A method and apparatus automatically fabricates a three dimensional object from individual layers of fabrication material having a predetermined configuration. Successive layers are stacked in a predetermined sequence and affixed together to form the object. The fabrication material is carried on a substrate to a stacker. At the stacker the layers are stacked together, with each layer being successively affixed to the stack of previously affixed layers, and with the substrate removed from each layer after it is affixed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for automatic fabrication of three-dimensional objects from a plurality of individual layers of fabrication material stacked together in sequence to form the object. More particularly, the invention relates to the use of a substrate to convey each layer to a station where these layers are affixed to each other and then the substrate is removed.
2. Background Discussion
The idea of automated fabrication of three-dimensional solid objects dates back at least to the 18th century, when a pantograph-like device was used in France to copy medallions. James Watt later built several machines, based on the same principal, capable of carving full human busts. Over the past 45 years, machining, lathe-turning and grinding devices have been placed under computer control (called "CNC" for "computer-numerical control") to allow the generation of original shapes from designs entered into computers by engineers using computer-aided design (CAD) software. These processes are called "subtractive" fabrication, because they start with a solid block of material and generate the desired shape by removing material from the block.
Since the subtractive processes work by applying a cutting tool to a solid block, they have the common disadvantage of being limited in the shapes that they can generate. Intricate or nested structures are difficult or impossible to build by these methods. A more modern approach is "additive" fabrication in which a fluid or powdered material is solidified or congealed in successive small regions or layers to form the desired object. This idea goes back at least to the photo-relief process of Baese (U.S. Pat. No. 774,549), and has been substantially refined through dual-laser photopolymerization of Swainson (Danish Patent Application 3611), liquid droplet deposition of Masters (U.S. Pat. No. 4,665,492), single-laser photopolymerization of Andre (French Patent Application 84 11241) and Hull (U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,330), masked-lamp photopolymerization of Pomerantz (U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,154) and Fudim (U.S. Pat. No. 5,135,379), laser sintering of Feygin (U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,352) and Deckard (U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,538), and robotically guided extrusion of Crump (U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,329).
There are also several hybrid processes which combine additive and subtractive processes. Usually this involves cutting or etching the contours of individual layers of an object, and stacking and binding the contours. The earliest use of such a process is that of Morioka (U.S. Pat. No. 2,015,457), and more recent refinements have been made by DiMatteo (U.S. Pat. No. 3,932,923), Feygin (U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,352), Kinzie (U.S. Pat. No. 5,015,312), and Berman (U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,503).
Sparx AB of Sweden and Schroff Development Corporation of Mission, Kans., have manufactured manual systems which use a substrate to carry a sheet of fabrication material bonded to a substrate. Individual layers of material are formed by cutting through the material, removing negative material, and, prior to affixing successive layers, removing the substrate. These systems are similar to a Carried-Sheet fabricator, except that their operation is not fully automated and therefore cannot achieve the accuracy, speed, and ease of use of a Carried-Sheet fabricator.
All of the prior additive and hybrid processes suffer from several or all of the following drawbacks:
(1) Accuracy and resolution are limited to the domain of about 0.1 millimeters (0.004 inch). One reason is the difficulty of controlling the action of a laser beam (whether for irradiating, as in Hull or Deckard, or for cutting, as in Feygin), a particle jet (as in Masters), or an extrusion head (as in Crump), plus the difficulty of compensating for the width of the laser beam, jet stream or extrusion bead. Another reason is the minimum thickness of a single layer that can be formed from the raw material liquid or powder, or the minimum thickness of the extrusion bead that can be laid down. PA1 (2) In the fully additive processes, large regions of solid material take a long time to fabricate, slowing down the process for building structures with such large solid regions. PA1 (3) All of the processes are difficult and expensive to scale up for fabrication of large objects, because they involve complicated mechanisms of laser optics or robotics. PA1 (4) All of the processes call for fabrication specifically in very thin layers, which limits the fabricator speed unnecessarily in cases where great resolution in the vertical direction is not necessary. In many instances, fabricator users would like to get a fast, low resolution, rendition of the desired object, but none of the prior art provides a way to achieve this. PA1 (5) Only Kinzie and Crump provide a way to achieve a mixture of colors in the object generated. Kinzie requires a secondary printing process on special absorbent or translucent material to achieve this, and Crump requires the use of specially died materials. PA1 (6) All of the processes always produce a solid object in a permanently fixed configuration, such that any fracturing or cross-sectioning of the object is tantamount to destroying it. No means has ever been provided for generating an object which can be temporarily taken apart into sections and easily reassembled with no loss of integrity. PA1 (7) The raw materials for most of the processes are specialty chemicals which are expensive and, in some cases, are toxic or require special handling to prevent combustion. PA1 (8) Many of the processes are limited to working with certain types of materials such as only photopolymers in the simple photocuring methods, or only thermally softenable materials in laser sintering. PA1 (9) Most of the processes hide the object being built in an opaque solid or a murky liquid environment, depriving the fabricator user from the pleasure and benefit of watching the object take shape. PA1 (10) All of the processes, except that of Sparx AB, use complicated and expensive mechanisms and/or electro-optical devices, making fabricators based on them large, heavy, expensive and difficult to maintain. PA1 (1) Accuracy and resolution can both be easily achieved in the domain of about 0.05 millimeters (0.002 inch). This can be further reduced to less than about 0.01 millimeters (0.0004 inch) with specially accurate cutting or positioning mechanisms and very thin materials. PA1 (2) In several embodiments of this invention in which layers of the desired object are cut from sheet material, large regions of solid material are fabricated very quickly because they only require cutting around the periphery. PA1 (3) In embodiments of this invention in which layers of the desired object are cut from sheet material, it is easy to scale up to build large objects. This is because the required mechanisms and components are quite simple and, in many cases, are already available for other purposes in large size formats. PA1 (4) Thicker layers of materials are used when vertical resolution can be sacrificed for speed. This option is analogous to the "draft mode" available on dot matrix printers to achieve fast, low resolution, output. A means (angular cutting) is also provided for ameliorating this reduction of resolution. PA1 (5) Colors can be easily incorporated and mixed in any desired degree of complexity in the fabricated object. For several embodiments, in which layers of the desired object are cut from sheet material, at least 60 colors are already available. PA1 (6) In one variation of the method of this invention, fabricated objects are not permanently fixed, but can be easily separated at any one or more of many cross sections. The resulting sections can then be easily rejoined to form again the complete object. The object can be thus separated and rejoined at the same or different cross sections, repeatedly and without limitation. PA1 (7) For several embodiments of this invention in which layers of the desired object are cut from sheet material, the raw materials are readily available and include inexpensive varieties. The materials are nontoxic and have no special handling or storage requirements. PA1 (8) A wide variety of materials may be used in the process, including, metals, plastics, ceramics, and composites. PA1 (9) The method of this invention can be practiced so as to leave the object being built visible during the fabrication process, providing the user with the pleasure and benefit of watching the object take shape. PA1 (10) The method can be embodied using simple and inexpensive mechanisms, so that the fabricator equipment can be relatively small, light, inexpensive and easy to maintain. PA1 (a) providing a stacker, which is a station were the successive layers are stacked together, PA1 (b) forming on a carrier substrate a first layer of fabrication material, PA1 (c) conveying the first layer of fabrication material on said carrier substrate to said stacker and transferring to a base in said stacker, PA1 (d) separating the carrier substrate from the fabrication material, exposing a bonding surface on said first layer to which successive layers may be affixed, PA1 (e) forming on the carrier substrate a second layer of fabrication material and conveying the second layer of fabrication material on the carrier substrate to the stacker, PA1 (f) aligning the second layer in correct position with respect to said first layer and bringing the second layer into contact with the bonding surface on the first layer so that said layers become affixed together in the correct relative position and begin to form a stack, PA1 (g) separating by peeling said carrier substrate from the fabrication material after affixing the second layer to the first layer, exposing a bonding surface on the second layer to which other successive fabrication layers may be affixed, and PA1 (h) repeatedly forming and conveying successive fabrication layers on the carrier substrate in series to the stacker and aligning in correct position and then affixing the successive fabrication layers to the stack thus being formed and then separating the carrier substrate from each successive fabrication layer, until said object is formed as said stack. PA1 (a) providing a station where the successive individual layers are formed into a stack, PA1 (b) placing on a carrier substrate a first layer of fabrication material corresponding to the configuration of one individual layer, PA1 (c) conveying the first layer of fabrication material on said carrier substrate to said station, PA1 (d) prior to separating the carrier substrate selectively inducing bonding of at least a portion of the fabrication material to the stack, and PA1 (d) separating said carrier substrate after bonding said one individual layer to said stack. PA1 (a) providing a station where the successive individual layers are stacked together to form a stack, PA1 (b) placing on a carrier substrate a first layer of fabrication material and dividing said first layer of fabrication material into a negative region of waste material and a positive region corresponding to the configuration of one individual layer, PA1 (c) conveying the divided, first layer of fabrication material on said carrier substrate to said station, PA1 (d) prior to separating the carrier substrate, including the negative region of waste material, from the positive region, selectively inducing bonding of at least a portion of the positive region to the stack, and PA1 (d) separating said carrier substrate, including the negative region of waste material, from the positive region after bonding said positive region to said stack. PA1 (a) providing a station where the successive individual layers are stacked together, PA1 (b) placing on a carrier substrate a first layer of fabrication material and dividing said first layer of fabrication material into a negative region of waste material and a positive region corresponding to the configuration of one individual layer, PA1 (c) conveying the divided, first layer of fabrication material on said carrier substrate to said station and transferring to said station, PA1 (d) separating the carrier substrate, including the negative region of waste material, from the positive region, exposing a bonding surface on said one individual layer to which a successive individual layer is affixed, said bonding surface including a first region which accepts a second layer of fabrication material and a second region that interferes with attaching said second layer of fabrication material to the bonding surface, PA1 (e) deactivating the second region of the bonding surface prior to affixing said second layer of fabrication material to the bonding surface, PA1 (f) placing on the carrier substrate a second layer of fabrication material and dividing said second layer of fabrication material into another negative region of waste material and another positive region corresponding to the configuration of a successive individual layer, and conveying the divided, second layer of fabrication material on the carrier substrate to said station, PA1 (g) aligning said individual layers and bringing said bonding surface on said one individual layer into contact with said successive individual layer so that said layers become affixed together, PA1 (h) separating said carrier substrate, including the negative region of waste material, from the positive region after affixing said one individual layer to said successive layer, exposing a bonding surface on said successive individual layer to which another successive fabrication layer is affixed, and PA1 (i) repeatedly aligning and then affixing successive fabrication layers together divided into positive and negative regions after conveying said successive fabrication layers on the carrier substrate in series to the station until said object is formed, first affixing individual successive fabrication layers together and then separating the carrier substrate, including the negative region of waste material, from each individual, successive fabrication layer. PA1 (a) providing a station where the successive individual layers are aligned and affixed together to form a stack having a bonding surface to which a successive individual layer is affixed, PA1 (b) placing one successive layer of fabrication material on a carrier substrate carried on a platen positioned next to said station, and PA1 (c) bringing said platen into engagement with the stack to affix the one successive layer to the bonding surface, and PA1 (d) separating said carrier substrate from the one successive layer when said one successive layer is affixed to the bonding surface by moving the platen to pull incrementally the carrier substrate from the stack. PA1 (a) providing a station were the successive individual layers are stacked together, PA1 (b) forming on a surface of one or more carrier substrates a series of layers of fabrication material corresponding to the configuration of individual layers by extruding the fabrication material through a nozzle guided over said surface of a carrier substrate, PA1 (c) conveying said layers of fabrication material on a carrier substrate to said station, PA1 (d) aligning layers and bringing each of said individual layers into contact with a successive individual layer so that said layers become affixed, and PA1 (e) separating the carrier substrate from the individual layers of fabrication material, exposing a bonding surface to which a successive individual layer is affixed. PA1 (a) forming said individual layers with edges that slope in a manner that minimizes layer-to-layer graininess upon stacking the successive layers on top of each other, said edges forming corners with the surfaces of the layers, and PA1 (d) stacking said individual layers together in a predetermined manner with the corners of one edge meeting the corners of the edges of both the previous layer and the next following layer, whereby layer-to-layer graininess is minimized.
The ultimate commercial importance of automatic fabrication of three-dimensional objects is hampered by these disadvantages.

