An apparatus for monitoring a status of a vehicle, which determines whether the vehicle is in an abnormal status by comparing an impact value detected by a detecting unit that detects an impact on the vehicle with a predetermined threshold value, includes a first determining unit that determines whether the impact value detected is over at least one threshold value from among a plurality of threshold values; and a second determining unit that, when the first determining unit determines that the impact value is over the at least one threshold value, continues to monitor a status of the vehicle, and determines whether the vehicle is in an abnormal status.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for monitoring a vehicle status by detecting an impact on a vehicle and comparing the impact applied with a predetermined threshold value, an more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for monitoring a vehicle status, when the vehicle takes an impact, for detecting the vehicle status, determining whether the vehicle is in an abnormal status with a high precision, and allowing a quick and efficient maintenance of the vehicle.
2) Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, when a vehicle running on a road takes some sort of impact, it is a general method to detect an impact value using a sensor installed in the vehicle, and to determine whether there is a possibility that the vehicle is in an abnormal status based on the impact value detected. The vehicle is equipped with a variety of sensors including a steering-angle sensor that detects a steering angle of the vehicle, a G-sensor that detects a vibration in a direction of side to side and up and down, and an acceleration sensor that detects a change of an acceleration of the vehicle, and when any one of the sensors detects an impact value over a predetermined threshold value, a message indicating that an abnormal status occurred in the vehicle is displayed on a front panel of the vehicle (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-184578).
In this case, when the impact value detected is much greater than it should be, a measure of switching a mode of the vehicle to a fail-safe mode is also carried out automatically to make assurance doubly sure on a measure for safety, notifies a driver of the vehicle of an abnormal status, and at the same time, notifies a vehicle dealer of the abnormal status to prepare a necessary part in advance, so that a quick failure recovery is carried out for sure (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-323410).
However, when a vehicle takes an impact, even if it is determined whether the vehicle is in an abnormal status by simply comparing a detected value with a threshold value, as described above according to the conventional technology, a result of the determination may not indicate a status of the vehicle correctly. Generally, the threshold value is set to a considerably high value so that it is not determined that the vehicle is in an abnormal status until a strong impact is posed that a driver or a passenger of the vehicle is injured by the impact. Therefore, even if the impact value detected is lower below the threshold value, the status of the vehicle may become abnormal later. For this reason, in practice, when a vehicle takes some sort of impact, a driver of the vehicle has to monitor the status of the vehicle from that time on, and to determine whether the vehicle is in an abnormal status.
In addition, when it is determined that the vehicle is in an abnormal status, the driver has to take the vehicle to a car body shop such as a car dealer, or when the abnormal status is not conspicuous, has to make a test again, resulting in a considerable effort and a considerable time required for determining whether the vehicle is in an abnormal status.

Method and apparatus for monitoring vehicle status


A valve actuator for internal combustion engines, includes at least one electromagnet and a magnetic plate, whose movement controls the displacement of the valve. The parameters of the electromagnet and of the plate are such that at least part of the magnetic circuit formed by the electromagnet and the magnetic plate is in a state of magnetic saturation when the magnetic plate is located in the proximity of the electromagnet. The magnetic circuit is preferably in the state of magnetic nonsaturation when it is located at a distance from the electromagnet. According to one embodiment, the magnetic plate has at least one contracted part intended to be saturated when this plate is located in the proximity of the electromagnet.

FIG. 1 shows an example of an electromechanical actuator 100 of a valve 110 which comprises mechanical means, such as springs 102 and 104, and electromagnetic means with two electromagnets 106 and 108 for controlling the position of the valve 110 by means of electric signals.
In the example, the rod 113 of the valve 110 is applied for this purpose against the rod 112 of a magnetic plate 114 located between the two electromagnets 106 and 108.
When a current flows in the coil 109 of the electromagnet 108, the latter is activated and generates a magnetic field attracting the plate 114, which comes into contact with it.
This results in a displacement of the rod 112, which moves away from the rod 113, enabling the spring 102 to act to bring the valve 110 into the closed position, the head of the valve 110 coming against its seat 111 and preventing the exchange of gas between the interior and the exterior of the cylinder 116.
Analogously, when the electromagnet 108 is deactivated, when a current flows in the coil 107 of the electromagnet 106, the latter attracts the plate 114, which comes into contact with it and pushes the rod 112 by means of the spring 104 against the rod 113 such that the rod 112 acts on the valve 110 and brings the latter into the open position, the head of the valve being moved away from its seat 111 to permit, for example, the admission or the injection of gas into the cylinder 116.
Thus, the valve 110 alternates between the open or closed positions, called switched positions, with transient displacements between these two positions. The state of an open or closed valve will hereinafter be called the "switched state."
The actuator 100 requires the use of a magnetic plate 114 of a heavy mass due especially to its considerable thickness Sp. This thickness is generally equal to the width Se of the branches of the electromagnets to achieve optimal functioning of the actuator. In fact, the branches of the electromagnet and the plate thus form a magnetic circuit of constant cross section.
However, the use of a plate 114 of a considerable cross section and consequently of a heavy mass has drawbacks. During the switching of the valve, in particular, the impact of the magnetic plate against the body of the electromagnet causes a considerable energy loss in the form of noise, especially because of the considerable velocities of the magnetic plate during the impact.
As this energy is proportional to the second power of the velocity of the plate, it is essential to reduce the velocity of this plate at the moment of impact.
However, as the electromagnetic force increases sharply when the plate is approaching the electromagnet, which causes a great acceleration, it is not easy to reduce the velocity at the moment of impact.
It is known that the velocity can be reduced by regulating the current flowing in the electromagnet to control the magnetic field of this electromagnet.
However, it is not easy to embody such a regulator because the electromagnetic force of the electromagnet, which force is applied to the magnetic plate during the approach of the electromagnet, varies nonlinearly with the air gap.
This nonlinearity is illustrated in FIG. 2, which is a diagram showing the changes in the electromagnetic force (on the ordinate) as a function of the value of the air gap (on the abscissa).
The present invention remedies the above-mentioned drawback.

Electromechanical valve control actuator for internal combustion engines


A recess with a slanted wall is provided on a substrate, a magnetic yoke layer is formed so that the end of the magnetic yoke layer covers the slanted wall, and the recess is filled with a filling layer. Flat working is performed until a portion of the substrate is removed so that the magnetic yoke layer appears on the flat worked surface of the substrate, and the width of the magnetic yoke layer appearing on the top flat surface is almost determined by the thickness of the magnetic yoke layer, which defines the width of a core of a magnetic head. Thus, a narrow core width of a magnetic head is provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin-film magnetic head with a narrower core width than conventionally possible for improved track density in magnetic disk devices, and to a process for its production.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional magnetic transducer is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2A-2C. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a magnetic head slider 31, on which a thin-film magnetic head element 33 is formed and exposed on the rail side (floating side) of the slider 31. FIGS. 2A-2C are enlarged views of the portion of the thin-film magnetic head 33 in which FIG. 2A is a plan view, FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 2A cut along the line I--I and FIG. 2C is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 2A cut along the line II--II.
On a substrate 11 there are formed a first magnetic yoke layer 14, a gap layer 20, an interlayer dielectric layer 18, a coil layer 17, an interlayer dielectric layer 18 and a second yoke layer 19 laminated in that order, after which there are formed an external connecting terminal and a working protection film (not shown), and then the ends of the first and second magnetic yoke layers 14, 19 are subjected to cutting and working at the I--I portion to make a thin-film magnetic head.
The portion which is cut and worked at the end (I--I portion) corresponds to the side facing the surface 41 of the recording medium (represented by the imaginary line in FIG. 2C, and is called the floating side 42. The width of the magnetic core of the magnetic head is determined by the width W of the section of the combined first magnetic yoke layer 14 and second magnetic yoke layer 19 (although a gap exists between them) which are exposed at the floating side.
According to the conventional magnetic transducer production process described above, the first magnetic yoke layer 14 and the second magnetic yoke layer 19 are pattern formed by a selective plating method with a resist mask or an ion milling method with a resist mask, and the core width is established during these steps.
Improved track density of the magnetic disk device requires that the core width be narrow, but because of restrictions on the resolving power of the resist it has been very difficult to realize a core width of 1 .mu.m or less, or narrower than the film thickness of the magnetic yoke layer (about 2-4 .mu.m).
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel process which allows formation of magnetic yoke layers with narrow core widths, free from the restriction of the resolving power of resist masks.

Thin-film Magnetic head having a narrow core width and process for its production


A color CRT comprising a panel having a substantially flat outer surface and an inner surface having a certain curvature, and a mask having a plurality of electron beam passing holes, wherein an effective surface diagonal size of the panel is not greater than about 534 mm, wherein a central portion transmittance rate is within the range of about 45–75%, wherein the panel satisfies the condition 1.1≦(Rxs/Ryc)≦4.6, wherein Rxs is defined as an inner curvature radius along an edge of a longer side of the panel, and wherein Ryc is defined as an inner curvature radius along a line in the center of the panel parallel to the shorter side of the panel.

