A process and intermediate DRAM structure formed by providing a substrate having an array of trenches containing trench capacitors underlying vertical transistors in an array area separated by isolation trenches residing in both array and support areas. A top oxide nitride (TON) liner is deposited over array and support areas so as to directly contact the fill in the isolation trenches. An array top oxide (ATO) is then deposited directly over the TON liner such that during subsequent processing, the TON protects the isolation trench oxide from any divot opening etches while maintaining the isolation trench oxide height fixed during the ATO process. In further processing the intermediate structure, ATO and TON are removed from the support area only, leaving remaining portions of both ATO and TON only in the array area, such that the TON liner separates the ATO from the isolation trench fill.

The present invention relates generally to semiconductor processing and, more particularly, to methods of processing array and support areas of a vertical transistor pass gate dynamic random access memory (DRAM).
A dynamic random access memory (DRAM) circuit usually includes an array of memory cells interconnected by a number of rows and columns. These rows are commonly referred to as wordlines (WLs) while the columns are referred to as bitlines (BLs). Activating selected ones of these wordlines and bitlines allows the reading of data from or the writing of data to memory cells.
Typically, a DRAM memory cell comprises a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) connected to a capacitor, such as a vertical MOSFET having a trench capacitor. A vertical MOSFET is a transistor where a surface of the channel region of the transistor is generally perpendicular to the primary surface of the substrate. This perpendicular feature enables an effective cell size reduction with an increase in bit densities. As such, the use of vertical MOSFETs have been proposed to overcome the scalability limitations of planar MOSFET DRAM access transistors.
In vertical transistor DRAM chips, the process steps of the array and support areas of the chip are performed separately during manufacture. For example, in the formation of a memory cell in vertical MOSFET DRAM arrays, an array top oxide (ATO) is needed to isolate the passing word-lines from active areas on the substrate. An ATO layer is generally formed by two different methods as known in the art.
One such method for forming the ATO is referred to as a top oxide early (TOE) process. In TOE processing, an array top oxide area is formed with pad nitride being present in the support regions. Subsequently, this pad nitride is stripped in the support areas, a gate oxide is grown and then a gate poly is deposited. While this scheme has the advantage of completely decoupling the array and support processing, it is complex and requires many processing steps in the careful optimization of the location of the block masks required for formation of the ATO.
Another method for forming the ATO is referred to as a Top Oxide Late (TOL) process. In TOL processing, the ATO is deposited after the support gate oxidation and polysilicon deposition. While TOL processing reduces the number of processing steps and manufacturing costs, it undesirably changes the gate oxide during ATO deposition. In addition, the planarizing the ATO down to the gate polysilicon within the support regions can lead to undesirable residual patterns in the support region.
Another disadvantage with the above prior art techniques of forming ATO layers is that, in each method, the ATO is in direct contact with the isolation trench (IT) fill in the array area. During the subsequent steps of processing the array area, voids or divots may undesirably form in dense array areas which adversely affect production yields.
Consequently, a need continues to exist in the art for improved methods of forming ATO layers.
The present invention overcomes the above problems and deficiencies in the prior art by disclosing a simplified method of providing an ATO in a vertical MOSFET DRAM in a manner that reduces the number of processing steps, complexity and costs, while simultaneously improving production yield.

Top oxide nitride liner integration scheme for vertical DRAM

International Business Machines Corporation

Infineon Technologies North America Corp.


This disclosure describes an organizational scheme for memory that is useful for image processing. A memory controller architecture is also described, which takes advantage of the organizational scheme. The organizational scheme and controller architecture is particularly useful for high performance, high quality image processing of images that form a video sequence, but may also be applied in other image processing settings. The described techniques and organizational structure of the memory also allows the memory to be shared for other storage applications of a video device.

Digital video capabilities can be incorporated into a wide range of devices, including digital televisions, digital direct broadcast systems, wireless communication devices, portable digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, desktop computers, direct two-way communication devices (sometimes referred to as "walkie-talkies"), and radiotelephones such as cellular, satellite or terrestrial-based radiotelephones. These devices can provide significant improvements over conventional analog video systems in creating, modifying, transmitting, storing, and playing full motion video sequences.
A number of video processing and coding techniques have been established for communicating digital video sequences. The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), for example, has developed a number of video coding standards including MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. Other standards include the ITU H.263 standard and the ITU H.264 standard. Furthermore, a number of proprietary standards have also been developed by various companies, and new standards continue to emerge and evolve.
Many of these video standards make use of data compression. For example, many video coding techniques utilize graphics and video compression algorithms designed to compress data by exploiting temporal or inter-frame correlation, to provide inter-frame compression. The inter-frame compression techniques exploit data redundancy across frames by converting pixel-based representations of image frames to motion representations. In addition, the video compression techniques often use similarities within image frames, referred to as spatial or intra-frame correlation, allowing for intra-frame compression in which the motion representations within an image frame can be further compressed. The intra-frame compression is typically based upon conventional processes for compressing still images, such as discrete cosine transform (DCT) transformation.
Prior to performing video compression, however, a number of "front-end" image processing techniques are often performed on the image frames of a video sequence. For example, front-end image processing techniques are often used on images generated from an image sensor. Examples of such image processing techniques include demosaicing, lens rolloff correction, scaling, color correction, color conversion, and spatial filtering, to name a few. The processing may improve visual image quality attributes such as tone reproduction, color saturation, hue reproduction and sharpness.
For example, some image sensors used in video applications sample a scene using a color filter array (CFA) arranged on a surface of the respective sensors. A variety of CFA patterns may be used, and a digital signal processor (DSP) may be used to obtain three color values for each photosite. However, in order to obtain high quality color video images, image processing techniques may be required. These image processing techniques are refereed to herein as "front-end" image processing insofar as the techniques generally precede image compression or other video coding by a video coding unit. In other literature, however, these image processing techniques may be referred to as "post processing" steps since the processing occurs after images are captured by the image sensors.
Unfortunately, these image processing steps can present problems for real-time video encoding in real time video telephony (VT) applications. For example, in order to ensure real-time transmission of video sequences, all of the image processing needs to be performed very quickly. Accordingly, real-time image processing may require a very high bandwidth memory and large memory capacity in order to ensure that the extensive image processing, typically by several different image processing modules, can be executed. Unfortunately, memory bandwidth and memory space is limited for most video coding devices.

Memory organizational scheme and controller architecture for image and video processing


A support device for plant and flower containers that distributes the weight of the container on substrata using a plurality of support members while providing air circulation between the container and substrata to deter compression of substrata and formation of mildew, mold and fungus on the substrata.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to supporting containers of mobile plants, flowers and trees, and more particularly to retarding and reducing damage to carpet, rug, mat, and floor substrata due to compressive loads and formation of moisture, fungus or mildew on substrata under the plant or tree containers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known that many types of containers for holding various flowers, plants, and trees are used when desiring mobility of these decorative and functional growths from their natural growing places. When plants flowers and trees are removed from their natural habitat for decorative, functional or growing purposes, soil and moisture must be maintained around the roots. Various mobile containers of numerous designs are employed to accomplish preservation of the species. These devices are designed to hold and contain the plant and tree roots, soil, and moisture while the plants or trees grow or are used for esthetic display in homes or buildings. Many artificial plants and trees also use root containers to simulate growth and display the natural state.
Plant and tree containers of various shapes such as round, oval and rectangles are common. Some mobile containers with holes for root expansion, legs, wheels, circular supports have been used for many years. Plant containers have been designed to be supported from walls and ceilings or overhangs to achieve desired results of presentation. This type of suspended support removes problems that containers placed on floor, shelf or window sill levels relating to weight distribution and formation of moisture or mildew on floors, floor coverings, or other substrata supports. However, in many instances, wall or ceiling supports are not practical or desired. Some plant stands elevate the plant containers from substrata or floors providing esthetic display and ornamental features. But these elevated designs may provide problems by exerting compressive force from their few support surfaces residing on substrata.
The weight of plant containers when placed on carpets or resilient floor surfaces causes compression and distortion of these substrata. In many cases the container compressive force transfers to carpets or rugs and then to their under pads and compresses these functional and protective coverings beyond recovery after removal of the container. If four or less supports are used under elevated containers, the weight is concentrated into these contacting areas forcing more compression of carpets and rugs. Containers having wheels that are round or cylindrical shaped have only four point contacts or narrow line contacts that depress on substrata surfaces large loads per area of contact. Containers having flat bottoms readily cause imprints on the carpet and rug surfaces and promote additional problems as discussed below on the substrata. Trivets having three long bar shaped legs contacting the substrata have been available. However, these triangular planar arrangements compress and deform the substrata under the bar supports and also fail structurally by not supporting the central part of the triangular stand.
The commonly used flat bottom moisture trays placed under plant containers distribute the weight over the entire container tray area but do not allow any air flow to the substrate. These trays duplicate many standard pots or containers by compressing the fibers and limiting air flow between the container bottoms and substrata. This promotes attack by mold, mildew and residual moisture to substrata materials.
Live plants and trees in containers need periodic watering for survival. Moisture in ceramic type containers may seep through container wall pores to the outer container surface. Also, moisture from the air condenses on the container outer surface that may be normally cooler than the environment due to water evaporation from the open top of the plant container. If ceramic or plastic trays are used under the container to collect excess water from the container, moisture may accumulate under the bottom of the tray and on the substrata. This promotes destructive mildew, fungus, and/or mold formation on carpets, floors, and surfaces under the plant container.
Deterioration of substrata under plant containers is normally not evident to users, owners, or installers until the damage has progressed to a destructive stage. Only until the substrata under carpets or pads are exposed or carefully examined will the damage show. Many home or business owners using plant containers observe compression on the surface of their floor coverings and do not realize that mold and mildew are forming under the floor coverings due to lack of air circulation under compressive loads. Plant and flower sales people or gardeners skilled in this business are not apprised of the mildew type problems because time is a factor for this to occur and the damage usually is not readily visible. After the damage occurs, the sales people in this business are not responsible.