Method and apparatus for automatic fabrication of three-dimensional objects


A system and method for etching a substrate is provided. An embodiment comprises utilizing an inert carrier gas in order to introduce a liquid etchant to a substrate. The inert carrier gas may prevent undesirable chemical reactions from taking place during the etching process, thereby helping to reduce the number of defects that occur to the substrate and other structures during the etching process.

Generally, when an opening into a substrate is desired, the substrate may be initially masked by either a photoresist, hard mask, or other mask to protect those areas of the substrate where an opening is not desired. Once those areas are protected, the exposed portions of the substrate may be exposed to an etchant in order to react and remove the exposed material of the substrate to form the opening. Once the etchant has reacted with the material of the substrate and formed the opening to a desired depth, the etchant may be removed from the substrate, and other various processes may be utilized as desired in order to continue the manufacturing of the semiconductor device on the substrate.
In the etching process, a wet etch may be utilized in which the substrate is coated with the desired etchant in a liquid phase (instead of a vapor phase). The desired liquid etchant may be supplied from an etchant canister to an etching chamber, where a showerhead may then be used to disperse the etchant evenly across the substrate such that the desired liquid etchant is in contact with the exposed portions of the substrate. Once in contact with the exposed portions of the substrate, the etchant will begin to react with the substrate to form the desired opening where the masks do not protect the substrate.
Corresponding numerals and symbols in the different figures generally refer to corresponding parts unless otherwise indicated. The figures are drawn to clearly illustrate the relevant aspects of the embodiments and are not necessarily drawn to scale.

Semiconductor device and method of manufacture

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A new and improved wastewater treatment system suitable for the treatment of wastewater from a CMP process. A holding tank receives wastewater from a CMP wastewater collection tank. The holding tank may further receive wastewater from a backside grinding (BG) wastewater collection tank. A reaction tank receives wastewater from the holding tank. A coagulant polymer binds to the slurry particles in the reaction tank to precipitate the slurry particles out of solution. One or a pair of clarifiers receives the wastewater from the reaction tank, and the polymer-bound slurry particles are separated from the wastewater in the clarifier or clarifiers. An effluent collection tank receives the purified wastewater from the clarifier or clarifiers. The purified wastewater may be pumped to a storage tank such as a reused city water (RCW) tank for use in scrubber cleaning processes, for example.