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application Nos. 2003-34390 and 2003-43997 filed on May 30, 2003 and Jun. 30, 2003, which are hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color cathode ray tube, and in particular to a color cathode ray tube capable of satisfying drop requirements and preventing partial doming and howling by adjusting an inner curvature radius and/or a difference of height of a cathode ray tube panel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, a color cathode ray tube (hereinafter CRT) displays images, and it is divided into two types of CRT: a curved-surface CRT and a flat CRT.
Because the curved-surface CRT has problems such as image distortion and light reflection, demand therefore has decreased gradually. On the other hand, because the flat CRT can prevent image distortion and light reflection and implement the maximum visible light region, demand therefore has gradually increased.
FIG. 1 is a side view illustrating a general color CRT. The conventional color CRT includes: a panel 1 having an effective surface on which a phosphor screen a is coated; a mask 2 disposed with a predetermined interval to the inner side of the panel 1; a funnel 3 combined with a rear of the panel 1 in order to maintain the inside of the CRT as a vacuum state; and a deflection yoke 5 for deflecting electron beams emitted from the electron gun 4.
In the above-mentioned conventional color CRT, when the electron gun 4 receives an image signal, the electron gun 4 emits an electron beam, and the emitted electron beam is accelerated and focused toward the panel 1 by a voltage applied to each electrode of the electron gun 4. The electron beam is deflected by the deflection yoke 5, color selecting is performed while the electron beams passes a slot (not shown) formed in the mask, and each phosphor screen is irradiated by the electron beam landing on the phosphor screen 1a at the internal surface of the panel 1.
In order to satisfy the demand for lower price, lower weight, and slimmer color CRTs, methods for tinting a panel, using a cheap AK mask, increasing/decreasing a center thickness of a panel and flattening the panel have been used. In case of reducing a center thickness of a panel, when a center thickness of a panel is less than the regulation value (it is regulated so as to be greater than 10.5 mm), X-Ray release is increased, and accordingly there is a limitation to the minimum center thickness of the panel. In the panel flattening method, because the internal surface of a panel is gradually flattened, the internal curvature of a mask is gradually decreased, reducing the structural strength of the mask, and accordingly the drop characteristics (drop quality) of the mask decrease.
As described above, when the structural strength and the drop characteristics of the mask deteriorate, because of heat expansion of the mask, an electron beam passing a mask hole can not accurately hit the red, blue, or green phosphor on the screen, the color purity of the screen deteriorates, and accordingly partial doming and howling occur.
As described-above, in a conventional color CRT, particularly in a color CRT smaller than 21″, in order to satisfy the structural strength and drop requirements of the mask, the wedge ratio of the panel (thickness ratio of a corner portion to the central portion of the screen) is determined so as to be not less than 220%, the inner curvature radius of the mask is uniformly maintained, and a mask thickness is determined so as to be not less than 0.13 mm. Accordingly, it is impossible to lower a price, obtain slimness and reduce weight of a CRT and meet the above requirements.


A method for pushing information in live streaming is provided. With this method, a live streaming terminal may send a push information identifier to a live streaming server in a live streaming process. The live streaming server may determine an access address of push information based on the push information identifier, and send the access address to a play terminal. The play terminal can present the push information to a play terminal user, and allows the play terminal user to trigger the access address. When the play terminal user triggers the access address, the play terminal can access a web page corresponding to the push information. As such, an access address of push information published by a live streaming terminal user can be accessed on an interface of a play terminal, and a user of the play terminal can obtain the push information by clicking the access address.

In the Internet era, watching anchors' live streaming through a live streaming platform, has become a new routine of mass entertainment. Many anchors present and recommend some valuable information or useful products to play terminal users through live streaming, for example, pretty clothes, interesting novels, funny microblogs, and durable electric appliances.
However, existing live streaming platforms cannot support the play terminal users in directly accessing, during watching the live streaming, a web page on which the recommended information is located. The play terminal users need to record a feature of the recommended information, and then search for the information on the network or offline, which takes time and efforts. In addition, because a live streaming video cannot be played back, the play terminal users often cannot accurately record the feature of the recommended information, which makes the information obtained by the play terminal users often inconsistent with the recommended information. The information push method in the existing technologies is relatively inconvenient for the play terminal users.

Method and device for sending access to recommended information in live streaming


A key-operated lock has a shell mounted securely in a closure, and a removable lock-actuator cartridge insertable into and withdrawal from the shell to facilitate changing the tumbler disk combination in the lock. The cartridge includes an annular hollow housing seatable in the shell, and a tumbler disk carrier telescopically insertable into the housing. The carrier and associated tumbler disks are rotatable within the housing to operate the lock. An anti-damage feature comprises the cartridge being insertable into the open front end of the shell. A thickened rear wall of the shell reinforces the cartridge against destructive attack by rod and hammer action exerted on the front face of the lock. Principal features are quick changing of the tumbler disk pattern, and a rigid damage-resistant lock structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to rotary key-operated locks, e.g., locks installable on the closures of vending or gambling machines to limit access to the machine interior.
2. Prior Developments
It is known to equip vending machines with rotary tumbler disk locks. A tumbler disk lock often includes a housing adapted to be affixed to a vending machine closure, and a rotary tumbler carrier within the housing for supporting a stack of tumbler disks; the number of tumbler disks can vary from about five disks to about fourteen disks, depending upon the desired degree of protection provided by the lock. Each tumbler disk has a key slot and at least one notch (gate) in its peripheral edge, the gate locations being different in the different disks. A horizontal drive pin is supported within the lock housing above the stack of tumbler disks, whereby when a correctly configured key is inserted through the key slots and turned, the various disks are rotated to predetermined degrees for alignment of the gates below the drive pin, thereby allowing the drive pin to drop into the aligned gates. The drive pin then acts as a driving connection between the tumbler disks and the tumbler carrier, whereby the carrier is enabled to rotate within the housing to operate a locking element attached to the rear end of the carrier.
In many cases the carrier is open at its rear end for initially loading the tumbler disks into the carrier. The carrier is therefore subject to frontal attack by thieves or persons seeking access to the vending machine for the purpose of removing money or vended items from the machine. Commonly, such frontal attack involves placing a steel rod endwise against the frontmost tumbler disk, and forcibly striking the other end of the rod with a hammer. Often, the lock housing or tumbler carrier will be damaged by such hammer blows to such an extent as to destroy the locking action of the lock mechanism.
Another problem with conventional tumbler disk locks is that the lock housing usually must be completely removed from the vending machine closure to insert a stack of tumbler disks into the tumbler carrier. The tumbler disks have to be inserted into the carrier in a particular order, to mate with the appropriate key and drive pin in the lock housing. The tumbler disk insertion process is time-consuming and is subject to error, due partly to the fact that the technician usually is working in a store or commercial area where work benches and equipment are not available. The problem is magnified when may vending machine locks must be rekeyed at approximately the same time, e.g., when large numbers of keys have been stolen at one time or when large numbers of vending machines have been vandalized.
A further problem associated with tumbler disk locks is the unauthorized opening of the lock with a picking tool. The picking tool is inserted into the key hole and manipulated to turn the tumbler disks to positions wherein the gate notches are aligned with the drive pin. The picking tool is most successful when the keyhole slots are relatively large or wide so that the tool can be adequately supported on an edge of a keyhole slot while it is being manipulated to move each tumbler disk.

Lock having removable lock-actuator cartridge


A radiation detection module and radiological imaging apparatus capable of improving spatial resolution. A semiconductor radiation detector includes a plurality of semiconductor radiation detector elements and conductive members which are copper plates. A detector element provides an anode electrode on one of facing sides of a semiconductor region and a cathode electrode on the other side. The respective detector elements are arranged in parallel in such a way that the cathode electrodes and anode electrodes face each other respectively, and the anode electrodes are electrically connected together and the cathode electrodes are electrically connected together via the conductive members respectively.

The present invention relates to a radiation detection module, radiation detector and radiological imaging apparatus, and more particularly, to a radiation detection module, radiation detector and radiological imaging apparatus using semiconductor radiation detector elements.
As an example of conventional radiation detectors which detect radiation such as γ-rays, there is a semiconductor radiation detector provided with a semiconductor radiation detector element (hereinafter referred to as "detector element") made of a semiconductor material such as CdTe (cadmium telluride), CdZnTe (cadmium zinc telluride), TlBr (thallium bromide), GaAs (gallium arsenide). Since the detector element converts charges produced by interaction between radiation and the semiconductor material to an electric signal, the semiconductor radiation detector is characterized by higher efficiency of conversion into an electric signal than a radiation detector using a scintillator and its ability to be miniaturized.
The semiconductor radiation detector is provided with the aforementioned detector element and electrodes formed on both surfaces facing this detector element. By applying a DC high voltage between these electrodes, the semiconductor radiation detector collects charges generated when radiations such as X-rays, γ-rays enter the detector element as signals from the electrodes.
When the semiconductor radiation detector is used for a medical radiation imaging apparatus (radiological imaging apparatus), etc., a semiconductor radiation detector is connected to a wiring board to form a radiation detection section (e.g., see JP-A-2003-84068 (paragraph 0024, FIG. 3)). Furthermore, a technology which arranges a plurality of semiconductor radiation detectors on a radiation detector support board is proposed (e.g., see JP-A-2003-167058 (paragraphs 0020 and 0021, FIG. 3)).

