail has a third width that is less than the first width.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
To research and develop various strains, hybrids, or genotypes of cotton, seed producers, plant, grow, and analyze many different varieties of seed. Typically for such research, a single field is subdivided into multiple research, or test plots, each containing plants with distinct germplasm-treatment combinations. Each test plot typically comprises one or more rows of plants comprising five to fifteen cotton plants in each row. Once the plants have matured to desired stage, the cotton (i.e., cotton bolls comprising lint and seed) is harvested and the lint is separated from the seed and other debris, whereafter lint and/or seed can be analyzed to determine such things as lint percent, gin turnout, staple length, etc. Because research test plots, and the cotton sample size collected therefrom, are relatively small it is very important that the lint be separated from the seed efficiently (i.e., the majority or nearly all of the lint be separated from the seed) and with a high level of purity (i.e., the lint collected is free of seed and debris).
Presently, many known seed producers utilize commercial cotton gins, or versions thereof, to separate the lint from the seed. Commercial gins are designed and operated to gin very large volumes of cotton harvested from field that comprise acres and acres of cotton. In such commercial operations, it is not important, desired or necessary to separate the lint from the seed with the efficiently and purity needed and desired for the small research samples that are collected from the small research test plots. Therefore, commercial cotton gins are designed and constructed to gin (i.e., separate the cotton lint from the cotton seed) mass amounts of cotton as quickly as possible. Known commercial cotton gins comprise one or more large head unit(s) into which very large volumes of harvest cotton (e.g., hundreds of pounds) are continuously placed, whereafter the head unit(s) quickly and roughly (i.e., with a low level of efficiency) separate the lint from the seed. Known commercial cotton gin head units generally comprise a plurality of separate, independently fabricated, ribs that are installed side-by-side within a housing of the respective head unit. The ribs are fabricated and shaped such that when placed side-by-side blade gaps are defined between ribs. The head units additionally generally comprise a plurality of circular blades that are mounted below or beneath the ribs such that a portion of each blade extends through a respective one of the blade gaps. The blades are rotated to pull the lint from the seed of the cotton bolls placed in the respective head unit. Particularly, in theory, the blades pull the lint through the gaps and deposit it in one or more cotton collection bin, and the separated seed remains on top of the ribs and slides off the angled face of the ribs into one or more seed collection bin.
However, the dimensions and tolerance of the blade gaps are typically very irregular, imprecise and inconsistent from gap-to-gap. Particularly, the gaps defined by the plurality of ribs typically have shapes and dimensions such that tolerance in space between the sides of the blades and the sides of the respective gap is typically very irregular, imprecise and inconsistent within each respective gap and from gap-to-gap. These irregularities, imprecisions and inconsistencies result in very inefficient impure separation of the lint from the seed. That is, the irregularities, imprecisions and inconsistencies in the gaps formed between and defined by the ribs allow seed and other debris to be pulled through gaps resulting in inefficient and impure lint collection. Additionally, over time, these ribs tend to warp and rust, leading to further poor performance.