Plant and tree container support for protecting substrata


To provide a toner which has superior low-temperature fixing performance, high-temperature anti-offsetting properties and developing performance and may cause neither melt sticking of toner to photosensitive member nor turn-up of cleaning blade. The toner contains at least a binder resin, a colorant and a wax, and the wax is characterized by i) being an oxidized hydrocarbon wax, ii) having a hydroxyl value of from 5 mgKOH/g or more to 150 mgKOH/g or less, and iii) having, in molecular weight distribution measured by gel permeation chromatography of tetrahydrofuran-soluble matter, a main peak within the range of molecular weight of from 200 or more to 600 or less, and a component with a molecular weight of 700 or more in a content of 3% by mass or less.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a toner used in image forming processes such as electrophotography, electrostatic printing and toner jet recording.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, it is known to incorporate a toner with an alcohol component in order to improve low-temperature fixing performance and high-temperature anti-offsetting properties of the toner.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Applications Nos. S63-113558, S63-188158, H02-134648, H04-097162, H04-097163 and so forth discloses techniques in which toners are incorporated with alcohol components.
Incorporation of toners with waxes having such alcohol components may bring out the effect of improving low-temperature fixing performance and high-temperature anti-offsetting properties of the toners, but, when used in a severe environment such as a high-temperature and high-humidity environment over a long period of time, tends to accelerate deterioration of toners to make their developing performance poor in some cases.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 2001-343781 also discloses a toner containing a hydrocarbon wax having a hydroxyl value (HV) of 5 to 150 mgKOH/g, an ester value (EV) of 1 to 50 mgKOH/g and HV>EV.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 2000-267347 further discloses a wax for electrophotographic toners which is an alcohol type wax having a hydroxyl value of 50 to 90 mgKOH/g, obtained by subjecting any of a petroleum wax, an α-olefin wax having a double bond at its terminal and Fischer-Tropsch wax to air oxidation in the presence of boric acid.
Incorporation of toners with such waxes having a hydroxyl group enables improvement in low-temperature fixing performance and high-temperature anti-offsetting properties and also achievement of superior developing performance. However, in a situation where the internal temperature of a copying machine or printer has come higher as in the case of double-side printing performed continuously in a high-temperature environment, the toner may melt-stick to a photosensitive member to cause image defects such as white dots or a cleaning blade coming into contact with the photosensitive member may turn up to cause faulty cleaning. In order to resolve such problems, it is necessary to lessen the content of the wax having a hydroxyl group, and this makes the toner less effectively improved in low-temperature fixing performance and high-temperature anti-offsetting properties.


An electrically-actuated variable camshaft timing (VCT) device, comprising: an input configured to receive rotational force from an electric motor; an output configured to couple with a camshaft of an internal combustion engine; a planet gear having radially outwardly extending gear teeth configured to engage ring gears and a radially-inwardly-facing surface; a planet pin, supporting the planet gear, having an outer surface and an axis of rotation about which the planet gear rotates; and a spring applying force in a substantially axial direction along the axis of rotation that moves the planet gear in a radial direction.

Internal combustion engines include camshafts that open and close valves regulating the combustion of fuel and air within combustion chambers of the engines. The opening and closing of the valves are carefully timed relative to a variety of events, such as the injection and combustion of fuel into the combustion chamber and the location of the piston relative to top-dead center (TDC). Camshaft(s) are driven by the rotation of the crankshaft via a drive member connecting these elements, such as a belt or chain. In the past, a fixed relationship existed between the rotation of the crankshaft and the rotation of the camshaft. However, internal combustion engines increasingly use camshaft phasers that vary the phase of camshaft rotation relative to crankshaft rotation. Variable camshaft timing (VCT) devices—camshaft phasers—can, in some implementations, be actuated by electric motors that advance or retard the opening/closing of valves relative to crankshaft rotation.
Electrically-actuated camshaft phasers typically include a gearbox assembly having an input and an output as well as an electric motor. The electric motor can couple to the input of the gearbox assembly while the output of the assembly can be coupled to a camshaft of an internal combustion engine. The components of the gearbox assembly can include a defined amount of space between them that is tolerated. As the gearbox assembly is used, the defined amount of space can cause backlash, which can increase as components wear with use. It would be helpful to be able to reduce this amount of space to minimize the amount of backlash in the gearbox assembly.

Electrically-actuated camshaft phasers with tapered features


A system comprising first input means for receiving a transport stream from an external source, second input means for receiving an input from a memory, means for connecting the first and second input means to an interface which is arranged to provide an output stream to a decoder. The second input means is arranged to provide an output to the interface in such a form that the interface does not distinguish between the output from the first and second input means.

In digital television systems, the television is provided with a set top box to receive and decode a broadcast digital data stream which contains program information for display on the television. The broadcast digital data stream may arise at the set top box via a satellite or cable system, via a digital terrestrial system, or via disk or tape. A disk or tape, such as a CD ROM in a personal computer, may provide digital video information for display on the monitor.
There are various known standards for digital video broadcasting (DVB) and one now commonly used standard is the MPEG-2 standard.
In the MPEG-2 DVB standard, data is encoded into transport packets. Each transport packet is defined by the standard as consisting of 188 bytes, comprising four header bytes and 184 payload bytes ("the data payload"). For transmission, the transport packets are time division multiplexed into a transport stream. At the receiver in the set top box, the transport stream is demultiplexed to recover the transport packets. Optionally, the transport packets may be scrambled and encoded with error correction information for transmission and then descrambled and error checked at the receiver. The data payload in the transport packets is, according to the MPEG-2 standard, one of two types. The first type is known is a packetised elementary stream (PES), and the second type is known as program specific information (PSI).
The packetised elementary streams (PESs) form the video, audio and private data information of the broadcast. A PES packet may contain all sorts of data, audio or video and also other information such as teletext or other user defined general data. The MPEG-2 transport stream is made up of one or more PESs (either video, audio or private). The MPEG-2 transport stream is primarily intended for the transport of TV programs over long distances. This type of stream can combine, in the same multiplex, many programs, each of them being composed of one or more PESs. In order that the receiver can cope with this mix of program information, the MPEG-2 standard defines all types of tables, which together make up the MPEG-2 program specific information (PSI).
At each decoder or set top box, the transport stream is decoded. To achieve the decoding of the transport stream, each set top box is provided with a transport interface, which provides an input interface between the transport stream input to the box and the actual MPEG-2 decoders which decode the audio and video information and sections broadcast. The transport interface demultiplexes the transport stream to retain only those transport packets, which are required by the particular set top box for decoding. The transport stream is a set of different services time division multiplexed and the purpose of the transport interface is to demultiplex them. At a front input end of the transport interface, a time demultiplex function is performed to separate the transport stream into its component transport packets.
Each transport packet has associated therewith in its header a packet identifier (PID) which identifies the type of packet and various information associated with the data in the packets including the type of packet (PES or PSI). Each particular receiver or set top box is only interested in receiving packets having packet identifiers of interest to the particular set top box, for instance those associated with the particular television program selected for viewing. Thus, once the incoming transport stream has been time demultiplexed to recover the transport packets, it is necessary to further demultiplex the transport packets to retain only those having packet identifiers required by the receiver.
The transport interface merely uses the header of PES transport packets to demultiplex them, and stores the data payload of the demultiplexed packets in the memory. The transport interface similarly demultiplexes PSI transport packets but then filters the sections of the demultiplexed packets to retain only sections required by the receiver, before storing the filtered sections in the memory without further processing.
It has been proposed that the MPEG data may be obtained from a memory instead of via a satellite or cable link. Previously a transport stream could be decoded and stored in memory. To replay that transport stream, it was necessary to use the CD FIFO of the MPEG decoder. This stored transport stream would be treated differently from the received satellite or cable transport stream. This means that the set top box has to have separate circuitry for dealing with the stored and received transport streams.


A disposable diaper including an ink-printed substrate web exhibiting ink rub-off resistance. The substrate web is printed with an ink composition to form an ink film on the substrate web. The ink film is coated with a coating composition to form a coating film on the ink film. At least one of the ink composition and the coating composition forms a cross-linked structure within the film thereof and forms a cross-linked structure with the other composition between the ink film and the coating film. A method for making the diaper includes the steps of printing and coating the ink film.