Radiation detection module, radiation detector and radiological imaging apparatus


Apparatus and method for scheduling transmission of data bursts in an OBS network are described. One embodiment is a router in an OBS network, the router comprising a grouper module for collecting a group of BHPs arriving during a BHP collecting period and classifying each BHP of the group of BHPs into corresponding baskets depending on the data channel scheduling window of its corresponding data burst; a classifier and channel assignment module for assigning data bursts to appropriate data channels; and a channel scheduler for constructing an interval graph representing data bursts corresponding to BHPs classified in a single one of the baskets having overlapping segments on each data channel as adjacent vertices and scheduling data bursts on each data channel based on a process that finds a maximum number of non-adjacent vertices on the interval graph.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to optical burst switching ("OBS") networks. More particularly, and not by way of any limitation, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for scheduling transmission of data bursts in such networks.
2. Description of Related Art
In burst switching technology, such as, in particular, optical burst switching ("OBS") technology, data bursts ("DBs"), each of which is made up of multiple packets, are switched optically at core nodes, or routers, in the OBS network. A small control packet, called the Burst Header Packet ("BHP") travels an offset time ahead of each DB along the same DB route and configures the optical switch for the duration of the DBs at the core node. In short, each BHP travels an offset time ahead of its associated DB and establishes a path for the DB.
Contention may occur between multiple PRP attempting to traverse the same link within the network. Several distributed scheduling algorithms with different behaviors and complexities have been suggested for use in OBS networks. OBS network performance can be defined in terms of burst loss ratio, which is the percentage of bursts lost during scheduling. Existing scheduling algorithms are inefficient and result in high burst loss ratio in OBS systems.
The problem of scheduling data bursts in OBS networks is to be solved in such a way that can optimize the resource utilization and improve scheduling performance. A well known solution is the Just-Enough-Time ("JET") scheduling scheme, which is an example of a scheduling solution that schedules DBs on a one-by-one basis immediately after the bursts or their associated burst header packets ("BHPs") are received. Since the scheduling decision is based on only the current burst, on a long-term basis, this solution can lead to a sub-optimal scheduling performance and relatively less efficient resource utilization. Further, the existing solutions, such as JET, that aim to provide service differentiation either have a problem of fairness in resource allocation or impose additional complexity.

Method and apparatus for scheduling transmission of data bursts in an optical burst switching network


A method for balancing layer-caused compressive or tensile stress in a semiconductor die, die wafer or similar substrate uses a stress-balancing layer (SBL) attached to an opposite side from a stress-causing layer before the semiconductor die or wafer is significantly warped are provided. The SBL may also serve as, or support, an adhesive layer for die attach and be of a markable material for an enhanced marking method.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods for making semiconductor dice. More specifically, the invention relates to methods and apparatus for balancing stress in a semiconductor die resulting from stress within a top side protective layer.
2. State of the Art
An individual integrated circuit semiconductor die is usually formed from a larger structure known as a semiconductor wafer. Wafers are usually formed by slicing a large cylindrically shaped crystal of silicon, although other materials such as gallium arsenide and indium phosphide are also used. The front side or surface of the wafer is first ground and polished to a smooth surface, for fabrication of multiple integrated circuits thereon. Each semiconductor wafer has a plurality of integrated circuits arranged in rows and columns with the periphery of each integrated circuit typically being substantially rectangular. In the electronics industry, there is a need for apparatus of smaller size, higher performance and higher memory storage. These factors drive the industry to produce smaller semiconductor dice by thinning each wafer, i.e., reducing the cross-section using a mechanical and/or chemical grinding process or etching. After thinning, the wafer is sawn or diced into rectangularly shaped "dice" along two mutually perpendicular sets of parallel lines or streets separating each row and column of dice in the wafer. Thus, the individual integrated circuit semiconductor die in the form of semiconductor dice are singulated from the wafer.
Fabrication of the integrated circuits is performed on the active surface of the undivided wafer, and consists of various processes including known steps of layering, patterning, doping, etching and heat treatment, for example. Various layers applied to the active surface of the wafer typically include insulators, semiconductors and metallic conductors. The final layering step generally comprises the application of a passivation material to cover the integrated circuit with a smooth electrically insulative protective layer. The purpose of the passivation layer is to protect the electronic components on the active surface, i.e., front side during subsequent wafer thinning, die testing, die singulation from the wafer, die packaging, and use. Exemplary passivation materials include silicon dioxide and silicon nitride (doped or undoped with boron or phosphorus, for example), as well as other materials including polymer-based compositions as known in the art. Further protection from damage during thinning of the wafer back side may be provided by temporarily attaching an adhesive-backed polymer (e.g. vinyl) sheet to the front side of the wafer. Such is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,840,614 of Sim et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,485 of Yamada, in which a UV-sensitive tape is attached to the active surface of a wafer and made removable by radiation following back side lapping. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,962,097 of Yamamoto et al., a protective member is removably attached to an active surface of a wafer by a pressure-sensitive adhesive.
Wafer thinning is performed in order to (a) reduce the package size, (b) reduce the consumption of saw blades in subsequent die singulation from the wafer, and (c) remove any electrical junctions that have formed on the wafer back side during fabrication. The processes typically used for wafer thinning include mechanical grinding and chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP). Alternatively, etching may be used but is not generally preferred. Each of these processes requires protection of the front side or active surface of the wafer containing the electronic components of the semiconductor die and/or wafer. The wafer grinding/polishing step typically results in a somewhat rough back side, which is not conducive to other semiconductor die manufacturing processes, such as direct laser marking of a semiconductor die.
Although wafer thinning produces semiconductor dice of much reduced size, it also tends to result in a higher incidence of semiconductor die breakage. In addition, stresses induced by any grinding and polishing processes must be carefully controlled to prevent wafer and semiconductor die warping or bowing. Wafer warp interferes with precise semiconductor die separation (singulation), and semiconductor die warping results in die-attach problems in subsequent packaging. In addition, warping may cause breakage of wire bonds, etc.
Stresses produced in a semiconductor die by application of a layer thereto may be classified as either "intrinsic" or result from "thermal mismatch" between the material of the semiconductor die and the material of the applied layer. In the former case, the applied layer may be in tensile or compressive stress as applied or cured. For example, a polymeric layer may shrink during a curing step to produce intrinsic compressive stress in the active surface of a semiconductor die to which it is attached. Stress resulting from thermal mismatch is particularly evident where the layer deposition is not done at room temperature. Upon cooling to ambient temperature or to a working temperature, different coefficients of expansion (CTE) result in differential contraction or expansion between the semiconductor die substrate, the wafer, and the applied layer. Each of these stress components is important in the fabrication of semiconductor die, particularly where the ratio of semiconductor die thickness to semiconductor die length (or width) is very low.
Application of an effective passivation layer to the front side of a wafer typically results in stresses in the wafer and the semiconductor die singulated therefrom. Stresses introduced by the passivation layer may be sufficient to produce undesirable warping in the semiconductor dice, particularly where the wafer has been thinned to a high degree. A rigid unwarped substrate is particularly critical in forming known-good-die (KGD) with wire bonds.
In one sawing method of singulation, the wafer back side is attached to a flexible plastic film to hold the individual semiconductor die in place during cutting. The film is subsequently separated and removed from the singulated semiconductor die, and has no effect upon die warping. In one version, the film is stretched to release the semiconductor dice, which are then simply picked off the film. The semiconductor dice may then be processed to form differing types of semiconductor packages.
In one commonly used die-attach method, an adhesive material (e.g., epoxy) is used to join the back side of a die to a carrier. The adhesive material may be insulative or be electrically conductive and heat conductive.
Layer formation on a wafer back side has been done for another purpose. Such layers have been applied to provide a smooth surface for marking a semiconductor die or wafer with indicia identifying the manufacturer, serial number, lot number, and/or bar code, for example.
Conventional laser marking techniques utilize a very high intensity beam of light to alter the surface of a semiconductor die by melting, burning, or ablating the device surface directly, or by discoloration or decoloration of a laser reactive coating applied to a surface of the bare semiconductor die or packaged semiconductor die. The beam of light may be scanned over the surface of the bare or packaged semiconductor die in the requisite pattern, or can be directed through a mask, which projects the desired inscriptions onto the desired surface of the bare or packaged semiconductor die. The surface or coating of the semiconductor die thus modified, the laser marking creates a reflectivity difference from the rest of the surface of the semiconductor die.
Numerous methods for laser marking are known in the art. One method of laser marking involves applications where a laser beam is directed to contact the surface of a semiconductor device directly, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,357,077 to Tsuruta, U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,090 to Woelki et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,204 to Nakamura et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,144 to Latta, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,931 to Duncan et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,025 to Carlson.
Another method of laser marking makes use of various surface coating, e.g., carbon black and zinc borate, of a different color than the underlying device material. Two examples of this type of marking are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,985,377 to Corbett and U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,722 to Folk et al.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,866,644 to Mercx et al., molding compounds are disclosed, which form products that may be laser marked. The molding compound contains a pigment as well as glass fibers for reinforcing the molded object.
The above-indicated methods have been found to be inadequate for marking the back side of a wafer or semiconductor die, inasmuch as the thinning methods, including mechanical grinding, chemical mechanical polishing, and etching all leave the back side in a nonsmooth condition with a surface topography unsuited for laser marking (with or without a thin surface coating).
Moreover, none of the coatings, if applied to the back side of a wafer or semiconductor die, will balance wafer stress or semiconductor die stress to prevent or significantly reduce warp.