In the fabrication of semiconductor devices from a silicon wafer, a variety of semiconductor processing equipment and tools are utilized. One of these processing tools is used for polishing thin, flat semiconductor wafers to obtain a planarized surface. A planarized surface is highly desirable on a shadow trench isolation (STI) layer, inter-layer dielectric (ILD) or on an inter-metal dielectric (IMD) layer, which are frequently used in memory devices. The planarization process is important since it enables the subsequent use of a high-resolution lithographic process to fabricate the next-level circuit. The accuracy of a high resolution lithographic process can be achieved only when the process is carried out on a substantially flat surface. The planarization process is therefore an important processing step in the fabrication of semiconductor devices.
A global planarization process can be carried out by a technique known as chemical mechanical polishing, or CMP. The process has been widely used on ILD or IMD layers in fabricating modern semiconductor devices. A CMP process is performed by using a rotating platen in combination with a pneumatically-actuated polishing head. The process is used primarily for polishing the front surface or the device surface of a semiconductor wafer for achieving planarization and for preparation of the next level processing. A wafer is frequently planarized one or more times during a fabrication process in order for the top surface of the wafer to be as flat as possible. A wafer can be polished in a CMP apparatus by being placed on a carrier and pressed face down on a polishing pad covered with a slurry of colloidal silica or aluminum.
A CMP process is frequently used in the planarization of an ILD or IMD layer on a semiconductor device. Such layers are typically formed of a dielectric material. A most popular dielectric material for such usage is silicon oxide. In a process for polishing a dielectric layer, the goal is to remove typography and yet maintain good uniformity across the entire wafer. The amount of the dielectric material removed is normally between about 5000 A and about 10,000 A. The uniformity requirement for ILD or IMD polishing is very stringent since non-uniform dielectric films lead to poor lithography and resulting window-etching or plug-formation difficulties. The CMP process has also been applied to polishing metals, for instance, in tungsten plug formation and in embedded structures. A metal polishing process involves a polishing chemistry that is significantly different than that required for oxide polishing.
Important components used in CMP processes include an automated rotating polishing platen and a wafer holder, which both exert a pressure on the wafer and rotate the wafer independently of the platen. The polishing or removal of surface layers is accomplished by a liquid polishing slurry consisting mainly of colloidal silica suspended in deionixed water or KOH solution. The slurry is frequently fed by an automatic slurry feeding system in order to ensure uniform wetting of the polishing pad and proper delivery and recovery of the slurry. For a high-volume wafer fabrication process, automated wafer loading/unloading and a cassette handler are also included in a CMP apparatus.
As the name implies, a CMP process executes a microscopic action of polishing by both chemical and mechanical means. While the exact mechanism for material removal of an oxide layer is not known, it is hypothesized that the surface layer of silicon oxide is removed by a series of chemical reactions which involve the formation of hydrogen bonds with the oxide surface of both the wafer and the slurry particles in a hydrogenation reaction; the formation of hydrogen bonds between the wafer and the slurry; the formation of molecular bonds between the wafer and the slurry; and finally, the breaking of the oxide bond with the wafer or the slurry surface when the slurry particle moves away from the wafer surface. It is generally recognized that the CMP polishing process is not a mechanical abrasion process of slurry against a wafer surface.
While the CMP process provides a number of advantages over the traditional mechanical abrasion type polishing process, a serious drawback for the CMP process is the difficulty in controlling polishing rates at different locations on a wafer surface. Since the polishing rate applied to a wafer surface is generally proportional to the relative rotational velocity of the polishing pad, the polishing rate at a specific point on the wafer surface depends on the distance from the axis of rotation. In other words, the polishing rate obtained at the edge portion of the wafer that is closest to the rotational axis of the polishing pad is less than the polishing rate obtained at the opposite edge of the wafer. Even though this is compensated for by rotating the wafer surface during the polishing process such that a uniform average polishing rate can be obtained, the wafer surface, in general, is exposed to a variable polishing rate during the CMP process.
Recently, a chemical mechanical polishing method has been developed in which the polishing pad is not moved in a rotational manner but instead, in a linear manner. It is therefore named as a linear chemical mechanical polishing process, in which a polishing pad is moved in a linear manner in relation to a rotating wafer surface. The linear polishing method affords a more uniform polishing rate across a wafer surface throughout a planarization process for the removal of a film layer from the surface of a wafer. One added advantage of the linear CMP system is the simpler construction of the apparatus, and this not only reduces the cost of the apparatus but also reduces the floor space required in a clean room environment.
Wastewater from the liquid polishing slurry used in the chemical mechanical polishing process must be properly treated for the removal of copper and other chemicals, as well as slurry particles, from the slurry prior to disposal. A typical conventional wastewater treatment system 10 is shown schematically in FIG. 1. The wastewater treatment system 10 includes a wastewater collection tank 12 which receives wastewater from both a CMP apparatus (not shown) and a Cu-CMP apparatus (not shown). The wastewater is distributed from the collection tank 12, into a holding tank 14 by operation of a set of pumps 16.
A second set of pumps 18 pumps the wastewater from the holding tank 14 into a reaction tank 20. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) base and sulfuric acid (H2SO4) may be distributed into the reaction tank 20 in various proportions to achieve a desired pH of the wastewater in the reaction tank 20. Selected quantities of FSC-835 polymer are further distributed into the reaction tank 20, where the FSC-835 polymer is rapidly mixed with the wastewater to bind or coagulate with the slurry chemicals in the wastewater. A reaction tank outlet line 22 distributes the wastewater, with polymer-bound precipitates, from the reaction tank 20 to one or multiple clarifiers 24. EA-630 polymer is introduced into the reaction tank outlet line 22 to bind remaining slurry chemicals in the wastewater before the wastewater enters the clarifiers 24. In the clarifiers 24, the polymer-bound precipitate particles separate out from the wastewater, which is then distributed to an effluent collection tank 26 through a clarifier outlet line 28. In the effluent collection tank 26, further adjustments may be made to the pH of the wastewater. Finally, the wastewater effluent is distributed from the effluent collection tank 26, through an effluent line 30 and into a reused city water (RCW) tank 34, by operation of a set of pumps 32. The wastewater effluent in the RCW tank 34 may be used for inferior water usage, such as, for example, in local scrubber cleaning applications.
While the FSC-835 and EA-630 polymers have been shown to adequately coagulate and precipitate out of solution chemicals in wastewater from slurry used in most chemical mechanical polishing applications, because the wastewater collection tank 12 receives wastewater from both CMP and Cu-CMP processes, excessive quantities of the polymers are necessary to adequately precipitate the high quantities of slurry chemicals in the wastewater. This contributes to unnecessary expense in the wastewater treatment process. Accordingly, a new and improved, more efficient system and process is needed for precipitating slurry chemicals in CMP wastewater for the proper treatment and disposal of the wastewater.
An object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved system for treating wastewater.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved system which is suitable for the treatment of CMP and Cu-CMP wastewater.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved wastewater treatment system which is efficient and economical.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved wastewater treatment system which facilitates the efficient use of coagulant polymers in the coagulation and precipitation of particles in wastewater.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved wastewater treatment system which combines backside grinding wastewater and/or backwash treatment wastewater with CMP wastewater to enhance coagulation and precipitation of particles in CMP wastewater.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved wastewater treatment system which is applicable to the treatment of wastewater in a variety of industrial applications and is not limited to use in treating CMP wastewater.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved method for the treatment of wastewater.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.


A fixed wireless access subscriber unit extension telephone cable connecting arrangement is disclosed. The cable itself includes a single pair of wires for carrying the tip and ring signals between the subscriber unit and an extension telephone set. The cable also includes at least one additional wire, or pair of wires. This additional wire or pair of wires is connected to an effective ground, thus reducing the noise signal induced in the cable which is passed to the extension telephone set. This effective ground can be a node within the fixed wireless access subscriber unit which serves as the electrical common for the unit. In this case it is preferable to connect the additional wire, or pair of wires to the effective ground via a suitable capacitor or capacitors.

An interface device for connecting a cellular radio transceiver to a conventional telephony device is not new. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,658,096, naming West et al as inventors, describes an interface arrangement for connecting a conventional telephone set to a cellular transceiver such that the cellular network can provide telephony service to such a telephone set. This patent describes an interface which includes means for automatically determining when the user of such a telephone set has finished dialling, as the concept for connecting a telephone to a cellular transceiver was known in the "radio-patch" art. The above cited West patent is known in the art, and has been cited many times in subsequent patents dealing with further aspects of connecting a cellular transceiver to a telephony device.
There exists a known problem when such a telephony device is connected to a cellular transceiver. Typically an extension cable connects the cellular transceiver interface to the extension device. The part of the extension cable in the vicinity of the cellular transceiver will pick up modulated RF signal transmitted by the transceiver, producing an induced signal in the extension cable.
This induced signal will travel along the extension cable into the extension device where it be demodulated. The resulting demodulated signal will be heard as a background noise on the extension handset. This demodulated signal will also travel back into the cellular transceiver, wherein the signal will be heard as background noise if a handset is connected directly to the transceiver. Note that the RJ-11 port of the cellular transceiver can be fitted with an RF filter to prevent the induced RF from entering the transceiver directly. However the demodulated signal from the extension device will not be blocked by such an RF filter.

Connecting arrangement for reducing induced noise


Embodiments for transferring data directly from primary storage to secondary storage in a virtualized network including virtual machine (VM) based storage, by exposing a source volume in the primary storage to a hypervisor host of the virtualized network, preparing a destination volume of the secondary storage as an empty volume and exporting it to the hypervisor host so that the host can the destination volume along with the source volume, and moving, in the hypervisor host, data from the exposed source volume to the exported empty destination volume using a combination of Storage Direct, Storage VMotion, and XCOPY or enhanced XCOPY technologies, wherein the XCOPY technology provides a direct transfer of data from the primary storage to the secondary storage.

Data protection comprising backup and recovery software products are crucial for enterprise-level network clients. Customers rely on backup systems to efficiently back up and recover data in the event of user error, data loss, system outages, hardware failure, or other catastrophic events to allow business applications to remain in service or quickly come back up to service after a failure condition or an outage. Secure and reliable backup processes form the basis for many information technology (IT) services.
Today there are several models of IT services offered as a service (″aS), such as IaaS (infrastructure as a service), PaaS (platform as a service), SaaS (software as a service), and so on. In all these cases, digital businesses are transitioning to Pay-Per-Use model in which compute, network, and storage resources are provided as services, which can be charged either together or as separate components. In such scenarios, customers want to count every available resource for production usage. In addition, backup solutions are required for customers to protect their data. Most of the present backup solutions consume compute and network resources of a production system to accomplish data movement during backup/restore operations. Such resource usage can represent a significant cost of the IT operations of the business.
One significant issue in present large scale virtualized systems that move data from a production environment as primary storage to a protection environment as protection storage is that data must be fed from the production storage to a hypervisor to virtual machines, such as through a Vproxy process, and then to secondary storage layer. This requires quite a few steps in the data transmission chain.
What is needed, therefore, is a backup solution that alleviates the resource constraints on the production host in virtual machine (e.g., VMware) environments. What is further needed is a system that can transfer data to be backed up directly from primary to secondary storage without going through the different virtualization layers that are currently used.
The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions. DellEMC, NetWorker, Data Domain, Data Domain Restorer, and PowerProtect Data Manager (PPDM) are trademarks of DellEMC Corporation.

Storage assisted virtual machine backups using storage VMOTION and XCOPY


A mirror assembly has one or more axes of motion and includes a mirror that is movable and forms an acute angle with a plane orthogonal to its axis of motion. The mirror assembly may include a first reflective mirror surface in the incoming optical path that is movable and forms an acute angle with a plane orthogonal to its axis of motion, and a second reflective mirror surface in the outgoing optical path that is movable and forms an acute angle with a plane orthogonal to its axis of motion and is moveable in a linear translation to scan the mirror in the interferometer in a way to generate a normal interferogram.