An ink-printed substrate web is broadly used in various consumer products. For example, in personal care products such as disposable garments, it is often desired to provide graphic designs printed with an ink on the outside of the disposable garment to enhance the aesthetic appearance and the consumer acceptance and to make the diaper look more like a conventional baby garment. For this purpose, an ink-printed substrate web, which could be a polymeric film or a nonwoven fibrous web, is used for the outermost layer of the disposable garment.
One problem of the ink-printed substrate web is poor ink rub-off resistance. Ink rub-off is typically caused by abrasion of the ink with other substances such as clothes of the wearer of a disposable garment, a carpet on the floor or the like. One method of solving this problem is to print the graphics on an inner substrate web such as a film or a nonwoven to be covered by an outer substrate web. As the printed surface of the inner substrate web is covered with the outer substrate web, the printed graphic on the inner substrate web does not get abraded directly with other contacting substrates and ink rub-off does not occur. While the substrate web covering the printed surface of the inner substrate web contributes to reduce the abrasion of the printed surface, the outer substrate web tends to hide the graphics printed on the inner substrate web to make the graphics to have hazy appearance. The fibers in a nonwoven if a nonwoven is used for the outer substrate web appear very distinctively on the printed graphics when covering a dark colored graphics. This also limits the vivid color expression of the graphic.
Yet another way of circumventing the problem of ink rub-off is to put the printed surface inside and the non-printed surface outside such that the printed surface is not abraded. In this case, however, the substrate web itself printed with the graphics tends to hide the graphics. Thus, there is a need for an ink-printed substrate web having an ink-printed surface which can be exposed to abrasion, yet exhibiting good ink rub-off resistance.
Attempts have been made to improve ink rub-off resistance on a substrate web, e.g., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,590 issued on Oct. 17, 1995 to Schleintz et al. titled "INK-PRINTED, LOW BASIS WEIGHT NONWOVEN FIBROUS WEBS AND METHOD", U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,855 issued on Dec. 9, 1997 to Yeo et al. titled "DURABLE ADHESIVE-BASED INK-PRINTED POLYOLEFIN NONWOVENS", and U.S. Pat. No. 5,853,859 issued on Dec. 29, 1998 to Levy et al. titled "ROOM TEMPERATURE LATEX PRINTING". However, the existing art may not provide all of the advantages and benefits of the present invention.

Diaper including ink-printed substrate web


A valve apparatus comprises a valve body, a piston disposed within the valve body, and a rolling diaphragm poppet that is attached the piston to regulates fluid flow through the valve via interaction with a valve seat within the valve body. The valve body has a chamber extending therethrough that includes a valve seat at one chamber end that defines a fluid inlet passage into chamber. The piston disposed within the chamber and is adapted for axial displacement therein by an actuating means. The rolling diaphragm poppet is attached to an end of the piston and is of a one-piece construction. The poppet includes a head that has a circular radial cross section, and that has a frontside surface that is adapted to interface with the valve seat in the chamber to control fluid flow therethrough. The head also has a backside surface that is adapted to accommodate attachment with an end of the piston. The poppet includes a cylindrical sleeve that extends axially away from a peripheral edge of the head and that has a non-bellowed configuration. A flange extends radially from the sleeve to define a peripheral edge of the poppet. The flange including means for providing a leak-tight seal with the valve body. Axial displacement of the poppet head within the chamber, in response to the axial movement of the piston, is provided by a rolling movement of the sleeve in an axial direction between a piston wall surface and a concentric wall surface within the valve body.

Fluid flow control valves are used in applications where the valve internals are subjected to corrosive acidic or caustic liquids, or where the purity of the liquids which flow through the valve must be maintained. An example of such application is the semi-conductor manufacturing industry where process chemicals distributed through a control valve must maintain a high degree of chemical purity to avoid contamination that may occur on the microscopic level. Such valves are either constructed of relatively inert materials, e.g., fluoropolymers or other polymeric materials, or the valve surfaces which come into contact with the flowing liquids, or which potentially can come into contact with the liquids, are coated with such inert materials.
Fluid flow control valves known in the art are commonly biased into the closed position by a spring force and are opened by means of a solenoid actuator, or actuator means operated by pneumatic or hydraulic pressure and the like. Valve closure springs typically used in such valves are made from a metallic material and configured to afford a resilient action. Such fluid control valves also include at least one diaphragm disposed within the valve chamber of the valve. The diaphragm is placed into contact with the liquid and serves to prevent the escape of the fluid from the valve chamber into the valve operating mechanism and into the environment. A valve stem is disposed axially within the chamber and the diaphragm is attached to an end of the valve stem, thereby forming a valve poppet assembly. The diaphragm includes a peripheral edge portion that is engaged against an adjacent wall portion of the valve body at each opposite end of the valve body.
The valve closure springs are typically placed adjacent a surface of the valve diaphragm that is not exposed to the process fluid distributed through the valve. The transfer of the process fluid through the valve is controlled by the actuation of the valve stem within the chamber against a valve seat. The movement of the valve stem is accommodated in part by the controlled deformation of the diaphragm. Control valves constructed in this manner are prone to failure due to both the possibility of eventual diaphragm rupture and to the large number of leak paths inherent in such construction. A valve constructed in this manner has two leak paths or potential passages through which fluid within the valve chamber can escape into the valve operating mechanism or the environment. One leak path is formed at the attachment point between the diaphragm and the end of the valve stem, and the other leak path is formed between the peripheral edge of each diaphragm and the valve body walls.
Diaphragm rupture or leakage though any one of the leak paths is not desirable because the process chemical directed through the valve chamber may be allowed to escape into the valve body where the corrosive or caustic chemical can come into contact with the valve spring, and thereby provide a source of ionic contamination to the process chemical to pass on to other downstream chemical processing units. Alternatively, diaphragm rupture or leakage may result in the escape of the process chemical from the valve chamber, through the valve body and onto the ground or into the atmosphere, where the particular process chemical may cause a hazard to the environment or a health danger to nearby operators.
The potential for diaphragm rupture or leakage limits the extent to which such valves can be used in high process pressure or high process temperature applications. The diaphragm used in such valves is designed to both permit a desired degree of elastic deformation to permit valve stem actuation and provide a barrier to prevent unwanted process fluid migration from the valve chamber into an actuating chamber of the valve. Although ultimate barrier performance of the diaphragm can be achieved by maximizing its thickness, a maximum diaphragm thickness is governed by the competing need to provide a diaphragm that is capable of elastically deforming a desired amount to ensure valve stem actuation. It is this need to keep the diaphragm deformable that also limits the temperature and pressure at which the valve can safely operate, it being understood that the maximum operating pressures and temperatures for the valve are related.
The construction of a fluid flow control valve having a poppet assembly constructed using such valve stem and diaphragm members impacts the size of the valve itself, as the stroke length of the valve stem is closely related to the diameter of the diaphragm. Generally speaking, the longer the desired valve stem stroke length, the larger the diameter of the diaphragm to enable such stroke length. Additionally, the size of a particular valve that is adapted to operate to a certain maximum pressure and temperature will depend, inter alia, on the size of the diaphragm that is needed to provide adequate deformation and barrier performance characteristics. Generally speaking, the more highly rated the valve, i.e., the higher the flow, the larger the valve itself due in part to the need to provide a diaphragm suitably sized to withstand such flow conditions.
In the handling of fluids where the space occupied by the fluid handling apparatus or valve apparatus in a fluid handling system is at a premium, it is desired that such valve apparatus be compact or small in size. In the handling of liquids where the chemical purity must be maintained, to ensure the desired degree of quality for the product manufactured using such process liquids, and the escape of process liquids into the environment is undesired, it is desired that the valve apparatus be made in a manner that both: (1) eliminates the possibility that contaminants may be introduced into the process caused by contact of the process liquid with elements of the valve during distribution therethrough; and (2) minimizes the possibility of process liquid escaping from the valve chamber into other portions of the valve or into the environment.
It is desirable that the valve apparatus be constructed having a compact size that is smaller than conventional diaphragm or poppet-type valves designed to operate at the same flow conditions. It is desirable that the valve apparatus be made from material having a high degree of chemical resistance and thermal resistance to resist degradation through contact with corrosive, or caustic chemicals and the like. It is desirable that the valve apparatus be constructed in a manner that results in the inherent reduction of leak paths, thereby minimizing the potential for chemical leakage into the environment. It is desirable that the valve apparatus be capable of operating at high temperatures and under high pressures without danger of valve failure or chemical leakage. It is also desirable that the valve apparatus be constructed using conventional manufacturing principles from available materials to reduce the cost of manufacturing such valve.