Wafer back side coating to balance stress from passivation layer on front of wafer and be used as die attach adhesive


The embodiments of the disclosed technology provide an array substrate and manufacturing method thereof, and liquid crystal display. The array substrate comprises a base substrate comprising a pixel region and a driving circuit region. The driving circuit region formed on the base substrate comprises a common electrode driving interface pattern, and a gate driving interface pattern and a data line driving interface pattern, which are connected with the common electrode driving interface pattern, and the common electrode driving interface pattern comprises slits therein and the portions of the common electrode driving interface pattern divided by the slits are connected with one another.

Embodiments of the disclosed technology relate to an array substrate, a liquid crystal display and a method of manufacturing the array substrate.
Currently, liquid crystal displays are commonly used flat panel displays; thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCDs) have become the main type of liquid crystal displays due to advantages of low volume, low power consumption, no irradiation and so on. Generally, a TFT-LCD comprises a liquid crystal panel, a driving circuit and a backlight. The liquid crystal panel is the main component of the TFT-LCD and comprises an array substrate, a color filter substrate and a liquid crystal layer filled between the array substrate and the color filter substrate. The liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer rotate in order under the control of the voltages provided by the driving circuit so as to produce switch of light between brightness and darkness, and the control of the voltage is accomplished by thin film transistors.
FIG. 1A is a partial structure top view of a conventional array substrate, and FIG. 1B is a sectional structural side view along a line A-A in FIG. 1A. As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the array substrate comprises: a base substrate 1; data lines 5 and gate lines 2, formed to transversely and longitudinally cross each other on the base substrate 1; pixel units, arranged in a matrix form and defined by the data lines 5 and the gate lines 2. Each pixel unit comprises a thin film transistor (TFT) switch and a pixel electrode 11. Each TFT switch comprises a gate electrode 3, a source electrode 7, a drain electrode 8, and an active layer 6, which comprises a semiconductor layer 601 and an ohmic contact layer 602. The gate electrode 3 is connected with a gate line 2; the source electrode 7 is connected with a data line 5; the drain electrode 8 is connected with the pixel electrode 11, and the active layer 6 is formed between the source and drain electrodes 7 and 8 and the gate electrode 3. The gate line 2 and the gate electrode 3 are both covered by a gate insulation layer 4 so as to make the gate line 2 and the gate electrode 3 insulated from the TFT switch and the data line 5. The TFT switch and the data line 5 are both covered by a passivation layer 9 insulating the TFT switch and the data line 5 from the pixel electrode 11. The pixel electrode 11 can be connected with the drain electrode 8 through a passivation layer via 10. The above structure and patterns constitute a pixel region 30 on the array substrate (the portion surrounded by the dotted line in FIG. 1A), and an interface region 40 is outside of the pixel region. The detailed pattern in the interface region 40 is not shown in FIG. 1A.
As the development of TFT-LCD technologies, the requirement on viewing angle property of TFT-LCDs is continuously improved, so the technologies for wide viewing angle are proposed. Among the technologies for wide viewing angle, a technology of fringe field switch (FFS) adopts a transparent pixel electrode and a transparent common electrode both formed on a base substrate to produce a fringe field between the transparent common electrode and the transparent pixel electrode to drive the liquid crystal molecules above the transparent common electrode and the transparent pixel electrode. This FFS technology can widen viewing angles and improve the transmitting efficiency of the liquid crystal layer, thus has become a wide viewing angle technology which is widely researched and used.
The array substrate of an FFS type TFT-LCD can generally be manufactured by a five-mask process: in a first mask process, a first transparent common electrode layer (e.g., an indium tin oxide (ITO) layer) is formed on the base substrate, and then patterned to form a transparent common electrode comprising a common electrode line and a transparent electrode; gate lines and gate electrodes are formed in a second mask process, that is, the gate lines and the gate electrodes are formed on the transparent common electrode; patterns (SDT patterns) comprising data lines and active layers (generally comprising a semiconductor layer and an active silicon island), source and drain electrodes of TFTs are formed in a third gray tone or half tone mask, wherein the source and drain electrodes are formed above the active layer in each TFT, and the data lines are formed perpendicular to the gate lines; a passivation layer and passivation layer via holes are formed in a fourth mask, wherein the passivation layer is formed on the source and drain electrodes and cover the entire base substrate, and the passivation layer via holes are formed at the positions corresponding to the drain electrodes; in the fifth mask, a transparent pixel electrode layer (e.g., an ITO layer) is formed and then patterned to form the transparent pixel electrodes connected with the drain electrodes through the passivation layer via holes.
It is important to reduce the number of the mask process during the manufacturing of a TFT-LCD for lowering the manufacturing cost of TFT-LCDs. Thus, in order to reduce the manufacturing cost of TFT-LCDs a four-mask process is currently adopted to manufacture FFS type TFT-LCDs. The four-mask process differs from the five-mask process in that: the transparent common electrode, gate lines and gate electrodes are simultaneously formed in the first mask process by using a gray tone or half tone mask; at the same time, peripheral driving circuits, such as an interface region of the gate lines, an interface region of the common electrodes and so on, are also formed in the first mask process.
However, in the conventional technology, in forming the transparent common electrode, the gate lines and the gate electrodes through a gray tone or half tone mask, since the concentration of developing solution in the pixel region adjacent to the driving circuit pattern in the peripheral driving circuit region become not uniform with respect to the driving circuit pattern, which causes the thickness of the photoresist in the pixel region adjacent to the diving circuit pattern layer after exposure and development is obviously smaller than that in the other portions of the pixel region. In the resultant product, there exists a cloudy Mura (as shown in FIG. 2A) at the edge of the pixel region adjacent to the driving circuit pattern. Such cloudy Mura may have an influence on the subsequent etching procedure, causing increased difficulty for the etching process, making it difficult to control the parameters of the etching process, giving rise to occurrence of etching Mura, and decreasing the yield of products.

Array substrate having common electrode driving interface pattern with slits, and manufacturing method thereof, and liquid crystal display


A composite surface material comprising a permeable substrate and a permeable surface layer bonded to the substrate so that the material is permeable.

This invention relates to materials, particularly, but not exclusively, materials for surfacing paths, driveways, roadways and outdoor hard standing areas, methods of making them and methods of using them.
Porous sheet containing crumb rubber is known from GB767957, and is said to be useful as a carpet underlay or carpet backing. Sports and domestic surfaces made from materials including crumb rubber are known from US2006/0124031, the crumb rubber being incorporated in an asphalt matrix, and from US2008/0104814 and US 2004/0069924 in which an expanded polypropylene (EPP) product. is spread in situ or factory-formed into tiles or blocks and laid on a prepared base such as concrete or as a suspended floor, and covered with a surface finishing material of crumb rubber, hardwood flooring or carpet.
Crumb rubber is recovered from automobile and ground-running tyres, which contain wire. For use in surfacing materials, the rubber has to be completely separated from the wire, which would constitute a hazard, projecting randomly from the surface.
The present invention provides new surface materials, new ways of making them and new uses for them exhibiting substantial advantages over previous products.


Conventional state-of-the-art methods are limited in their ability to generate realistic animation from audio on any unknown faces and cannot be easily generalized to different facial characteristics and voice accents. Further, these methods fail to produce realistic facial animation for subjects which are quite different than that of distribution of facial characteristics network has seen during training. Embodiments of the present disclosure provide systems and methods that generate audio-speech driven animated talking face using a cascaded generative adversarial network (CGAN), wherein a first GAN is used to transfer lip motion from canonical face to person-specific face. A second GAN based texture generator network is conditioned on person-specific landmark to generate high-fidelity face corresponding to the motion. Texture generator GAN is made more flexible using meta learning to adapt to unknown subject's traits and orientation of face during inference. Finally, eye-blinks are induced in the final animation face being generated.

Speech-driven facial animation is the process of synthesizing talking faces from the speech input. Such an animation should not only demonstrate accurate lip synchronization, but also contain realistic motion, natural expressions, and realistic texture portraying target-specific facial characteristics. The animation process should also be able to quickly adapt to any unknown faces and speech. Current state-of-the-art methods are limited in their ability to generate realistic animation from audio on unknown faces, and the methods cannot be easily generalized to different facial characteristics and voice accent. Some of the failures can be attributed to the end-to-end learning of the complex relationship between the multiple modalities of speech and the video.