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) interferometric spectrometers are widely used in the analysis of chemical compounds. By measuring the absorption of infrared radiation by an unknown sample at various wave lengths in the infrared spectrum and comparing the results with known standards, these instruments generate useful information with respect to the chemical makeup of the unknown sample. In a typical FTIR spectrometer, infrared radiation from an infrared emitting source is collected, passed through an interferometer, passed through the sample to be analyzed, and brought to focus on an infrared detector. The interferometer system, in combination with the sample, modulates the intensity of the infrared radiation that impinges on the detector, and thereby forms a time variant intensity signal. It is the function of the detector to convert this time variant intensity signal to a corresponding time varying current. The current, in turn, is converted to a time varying voltage, which is presented to an analog-to-digital converter and then stored as a sequence of digital numbers to be processed in a processor associated with the spectrometer.
One important feature of the FTIR spectrometer is the moving mirror element that modulates the analytical radiation used by the instrument to study samples. The moving mirror allows a time-domain interferogram to be generated which, when analyzed, allows high resolution frequency-domain spectra to be produced. The computer performs a Fourier transform on the data to produce a spectrum which shows spectral-energy versus frequency.
In these types of instruments mirror positional accuracy is important because deviations in the mirror alignment produce small errors in the time-domain interferogram which may translate into large errors in the frequency-domain spectrum. In a typical interferometer, mirror deviations larger than 1/20 wave length of the analytical radiation used are considered significant and can seriously degrade the quality of the entire instrument.
The alignment of the mirror is ordinarily accomplished by supporting the mirror in a high precision bearing, such as an air bearing, and by attempting to align the bearing to the desired degree of precision. Alignment is usually accomplished by means of differential screws which are manually adjusted to align the moving mirror as perfectly as possible. This is a time consuming procedure requiring significant skill. It also adds to manufacturing expense and to field service costs because realignment is often required. In addition, it mandates the use of extremely accurate bearings which may be very expensive.
Efforts have been made to eliminate the need to manually align the high precision bearings. Although still requiring the use of high precision bearings, automatic static alignment at least relieves the user from performing time consuming realignments. For instance, some devices which automatically align the moving mirror use stepper motors to accomplish substantially automatic simulation of the manual alignment procedure. These devices typically use a computer which aids in the alignment of the static mirror at periodic service intervals. Disadvantages of these devices include slow speed, large size, high cost, and continuing dependence on high precision bearings.
Dynamic adjustment of the mirror tilt to correct for imprecise bearings and achieve desired alignment has been difficult to accomplish in practice. Such prior adjustment devices tend to be very expensive, slow, bulky, and poor in performance. For example, one device uses piezoelectric positioners to dynamically adjust mirror tilt. However, the positioners are large, expensive, and use up to one thousand volt drive levels. In addition to being large and expensive, power supplies for such high voltages create undesirable operating hazards.
To somewhat address the aforementioned conventional problems, mirror alignment devices have been developed. Such devices are described and claimed in the following U.S. patents (the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference): U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,545, entitled "MIRROR ALIGNMENT AND DAMPING DEVICE" and issued Jan. 4, 1994; U.S. Pat. No. 5,239,361, entitled "DYNAMIC MIRROR ALIGNMENT DEVICE FOR THE INTERFEROMETER OF AN INFRARED SPECTROMETER" and issued Aug. 24, 1993; U.S. Pat. No. 5,883,712, entitled "INTERFEROMETER OF AN INFRARED SPECTROMETER WITH DYNAMIC MOVING MIRROR ALIGNMENT" and issued Mar. 16, 1999; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,896,197, entitled "INTERFEROMETER HAVING GLASS GRAPHITE BEARING" and issued Apr. 20, 1999. Notwithstanding the advancements provided by these mirror alignment devices, there remains room for improvement.
Accordingly, the present disclosure addresses the need for an improved mirror alignment devices utilized in scientific optical interferometers such as an FTIR interferometer. Such mirror alignment devices can also be used in other optical systems such as microscopes, telescopes, and printers that need precise control of the angle of a beam of light.

Mirror alignment in optical scientific instruments

Thermo Electron Scientific Instruments LLC


A clamping assembly for a coupler comprises at least one clamping module which includes a clamping jaw (12) that is designed for connecting the coupler to a complementary means device and an actuating system that comprises a device of the screw/nut type which is driven by a motor. The actuating system is connected directly to the clamping jaw, and the clamping jaw is swivel-mounted to a support about a point that is fixed relative to the coupler.

The present invention relates in a general way to couplers.
As is well known, a coupler is a mechanical assembly comprising clamping modules, intended in particular for applying a preclamping force so as to provide mechanical linkage and fluid-tightness between an articulated product loading and unloading arms, in particular for fluid products, for example petroleum products (liquefied natural gas etc.), and a complementary means installed on a ship.
The present invention relates more particularly to the case when the coupler is a hydraulic coupler with several clamping modules, in practice three or more, capable of conveying liquid products at very low temperatures (down to −196° C.).
According to a known arrangement, each clamping module comprises a clamping jaw designed for connecting the coupler to a complementary means, such as a manifold, and an actuating system proper to the said jaw and comprising a device of the screw/nut type driven by a motor. The jaw is carried by a system of rods articulated at one of its ends, on a support, the actuating system acting upon the system of rods in order to impel the jaw towards a clamping position or to bring it back to a resting position.
However, in devices of this type that are already known, the forces transmitted by the rods depend on the thickness of the manifold flange at the clamping location which, in practice, varies from one location to another on the flange.
As a result the clamping is often insufficient or excessive.

Clamping assembly and a hydraulic coupler comprising it


A mirror mounting unit is disclosed for use in a limited rotation motor system. The mirror mounting unit includes a mirror, and a tapered base for coupling the mirror mounting unit to an output shaft of a limited rotation motor. In various embodiments, the tapered base may be male or female, the mirror may be formed integral with the tapered base, and the taper may be linear or non-linear.

The invention relates to limited rotation motors such as galvanometers, and particularly relates to limited rotation motors used to drive optical elements such as mirrors for the purpose of guiding light beams in scanners.
Limited rotation motors generally include stepper motors and constant velocity motors. Certain stepper motors are well suited for applications requiring high speed and high duty cycle sawtooth scanning at large scan angles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,275,319 discloses an optical scanning device for raster scanning applications.
Limited rotation motors for certain applications, however, require the rotor to move between two positions with a precise and constant velocity rather than by stepping and settling in a sawtooth fashion. Such applications require that the time needed to reach the constant velocity be as short as possible and that the amount of error in the achieved velocity be as small as possible. Constant velocity motors generally provide a higher torque constant and typically include a rotor and drive circuitry for causing the rotor to rotate about a central axis, as well as a position transducer, e.g., a tachometer or a position sensor, and a feedback circuit coupled to the transducer that permits the rotor to be driven by the drive circuitry responsive to an input signal and a feedback signal. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,632 discloses a conventional two-pole limited rotation motor.
A requirement of a desired limited rotation motor for certain applications is a system that is capable of changing the angular position of a load such as a mirror from angle A to angle B, with angles A and B both within the range of angular motion of the scanner, and both defined arbitrarily precisely, in an arbitrarily short time while maintaining a desired linearity of velocity within an arbitrarily small error. Both the minimum time of response of this system and the minimum velocity error are dominated by the effective bandwidth of the system. The bandwidth of the system is the concatenation of the servo amplifier bandwidth with that of the scanner.
For example, such limited rotation motors may be used in a variety of laser scanning applications, such as high speed surface metrology. Further laser processing applications include laser welding (for example high speed spot welding), surface treatment, cutting, drilling, marking, trimming, laser repair, rapid prototyping, forming microstructures, or forming dense arrays of nanostructures on various materials.
The processing speeds of such systems are typically limited by one of more of mirror speed, X-Y stage speed, material interaction and material thermal time constants, the layout of target material and regions to be processed, and software performance. Generally, in applications where one or more mirror speed, position accuracy, and settling time are factors which limit performance, any significant improvement in scanning system bandwidth may translate into immediate throughput improvements.
There is a need, therefore, for an improved limited rotation motor system, and more particularly, there is a need for a rotor for a limited rotation motor that provides improved bandwidth.