Compact valve with rolling diaphragm poppet


An ignition apparatus includes: sparking coil supplying a sparking plug with a high voltage; an energy supply device supplying the sparking coil with energy; a first switch disposed therebetween; and a control device controlling the first switch's conduction. The energy supply device has a DC power supply, a resonance coil connected to the DC power supply, a sparking capacitor connected to the resonance coil, and a second switch disposed between the sparking capacitor and an earth, and charges the sparking capacitor to have a voltage value larger than that of the DC power supply in absolute value by making the resonance coil and the sparking capacitor generate an LC resonance when the second and first switches are turned ON and OFF, respectively, according to an instruction from the control device whereas supplying the sparking coil with energy when the second and first switches are operated inversely according to another instruction.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a capacitive discharge ignition apparatus chiefly employed in an internal combustion engine.
Background Art
Issues on environmental preservation and fuel depletion are being raised recently and actions toward these issues are urgently necessary in the auto industry. One example of such actions is ultra-lean combustion of an engine using a stratified mixture, so-called stratified lean combustion. Stratified lean combustion is a technique to burn a combustible air-fuel mixture generated only in a partial region within a combustion chamber, that is, a region in the vicinity of a sparking plug. With this technique, an intake loss can be reduced and a coefficient of thermal expansion can be enhanced.
Because fuel is collected only in the vicinity of the sparking plug by the stratified lean combustion, a method using a flow of air called a swirl flow is used extensively. This method takes an advantage of the nature of air that flows toward the center of a swirl. By disposing a sparking plug at the center of a swirl and allowing fuel to flow on the swirl, it becomes possible to collect the fuel in the vicinity of the sparking plug, thereby enabling the stratified lean combustion.
Accordingly, there is a possibility with the stratified lean combustion that the combustible mixture is not distributed homogeneously, and a spark discharge over a long period is required from the viewpoint of firing opportunity. A concentration of the mixture is not homogeneous, either, and in these circumstances, a fume leakage caused by carbon deposits on the sparking plug readily occurs. In view of the foregoing, a high secondary current is necessary for the stratified lean combustion to generate a spark discharge in a reliable manner even in circumstances where an energy leakage pathway has been formed.
In response to this necessity, an ignition apparatus described in Patent Document 1 has been proposed. The ignition apparatus described in Patent Document 1 uses a capacitive discharge ignition method to give rise to a breakdown between electrodes of an ignition plug. By supplying energy intermittently to a primary end of the sparking coil from a coil having pre-stored the energy to maintain a following inductive discharge, an AC spark discharge is generated continuously between the electrodes of the sparking plug. Both a high initial secondary current and a spark discharge over a long period can be thus achieved.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 4497027
Meanwhile, strong eddying flow and current of the combustible mixture develop in the vicinity of the sparking plug and these eddying flow and current make it difficult to start and continue a spark discharge for fuel ignition. The spark discharge is a phenomenon that molecules between the electrodes are turned into plasma by a action or the like with a high voltage applied between the electrodes and a current is flowed through the plasma. There is, however, a phenomenon (blow-off phenomenon) that molecules turned into plasma per se are flowed by the strong current described above or the plasma disappears with cooling. It therefore becomes difficult to start a spark discharge and should a discharge be started, the spark discharge is interrupted when a path (plasma) through which to flow the current disappears.
The ignition apparatus described in Patent Document 1 has a problem that the blow-off phenomenon readily occurs during an operation on a low discharge current. In other words, because a discharge current per se of the spark discharge contributes to generation of plasma, which serves as a path, when the discharge current is large, the current itself is able to repair the path even when the path is blown off. The path is therefore seldom interrupted and the blow-off phenomenon hardly occurs. In contrast, when the discharge current is small, plasma generated by the current itself is too small to repair the path quickly enough. The path is therefore interrupted easily and the blow-off phenomenon readily occurs.
Hence, once the discharge is interrupted, it becomes impossible to give rise to a breakdown again between the electrodes of the sparking plug. The spark discharge is therefore interrupted and ends at this point.
In circumstances where there is a fume leakage pathway between the electrodes of the sparking plug, an initial breakdown is possible due to the capacitive discharge method. However, when a spark discharge current thereafter is small, a large proportion of energy leaks through the leakage pathway. Hence, as with the description above, there is a case where the spark discharge cannot be maintained, causing a firing opportunity to be missed.
In addition, the ignition apparatus of Patent Document 1 proposes a scheme equipped with DC-to-DC converters separately used for a normal operation and stratified lean combustion and generating a further larger discharge current. To achieve this scheme, however, a further larger DC-to-DC converter and a further larger energy storing coil are necessary. This proposed scheme therefore has problems of heat generation and a large size of the product.


A method of separating from a mixture of oil-based drilling fluid and sample of formation hydrocarbon, the liquid component of the drilling fluid, which method comprises treating, e.g. chemically, the mixture in a way that selectively substantially affects the liquid component of the drilling fluid, producing one or more treatment products, while leaving the formation hydrocarbon substantially unaffected; and separating the treatment products from the formation hydrocarbon, by solvent extraction. The liquid component of the drilling fluid conveniently comprises one or more esters (which do not occur in significant quantities in naturally occuring formation hydrocarbons) and which can be hydrolysed to give water-soluble products readily removable from the formation hydrocarbon. The invention is applicable to sampling of formation hydrocarbon using wireline formation testers or sampling tools.

During exploration of a geological formation bearing oil and/or gas (hydrocarbon), and during development and management of extraction of hydrocarbon therefrom, it is important to be able to obtain representative samples of hydrocarbon from the formation. It is known to do this using a down hole wireline formation testers or sampling tools such as the Modular Dynamics Formation Tester (MDT) tool of Schlumberger. For a description of such equipment see Badry, R., Head, E., Morris, C. and Traboulay. I., "New wireline formation tester techniques and applications", Trans. SPWLA 34th Ann. Logging Symp., Calgary, June 1993, paper ZZ, and Schlumberger, Wireline Formation Testing and Sampling, pp. 10-1 to 10-25, Schlumberger Wireline and Testing, Houston (1996). The MDT tool allows samples of hydrocarbon to be captured and maintained at reservoir pressure in sealed containers. The samples are recovered at the surface and analysed to determine their composition (in terms of the relative amounts of different hydrocarbons) and their phase (pressure-volume-temperature or PVT) behaviour.
The acquisition of representative hydrocarbon samples from permeable formations can be impeded by several problems.
A major difficulty that commonly occurs when sampling is contamination by invasion of significant quantities of drilling fluid. This is particularly the case when using oil-based drilling fluids (also known as oil-based muds or OBMs). The base oil in OBMs usually consists of refined mineral oil, unrefined diesel oil or so-called synthetic oil such as poly(alphaolefins) or esters derived from vegetable oils. The OBM further comprises suspended solids in the form of weighting agent (commonly barite), fluid loss control agent (commonly clay) and possibly also drilled solids generated during drilling. The continuous liquid component of OBMs (the filtrate) is completely miscible with the formation hydrocarbons, and it is difficult to distinguish the filtrate from the formation hydrocarbons. This frequently results in samples of formation hydrocarbon contaminated with filtrate being collected. Such contamination results in inaccurate composition and phase behaviour information being obtained.
Another consideration is the length of sampling time. While sampling times may be prolonged with the aim of initially pumping out drilling fluid and contaminated formation hydrocarbon, thus reducing the likelihood of obtaining contaminated samples, longer sampling times increase the risk of the sampling tool and/or cable sticking in the hole. The sticking can be caused by the difference in the pressures in the drilling fluid column and permeable formations (so-called differential sticking) or by the condition or the geometry of the hole (key seating, swelling/collapsing shale sections etc). There is therefore a direct conflict between the need for extended sampling times to reduce sample contamination and the need for short sampling times to reduce the risk of sticking.

Sampling of hydrocarbons from geological formations


The present invention relates to a substrate gripping apparatus includes a base, a plurality of support posts which are vertically movable relative to the base, a lifting mechanism configured to lift the support posts, and a substrate holder and a substrate guide member mounted to each of the support posts. Each of the support posts includes a relative movement mechanism configured to move the substrate holder in such a direction that the substrate holder releases a peripheral portion of a substrate, while raising the substrate guide member relative to the substrate holder, when the support post moves upward, and to move the substrate holder in such a direction that the substrate holder grips the peripheral portion of the substrate, while lowering the substrate guide member relative to the substrate holder, when the support post moves downward.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate gripping apparatus, and more particularly to a substrate gripping apparatus which can be used in a cleaning apparatus or a drying apparatus for a substrate, such as a semiconductor wafer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a semiconductor device fabrication process, a substrate is subjected to a cleaning process or a drying process after the substrate is polished or plated. For example, in cleaning of a substrate, a cleaning liquid is supplied to the substrate while the substrate, which is gripped by a substrate gripping apparatus, is being rotated. A mechanism of gripping a substrate by chucks, which are driven by an actuator, is known as a conventional substrate gripping apparatus.