Audio-speech driven animated talking face generation using a cascaded generative adversarial network


There is provided a high-definition imaging optical system including: an aperture stop; a first lens disposed at an image side of the aperture stop, the first lens having a positive refractive power and having a convex object-side surface; a second lens disposed at an image side surface of the first lens; a third lens disposed at an image side surface of the second lens; a fourth lens having a convex image-side surface and having a positive refractive power; and a fifth lens having a concave image-side surface and having a negative refractive power, wherein a combined refractive power of the second and third lenses is negative. The optical system is high-performing and compact and can be further improved in resolution. Also, the optical system can correct chromatic aberration and improve color fringing in the case of indoor or outdoor photographing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging optical system, and more particularly, to an imaging optical system with high resolution and compactness, which is mounted on a mobile telecommunication terminal and a personal digital assistant (PDA) and easily installed on a surveillance camera, a digital camera, and a personal computer (PC) camera to photograph an object more clearly.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a camera module lens for use in a mobile telecommunication terminal is formed of two and three lenses for a low-pixel grade, and three and four lenses for a high-pixel grade.
That is, the lenses applied to the camera module designed as a low-pixel grade are relatively large in pixel size and require relatively low screen resolution. Accordingly, the camera module may be formed of three lenses, or two lenses if necessary.
However, the lenses applied to the camera module designed as a high pixel grade are small in pixel size and require very high screen resolution. Thus, the camera module is formed of three or four lenses.
The imaging optical system configured with three lenses experiences difficulty in correction of chromatic aberration. Thus, the imaging optical system may be configured with four lenses to ensure easy correction of chromatic aberration, thereby enhancing screen resolution.


Methods and apparatus are presented for performing coarse frequency tuning in a voltage controlled oscillator. The methods and apparatus are directed towards the use of a new voltage controlled oscillator comprising both a binary coding module and a thermometer coding module. The combination of the binary coding module and the thermometer coding module control a capacitance corresponding to a resonant tank which is used to coarse tune the frequency of the voltage controlled oscillator.

I. Field
The disclosed embodiments relate to the field of voltage controlled oscillators.
II. Background
A cellular telephone or other wireless communication device transmits and receives signals at specific frequencies. One or more voltage controlled oscillators, commonly referred to as VCOs, are typically used to set or establish desired transmit and/or receive frequencies. One basic type of VCO design is that of an inductor-capacitor (LC) resonant tank VCO.
In an LC resonant tank VCO, one common way by which the frequency is set, entails utilizing a set of metal-insulator-metal capacitors (MIMcaps) which can be switched on and off. By selectively switching MIMcaps, the center frequency of the VCO can be coarse tuned. Furthermore, MIMcaps confer improved compensation for process variation in the fabrication of VCOs. MIMcaps also provide a wider VCO frequency tuning range than would typically be available when a VCO is only implemented with traditional voltage variable capacitors (i.e., varactors). Moreover, using MIMcaps enables the VCO to have a lower tuning sensitivity, also called Kv, than is typically available when a VCO is only implemented with traditional varactors because the varactor elements can be smaller for the same VCO frequency tuning range.
When utilizing MIMcaps for tuning the frequency of an LC resonant tank VCO, there are typically two different MIMcaps configurations. One common configuration entails implementing the LC resonant tank VCO with a set of binary weighted MIMcaps. Specifically, the center frequency of the VCO can be coarse tuned or adjusted over a relatively wide range of frequencies simply by selectively controlling the binary weighting of the MIMcaps. Although this binary weighting scheme offers flexibility, versatility, adaptability, and scalability, it suffers in that it commonly results in suboptimal coverage over the entire VCO tuning frequency range. For example, with a binary weighted VCO implemented with a varactor (which is common practice), there are typically either gaps in the tuning frequency range where the varactor must cover a wider range of frequencies than desired or, conversely, there are overlaps whereby adjacent digital coarse frequency tuning settings are crowded too close together and the varactor is underutilized. In many instances, a binary weighted VCO exhibits both undesired gaps as well as overlaps across its respective frequency range. This disadvantage is virtually impossible to eliminate, given the realistic analog parasitics associated with the binary weighted scheme.
The other common MIMcaps configuration for tuning the frequency of an LC resonant tank VCO entails implementing the VCO with a thermometer coded MIMcaps tuning bank. Specifically, the center frequency of the VCO can be coarse tuned over a relatively wide range of frequencies simply by activating a specific number of MIMcap units, wherein each unit includes a similar amount of capacitance. Consequently, by using the thermometer coded scheme in VCOs, a more optimal spacing of digital coarse tuning in frequency can be achieved. However, when extended to cover larger numbers of bits to support a wider frequency range, a thermometer coded MIMcap tuning bank requires a relatively large section of silicon. In other words, the thermometer coded MIMcap tuning bank may grow to consume a large area of a chip's limited silicon die area. This is highly disadvantageous because either the chip must be made larger or other functionalities must be compromised. In addition, the unavoidable parasitics resulting from the larger and larger biasing circuitry associated with implementing smaller thermometer MIMcap units would also grow correspondingly. Furthermore, the smaller thermometer MIMcap units also tend to result in net worse Q factor; the Q factor represents the quality factor of the LC resonant tank of the VCO. A lower Q factor directly translates into a degradation of the VCO phase noise and power consumption.

Coarse frequency tuning in a voltage controlled oscillator


A multi-deck baking oven including a housing and at least two baking chambers located within the housing, adjacent baking chambers being separated by an insulating layer, at least one of the insulating layers including a hollow partition, wherein each insulating layer dampens the rate of heat flow between the adjacent baking chambers.

It is common for baking ovens to have a number of individual chambers or decks, mounted usually one above the other. This design permits several different products to be baked at once. In this arrangement, each product is located on a separate deck, having its own air temperature, steam atmosphere and bake time.
Separating one baking chamber from another is usually accomplished by inserting insulation (e.g. rockwool) between the baking chamber's floor and roof. This avoids unwanted heat from one baking chamber, travelling through to the walls which separate the adjacent baking chambers. The heating chambers are generally fully sealed from one another so that steam and byproducts of the baking process cannot travel into the insulating material, or into the other baking chambers.
While the insertion of thermal insulation material between the heating chambers has been effective in thermally isolating each heating chamber, the required thickness of the insulation layer has limited the number of vertically stacked baking chambers which can be readily accessed by the oven's operators. For example, the height of five baking chamber oven, using conventionally insulating material, is such that the top and/or bottom baking chambers are difficult to reach. The resulting poor ergonomics of these ovens represent a serious health and safety concern.
Excessive insulation thickness is especially a problem in ovens which have the heating elements located under the oven floor, forming a false floor and/or false roof. The heat built up under the false floor/roof creates a greater insulating need and hence thicker insulating material is required.
To address this problem, the use of highly compressed insulating material has only been partly successful. The pitfall with using compressed insulating material is that it can become brittle, and the denseness of the material can cause the material to gradually absorb heat, until it becomes as hot as the heating chambers above and below. This banking of heat then works in reverse to being an insulator, and instead acts as a heat source for heat into the chambers. The baking characteristics therefore changing as the heat bank gets hotter, leading to the production of poor quality baked goods. Further, insulating material although initially isolated from the baking chambers is still prone to entering the baking chambers as the oven deteriorates with age. Thus, the use of fibrous insulating material presents a hygiene and contamination hazard over the life of the oven which must be addressed.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved insulation system which avoids the use of bulky and/or contaminating insulation material.