There are provided a download system and a download control method for portable players, which enable a user to download music data to the portable player by a simple operation, and a storage medium that stores a program for executing the download control method. The portable player includes a storage medium that stores music data having type data. A download device downloads previously stored music data to the storage medium of the portable player. A center station transmits music data having type data to the download device. In the download device, the type data of the music data stored in the storage medium is read in as known type data when the portable player is placed on a table. Type data input by a user is read in as desired type data. The type data of the music data transmitted from the center station is read in as new type data. When the desired type data is equal to the new type data and the new type data is different from the known type data, the music data transmitted from the center station is stored in a data memory device, and the stored music data is downloaded to the storage medium. Then, the new type data is written as known type data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a download system, download control method, and storage medium for portable players, which are suitable for downloading music data to portable players including storage media.
2. Prior Art
A portable player is generally used, which has a flash EEP-ROM inside as a storage medium, which has a storage capacity of about 32 or 64 Mbytes to store music data. By regenerating the stored music data, a user listens to corresponding music via headphones or the like. Such a portable player is generally called an "MP3 portable player" because the compressed storage method based on the MPEG Audio Layer 3 is used to store music data in the flash EEP-ROM.
Then, downloading carried out by a portable player according to the prior art will be described with reference to FIG. 4.
Reference numeral 1 denotes an MP3 portable player acting as a portable player and which has a flash EEP-ROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) 2 inside as a storage medium.
Reference numeral 3 denotes a table on which the portable player 1 is placed and which has an accommodating recess 3A formed therein for accommodating the portable player 1. The accommodating recess 3A has a terminal, not shown, for outputting music data to the portable player 1. In addition, the table 3 has connected thereto an interface 12 (hereafter referred to as "the I/F 12") of a personal computer 4, described later. After the portable player 1 has been placed on the table 3, the personal computer 4 is operated to download music data stored in an HDD 9 of the personal computer 4, to the flash EEP-ROM 2 of the portable player 1.
The personal computer 4 has a CPU 5 for controlling the entire personal computer, a ROM 7 that stores a control program and data which are used by the CPU 5 to control components which are connected to the CPU 5 via a bus 6, and a RAM 8 for storing various data and results of arithmetic operations. In addition, the personal computer 4 has a hard disc drive 9 (hereafter referred to as "HDD 9") that stores music data, a panel interface 10 (hereafter referred to as "the panel I/F 10") composed, for example, of a keyboard for inputting a command signal to the CPU 5, an MPEG encoder 11 that operates when music data stored in the HDD 9 are downloaded to the flash EEP-ROM 2 of the portable player 1, to encode the music data into MPEG codes, the I/F 12 for connecting the personal computer 4 to the table 3, and an interface 14 (hereafter referred to as "the I/F 14") for connecting the personal computer 4 to a CD player 13.
Next, an operation will be described, which is performed when a user stores music data in the flash EEP-ROM 2 of the portable player 1.
First, when the user uses the personal computer 4 to store his favorite music data in the HDD 9 from a compact disc (CD) or the like, the stored music data is encoded by the MPEG encoder 11, and the encoded data is downloaded to the flash EEP-ROM 2 of the portable player 1 via the table 3. Thus, by carrying only the portable player 1, the user can listen to his favorite music anywhere.
With the above portable player 1 according to the prior art, the user must store music data in the HDD 9 of his personal computer 4 from a CD. Disadvantageously, this operation requires a large amount of time and is cumbersome.
In addition, according to the prior art, to download music data to the portable player 1, the user must prepare a required CD or the like for each downloading operation. Disadvantageously, for CDs that are not easily available, music data cannot be easily downloaded to the portable player.

Method and apparatus for downloading data to portable devices


A header assembly for connecting a conductor terminating at a body organ with an implantable medical device is described. The header assembly comprises a base plate, a feedthrough subassembly disposed in the base plate and comprising a ceramic-to-metal seal with first and second feedthrough wires passing through the ceramic-to-metal seal; a first electrically conductive terminal connected to a distal end of the first feedthrough wire and having a first lead opening sized to receive a first portion of a lead for the conductor; a second electrically conductive terminal connected to a distal end of the second feedthrough wire and having a second lead opening sized to receive a second portion of the lead for the conductor; a body of polymeric material molded in a two-part construction to encase the conductive terminals and their feedthrough wires except for a first bore communicating from outside the polymeric body to the first and second lead openings aligned in a first co-axial relationship. Preferably, the polymeric body comprises a first polymeric material such as Techothane® or Polysulfone® encasing the terminals except the bore and an epoxy as a second polymeric material molded over the first polymeric material.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a one-piece header assembly for connecting an implantable medical device to a body organ intended to be assisted by the medical device. The header assembly includes a feedthrough assembly that is hermetically welded onto a base plate, which is subsequently welded to the medical device.
2. Description of Related Art
Header assemblies for implantable medical devices generally comprise feedthrough conductors in the form of pins or wires connected to the internal components of the medical device. The feedthrough wires extend through a wall of the medical device housing, such as a lid, and are electrically insulated there from by a ceramic-to-metal seal, and the like. Electrical continuity is established by connecting intermediate conductor wires between the feedthrough wires and connector blocks in the header assembly. Examples of this type of header assembly are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,775 to Langer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,673 to Kinney et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,132 to Stutz, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,841 to Szyszkowski and U.S. Pat. No. 5,336,246 to Dantanarayana, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. The intermediate conductor wires of the implantable medical devices disclosed in these patents represent electrical connections that could fail through improper connection, corrosion, breakage, and the like.
More recently, U.S. Pat. No. 7,069,081 to Biggs et al., which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference, describes a header assembly attachable to a medical device for the purpose of connecting its output terminals to at least one lead, the lead terminating at a target organ or portion of the body intending to be assisted. A number of leads are connectable to the header, including single and coaxial leads. The header assembly may be molded directly to the medical device or preformed and then attached to the device casing, either by mechanical fasteners and/or chemical adhesive.
These header assemblies require either a backfilled liquid sealing material to be dispensed between the bottom side of the header assembly and the upper lid of the implantable device, or complex mechanical fasteners to firmly secure the header assembly to the device, or both. These features increase device cost and manufacturing cycle time, while the sealing connection between the header assembly and the device is still less reliable than desired.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a header assembly that can be quickly and simply manufactured, and that can be joined to an implantable device in a long lasting hermetic seal without sealant backfilling or complex fasteners.