An optical communication device includes a first fiber, a second fiber, a light-emitting unit, a light-receiving unit, and a lens unit. The lens unit includes a first portion and a second portion connecting with the first portion. The first portion includes a first entrance surface, a first exit surface, and a first reflecting surface. The first entrance surface is perpendicular to the first exit surface. The first optical fiber faces the first entrance surface and the light-receiving unit faces the first exit surface. The second portion includes a second entrance surface, a second exit surface, and a second reflecting surface. The second entrance surface is perpendicular to the second exit surface. The first entrance surface and the second exit surface are coplanar.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to communication devices, and particularly to an optical communication device.
2. Description of Related Art
Optical communication devices include optical fibers, light-emitting units, a lens unit, and light-receiving units. The optical fibers include entrance optical fibers and exit optical fibers. The lens unit is configured for coupling the optical fibers to the light-emitting units and the light-receiving units.
The lens unit includes entrance lenses and exit lenses. The entrance lenses and the exit lenses are on a same surface of the lens unit. Thus, the entrance optical fibers and the exit optical fibers are on the same side of the lens unit. The optical communication devices include many optical fibers, the lens unit cannot have enough area for setting the entrance lenses and the exit lenses.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an optical communication device, which can overcome the limitation described.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A resistive memory device including multiple resistive memory cells arranged in regions where first signal lines and second signal lines cross each other, and a method of operating the resistive memory device, are provided. The method includes applying a first voltage to a first line, from among unselected first signal lines connected to unselected memory cells, that is not adjacent to a selected first signal line connected to a selected memory cell from among the multiple memory cells; applying a second voltage that is lower than the first voltage to a second line, from among the unselected first signal lines, that is adjacent to the selected first signal line; floating the unselected first signal lines; and applying a third voltage that is higher than the first voltage to the selected first signal line.

Embodiments of the inventive concept relate to a memory device, and more particularly, to a resistive memory device and a method of operating the resistive memory device.
In response to demand for higher capacity and lower power consumption of memory devices, research in next-generation memory devices that are non-volatile and that do not require refresh operations is being conducted. The next-generation memory devices are required to have a high integrity characteristic of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), non-volatile characteristic of flash memory, and high speed static RAM (SRAM). Among the next-generation memory devices, Phase-change RAM (PRAM), Nano Floating Gate Memory (NFGM), Polymer RAM (PoRAM), Magnetic RAM (MRAM), Ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM), and Resistive RAM (RRAM) are highlighted.

Resistive memory device and method of operating the same


A hybrid structure includes a frame member with at least three walls, forming a channel having a convex portion where two walls meet. A concave deformation is present in at least one convex portion, wherein the concave deformation extends into the channel and has open ends forming an opening through the convex portion. A plastic reinforcement member is present in the channel, wherein a portion of the reinforcement member extends into the opening and on the concave deformation.

Reinforcing structures such as energy absorbers are often used in the manufacture of high load-bearing applications, for example automobile components and machine frames. These structures are often comprised of metals and/or composite materials. Accordingly, the reinforcement structures are often heavy and/or expensive to manufacture and difficult to incorporate into vehicles and other machines. It is often difficult to achieve a proper balance of desired characteristics such as stiffness, impact resistance, affordability, ease of manufacture, and lightweight design. For example, additional metal inserts are often required to achieve desired stiffness. It is also difficult to form metal components into more complex geometric shapes.
Furthermore, the attachment mechanisms used for such reinforcing structures are often weak and unreliable. For example, attachment mechanisms are often required between a reinforcement structure and a vehicle, as well as between individual components of the reinforcement structure itself. Often times these attachment mechanisms rely on welding, glue, adhesive, or mechanical fastening to achieve secure attachment.
Thus, there is a need for a low cost, lightweight, impact resistant, reinforcing structure with secure attachment mechanisms that can be easily manufactured and then quickly integrated into a vehicle.

Hybrid structures and methods of making the same


A sheeted harness comprising a single piece of sheet member, and a plurality of electric wires arranged on the sheet member. The sheet member is provided on only one side of the plurality of electric wires. The plurality of electric wires is arranged on the sheet member such that a portion of each of the plurality of electric wires is attached, separately from one another without being bundled, to the sheet member.

A related art harness has a harness arranged and held between a pair of sheets (see, e.g., JP2004-074954A).
The related art sheeted harness requires cost for two sheets. In addition, the related art sheeted harness is sometimes too rigid to handle. That is, the harness between the pair of sheets has increased rigidity, as it is provided in a form of a bundle by taping or the like. The bonding of the pair of sheets further increases the rigidity. For example, when installing the sheeted harness along a vehicle roof, it may be difficult to conform to a curved surface of the vehicle roof. Further, the sheeted harness is difficult to fold when packing the sheeted harness.


Disclosed herein is a method for assembly of Computed Tomography (CT) Detector electronic circuits. A thermally conductive adhesive is dispensed on a first side of a first circuit board, the first circuit board having a plurality of ball grid arrays and a plurality of thermal sensors attached to the first side of the first circuit board. The thermally conductive adhesive is also dispensed on a first side of a second circuit board, the second circuit board having a plurality of ball grid arrays and a plurality of thermal sensors attached to the first side of the second circuit board. A first heat sink is mounted to the first side of the first circuit board. A second heat sink mounted to the first side of the second circuit board. The adhesive is cured on the first and the second circuit boards. The first circuit board is attached to the second circuit board, wherein the second side of the first circuit board is adjacent to the second side of the second circuit board.

This application relates generally to Computed Tomography (CT) systems. In particular, the invention relates to the method of assembly and thermal management of CT detector electronics. CT systems are used to obtain non-invasive sectional images of test objects, particularly internal images of human tissue for medical analysis and treatment. In a CT system, an x-ray source projects a fan-shaped beam that is collimated to lie within an X-Y plane of a Cartesian coordinate system, termed the "imaging plane." The x-ray beam passes through the object being imaged, such as a medical patient, and impinges upon a multi-row multi-column detector array. The detector array comprises a plurality of detector elements. The detector system converts incident X-rays of varying intensity into electronic signals. These analog signals are amplified and converted to digital pulses. CT system detector electronics use integrated circuit boards that process electronic the signals during CT system scans. Electronic signal conversion from analog to digital generates significant amounts of heat. Gantry air, primarily through forced air from axial fans, is used to cool the detector electronics, although gantry air can vary significantly. Newer generation CT systems have increasingly more electronic devices, and thus increased heat load that require further cooling. Existing CT systems do not have speed control fans or thermal management systems that provide reports on the thermal health of system components. Maintaining the thermal health of CT system components aids in preventing any degradation in CT system performance, which can cause image artifacts.

Method of assembly and thermal management of CT detector electronics circuits


A circuit for use with an LCD display wherein the LCD display contains a first number of pixel columns and a second number of pixel rows on a substrate is provided. The circuit comprises a plurality of row select driver circuits corresponding to the number of pixel rows for electrically energizing the pixel rows. The row select driver circuit is deposited on the LCD display substrate and an output of each of the row select driver circuits is electrically connected to a corresponding pixel row and to a successive row select driver circuit as an activating input. Switching apparatus external to the LCD display and having leads electrically connected to the row select driver circuits is also provided for electrically switching the row select driver circuits such that each pixel row is sequentially energized. A corresponding method is also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circuit for selectively driving pixel rows in an LCD display and more particularly to a row select driver circuit using thin-film transistors deposited on a substrate of the liquid crystal display.
2. Description of the Related Art
Displays using liquid crystal display (LCD) or similar devices include thin-film MOS transistors deposited on a glass substrate. At present, almost all commercially available active matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCD) are unscanned.
An unscanned AMLCD requires one external lead for each column and row line. For example, a direct line interface driver for a black and white 768.times.1024 XGA computer display would require 1792 leads. The need for this great number of leads in the display drivers is a major problem which gets worse as the resolution and complexity of displays increase. Two major goals for solving the problem are to reduce the number of required input leads and to "integrate" the driver circuitry such as shift registers and latches directly onto the display substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,034,735 discloses a driving apparatus using two transistors per pixel row for producing select and deselect signals and sequentially addressing them through the transistors' control gates. These transistors may be formed as thin-film transistors on a glass substrate along with a switching circuit 43, a switching signal generating unit 41, a scanning selection signal bus 411, and a scanning nonselection bus 412.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,157,386 discloses a circuit driving an active matrix liquid crystal display having M rows and N columns by video digital data of K bits. An analog switch capable of ON and OFF states receives a video voltage and a control signal and selectively outputs the video voltage to each column in response to a control signal. This is not a circuit for selectively driving the rows of a display.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,181 discloses a display apparatus comprising a plurality of pixels arranged in rows and columns. A data driver demultiplexer is disclosed.
The above-cited U.S. Pat. are the best known examples of relevant prior art known to the inventor. Almost all of the other commercially available active matrix liquid crystal displays are unscanned.

Select driver circuit for an LCD display


A system and method are provided for creating a computer program by building a physical structure with a plurality of objects in conjunction with an interactive surface that recognizes such objects and translates the physical structure into a computer program.

"Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer . . . because it teaches you how to think."—Steve Jobs.
Computer programming is becoming a way of thinking and doing for the broader society, beyond the narrow confines of computer programming professionals, particularly as the Internet continues to be a transformative force in driving changes in almost every aspects of modern life. People are starting to learn computer programming at an ever-younger age, a trend encouraged and reinforced by programming tools and platforms specifically developed for younger children or beginners.
Currently there are a number of programming tools and platforms that enable the creation of interactive stories, games, and animations, and the sharing of such creations in the online community. Their stated aim is to help young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively. Many games running on smart phones or tablet computers have also been developed that aim to further reduce the entry barrier for programming, and to teach the ways of logical thinking, to children as young as 4 years of age, often without much focus on writing programming code.
However, despite all these efforts, learning to program a game is still not intuitive and less fun than playing one, and it is desirable to develop ways that make programming fun and intuitive. Currently, most if not all of the programming tools and games are screen-based—they require users to interact with an electronic screen, whether it is on a laptop computer, a smart phone, or a tablet computer. An off-screen and physical building blocks-based system and method would be desirable, especially for young children whose parents desire to stimulate the children's interest in structured thinking and logical reasoning but at the same time wish to reduce the children's time spent with electronic screens.

System and method for computer programming with physical objects on an interactive surface


This invention relates to a magnetic head assembly for information recording and reproduction on and from a magnetic disk using a magnetic head, a method of manufacturing the same and a magnetic disk apparatus. To provide a magnetic head at a low cost, a head chip (1) having an insulating layer, a magnetic pole (16), a coil (17) and a terminal portion (11, 13) of the coil, and a flexible support body (2) having a lead portion and a terminal portion (21, 23) to be connected to the terminal portion of the head chip (1), and attached to the arm (3), for supporting the head chip (1) are provided.

A magnetic disk apparatus is a storage device which allows an actuator to position the magnetic head to a desired track on a rotating magnetic disk to thereby read data from that track or write data on that track by the magnetic head.
This magnetic disk apparatus is widely used as an external storage device. To meet the recent demand of downsizing of computer systems, there is a demand for a small magnetic disk apparatus with a large capacity. The size of magnetic disks tends toward 3.5 inches or 1.8 inches from 5.25 inches.
The size reduction of the magnetic disk apparatus and the large capacity require high-density recording. When high-density recording is performed, however, the magnetic force lines of a magnetic disk medium become short, so that it is preferable that planar recording or perpendicular recording be performed with the floating amount of the head set as small as or below the order of microns, or that perpendicular recording be performed with the head brought in contact with the magnetic disk.
In the case where the floating amount of the head is small or the head is brought in contact with the disk, if the head is heavy, the trackability to undulations or protrusions of the magnetic disk medium decreases on the order of microns.
If the load of the head is increased to improve this trackability, on the other hand, the force of contact with the protrusions of the magnetic disk medium increases, increasing the risk of head crash and medium crash.
Therefore, as the mass of the head decreases and the load of the head decreases, the trackability to a magnetic disk medium increases, so that high-density recording becomes possible with the reduced floating amount of the head or the head brought in contact with the medium.
FIGS. 1(A), 1(B) and 1(C) are diagrams showing the structure of a conventional magnetic head, and FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a fabrication process for the head.
As an example of a contact type perpendicular recording head, a flexible magnetic head 9 as shown in FIGS. 1(A-C) has been proposed (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 178017/1991, for example).
In this head 9, as shown in FIG. 1(B), a main pole (main magnetic pole) 90 is formed vertically in a dielectric flexure body 96 of aluminum oxide or the like, a yoke 91 connected to this pole is formed horizontally, a back stud 93 connected to this yoke is formed vertically, and a return yoke 94 connected to this stud is formed horizontally, those components constitute a reluctance path. This path ends at a high reluctance gap 95 between the main pole 90 and the return yoke 94.
A spiral coil is inductively coupled to the yoke 91, both ends of the coil 92 connected via lead conductors 97 to bonding pads 98.
This head is called a probe type head, which is fabricated with thin-film forming technology and can be made very small. For instance, as shown in FIG. 1(A), the head 9 has a width D of 0.5 mm, a thickness B of 0.05 mm, a length A of 12.5 mm, and mass of 100 micrograms.
By attaching such a head 9 to an arm, low mass and low load of the head become possible, thus ensuring high-density perpendicular recording in tracking with the undulation of the magnetic disk medium.
This head 9 is formed as an integrated unit using thin film and photolithography technologies. As shown in FIG. 2, many heads are formed on a polished wafer 9-1 of barium titanate or the like in the order of microns through tens of steps by sputtering, vapor deposition, plating, chemical deposition, ion beam deposition and etching, etc., and those heads are scribed to be individual heads.
But, the prior art has the following problems.
(1) The greater the number of heads formed on the wafer 9-1 is, the lower the cost becomes. However, since the lead conductor portion is formed integrally in the prior art, the number of heads formable on the wafer 9-1 is limited; for example, only about 270 heads can be formed on a 3-inch wafer. This significantly increases the cost of the heads.
(2) If the heads are large, the number of defects in the heads cut out of the wafer 9-1 increases; for example, even if the lead conductor portion alone is defective, the whole head becomes defective. This further increases the cost of the heads.

Magnetic head assembly with ball member for electrically connecting the slider member and the suspension member


If a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery has a seal structure between a lid and an electrode terminal in which a seal member is compressed by fastening a nut, the nut may be loosened to make the amount of compression of the seal member insufficient to reduce the seal performance even if the nut is fastened enough to obtain an appropriate amount of compression of the seal member at the time of manufacture of the battery. A battery case has an opening, and houses an electrode group and an organic electrolyte. A lid is fastened to the battery case, and tightly seals the opening of the battery case. An electrode terminal is electrically connected to the electrode group. The lid and the electrode terminal face each other via an elastic member.

In recent years, batteries with reduced size, reduced weight, and increased energy density have been required as drive power sources for various electric apparatuses such as personal computers, particularly along with their tendency toward cordless and portable configurations. In particular, non-aqueous electrolyte secondary batteries such as lithium ion batteries have high energy density, and are expected as leading products that meet such requirements.
Some non-aqueous electrolyte secondary batteries have a rectangular structure with an electrode member in which a positive electrode and a negative electrode are laminated via a separator, and others have a cylindrical structure with an electrode member formed by winding a laminated member including a positive electrode and a negative electrode laminated via a separator. The electrode member of either structure is housed in a battery case or a battery casing together with a non-aqueous electrolyte. It should be noted, however, that the battery case may have a rectangular outer shape even if a wound electrode member is used as the electrode member.
In the non-aqueous electrolyte secondary batteries, further, a current is drawn from the electrode member via a positive current collecting member and a negative current collecting member connected to the positive electrode and the negative electrode, respectively. That is, the current collecting members are fixed at an end portion of the electrode member, and a positive terminal and a negative terminal connected to the positive current collecting member and the negative current collecting member, respectively, for electrical conduction are projected out of the battery case through terminal leading holes (terminal through holes) formed in a lid of the battery case. In an example of a seal structure for the terminal leading holes, a seal member (for example, a gasket) is provided between an inner wall surface around a portion of the lid formed with the terminal leading holes and terminal body portions of the electrode terminals having threaded terminal portions when the electrode terminals are inserted through the terminal leading holes of the battery case from the inner side of the battery case, and a nut is fastened via a washer and the gasket onto a threaded portion of the threaded terminal portions of the electrode terminals projecting out of the battery case to pull up the electrode terminals out of the battery case and compress the seal member between the inner wall surface of the lid and the terminal body portions of the electrode terminals (see Patent Documents 1, 2, and 3, for example).

Non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery


An optical property of a device under test is determined from a detected DUT response signal, or a signal derived therefrom, whereby the DUT response signal represents a signal response of the DUT in response to a composite signal or a signal derived from said composite signal. The composite signal comprises superimposed signals delayed with respect to each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the determination of an optical property of a device under test (DUT) by analyzing a response signal of said DUT, or a signal derived therefrom.
2. Brief Description of Related Developments
According to a known technique commonly referred to as "swept homodyne interferometry", a DUT is implemented in one of the interferometer arms of an interferometric measurement set-up introducing an additional wavelength dependent optical path length. A laser source is swept over a range of wavelengths. Due to a discrepancy of the arm lengths a modulated signal—the interferogram—is observed at a detector. The set-up is comparable to a Mach-Zehnder set-up when viewed in transmission, and to a Twyman-Green interferometer when viewed in reflection. More details concerning this approach can be found in "Phase and Group Delay Relation in Swept Homodyne Interferometry" by Thomas Jensen, and in EP-A-1202038 by the assignee, the teaching thereof shall be incorporated herein by reference.

Determining an optical property by using superimposed delayed signals


Certain embodiments of the invention provide a computer apparatus and corresponding computer implement method for slab rendering from a three dimensional (3D) image data set of voxel data. Slab rendering is carried out on a stack of slabs of the same thicknesses in the 3D image data set. The whole stack of slabs is rendered together according to a desired filtering operation by applying a one dimensional van-Herk-Gil-Werman (vHGW) algorithm having a segment size one less than the slab thickness to strings of data that run through the whole stack.