Insulation for baking chambers in a multi-deck baking oven


Transports cards to an image forming portion, and turns cards over after forming images on one side of cards at the image forming portion. Transports an intermediate transfer sheet to an image forming portion, forms images on the intermediate transfer sheet at the image forming portion and transports cards to the transfer portion along with transporting the intermediate transfer sheet to the transfer portion, and transfers images formed on the intermediate transfer sheet at the image forming portion to the other side of cards at the transfer portion. Switching between a direct transfer method and an indirect transfer method makes either transfer method applicable thereby improving printer user convenience, enables the forming of images to a recording medium using the optimum image forming method and reduces running costs. After direct transfer, indirect transfer is consecutively executed without discharging the card from the image forming apparatus thereby protecting the security of personal information and ensuring the security of personal information even when discharging cards printed on one side is unavoidable from the image forming apparatus when printing to both sides is incomplete.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image forming method for printing a variety of information such as images and characters to a recording medium, such as a card, and more particularly to a printing method that is capable of switching printing methods according to the characteristics of the recording medium or the information to print the information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, thermal transfer method printing apparatuses that record desired images and characters by thermally transferring with a thermal head via a thermal transfer film to a recording medium are used to create card shaped recording medium, like credit cards, cash cards, license cards and ID cards. As an example, Japanese Patent Publication (Tokkai) No. 09-131930 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,959,278) teaches a direct transfer method printing apparatus that directly transfers images and characters to a recording medium via thermal transfer film. The use of a thermal sublimate ink has the benefit of attaining high quality images because this type of ink is more expressive. However, a receptive layer to receive ink on the surface of a recording medium to which images, etc., are transferred is an essential element to enable this method of printing, so a problem exists in that either the type of recording medium that can be used is limited, or it is necessary to form the aforementioned receptive layer upon the surface of a recording medium.
Generally, cards made of polyvinyl chloride (also known as PVC cards) are widely used as the recording medium because they can receive thermal sublimate ink. However, due to the fact that harmful substances are generated when these cards are burned, there has been consideration given to switching to cards made of polyethylene terephthalate (also known as PET cards). However, PET cards have a crystal-like quality so not only is it difficult to use them for thermal sublimate printing, but embossing them is also difficult. Thus, if it is necessary to emboss the surface of the recording medium, the use of PVC cards is presently unavoidable.
Furthermore, in recent years there are card shaped media of the type having IC chips or antennae embedded therein such as IC cards, which are being used in a variety of fields. Because the embedding of such elements into the card, the surface of the card becomes uneven resulting in problems in transferring images.
Japanese Patent Publication (Tokkai) No. 08-58124 teaches the technology of an indirect transfer method printing apparatus that transfers an image to an intermediate transfer medium once, then transfers that image again to the recording medium, as a method for overcoming the aforementioned problems. According to this method, it is possible to overcome the problems such as the limitation of recording medium related to the receptive layer or the transferring of images to an uneven surface of the recording medium which had been considered demerits of the direct transfer method. Furthermore, this method has the advantage of being easier to printing to the entire surface of the card shaped recording medium compared to the direct transfer method.
In Japanese Patent Publication (Tokkai) No. 11-263032 is disclosed a configuration that establishes a pooling mechanism that functions as a buffer for the transfer sheet between an image forming means that forms images to a belt-shaped transfer sheet (intermediate transfer film) and a re-transferring means that re-transfers images transferred to the transfer sheet to a card that is the target for receiving the image thereby enabling the lining up of the image forming process and the re-transferring process. Disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication (Tokkai) No. 08-58125 is a thermal transfer printing apparatus that prints to both the front and back surfaces of a recording paper, configured to transfer ink to an intermediate transfer film using a thermal head and after forming an image, to re-transfer the ink image to a recording paper surface by a heat roller, and configured to transfer ink to the back side of a recording paper with a thermal head that is different from the aforementioned thermal head, the thermal head for transferring ink to the back surface of the recording paper surface interposed by an ink film is opposingly arranged to a heat roller for the retransfer process.
However, running costs for the intermediate transfer method are higher than the direct transfer method because an intermediate transfer medium must be used. Printing also takes longer. Furthermore, depending on the design of the card, even if the entire front surface is required for printing, often times only the back side is used to print precautions for card use, thus there are fewer cases requiring printing over the entire surface. Thus, it can be said that there are merits and demerits for both methods of printing. Still further, Japanese Patent Publication (Tokkai) No. 11-263032 arranges the image forming process and the re-transferring process lined up adjacently, but it only handles the aforementioned indirect transfer method. Furthermore, to print to both front and back surfaces of a recording medium on the same thermal transfer printing apparatus according to the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication (Tokkai) No. 08-58125, it is necessary for the transport speed to be different for the recording medium when being processed by the heat roller or the thermal head. When both surfaces of the recording medium are heated, it has been pointed out that the problem of poor peeling of the film occurs as a result of the high temperature of the intermediate transfer film.
Therefore, to handle information relating to printing, such as the surface shape and characteristics of the recording medium including the type of material of the recording medium such as whether it is PVC or PET, embossed or whether or not it includes IC elements and whether or not it is necessary to print to the entire surface of the recording medium, and the various purposes, if there is an image printing method that can switch printing methods between the direct transfer method and the indirect transfer method to print to a recording medium with either transfer method, convenience to users who are printing would be improved and running costs associated with printing using the optimum image forming method to the recording medium would be reduced.
Also, when forming images to both sides of a recording medium using such an image forming method, generally, private personal information relating to the owner of the recording medium is recorded onto one surface of the recording medium, so from the point of view of security to protect personal information, it is not preferable to form images such as precautions on the other side of the recording medium using the image forming apparatus again after the recording medium having been recorded with personal information on one side has been discharged from the image forming apparatus wherein the aforementioned image forming method was executed, and in the event it is necessary to discharge the recording medium with images formed only on one side from the image forming apparatus for some reason such as an error in a machine failure or power outage, it is preferable to discharge the recording medium with only precautions that does not include personal information printed on one side. To rephrase this, when printing to both sides of a recording medium, providing for the unavoidable discharge of recording medium before printing is completed, without discharging the recording medium from the image forming apparatus until the printing of both sides of the recording medium has been completed, cautions, etc., are formed as images on the recording medium in advance to increase the security to protect personal information by forming images relating to personal information last. Here, security means not only protection of personal information in the image forming apparatus wherein the image forming method is performed normally, but also the protecting of personal information providing for emergency situations in the image forming apparatus.
Furthermore, when switching the image forming method between the direct transfer method and the indirect transfer method to form images to the front and back sides of a recording medium, if after images are formed on one side of a recording medium using the indirect transfer method, images are formed on the other side of a recording medium using the direct transfer method, the fixing of the image transferred in the former image forming on the recording medium will be improved.
When printing (forming images) with a configuration wherein both methods exist inside the printing apparatus, to make the entire printing apparatus more compact and to attain low costs, the sharing of portions of the image forming portion that are used in both methods and when the direct transfer method is selected, the recording medium and the intermediate transfer medium are transported in contact at the image forming position, accompanying the sharing of members. Contact friction of the intermediate transfer medium will be large if the recording medium in contact thereto is moved and the intermediate transfer medium not being used is not transported when using the direct transfer method, resulting in damage to the unused portion of the intermediate transfer medium and thus printing problems in the indirect transfer method.