Mirror mounting structures and methods for scanners employing limited rotation motors


In braking force control apparatus and method for an automotive vehicle, a front-and-rear road wheel braking force distribution determining section determinatively distributes a front-and-rear road wheel braking force at a front-and-rear road wheel braking force distribution toward front and rear road wheel sides of the vehicle in accordance with a vehicular turning state to achieve the target deceleration and the vehicular deceleration developing section develops the target deceleration on the basis of the front-and-rear road wheel braking force distribution determined by the front-and-rear road wheel braking force distribution determining section.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to braking force control apparatus and method for an automotive vehicle which are capable of stably traveling the vehicle during a turning.
2. Description of the Related Art
A traction control system (TCS) and sideslip prevention system (or vehicular dynamic control (VDC) system) have been well known as a vehicular system which is capable of stably turning the vehicle. Both of the systems have aimed at vehicular stabilization. The former system is to increase stability by securing a lateral force of driven wheels through a suppression of a driving force and provision of a braking force with drive slips detected. The latter provides the braking force for each road wheel independently to stabilize a vehicular behavior in a case where a sideslip angle of the vehicle and a yaw rate are in excess of each corresponding predetermined value. However, under a situation such that a drive slip is not developed, or under a situation that the vehicle enters into a turning, when a vehicle speed thereof exceeds a limit speed set with a radius of the turn taken into account, each of the above-described stabilization systems has not been operated until a, so-called, drift-out motion or spin motion is provoked. A Japanese Patent No. 2600876 issued on Apr. 18, 1997 (which corresponds to a Japanese Patent Application First Publication No. Heisei 2-171373 published on Jul. 3, 1990) exemplifies a previously proposed braking force control apparatus. In the previously proposed Japanese Patent Application first Publication disclosed in the above-described Japanese Patent, a vehicular turning state variable of the vehicle is detected, in a case where the detected turning state variable approaches to a value set with respect to a limit turning state variable up to which the vehicle can stably be traveled, a target deceleration required to travel the vehicle maintaining a stability during the turning of the vehicle is calculated, and the braking force is applied to the vehicle which achieves the target deceleration is provided for the vehicle.

Braking force control apparatus and method for vehicle


A decision tree, representing a knowledge base, is segmented into at least two decision tree portions. The lower portion includes the tree entry point and is stored in a memory element with a faster access time than the upper portion, which includes the terminating element of the decision tree. Thus during the process of reading the tree entries for comparing them with the search object, the search entries in the lower portion of the tree can be read faster than the search entries in the upper portion, resulting in a faster traversal through the entire decision tree.

Many different applications require a search of a large data base of elements, also referred to as a knowledge base, to locate a match with a given search object. In certain applications the search object and the elements of the knowledge base comprise a string of binary bits. An example of such an application is a bridge in a communications system.
A typical communication system includes a number of devices or nodes that communicate over a plurality of connections. The system is organized into a plurality of local connections with a limited number of nodes associated with (connected to) each local connection. A network of bridges interconnects the local connections so that each device can communicate with other devices not associated with the same local connection. The bridge for each local connection monitors input traffic from other bridges in the network to determine if traffic originating at another bridge is addressed to a node connected to it locally. In response, the bridge provides a path that allows the information to pass through to the local connection. Similarly, when information is sourced from the local connection to an external destination node, the bridge allows the information to pass from the local connection to the next bridge on the path to the destination node.
Typically, the information carried between nodes is in the form of packets of binary bits that travel from the source node to the destination node across the system. A packet typically includes bits identifying the addresses of the packet's source node and the destination node. In one addressing protocol, the address portion of the packet is 48 bits long, with the remainder of the packet comprising payload information bits.
In certain systems, a bridge monitors both internally generated traffic (i.e., traffic sourced at nodes connected directly to the bridge) and also monitors externally-generated traffic (i.e., traffic sourced at nodes external to the bridge) that is broadcast to all bridges of the network. For example, information broadcast over a local area network may not be intended for all network nodes, but is monitored by each network bridge to determine whether any of the intended destination nodes are connected to the bridge. This analysis is performed by maintaining, at each bridge, a knowledge base with an entry for each of the nodes on the bridge's local connection. Thus the bridge receives externally sourced packets and searches its knowledge base to determine whether the 48-bit destination address matches any of the node addresses located on its local connection. The destination address (i.e., the search object) could have a value of any one of 2^48 or about 280 trillion possible addresses. However, the number of entries in the bridge's knowledge base will be equal only to the number of nodes connected locally to it, and therefore will be significantly less than 280 trillion.
Searching a knowledge base to determine a match to a given search object is an important requirement for many different applications. For example, the following applications rely heavily on the performance of speedy searches: data base retrieval; expert systems; robotic and state control strategy; signal recognition, including for example speech and image recognition; communications, including for example data compression and protocol processing for bridging, routing and switching applications; natural language cognitive systems; modeling operations; parsers; and compilers.
One important attribute of any searching scheme is the worst case time required to complete a search. Generally, searching schemes are implemented in a plurality of steps or cycles that each take a predetermined amount of time to complete. Thus, the maximum time to complete a search is generally reduced by minimizing the time spent at each step of the search.
A data network classification engine typically utilizes a tree search process to determine various characteristics associated with each data packet or data block that enters the network device, i.e., to classify the input data according to one or more data attributes. Since the data is conventionally presented in the form of binary bits, the classification engine compares groups of the input bits with known bit patterns, represented by entries in the tree structure. A match between the group of input bits and the bits at a tree entry directs the process to the next sequential entry in the tree. The matching processes progress through each entry of the tree until the end is reached, at which point the input bits have been characterized. Because a large number of bits must be classified in a data network, these trees can require many megabits of memory storage capacity.
The classification process finds many uses in a data communications network. The input data packets can be classified based on a priority indicator within the packet, using a tree structure where the decision paths represent the different network priority levels. Once the priority level is determined for each packet, based on a match between the input bits and the tree bits representing the available network priority levels, then the packets can be processed in priority order. As a result, the time sensitive packets (e.g., those carrying video-conference data) are processed before the time insensitive packets (a file transfer protocol (FTP) data transfer). Other packet classifications processes determine the source of the packet (for instance, so that a firewall can block all data from one or more sources), examine the packet protocol to determine which web server can best service the data, or determine network customer billing information. Information required for the reassembly of packets that have been broken up into data blocks for processing through a network processor can also be determined by a classification engine that examines certain fields in the data blocks. Packets can also be classified according to their destination address so that packets can be grouped together according to the next device they will encounter as they traverse the communications medium.

Method of improving the lookup performance of three-type knowledge base searches


The present invention provides a copyholder having a ratchet mechanism including a flexible rack attached to a line guide with the rack being operable by a pawl which is moved by a foot operated actuator functioning through a cable to move the line guide in discrete steps the magnitude of which are adjustable. Manual adjustment of the line guide is permitted when the ratchet mechanism is in an inoperative position.

Copyholders in which line guides are manually moveable to highlight a particular line of text are numerous and widely used. Such copyholders require an interruption in a copy typing operation while the line guide is adjusted to the next one or more lines of text to be copied. Such activities are a waste of time in an office environment.


An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for distributed management in a storage system. The invention distributes increasingly complex storage management tasks to a message management module, a drive management module, a cache management module, and an interface management module to control operations of one or more storage devices, without depending on the availability of a “super” microprocessor. Furthermore, the invention provides for efficient inter-module communication through point-to-point passing of asynchronous queued messages and use of a centralized input/output context memory, such that all said modules may work in parallel independently and cooperatively, optimizing storage input/output performance at a reduced cost.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to data storage control architectures and more particularly relates to distributed management for data storage control architectures.
2. Description of the Related Art
Storage systems perform many management tasks for reading and writing data. Storage system management tasks may include accepting read and write data requests, controlling devices, mapping data to storage locations, mirroring data, adding redundant information, maintaining storage devices, and managing the flow of data to and from the storage devices. Storage systems may include Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks (RAID) systems and hard disk drives. Storage systems frequently use microprocessors to manage storage system tasks.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a storage system 100 in accordance with the current practice. The storage system 100 manages data storage tasks with a microprocessor 125. The storage system 100 includes a host 105, a host interface 110, an interface bus 115, a bus bridge 120, a local bus 150, a microprocessor 125, a memory 130, a storage interface 135, a cache interface 140, a cache 145, and a storage device 155.
The host 105 transfers data and commands and receives data and status responses through the host interface 110. The microprocessor 125 receives the commands through the interface bus 115, the bus bridge 120, and the local bus 150. The microprocessor 125 may also receive data. In addition, the microprocessor 125 fetches instructions from the memory 130 through the local bus 150. The microprocessor 125 controls the storage system 100 by issuing commands through the local bus 150, the bus bridge 120, and the interface bus 115 to the storage interface 135 and the storage device 155. The storage interface 135 communicates with one or more storage devices 155. In addition, the microprocessor 125 manages operations of the cache 145 through the cache interface 140. The microprocessor 125 manages storage tasks to read and write data. Furthermore, the microprocessor 125 may be required to dynamically perform other specific RAID tasks such as a standby rebuild and hot drive swapping and update RAID configuration information accordingly.
Unfortunately, as data processing system demands for data access increase, the storage system management tasks increase. The microprocessor 125 may be unable to efficiently manage the storage system tasks. Furthermore, growing task complexity increases microcode path lengths. The microprocessor developments such as wider instruction fetch, higher instruction issuing rates, larger instruction windows and more branch predictions have not kept up with the storage task management demands of storage systems. The interface bus 115 and local bus 150 may become bottlenecks to the rapid flow of data and commands between the host and the storage devices. In addition, the microprocessor 125 may have insufficient processing bandwidth to manage the storage tasks. Therefore, the desired increases in performance and cost reduction are difficult to achieve.
What is needed is a process, apparatus, and system that distributes management tasks among two or more task specific modules of lesser complexity. What is further needed is a process, apparatus, and system that allows centralized intermodule communication to promote parallelism among those modules. Beneficially, such a process, apparatus, and system would increase the task management bandwidth of storage systems at reduced cost.