Embodiments described herein generally relate to preparation and display of a derived series of medical images from three dimensional (3D) image data sets by slab rendering.
FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of principal elements of a medical imaging product chain. Initially a patient is scanned using an imaging device to perform computer-assisted tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR), digital radiography (DR), computed radiography (CR), positron-emission-tomography (PET), ultrasound or other modality. A modality generates two types of data. The first type of data, labeled original images, are images generated by the modality and are intended to be viewed directly by humans, typically radiologists or other medical professionals. Examples of original images are X-rays, CT cross-sectional images, MR sectional images, ultrasound fan images etc. The second type of data, labeled original data, is data that is not produced in the form of an image, or is composed of a very large collection of images, and is not intended to be viewed by humans directly, or in the aggregate.
The original images and/or original data generated by a modality are transferred to a computer workstation where the original images are locally cached, i.e. held in a memory cache at the workstation. The workstation hosts a digital imaging software application which is used to display the original images to a medical imaging professional on a display system, such as a high resolution monitor or collection of monitors. The digital imaging application may also pass some of the original images directly onwards, for example to other applications on the same computer or computer network, or over a network to other computer systems.
The digital imaging application may process some combination of original images and/or original data to generate derived images. Derived images are images that are different from original images and are intended to be seen directly by a medical imaging professional such as a radiologist.
In image processing of 3D image data sets of voxel data, such as medical image data sets obtained from CT or MR scans, creating a two dimensional (2D) image for display from a 3D image data set is generally performed by some kind of rendering.
A simple form of rendering would be to select an arbitrary plane to view through a 3D image data set, interpolate the voxel data adjacent to the plane to obtain in plane voxel data, obtain a 2D image data set, i.e. pixels from the in plane voxels, and display the 2D image data set as a 2D image.
One step further from this extremely simple example is where a user wishes to move the arbitrary plane through the volume in an axial direction to visualize slices through the volume at various depths. When a user wishes to visualize a succession of slices through a volume at various depths, a standard way of doing this is to create each 2D image from a slab of finite thickness and to advance the slab through the volume incrementally in steps that are equal to, or smaller than, the thickness of the slab. An advantage of using slabs rather than planes is that it can serve to average out noise and smooth undesirably detailed local variation.
To convert a slab, which by definition is a 3D data set, into a 2D image data set, the strings of data through the slab along any particular line orthogonal to the plane of the slab need to be somehow aggregated to produce a single datum using a projection algorithm, this being referred to as compositing. Various different filtering functions are used for this purpose.
One common projection algorithm is based on determining for each image pixel the maximum voxel value seen in the slab along the axial direction. This is known as maximum intensity projection (MIP). Maximum intensity projection is a type of ray casting. In effect, for each pixel in the image, an imaginary ray is cast through the volume data parallel to the view direction. The image data for each pixel is then taken to be the maximum voxel value encountered by the ray as it traverses the slab. Another common projection algorithm is known as minimum intensity projection (MinIP) and uses the minimum voxel value encountered by rays traversing the slab. A third type of projection mode used in slab rendering is Average Intensity Projection (AveIP) in which the voxel data values sampled from the portion of the ray traversing the slab are averaged to produce their collective value. For MIP, MinIP and AveIP the voxel values are scalar quantities. A further projection algorithm is volume rendering (VR) in which the voxel values are vectors for color and opacity, or grayscale and opacity in the case of monochrome rendering.
A stack of slab rendered MIP, MinIP, AveIP or VR slabs may need to be generated with a particular slab thickness in the axial direction and over a particular extent within the volume in a variety of circumstances. For example, a user may wish to produce a derived series for reporting or resampling purposes. Another example is when the visualization application is designed to compute a whole series of slabs in a predictive way. When a user selects a slab for viewing, the application anticipates the possibility that the user's next action will be to scroll from the current slab through the volume along the current view axis, for example to scan through a particular organ in a 3D medical image data set. A stack of slabs is calculated in advance seeded from the slab currently being viewed, e.g. upwards and downwards from the currently viewed slab, even though the user has not yet provided an instruction via the user interface to scroll up or down.
A common form of slab rendering is multi-planar reformatting (MPR). In this technique, MPR data are generated by taking a coordinate in view space, transforming the coordinate into volume space, and resampling the volume data using some form of interpolation to generate a new MPR data value for the discrete view space coordinate. An MPR slice is formed by carrying this out for a plurality of {x, y} coordinates at a fixed z value. If this is repeated for multiple values of z, then multiple MPR slices are determined and these slices can be projected to form an MPR slab. The MPR slab thus comprises a series of MPR slices which are aligned parallel to the image plane and disposed at different positions along the Z-axis.
In slab MPR, the slab can be gradually moved along the view axis in small increments by the user, so that the user sees a succession of images or frames projected from the volume data, where each frame relates to a projection through a slab occupying a location incrementally different from the previous slab. In use, a radiologist will "cine" or "scroll" the slab back and forth interactively. For example, in a CT scan of a human head, a radiologist might take several seconds to traverse the head from top to bottom or back to front, with the traverse involving several hundred frames. A typical technique for generating such image frames is casting a ray through the volume data set for each pixel in an image and sampling the volume data sets at a number of discrete points along each respective ray. If using MIP as the projection algorithm, for example, the maximum voxel value or interpolated value along the ray within the slab is then selected. The selected maximum sample or interpolated value within the slab is taken to be the pixel value associated with its respective ray.
FIGS. 2a and 2b show examples of derived image sequences obtained from different forms of multiplanar reformatting (MPR) which is a kind of slab rendering. FIG. 2a shows parallel MPR. FIG. 2b shows cross-curve MPR.
FIG. 2a shows a parallel MPR example where two positional coordinates and three orientation angles of the sectioning plane are fixed, and the plane is moved along its normal vector in a cine action by varying parameter t, for example with the scroll wheel of a mouse. Typically there are minimum and maximum values for parameter t based on the data set. Different choices of position and orientation give rise to different parallel MPR sequences.
FIG. 2b shows a cross-curve MPR example where a curve is defined through the patient's body, usually corresponding with an anatomical structure such as a vessel. The plane is moved by varying parameter t so that a given point on the plane moves along the curve, and the other degrees of freedom are constrained so that the plane is perpendicular to the curve at the bound point. The boundary values for parameter t are limited to a particular length portion of the vessel, for example. Different curves result in different cross-curve MPR sequences.
Other examples of slab rendered derived image sequences useful in medical imaging include radial MPR sequences formed by rotating the sectioning plane around an axis; and local MPR sequences where a point on the sectioning plane is bound to a curve and the plane is constrained to be tangential to the curve at the bound point. Slab rendering can be computationally costly, and in particular is more costly for thicker slabs. Namely, if the whole volume is made up of 'n×n×n' voxels and the slab thickness is 'm' voxels, then generation of a set of 2D images of the whole volume when the slab increment equals one voxel will have a runtime O that scales with O(m×n^3).

Preparation and display of derived series of medical images


A composition, pharmaceutical composition, vaccine and method for the treatment of disseminated candidiasis due to the infection by C. albicans. The composition includes phosphomannan of C. albicans. Monoclonal antibodies for use in passive immunization against candidal infections.