A NAND EEPROM is disclosed which is capable of variously setting, for each chip, the voltage to be applied to the control gates of memory cells. The semiconductor chip includes a NAND memory cell array and a high-voltage generating circuit for generating data writing internal voltage VPP required when data is written on the memory cell array. Moreover, the semiconductor chip includes a set voltage selection circuit for arbitrarily setting the level of the voltage VPP generated by the high-voltage generating circuit for each chip and a multiplexer for extracting, to the outside of the chip, setting signal LTF which is a signal for enabling the level of the voltage VPP set arbitrarily.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit device having, in a semiconductor chip thereof, a voltage generating circuit for generating operation voltage required for an integrated circuit thereof, a method of investigating a cause of a failure if the failure takes place in the semiconductor integrated circuit device, and a method of verifying the operation of the semiconductor integrated circuit device.
2. Description of the Related Art
An EEPROM, which is one of non-volatile memories, permits data to be electrically written thereto and data to be electrically erased therefrom. A portion of EEPROM, for example, an EEPROM called NAND EEPROM, uses a tunnel current when data is electrically written or erased. The NAND EEPROM has a plurality of memory cells (hereinafter called xe2x80x9ccellsxe2x80x9d) serially connected between bit lines and the ground lines. A portion of the NAND EEPROM comprises, in the chip thereof, a voltage generating circuit for generating writing/erasing voltage, the level of which is higher than the power supply voltage. The NAND EEPROM can be operated by only supplying one type of power supply voltage.
FIGS. 28A to 28C show a cell of the NAND EEPROM. FIG. 28A is a plane view, FIG. 28B is a cross-sectional view taken along line Bxe2x80x94B shown in FIG. 28A, and FIG. 28C is a cross-sectional view taken along line Cxe2x80x94C shown in FIG. 28A.
FIG. 28A shows two cells, in series, connected to each other. Then, the structure of the cell will now be described while paying attention to one of the two cells.
As shown in FIGS. 28A to 28C, an N-type silicon substrate 1 includes a Pxe2x88x92type well 2 formed therein. The well 2 includes a plurality of N+type diffusion layers 3 formed therein. The N+type diffusion layers 3 serve as sources and drains of the cell. A portion of the substrate 1 between the N+type diffusion layers 3 is used as a channel region 4. On the channel region 4, there is formed a gate oxide film (SiO2) 5. Note that a thick silicon dioxide film (SiO2) 6 formed on the well 2 is a field insulating film for separating the cells from one another. The field insulating film 6 is formed by LOCOS (Localized Oxidation of Silicon) A floating gate 7 is formed on the top surface of the gate oxide film 5 to the field insulating film 6. The floating gate 7 is made of electrically conductive polysilicon. The floating gate 7 is a charge storage layer for enabling the threshold of the cell to be variable. Therefore, the floating gate 7 is formed for each cell. On the floating gate 7, there is formed a control gate 9 through an interlayer insulating film (SiO2). The control gate 9 is made of electrically conductive polysilicon. The control gate 9 serves as a word line.
The method for writing data xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d in the cell will now be described.
The well 2 and the N+type diffusion layers 3 respectively are grounded, and then program potential VPP (about 20V) is applied to the control gate 9. As a result, the control gate 9 and the floating gate 7 are capacity-coupled to each other so that the potential of the floating gate 7 is raised. The conduction type of the channel region 4 is reversed from P type to N type. The N-type channel region 4 is connected to the N-type diffusion layer 3. The potential of the channel region 4 is made to be the ground potential. Thus, the potential difference takes place between the channel region 4, which has been made to be the ground potential, and the floating gate 7. Therefore, a tunnel current flows from the floating gate 7 to the channel region 4 (and the N+type diffusion layers 3). When the tunnel current has been allowed to flow, electrons are injected into the floating gate 7. The floating gate 7, into which electrons have been injected, is negatively charged. When the floating gate 7 has been negatively charged, the threshold of the cell is raised. When the threshold of the cell has been raised, the cell is turned off when data is read out. The foregoing state is a state in which data xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d has been written. When data is read out, the state in which the cell has been turned on, is a state in which data xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d has been written. In this specification, the method of writing data xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d is omitted from description.
The magnitude of the tunnel current depends upon the level of the potential between the floating gate 7 and the channel region 4. Since change in the magnitude of the tunnel current causes the amount of electrons to be injected into the floating gate 7 to be changed, the amount of charge of the floating gate 7 is changed. That is, even if the same program potential VPP is applied to the control gate 9, change in the intensity of the electric field E results in the threshold of the cell being changed.
The electric field E is represented by the following equation:
E={CCF/(CCF+CFS)}xc3x97(1/tGAOX)xc3x97Vxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
wherein CCF is the capacity of a capacitor between the control gate 9 and the floating gate 7, CFS is the capacity of the capacitor between the control gate 9 and the channel region 4, tGAOX is the thickness of the gate oxide film 5 and V is the voltage to be applied to the control gate 9.
An assumption is performed that a capacitor having capacity CCF and a capacitor having capacity CFS are parallel-plate type capacitors respectively having areas SCF and SFS . Moreover, thickness of the interlayer insulating film 8 is assumed to be tINTER.
Assuming that the gate oxide film 5 and the interlayer insulating film 8 are made of the same material (SiO2) having the same dielectric constant, the foregoing Equation (1) can be converted into the following equation:
E=(V/tGAOX)xc3x97[1/{1+(SFS/SCF)xc3x97(tINTER/tGAOX)}]xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2)
As can be understood from Equation (2), the electric field E is in inverse proportion to the thickness tGAOX and the area SFS. The area SFS is determined by gate width W shown in FIG. 28B and gate length L shown in FIG. 28C.
The thickness tGAOX of the gate oxide film 5 is determined in an oxidizing process for forming the gate oxide film 5. The gate length L is determined in a lithography process for patterning the control gate 9 and the floating gate 7. That is, each of the thickness tGAOX, the gate width W and the gate length L unintentionally contains dispersion (dispersion occurring during the manufacturing process) from a designed value. Since each of the thickness tGAOX, the gate width W and the gate length L contains dispersion from the designed value as described above, the electric field E cannot be constant for all chips.
However, since the voltage V is fixed for all chips, the quantity of electrons to be injected into the floating gate 7 is dispersed for each chip.
The dispersion becomes greatest for each manufacturing lot because the same manufacturing conditions cannot be allowed to reappear for all lots even if the manufacturing process is performed on the same manufacturing line.
To prevent dispersion in the quantity of electrons to be injected into the floating gate 7, it might be considered to feasible to employ a contrivance with which the voltage to be applied to the control gate 9 is made to be variable for each chip. The voltage to be applied to the control gate 9 is set by using a fuse. However, the method of setting the voltage by using the fuse cannot enable the set voltage level to easily be known after the semiconductor integrated circuit device has been packaged. To detect the set voltage level, the package is needed to be decomposed to take out the chip, followed by decomposing the chip to visually confirm whether the fuse has been disconnected.
If the integrated circuit device encounters a failure, investigation of the cause of the failure is a critical fact to significantly improve the reliability of the products and manufacturing yield of the same.
The causes of failures experienced with the integrated circuit device have not been limited to simple causes, such as short circuit and breakdown, as the structure of the integrated circuit device has been complicated. For example, the causes are exemplified by interference of circuits and a peculiar phenomenon occurring during the operation of the circuit, each of which cannot be expected at the time of designing the integrated circuit device.
Although the chip is, as a matter of course, decomposed to investigate the cause of the failure, the decomposition results in the device to be broken and, therefore, it cannot be operated anymore. Thus, interference of circuits and a peculiar phenomenon occurring during the operation of the circuit, each of which cannot be expected cannot be investigated.
In view of the foregoing, a first object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor integrated circuit device capable of detecting a set internal voltage level without a necessity of decomposing the package and the chip even after the chip has been packaged and a method of investigating the cause of a failure in a semiconductor integrated circuit device using the foregoing semiconductor integrated circuit device.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor integrated circuit device capable of previously verifying the operation of an integrated circuit at each set internal voltage level and a method of verifying the operation of a semiconductor integrated circuit device using the semiconductor integrated circuit device.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor integrated circuit device having a circuit for setting the internal voltage level to be any one of variable levels, capable of minimizing the size of the circuit and thus having a small area.
To achieve the first object, a semiconductor integrated circuit device according to the present invention comprising: a semiconductor chip; an integrated circuit provided in the chip; an internal voltage generating circuit for generating an internal voltage used in the integrated circuit; an internal voltage setting circuit for setting a level of the internal voltage; and a level-setting information extracting circuit for extracting a level-setting information from the internal voltage setting circuit to the outside of the chip.
To achieve the second object, a semiconductor integrated circuit device according to the present invention comprising: a semiconductor chip; an integrated circuit provided in the chip; an internal voltage generating circuit for generating an internal voltage used in the integrated circuit; an internal voltage setting circuit for setting a level of the internal voltage; a determining circuit for determining the level of the internal voltage; and a changing circuit for changing the level of the internal voltage before the determining circuit determines the level of the internal voltage.
To achieve the third object, a semiconductor integrated circuit device according to the present invention comprising: a semiconductor chip; an integrated circuit provided in the chip; an internal voltage generating circuit for generating first and second internal voltages used in the integrated circuit; a first internal voltage setting circuit for setting a level of the first internal voltage; and a second internal voltage setting circuit for setting a level of the second internal voltage.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

SEMICONDUCTOR INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DEVICE, METHOD OF INVESTIGATING CAUSE OF FAILURE OCCURRING IN SEMICONDUCTOR INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DEVICE AND METHOD OF VERIFYING OPERATION OF SEMICONDUCTOR INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DEVICE


An operating shaft which provides compensation for axial and spatial misalignment between a rotatable component mounted within an enclosure and a rotating apparatus generally outside the enclosure is disclosed. The operating shaft has a first end dimensioned to be slidably received within a receiving portion of the rotating apparatus such that the shaft is maintained in a fixed angular position with respect to the rotating apparatus. The shaft is axially slidable with respect to the rotating apparatus such that it will provide compensation for axial misalignment between the rotatable component and the rotating apparatus. The shaft has a second end configured to engage the rotatable component such that rotation of the rotating apparatus will produce a corresponding rotation of the rotatable component. The shaft also has a spatial compensation device which is integrally formed from the shaft between the first and second ends. The spatial compensation device provides compensation for spatial misalignment between the axis of the rotatable component and the axis of the rotatable apparatus. This is accomplished by creating a compensating angle between the first and second ends which permits the shaft to be rotated about its axis while maintaining the compensating angle.

It is common practice to install rotatable electronic and electromechanical components within housings. If these components require a rotational input from outside the housing they are usually either placed near the housing wall to ensure alignment with the external rotating means or large clearance holes are placed in the housing to allow for misalignment. In many applications it is desirable to locate the rotatable component at some distance away from the housing wall. In these cases a special component which has a shaft of sufficient length to pass through the housing wall such that the external operating means can be attached is generally required. These special components increase the product cost and may dictate the component location within the housing. In today's miniaturization of electronic components it is desirable to preassemble components on printed circuit boards which are then installed within the housings. Due to manufacturing tolerances a precise location of the rotatable component within the housing is not always cost effective. Therefore, some misalignment between the rotatable components and access openings provided in the housing are to be expected. These misalignments may cause a binding of the component shaft or the external rotating means. If there is a binding of the shaft or the external rotating means, the electronic component may not operate in a precise manner. Further, there is a possibility that the printed circuit board to which the component is attached may fail due to a combination of stress in its printed wiring due to the misalignment and vibration to which the device is subjected. It is therefore desirable to provide an inexpensive means to compensate for axial and angular misalignment between the rotatable component located within the housing and its external operating means.

Device for providing axial and spatial misalignment compensation between a rotatable component and a rotating means


A chair with height adjustable armrests and a foldable back utilizes an engaging rod to control the height at which the armrest is positioned and a locking assembly to control the folding operation of the chair back, so that the user can adjust the height of the armrests as desired and fold the chair back for facilitating storage of the chair.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to chair parts, and more particularly to a chair with height adjustable armrests and a foldable back.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional chairs are inconvenient to store since the chair back occupies large space. As a result of this, a chair with a foldable back was developed on the market, such as U.S. Pat. No. 7,311,361 entitled with "apparatus for simultaneously folding seat chair back and armrest, although such a chair is quite convenient to store since the chair back and the armrests can be simultaneously folded, its structure is relatively complex, and the height of the armrest cannot be adjusted as desired.
Hence, Taiwan Patent No. 086217219, entitled with "height adjusting apparatus for chair armrest" was developed in order to overcome the above problem. This technology utilizes both ends of a spring to push the cylindrical engaging portions outwards and utilizes the engaging portions to position the chair armrest, so that if the height of the chair needs adjusting, the spring will be axially compressed in such a manner that the engaging portions axially retract to disengage from the chair armrests. Obviously, the technology that a spring cooperates with a cylindrical structure to move axially is not new, but the technology of controlling the armrest position is not limited to enabling the engaging portions to move axially to position the armrests, so that the applicant of the present invention has developed a chair with height adjustable armrests and a foldable back from the angle of changing the controlling and positioning manner and simplifying the structure used for folding the chair back.