Apparatus, system, and method for distributed management in a storage system


An ink ribbon for a color printer is provided which comprises a plurality of full color image strip portions each provided for printing a full color image on one sheet of printing paper during printing operation, each full color image strip portion including a plurality of ink color blocks applied with color inks different from each other, and marks, printed on blank portions in front of the ink color blocks so as to allow a printing operator to determine the color of the ink color blocks and the number of the used full color image strip sections. The marks may alternatively be provided on side areas of or blank portions in the ink color blocks respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an ink ribbon which may be employed in a color printer so as to allow a user to know the color of an image before printing and/or an amount of ribbon which has been used.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Japanese Patent First Publication No. 62-297184 discloses an ink ribbon utilized for continuous color printing in a thermal color printer. The ink ribbon is permeated with three ink color blocks, such as yellow (Y), magenta (M), and cyan (C) (or four ink color blocks further including black (B)). The three ink color blocks overlap each other on one sheet of printing paper during printing operation so that a desired full color image may be printed.
Such an ink ribbon is usually accommodated in a ribbon cartridge for convenience. Single and double reel types of ribbon cartridge are well known in the art. The single reel type ribbon cartridge includes therein only one ribbon supply reel, a ribbon take-up reel is provided in a printer. The double reel type ribbon cartridge includes therein both ribbon supply and take-up reels winding a ribbon therebetween.
In operation, when the ribbon cartridge is loaded into a color video printer, it engages a ribbon feeding mechanism including capstan and pinch rollers so that the ink ribbon is extracted from the supply reel toward the take-up reel at a constant speed. During this operation, a platen lapped with a sheet of printing paper rotates repeatedly in normal and reverse directions so that the three colors are printed sequentially on the printing paper overlapping each other.
In a such conventional color printer, a ribbon cartridge which is coupled with a set number of sheets of a special printing paper is usually used. Thus, an amount of the unused ribbon may deduced by counting the number of unprinted sheets of paper. This is however quite inconvenient for a use and it is difficult to know an exact amount of unused ribbon accurately.
Further, there has been recently proposed a new type of thermal color printer which may utilize regular sheets of printing paper. Therefore, in such a color printer, since the ribbon cartridge need not be matched with sets of a particular type of paper, a user cannot determine an amount of unused ribbon by checking the remainder of printing paper and printing operation may become disrupted, further inconveniencing the user.


A raft for an amusement ride is provided. The raft has at least one passenger support having accommodations sufficient to accommodate at least one passenger thereon. At least one link is provided on the raft, and is compatible with a link on another raft to allow the interconnection of a plurality of rafts to form the amusement ride. The passenger support is connected to a buoyant portion of the raft through a rotary connector to allow rotation of the passenger support relative to the buoyant portion of the raft.

Amusement rides of the prior art include those wherein a boat or raft is moved along a watercourse by a flow of water Such boats or rafts may be free floating such as the raft of U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,943, or sliding such as the boat or toboggan of U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,783.
In amusement rides with such prior art water rafts the entire raft typically rotates when a peripheral member thereof contacts a wall of the channel defining the watercourse or an obstruction or guide member in or adjacent to the watercourse. Such rotation tends to avert excessive rubbing action between the interconnected rafts and wall portions, obstructions and other objects engaged by the rafts as they travel along the watercourse
It appears that there is a continuing demand for improved water rides that provide an interesting experience for riders and/or more controlled action of the rafts and/or more flexible or increased seating capacity. The present invention is aimed at fulfilling these and other needs.


The present invention provides a process for producing aromatic hydrocarbons at a sufficiently high yield, from a light hydrocarbon containing mainly hydrocarbons having 7 or fewer carbon atoms. The process of the present invention comprises bringing a feedstock containing mainly light hydrocarbons having 2 to 7 carbon atoms into contact with a catalyst composition comprising at least a gallium-containing crystalline aluminosilicate wherein a reaction step for converting the feedstock to aromatic hydrocarbons comprises at least two or more reaction layers formed of the catalyst composition, arranged in series and heating means arranged either between or in the reaction layers, the amount of the catalyst in the first stage reaction layer is 30 percent by volume or less of the total catalyst volume, and/or the yield of the aromatics in the product outflowing from the first reaction layer is from 0.5 to 30 percent by mass.

Conventionally, catalytic reforming of straight run naphtha with a platinum/alumina catalyst has been employed widely for commercial purposes in order to produce gasoline with a higher octane number or aromatic hydrocarbons. The feedstock naphtha for the catalytic reforming is a fraction with a boiling point of 70 to 180° C. when an automobile gasoline is intended to be produced and a fraction with a boiling point of 60 to 150° C. when aromatic hydrocarbons such as xylene, that is BTX, are intended to be produced. However, it has been difficult to produce high octane number gasolines and aromatic hydrocarbons from a feedstock light hydrocarbon containing mainly hydrocarbons having 7 or fewer carbon atoms at a high yield with the conventional catalytic reforming processes because the conversion rate of the feedstock hydrocarbon to aromatics decreases with a decrease in the carbon atom number of the feedstock hydrocarbon, resulting in a decrease in the octane number of the resulting product. Therefore, the usage of the light hydrocarbon is limited to petrochemical raw materials and raw materials for the production of city gas.
Various processes for producing aromatic hydrocarbons from a light hydrocarbon are known in which a light hydrocarbon is brought into contact with a gallium-containing crystalline silicate catalyst such as a crystalline gallosilicate (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 59-98020), a crystalline galloaluminosilicate (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 60-501357), or a hydrogen-type crystalline aluminogallosilicate of MFI structure (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 62-254847).
However, these catalytic reforming processes are large endothermal reactions and thus fail to proceed with the reaction because the reaction temperature decreases unless the reaction layers are efficiently supplied with heat, resulting in a problem that aromatic hydrocarbons can not be produced at a high yield.
For catalytic reforming of a hydrocarbon fraction within the gasoline boiling point range with a conventional platinum/alumina catalyst in the presence of hydrogen, a process is known in which a plurality of catalyst reaction layers are arranged in series and heating means are arranged therebetween (U.S. Pat. No. 3,992,465). However, this catalytic reforming of a gasoline fraction is different in the composition of the feedstock and catalyst system from the above-described processes for the production of aromatics from a light hydrocarbon. Further, this patent document does not disclose the volume distribution of the plurality of reaction layers or the composition of the product outflowing from each of the reaction layers or suggest that the yield of the aromatics in the converted reaction product is significantly increased depending on the selection of the distribution or composition. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 11-172261 discloses a catalytic reforming process for increasing BTX by providing two reforming zones. However, this process is complicated because different types of catalysts are used in those reforming zones.
As described above, for the production of aromatic hydrocarbons from a light hydrocarbon containing mainly hydrocarbons having 7 or fewer carbon atoms, a process wherein aromatic hydrocarbons are produced at a high yield has not been known yet.

Process for production of aromatic hydrocarbons


It is an object of the invention to allow the use of a practical light source to record information in each information recording area of a recording medium having a plurality of information recording areas through the use of holography while moving the recording medium.