Header over-molded on a feedthrough assembly for an implantable device


Semiconductor devices that include test circuitry to measure internal signal wire propagation delays during memory access operations, and circuity configured to store delay information that is used to configure internal delays based on the measured internal signal propagation circuit delays. The semiconductor device includes a test circuit configured to measure a signal propagation delay between a command decoder and a bank logic circuit based on time between receipt of a test command signal directly from the command decoder and a time of receipt of the test command signal routed through the bank logic circuit.

High data reliability, high speed of memory access, low power, and reduced chip size are features that are demanded from semiconductor memory. Within a memory, relative timing may be important to ensure data is reliably transmitted from and received at a semiconductor device. Process, voltage, and/or temperature differences (PVT) may across semiconductor device may result in timing variance between semiconductor devices due to conductive properties of wire traces and transition speed of components on a device. For devices that operate more slowly, transmitted data may be unstable due to reduced timing margins, which may affect reliability of the device.


A coaxial conductor interconnection wiring board characterized by having at least one inner wall metallized conductive hole for connecting a conductive shield of coaxial conductor to a ground layer, or having connection metal layers for connecting ground layers or connecting the conductive shield to a ground layer, and an inner wall metallized conductive hole for connecting a central signal conductor of coaxial conductor to other circuits, is excellent in preventing crosstalk noise and shielding effect.

This invention relates to a coaxial conductor interconnection wiring board and a process for producing the same.
With the development of electronic devices, wiring boards having a very high wiring density have been required. As such wiring boards having a very high wiring density, there are known wiring boards using wires as a necessary wiring pattern (hereinafter referred to as "multi-wire wiring board", e.g. Japanese Patent Examined Publication No. 45-21434) and multi-layer printed wiring boards. In highly densified wiring boards, the crosstalk noise among neighboring wires or signal conductor lines becomes an important problem. In order to solve such a problem, there are proposed various processes for shielding wiring boards, for example, a process for making signal conductor lines and a grounding pattern by build-up method (Japanese Patent Examined Publication No. 58-54520), a process for using an electroconductive coating film as a shield (Japanese Patent Unexamines Publication No. 51-71961), a process for providing a conductive shield surrounding insulated wire conductors by plating method (U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,436), etc. But these processes are insufficient for solving the problem of crosstalk noise.
On the other hand, in order to improve these shielding processes, there are proposed processes for using a so-called coaxial conductor covered with a conductive shield on an outer insulating layer surrounding a signal conductor (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,679,321 and 4,743,710). When such coaxial conductors are used, connections of a central signal conductor and a conductive shield of the coaxial conductor with other conductors become a problem. According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,710, there are proposed two processes. According to a first process (shown in FIGS. 1A to 1E of said U.S. Patent), it is necessary to remove an electroconductive substance, and a conductive shield and insulation of the coaxial conductor using a focussed laser at a portion to be connected, while retaining only a central signal conductor. But when the laser energy is made small so as not to remove the central signal conductor of coaxial conductor, removal of the portions to be removed cannot be carried out completely. In contrast, when the laser energy is made large so as to remove the portions to be removed completely, the central signal conductor is also vaporized or damaged. Thus, it is difficult to determine conditions satisfying both requirements and to maintain such a laser energy constantly. Further, according to the description at lines 58 to 67 on column 3 of said U.S. Patent, the central signal conductor reflects the CO.sub.2 laser energy and other organic materials can be removed. But since the organic ground layer (here, an electroconductive paste is imaged) has high electro-conductivity, the shielding effect becomes small. According to a second process (shown in FIGS. 2A to 2F of said U.S. Patent), it is necessary to etch back selectively the conductive shield of coaxial conductor exposed to an inner wall of hole. In order to attain such a selective etch back, it is necessary to use different materials for the conductive shield and the central signal conductor of the coaxial conductor. Further, this means that it is difficult to insulate the inner portion of hole including the selectively etched back portion and a surface of the ground layer. When different materials are used for the conductive shield and the central signal conductor of coaxial conductor, the decay of signal of central signal conductor becomes larger in the case of using a poor electroconductive material for the central signal conductor of coaxial conductor, while the shielding effect becomes smaller in the reverse case. Further, when the conductive shield of coaxial conductor is selectively etched back, very small vacant spaces are formed in the etched back portions. It is difficult to fill such vacant spaces with a resin solution, and even if filled with the resin solution, generation of undesirable voids is inevitable due to vaporization of a solvent contained in the resin solution.

Process for producing coaxial conductor interconnection wiring board