Chair with height adjustable armrests and a foldable back


The invention is directed to an ultra thin pressure sensitive adhesive construction suitable for the high speed application of label mounting equipment. The labels include a polyethylene film having a density of from 0.917 to 0.924 g/cm3 and a thickness of less than 1.8 mils; a pressure sensitive adhesive on one surface of the film; and a release composition coated paper liner having a thickness of less than 2.2 mils releasaby attached to the pressure sensitive adhesive.

Labels are attached to containers for advertisement and appearance. In large commercial applications, labels are applied to substrate containers or goods with high speed equipment. High speed equipment transfers the label, or facestock, from a liner release sheet to the substrate container. Heretofore, the facestock has been at least 3.4 mils thick. The backing or liner material has been paper or a polymeric film such as polyethylene terephthalate. Thicknesses of the liner have varied, but paper liners have been at least 2.2 mils thick and more often at least 2.5 mils thick.
Ultra thin facestock having thickness a low as 0.7 mils is known when biaxially oriented polypropylene has been used for label facestock material in combination with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) liner material. Biaxially oriented polypropylene is stiff and even very thin biaxially oriented polypropylene having a thickness as low as 0.5 mils can lend itself to high speed label mounting operations. In these operations the label facestock for very small periods of time hangs in air after the liner, such as a polyethylene terephthalate liner, has been removed from the facestock during application of the label. The PET is tough and smooth, and hence, can be relatively thin. PET is smooth and will protect the clarity of polypropylene film. Paper liners are cheaper, but are too rough and put the clarity of polypropylene at risk. The toughness of PET will protect the thin low tensile strength of the polypropylene facestock label.
Polypropylene film facestock, however, is not without problems. Without a top coating, printing on the film surface scratches and needs to be over-coated with lacquer or layered with another polypropylene to mitigate scratching. Moreover, polypropylene is not readily printable as other films such as polyethylene. While polyethylene needs to be surface treated, such as with a corona treatment, to enhance printability, it is still less costly to corona treat polyethylene for printability than to over-coat polypropylene to mitigate scratching and enhance printability. Moreover, the stiffness of polypropylene works against its use on flexible substrates, such as squeezable bottles, where deformation of the label is important.
United States Patent Publication 2003/0152722 of Fearn et al. describes thin film facestock labels of 1 mil or less in conjunction with a polyester film release liner. This publication refers to the facestock films as polypropylene, polyethylene or PVC, but describes biaxially oriented polypropylene as "exemplary". Even if this polyethylene film is used for facestock, the publication appears to suggest that it should be biaxially oriented (as is the case with polypropylene), to attain sufficient stiffness for the film.
United States Patent Publication 2001/0030030 of Nandy et al. describes film label stock of polypropylene and polyethylene having a thickness of 2 mils laminated with a polyester release liner.
As with polypropylene films, the use of polyester liners, such as polyethylene terephthalate, has been thought necessary when attempting to produce extremely thin labels with thin polyethylene films. As can be seen from the Fearn et al. publication, the use of ink as well as biaxially oriented film has been thought necessary for the thin films to have sufficient strength and stiffness to survive high speed production conditions and avoid tearing and stretching. The polyester liners cause as well as solve problems. While they may strengthen the label stock, they also cause static electricity in the label stock which creates materials handling problems. Moreover, ultra thin facestocks also have required over lamination with another film to achieve sufficient durability for labeling operations.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,380,572 to Kotani et al. describes transparent pressure sensitive polyethylene labels. It does not specify the thickness of the polyethylene facestock used, but rather in a description of prior art generally describes a "label sheet" having 25 to 250 μm. This statement was made, however, in conjunction with the general utilization of rather stiff films such as PET and polyvinyl chloride films. Kotani et al. note that these stiff films can not be matched with flexible container substrates. In short, Kotani et al. does not suggest the use of thin polyethylene films for labels, especially in conjunction with inexpensive thin paper liners.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,158 to Ewing and its reissue patent, Re. 32,929, describe deformable polyethylene labels for squeezable bottles and other deformable substrates. Kotani et al. describe Ewing's labels at low densities as being fragile, especially very thin films with low densities. Ewing's films have thicknesses in the range of 0.05 mm to 0.127 mm at densities of from 0.910 to 0.925 g/cm3 and from 0.076 mm to 0.0127 mm at densities of from 0.925 to 0.940 g/cm3. At higher densities and thicknesses, Ewing's labels will inherently not have the clarity of the very thin film labels having relatively low densities.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,099,927 to Freedman describes die cut film labels having a thickness of less than 3 mils, e.g. 2 to 3 mils, but does not suggest the ultra thin facestock or the thin facestock with a thin liner as described in connection with the instant invention.

Thin polyethylene pressure sensitive labels


A sex pheromone composition effective in the attraction of female pecan weevils has been found, and comprising a mixture of substantially pure components, said components comprising: I) a racemic mixture of the cis and trans isomers of 2-isopropenyl-1-methylcyclobutaneethanol, II) (Z)-3,3-dimethylcyclohexane-.DELTA..sup.1,.beta. -ethanol!, III) (Z)-3,3-dimethylcyclohexane-.DELTA..sup.1,.alpha. -acetaldehyde!, and IV) (E)-3,3-dimethylcyclohexane-.DELTA..sup.1,.alpha. -acetaldehyde! in the approximate ratio of 7:16:3:3. The compositions have use as mating disruptants and as attractants for the purpose of population control or monitoring.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a pheromonally based composition and methods for its use in the control of the pecan weevil, Curculio caryae (Horn).
2. Description of the Prior Art
The pecan weevil, Curculio caryae (Horn) is a serious economic pest of pecans (Caryae illinoensis Koch), attacking maturing fruit in late summer and causing damage thereto through the making of feeding and oviposition punctures. The larvae, upon completing development in the nut, leave through a small hole in the shell and burrow into the soil. The weevils remain there for a period of 2-3 years before emerging as adults to commence another cycle.
Van Cleave and Harp in an article entitled "The Pecan Weevil: Present Status and Future Prospectives" (Proc. 64th Ann. Conv. Southeast Pecan Growers Assoc. pp. 99-111, 1971), reported that field-caged female pecan weevils attracted more weevils of both sexes than did caged male weevils. Polles et al. in an article entitled "Attraction of the Pecan Weevil to its Natural Pheromone and Grandlure" (Pecan South 4:26-28, 1977), reported on field studies in which wing-type traps, each baited with 6 live females and pecan nutlets for food, captured 85 pecan weevils (73% males). The same number of traps, baited with males captured 56 weevils (66% males), and blank traps captured 55 weevils (65% males). Polles et al., also baited traps with one or more of the components of the pheromone of the boll weevil Anthonomus grandis grandis Boheman (Tumlinson et al., "Identification and Synthesis of the Four Compounds Comprising the Boll Weevil Sex Attractant" J. Org. Chem. 36:2616-2621, 1971), on the premise that related insects may biosynthesize and respond to related compounds. A total of 23 pecan weevils (87% male), were captured with the 4-component mixture, grandlure. With (+)-cis-2-isopropenyl-1-methylcyclobutaneethanol (Component I alone), the captures totaled 7 (86% males); with (Z)-3,3-dimethyl-.DELTA..sup.1,.beta. -cyclohexaneethanol (II), there were 15 (100% males); and with (Z) and (E)-3,3-dimethyl-.DELTA..sup.1, -cyclohexaneacetaldehyde (III and IV), there were 10 (90% males). However, the blank captured about as many as did individual components: 10 weevils (70% males). Therefore, none of these tests were sufficiently comprehensive to permit statistical evaluations and in no instance was further work reported.
Mody et al., in an article entitled "Pecan Weevil Sex Attractant: Bioassay and Chemical Studies" (J. Insect. Physiol. 19:2063-2071, 1973), bioassayed fractions obtained from volatile oils of each sex of pecan weevils in field tests. Primarily males were trapped with female fractions, and primarily females were trapped with male factions. GLC-MS was used to identify a number of volatile components from the male and female oils, but on the basis of their structures, none appeared capable of accounting for the attractancy of either sex.
Hedin et al., "Sex Pheromones of the Male and Female Pecan Weevil, Curculio caryae: Behavioral and Chemical Studies" (Environ. Entomol. 8:521-523, 1979), showed that male and female pecan weevils were attractive to their opposite sex using a newly developed laboratory bioassay. Extracts of males attracted females and vice versa. (Z)-3,3-dimethyl-.DELTA..sup.1,.beta. -cyclohexaneethanol was identified as present in a weevil extract and shown to possess some attractiveness to both sexes in preliminary field bioassays, used either as adsorbents or catalysts.
While various methodologies and pheremonal compositions exist for the control of other insect species, there remains a need for the creation of such tools for use with the pecan weevil.

Sex pheromone composition for pecan weevil

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of Agriculture