In general, holographic recording for recording information in a recording medium through the use of holography is performed by superimposing light that carries image information on reference light within the recording medium and by writing a resultingly generated interference pattern into the recording medium. For reproducing the information recorded, the recording medium is irradiated with reference light such that the image information is reproduced through diffraction derived from the interference pattern.
In recent years, volume holography, or digital volume holography in particular, has been developed and is attracting attention in practical fields for ultra-high density optical recording. Volume holography is a method for writing a three-dimensional interference pattern by making positive use of a recording medium in a direction of its thickness as well, and is characterized in that it is possible to enhance the diffraction efficiency by increasing the thickness of the medium, and a greater recording capacity can be achieved by employing multiplex recording. Digital volume holography is a computer-oriented holographic recording method which uses the same recording medium and recording method as with the volume holography, whereas the image information to be recorded is limited to binary digital patterns. In the digital volume holography, analog image information such as a picture is once digitized and developed into two-dimensional digital pattern information, and then it is recorded as image information. For reproduction, this digital pattern information is read and decoded to restore the original image information for display. Consequently, even if the signal-to-noise ratio (hereinafter referred to as SN ratio) during reproduction is somewhat poor, it is possible reproduce the original information with extremely high fidelity by performing differential detection and/or error correction on the binary data encoded.
By the way, typical recording apparatuses that record information on a disk-shaped recording medium through the use of light comprise an optical head for irradiating the recording medium with light for information recording. In these recording apparatuses, the recording medium is rotated while the optical head irradiates the recording medium with the light for information recording, thereby recording information on the recording medium. In these recording apparatuses, a semiconductor laser is typically used as the light source for generating the light for information recording.
For holographic recording, as in the typical recording apparatuses described above, the recording medium can also be rotated while the recording medium is irradiated with information light and reference light so that information is recorded in a plurality of information recording areas of the recording medium in succession. In this case, as with the typical recording apparatuses, a practical semiconductor laser is desirably used as the light source of the information light and the reference light.
When existing photosensitive material for holography is used to make a recording medium for holographic recording and this recording medium is rotated while the recording medium is irradiated with the information light and the reference light that are generated by a semiconductor laser, however, there arises a problem as follows. That is, in this case, it is difficult to give exposure energy sufficient to record information in the form of an interference pattern to a single information recording area of the recording medium in a short time. To cope with this, the exposure time may be extended to give sufficient exposure energy to a single information recording area. Nevertheless, this can increase the moving distance of the information recording areas within the exposure time for a single information recording area, resulting in deterioration in information accuracy.
Here, the forgoing problem will be detailed with a concrete example. If a high-power light source such as a pulse laser is used as the light source instead of a semiconductor laser, then it is satisfactorily possible to record information on the recording medium while rotating the recording medium. Take, for example, the case where a pulse laser which has a maximum power of several kilowatts and is capable of generating pulsed light of several tens of nanoseconds is used as the light source. Here, assume the light intensity on the recording medium to be 200 W. The pulse width of the pulsed light shall be 20 ns, and the linear speed of the information recording areas 2 m/s. In this case, the moving distance of the information recording areas within the exposure time for a single information recording area is 0.04 μm, not exceeding one tenth of the wavelength of the light, so that it is possible to maintain sufficient information accuracy. The use of such a pulse laser as described above for the light source is impractical, however.
Next, turn to the case where a semiconductor laser is used as the light source. Here, assume that the light intensity on the recording medium is 20 mW and the linear speed of the information recording areas is 2 m/s. In this case, an exposure time of 200 μs, or 10000 times as much as with the foregoing pulse laser, is required in order to give a single information recording area the same amount of exposure energy as with the pulse laser. The moving distance of the information recording areas for this exposure time reaches 400 μm, making it difficult to record information in the form of interference patterns.

Optical information recording apparatus and method using holography

Abstract: When recording information in the information recording areas (7) of the recording medium, the irradiating position (101) of information light and recording-specific reference light is moved such that the irradiating position (101) follows a single moving information recording area (7) for a predetermined period. Consequently, the single information recording area (7) keeps being irradiated with the information light and the recording-specific reference light for the predetermined period. Information is thus recorded in this information recording area (7) in the form of an interference pattern as a result of interference between the information light and the recording-specific reference light.


A wind instrument includes a body defining a body with a plurality of tone holes. A plurality of keys are attached to the body, each key of the plurality of keys further including a key pad that is configured to selectively seal at least one of the plurality of tone holes to produce notes of different pitch. In one example, the body includes one monolithic piece of a metal extrusion having a “D”-shaped cross-section that provides a substantially flat upper surface and a lower curved surface. In another example, a biasing member includes a pair of magnets associated with each key, each pair of magnets including a first magnet attached the body and second magnet attached to one of the keys. A position of at least one of the first and second magnets is selectively adjustable relative to the other.

Use of various woodwind instruments, such as flutes, is known. Flutes often include keys composed of multiple pieces requiring laborious silver solder operations to construct each key. Flutes also include keys with closure devices such as springs to urge the keys into an open or closed position over their respective finger holes. On the modern flute, a majority of the keys are normally open and only two are normally closed. Using conventional springs, the NC keys present a problem because the tension on the springs diminishes as the key closes. Using four magnets, the instant design can tailor the force so that the tension increases as the key closes. The closure devices typically exhibit decreased closing force as the keys close over their respective finger holes which can result in poor and/or slow seals over the finger holes. Additionally, many woodwind instruments such as flutes and clarinets include keys operated from only one side of the instrument, thereby limiting effective playing of the instrument. Also, some lightweight woodwind instruments include vaulted bridges constructed of silver and brass which sacrifice strength in order to remain low in weight. Furthermore, many woodwind instruments require separate posts to be added to the instrument body in order to mount axles for keys. There is a need for both improvements to woodwind instruments and developments to improve the manufacture of woodwind instruments


A shorting bar of a liquid crystal display (LCD) is disclosed including a plurality of odd gate lines and a plurality of even gate lines, each having a respective pad region. The plurality of odd gate lines are to a first shorting bar. The plurality of even gate lines are connected to both a second shorting bar connected and a third shorting bar. The resistance of the combined second shorting bar and third shorting bar is substantially similar to the resistance of the first shorting bar.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD). Specifically, it relates to a shorting bar for a TFT-LCD where the resistance of the even line shoreline bar and the odd line shorting bar is substantially similar in order to accurately test the TFT-LCD.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Generally, a TFT-LCD includes a bottom plate and a top plate. The bottom plate contains a plurality of pixel regions arranged in a matrix. Each pixel region includes a TFT switching element coupled to an associated pixel electrode. The top plate contains a common electrode and color filter, for displaying colors. A liquid crystal fills the space between the bottom and top plates. Additionally, polarizing plates, connected to both the bottom and top glass plates, polarize visible light rays.
The LCD uses shorting bars to test for poor panels during fabrication. In a conventional LCD the resistance of the shorting bars depends on the area occupied by them. Because even and odd lines are connected to shorting bars of different areas, it is difficult to test the electrical characteristic of an LCD accurately, and thus the detection of poor panels becomes difficult.
A conventional TFT-LCD shorting bar will be explained below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Referring to FIG. 1, a first shorting bar 1 connects to a plurality of odd lines 4 and even lines 5. A cutting region 6 is provided between the plurality of even lines 5 and first shorting bar 1, for separating the shorting bar. A semiconductor line 3 is formed perpendicular to the plurality of odd lines 4 and even lines 5. The semiconductor line 3 exists between first shorting bar 1 and pads associated with the plurality of even lines 5 and odd lines 4. Semiconductor line 3 and the plurality of even lines 5 include a second shorting bar 2. Second shorting bar 2 is connected to the source and drain regions of the plurality of even lines 5 through a chrome layer (not shown in FIG. 1).
A method of forming the plurality of odd lines 4 and shorting bar 1 of the conventional LCD will be explained below. As shown in FIG. 2A, aluminum is deposited on a transparent insulating substrate 10, and patterned to form a gate line 11. As shown in FIG. 2B, gate line 11 is coated with a photoresist that is patterned by exposure and development to overly a portion of gate line 11 corresponding to a pad.
Then, as shown in FIG. 2C, an anodizing oxide layer 12 is selectively formed on an exposed portion of gate line 11 using the photoresist pattern as a mask. After anodizing oxide layer 12 is formed, the photoresist pattern is removed. Next, a silicon nitride layer (SiNx) 13 is formed on the entire surface of substrate 10 including anodizing oxide layer 12. A conventional photolithography process is then carried out to selectively etch the silicon nitride layer using a patterned photoresist layer as a mask. As a result, only a portion of silicon nitride layer 13 remains on anodizing oxide layer 12. An amorphous silicon layer (a-Si:H) 14 is then formed on the overall surface of substrate 10 and selectively etched through photolithography process using a patterned photoresist. Accordingly, amorphous silicon layer 14 is left only on a predetermined portion of silicon nitride layer 13. Amorphous silicon layer 14 corresponds to a location between first shorting bar 1 and odd lines 4.
As shown in FIG. 2D, chrome layers 15a and 15b are formed on the entire surface of substrate 10 and selectively etched through photolithography process using a photoresist. The process forms a second shorting bar 15a and pad 15b. The design of the LCD places shorting bar 15a on a predetermined portion of amorphous silicon layer 14 and pad 15b on a predetermined pad region.
As shown in FIG. 2E, a passivation layer 16 is formed on the overall surface of the substrate and selectively removed, to thereby expose only pad 15b. Then, a conductive layer 17, such as ITO (Indium Tin Oxide), is formed on the entire surface of the substrate and selectively etched, such that only a portion remains on the pad region.
A method of forming the plurality of even lines 5 and second shorting bar 2 of the conventional LCD will be explained below. First of all, as shown in FIG. 3A, aluminum is deposited on transparent insulating layer 10 and patterned, to form gate line 11. As shown in FIG. 3B, a photoresist layer is coated on the entire surface of the substrate and selectively etched. As a result, a photoresist pattern is formed on both the pad region and cutting region 6, shown in FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 3C, anodizing oxide layer 12 is formed on an exposed portion of gate line 11 using the photoresist pattern as a mask, and then the photoresist pattern is removed. Silicon nitride layer 13 is formed on the overall surface of the substrate and selectively etched, leaving silicon nitride layer 13 only on anodizing oxide layer 12. Amorphous silicon layer 14 is formed and selectively etched to remain only on a predetermined portion of silicon nitride layer 13. Thus, amorphous silicon layer 14 is located between first shorting bar 1 and the pad region.
As shown in FIG. 3D, chrome layers 15a and 15b are formed on the overall surface of the substrate and patterned, to form a second shorting bar 15a and pad 15b on the pad region. Second shorting bar 15a and pad 15b are connected to each other. As shown in FIG. 3E, gate line 11 is selectively etched in order to form cutting region 6 (shown in FIG. 1). The conventional LCD design places cutting region 6 between first shorting bar 1 (shown in FIG. 1) and amorphous silicon layer 14 (shown in FIG. 3D). Passivation layer 16 is formed on the overall surface of the substrate and selectively etched in order to expose the pad region. A conductive layer 17, such as, for example, ITO, is formed on the overall surface of the substrate and selectively etched; thus, leaving conductive layer 17 only on pad 15b.
The aforementioned shorting bar of the conventional LCD has the following problem. Because the even line shorting bar is much thinner than the odd line shorting bar, the resistance of the even lines becomes larger than that of the odd lines. Accordingly, the IPT test to check the electrical characteristic of a picture of the LCD cannot be accurately carried out. As a result, it is difficult to detect a defective even line.

Shorting bars for a liquid crystal display and method of forming the same


The invention concerns a mobile crane with a long main boom. According to the invention, the main boom is in two parts linked at a swivel point in such manner that the boom can bend when raised and can be positioned in extended or quasi-extended final erection position.

The invention concerns a mobile crane with an elongated boom.
Longer and longer booms are being required in special applications. The problem of raising very long booms arises particularly in connection with the erecting of wind generators. Booms of this type are usually raised with an extension derrick boom with attached derrick ballast. However, this is very time-consuming, and in the difficult terrain in which wind generators are often located it is very difficult to do.
Theoretically it is already known how to equip main booms with rocking grid tips. In rocking tips of this type, retainer devices must be provided. Furthermore, after the main boom is raised, they are usually in a bent position in relation to the main boom.


Disclosed is an information processing apparatus including: a display unit to display a window; a touch panel unit to detect a touch operation which is performed for the display unit; and a control unit, wherein when the touch panel unit receives a flick operation in a first direction for a portion other than a predetermined position in a predetermined scroll area displayed on the display unit, the control unit instructs the display unit to scroll the window displayed in the scroll area in the first direction, and when the touch panel unit receives the flick operation in the first direction for the predetermined position in the scroll area, the control unit executes a function which is previously related to the first direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method and a tangible computer-readable recording medium which perform different operations based on positions where a flick operation is performed.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, information processing apparatuses like smart phones having a touch panel become popular. In the touch panels, the operations can be received by various schemes, such as a drag operation and a flick operation, in addition to a select operation. A large number of technologies for executing a function related to an operation when the above operation is received, have been proposed.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-165192 discloses a technology relating to an information processing apparatus having a touch panel that can receive a flick operation. In the above technology, when the flick operation is performed for an item in a window displayed on the touch panel, the function related to the direction of the performed flick operation is executed.
In the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-165192, it is assumed that when an item is arranged in a scrollable area in the window, the function is executed by performing a flick operation in a different direction from the scrolling direction. More specifically, in the window in which the list of the items arranged in the vertical direction can be scrolled in the upper direction and the lower direction, when a user performs the flick operation for the intended item in the right direction or the left direction, the function which is previously related to the direction of the flick operation is executed.
However, in case that the scrollable area is scrolled by the flick operation, if the direction of the flick operation for executing the function is consistent with the direction of the flick operation for scrolling the area, there is a problem that it cannot be determined whether the flick operation indicates the instruction for executing the function or the instruction for scrolling the area.

Information processing apparatus, information processing method and tangible computer-readable recording medium


An electrical component and a method of constructing it are disclosed. The component includes a hollow tubular structure. The structure includes a series of axially spaced apart rings and at least one outer perimeter housing member. The housing member interconnects the rings for defining an internal configuration of the hollow tubular structure for electrical purposes. The rings and the housing member each include inter-engageable elements for helping secure mechanically the rings and housing member together to facilitate final assembly of the electrical component.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to electrical components. In particular, the invention relates to radio-frequency components and their assembly.
2. Related Art
The information contained in this section relates to the background of the art of the present invention without any admission as to whether or not it legally constitutes prior art.
Various methods have been employed for assembling of components for spacecraft and other applications. For example, reference may be made to the following U.S. patents:
U.S. Pat. NO.INVENTORISSUE DATE4,397,434FarnhamAug. 9, 19834,875,795AndersonOct. 24, 19895,535,295MatsumotoJul. 9, 19965,724,051Mailandt et al.Mar. 3, 19985,803,402Krumweide et al.Sept. 8, 19985,849,204MatsumotoDec. 15, 19986,046,704LopezApr. 4, 20006,064,969HaskinsMay 16, 20006,148,740Jackel et al.Nov. 21, 20006,307,451 B1Saitoh et al.Oct. 23, 2001
Electrical components such as feedhorns, wave guides, adapters and others have been used in spacecraft and other applications. Feedhorns, for example, are used to obtain and direct radio frequency (RF) energy reflected from a satellite dish. Feedhorns used in space require an unusual combination of low weight, structural stiffness, and thermal stability, which are difficult to achieve simultaneously. Certain feedhorns are generally made of a metal that is machined. For example, some early structures were fabricated from metals such as aluminum or light alloys resulting in a heavy structure. Since the overall weight of a spacecraft is constrained by the payload capabilities of a given launch vehicle, a relatively heavy structure resulted in a reduction of onboard equipment and instrumentation that could be included in the satellite. The emphasis therefore is to make future spacecraft lighter, faster and less expensive.
It is desirable that the feedhorn have sufficient structural strength and stiffness because the satellite must be able to withstand forces imparted during launch without permanent deformation. A feedhorn lacking sufficient strength and stiffness, even if it is low weight, may not survive the launch process. Thermal stability is another important parameter in feedhorn design because the feedhorn is often exposed to extremes of temperature caused by the difference in heat load between the sunlit side and the shadow side of the spacecraft. The materials and construction methods used to construct the feedhorn need be capable of providing a foundation that will not bend or distort under these different temperature loadings. Minuscule distortions sufficient to negatively affect critical alignment can occur that may render a scientific payload inoperable. Moreover, the trend to further lighten payloads by fabricating much of the payload hardware from composite materials has increased the need to achieve a better thermal match between the payload hardware and the spacecraft.
Traditional metallic feedhorns are machined from a solid block of metal. These are heavy in weight as compared to composite material feedhorns and are difficult to fully optimize due to limitations of machining thin walls. Thus, previously manufactured composite feedhorns have been formed from individual piece parts held in-place with assembly tooling that are then adhesively bonded together. The elements are generally held together using the tool or fixture during the bonding process. The bonding process must be performed with the tool generally obstructing easy access to some areas, resulting in a cumbersome and expensive bonding and manufacturing process. The tools used to assemble the feedhorn can be expensive and even obtrusive to regions within the feedhorn where the tooling exists, which can make bonding the assembly together awkward and time consuming.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,803,402, to Krumweide, discloses a method of assembling a spacecraft framework using structural components held together with little or no tools or fixtures required to hold the components during the bonding process. The components may then be bonded together in a rigid configuration.
There is a need for a low cost method of producing spacecraft feedhorns and other electrical components that are strong, rigid, lightweight, and thermally stable to meet the rigors of outer space. These types of components generally require close tolerances, as may be the case for RF components such as antennae. For example, close tolerances in the surface configuration and shape may be critical in these components.

Radio frequency component and method of making same


A multi-rank memory system in which calibration operations are performed between a memory controller and one rank of memory while data is transferred between the controller and other ranks of memory. A memory controller performs a calibration operation that calibrates parameters pertaining to transmission of data via a first data bus between the memory controller and a memory device in a first rank of memory. While the controller performs the calibration operation, the controller also transfers data with a memory device in a second rank of memory via a second data bus.

The present disclosure generally relates to memory systems, and memory controllers that control the operation of memory devices in such systems. Specific embodiments described herein refer to methods and apparatus for types of memory device access during calibration operations, as executed by a memory controller.
In multi-rank memory systems, memory devices are organized into two or more ranks of memory where each rank of memory devices is independently addressable by a memory controller. Memory controllers write data to and read data from the memory devices in a rank through a data bus. In multi-rank memory systems, data buses are a shared resource. For example, devices in separate memory ranks may be connected to and share a common data bus. The memory controller transfers data with one memory rank at a time through the data bus.
Signaling interfaces in the memory controller and memory devices are responsible for transmitting signals to and receiving signals from the data bus. Due to the high-frequency nature of modern memory signaling, these interfaces are sensitive to changes in voltage and temperature. The signaling interfaces can be periodically calibrated to compensate for such changes. In conventional multi-rank memory systems, the signaling interfaces are calibrated one rank at a time. However, calibration operations tie up an entire data bus and block data access to the memory devices of other ranks that are not being calibrated.