The present invention relates to a vaccine and method for the treatment of disseminated candidiasis due to infection by Candida albicans.
Candida albicans is a fungus responsible for various forms of candidiasis, a condition which may be found in normal and immunocompromised patients, such as those with acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Humans and mice who are neutropenic are especially at risk of developing disseminated candidiasis (Denning, D. W., et al. 1992. Antifungal prophylaxis during neutropenia or allogeneic bone marrow transplantation: what is the state of the art? Chemotherapy 38(suppl 1):43-49; Matsumoto, M. S., et al. 1991. Effect of combination therapy with recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rG-CSF) and antibiotics in neutropenic mice unresponsive to antibiotics alone. J. Antimicrob. Chemother. 28:447-453; Meunier, F. 1987. Prevention of mycoses in immunocompromised patients. Rev. Infect. Dis. 9:408-416; Meunier, F., et al. 1992. Candidemia in immunocompromised patients. Clin. Infect. Dis. 14 (Suppl 1):S120-S125; and Van""t Wout, J. W. et al. 1989. Comparison of the efficacies of amphotericin B, Fluconazole, and Itraconazole against a systemic Candida albicans infection in normal and neutropenic mice. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 33: 147-151).
Several attempts have been made in the prior art to achieve immunostimulating compounds for the treatment of candidiasis as evidenced below.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,639 to Bernie et al. discloses the use of antibodies specific for stress proteins of C. albicans for the treatment of systemic candidiasis. Bernie et al. isolated a 47 kilo-dalton immunodominant antigen from C. albicans and found that serum from patients with systemic candidiasis reacts with the antigen. Monoclonal antibodies raised against the fungal stress proteins produced a 33 k survival at 24 hours in animals challenged with a lethal dose of the C. albicans.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,838 to d""Hinterland discloses preparations of purified bacterial membranal proteoglycans. The proteoglycans serve as immunoadjuvants and have an immunostimulating activity without being immunogenic themselves. The proteoglycans of the invention are extracted from membranes of bacteria. They are useful in serving as adjuvants with ribosomal vaccines such as a vaccine containing the ribosomes of C. albicans.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,514 to Durette et al. discloses immunologically active dipeptidyl 5-O, 6-O-acyl-2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucofuranose derivatives. The compounds are used to delay the release of an antigen and stimulate the immune response of the host in conjunction with a vaccine. Compounds of Durette provide non-specific host protection against infectious organisms such as C. albicans.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,315,913 to Durette discloses immunologically active dipeptidyl 2-amino-1,2-dideoxy-D-glucose derivatives. These derivatives are also useful as immunological adjuvants and themselves provide non-specific host protection against C. albicans.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,910 to Shen et al. is directed to immunologically active dipeptidyl 4-O-6-O-acyl-2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose derivatives. These derivatives are indicated to be useful as immunogenic agents and vaccines and by themselves provide non-specific host protection against infectious organisms such as C. albicans.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,323,560 to Baschang et al. is directed to phosphorylmuramyl peptides. The peptides are used to stimulate immunity. The compounds of Baschang et al. have been found to be inhibitive to infections of fungi such as C. albicans.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,032,404 to Lopez-Berestein et al. disclose a liposomal agent for treating disseminated fungal infection in an animal. Because of the nature of polysaccharide fungal cell walls, it is expected that all medically important fungi activate complement. The patent indicated that there is a positive correlation between animals deficient in late-acting complement components and increase of susceptibility to fungi such as C. albicans. The patent indicates that disseminated fungal infection can be treated with liposomal agent comprising lipids, a polyene macrolide anti-fungal compound and cholesterol. Lipids can include phosphatidyl choline. Liposomes incorporate an effective amount of a polyene macrolide anti-fungal compound such as hamycins or lucensomycin, filipin, lagosin and natamycin.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,748 to Sutka et al. discloses a process for the production of the immunobiological preparations applicable in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of Candida guilliermondii infections. Strains of C. guilliermondii are killed and the attenuated fungus is used to formulate a vaccine.
Early attempts at obtaining compounds which provide non-specific host protection against C. albicans are generally in the form of immuno adjuvants used in conjunction with vaccines.
Discussion below provides an understanding of adherence as it relates to pathogenesis of disseminated candidiasis. C. albicans is an organism that may show considerable variability of certain characteristics. Genetics studies show that the organism is diploid, but apparently without the ability to undergo meiosis, yet it has impressive genetic variability between and within strains (Scherer, S. et al. 1990. Genetics of C. albicans. Microbiol. Rev. 54:226-241). Chromosomal aberrations unpredictably occur (Rustchenko-Bulgac et al. 1990. Chromosomal rearrangements associated with morphological mutants provide a means for genetic variation of C. albicans. J. Bacteriol, 172:1276-1283), and may be related to high frequency phenotypic (colony) changes in some strains (Soll, D. R. 1992. High-frequency switching in C. albicans. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 5:183-203). Perhaps related to the genetic instability are findings that strains of C. albicans variably express, cell surface antigens (Cutler, J. E., et al. 1994. Antigenic variability of C. albicans cell surface. Curr. Top. Med. Mycol. 5:27-47, and Martinez, J. P., et al. 1990. Wall mannoproteins in cells form colonial phenotypic variants of C. albicans. J. Gen. Microbiol. 136:2421-2432). Some of these antigens include putative virulence factors such as adhesins and enzymes (Cutler, J. E. 1991. Putative virulence factors of C. albicans. Ann. Rev. Microbiol. 45:187-218).
Studies on adherence properties of C. albicans are important in gaining an understanding of C. albicans interactions with its host. The ability to bind to mucus and epithelial surfaces likely plays a critical role in maintaining C. albicans at these locations. The fungus also shows adherence specificities for selected populations of splenic and lymph node macrophages (Cutler, J. E., et al. 1990. Characteristics of C. albicans adherence to mouse tissue. Infect. Immun. 58:1902-1908; Han, Y., et al. 1993. Binding of C. albicans yeast cells to mouse popliteal lymph node tissue is mediated by macrophages. Infect. Immun. 61:3244-3249; and Kanbe, T., et al. 1992. Evidence that C. albicans binds via a unique adhesion system on phagocytic cells in the marginal zone of the mouse spleen. Infect. Immun. 60:1972-1978), and extracellular matrix proteins (ECM) and endothelial cells (Filler, S. G., et al. 1991. C. albicans stimulates endothelial cell eicosanoid production. J. Infect. Dis. 164:928-035; Klotz, S. A. 1992. Fungal adherence to the vascular compartment: A critical step in the pathogenesis of disseminated candidiasis. Clin. Infect. Dis. 14:340-347; Mayer, C. L., et al. 1992. Technical report: C. albicans adherence to endothelial cells. Microvascular Res. 43:218-226; Rotrosen, D. et al. 1985. Adherence of Candida to cultured vascular endothelial cells: mechanisms of attachment and endothelial cell penetration. J. Infect. Dis. 153:1264-1274).
The fungal adhesins range in properties from hydrophilic to hydrophobic molecules (Hazen, K. C. 1990. Cell surface hydrophobicity of medically important fungi, especially Candida species, p. 249-295. In R. J. Doyle and M. Rosenberg (ed.), Microbial Cell Surface Hydrophobicity. American Society of Microbiology, Washington; Kennedy, M. J. 1988. Adhesion and association mechanisms of C. albicans. Curr. Top. Med. Mycol. 2:73-169) and all may be mannoproteins (8, 11). Both mannan and protein moieties may function as adhesins.
Some adhesins have integrin-like activity in that they act as receptors for mammalian proteins such as iC3b, fibronectin, laminin and fibrinogen; one adhesin has lectin-like activity; and a C3d receptor has been described (Bendel, C. M., et al. 1993. Distinct mechanisms of epithelial adhesion for C. albicans and Candida tropicalis. Identification of the participating ligands and development of inhibitory peptides. J. Clin. Invest. 92:1840-18492; Calderone, R. A., et al. 1991. Adherence and receptor relationships in C. albicans. Microbiol Rev. 55:1-20; Cutler, J. E. 1991. Putative virulence factors of C. albicans. Ann. Rev. Microbiol. 45:187-218; Gilmore, B. J., et al. 1988 An iC3b receptor on C. albicans: structure, function, and correlates for pathogenicity. J. Infect. Dis. 157:38-46; Klotz, S. A., et al. 1993. Adherence of Candida to immobilized extracellular matrix proteins is mediated by C. albicans calcium-dependent surface glycoproteins. Microbiol. 14:133-147. Pathogens is the surface of hydrophilic yeast cells of C. albicans has a fibrillar appearance both in vitro and in vivo (Hazen, K. C. et al. 1993. Surface hydrophobic and hydrophilic protein alterations in C. albicans. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 107:83-88; Marrie, T. J., et al. 1981. The ultrastructure of C. albicans infections. Can. J. Microbiol. 27:1156-1164; and Tokunaga, M. et al. 1986. Ultrastructure of outermost layer of cell wall in C. albicans observed by rapid-freezing technique, J. Electron Microsc. 35:237-246).
A major component that makes up the fibrils on the cell surface of C. albicans and extends deeper into the cell surface appears to be the phosphomannoprotein (PMP) as depicted in the simplistic diagram presented as FIG. 1. The cell surface is probably more complex than this, as additional proteins with relatively small amounts of carbohydrate may also be present (Hazen, K. C., et al. 1994. Hydrophobic cell wall protein glycosylation by the pathogenic fungus C. albicans. Can. J. Microbiol. 40:266-272). It is not clear, however, if these proteins differ from the major PMP or are the same proteins, but with a truncated version of the glycan portion.
The present inventors have overcome the deficiencies and inability of the prior art to obtain a vaccine against disseminated candidiasis by directing their attention to a composition comprising C. albicans adhesins.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a vaccine against candidiasis comprising a pharmaceutically effective amount of the mannan portion of the phosphomannan complex of Candida which elicits an immune response. The candidiasis may be hematogenous disseminated candidiasis or mucocutaneous candidiasis. The mannan portion is the active portion of the vaccine.
The invention also encompasses a vaccine wherein the mannan active portion comprises a composition structure selected from the group consisting of xcex2-1,2-linked straight chain tri, tetra- and penta-mannosyl residues in the acid labile part of the mannan portion of the phosphomannan complex.
Still another object of the invention provides a vaccine for treatment of disseminated and mucocutaneous Candidiasis comprising a pharmaceutical effective amount of an epitope of Candida albicans comprising a beta 1,2-trimannose or acid stable epitopes that elicit an immune response.
The invention provides a therapeutic composition for treatment of disseminated and mucocutaneous Candidiasis comprising a pharmaceutically effective amount of active or passive humoral antibodies to Candida albicans directed against a beta 1,2-trimannose or an epitope in the acid stable region of the mannan portion of the phosphomannan complex of Candida albicans to produce immunity.
The invention provides isolated protective antibodies for passive protection against hematogenous disseminated candidiasis and mucocutaneous candidiasis. The antibodies may be monoclonal antibodies specific for mannan epitopes in the acid stable portion of the mannan epitope and xcex2-1,2-linked tri, tetra- and penta-mannosyl residues in the acid labile part of the mannan portion of the phosphomannoprotein complex.
The invention thus provides for a method for the treatment of disseminated candidiasis and mucocutaneous candidiasis comprising administering an effective amount of the monoclonal antibodies of the invention to elicit an immune response.
The above and other objects of the invention will become readily apparent to those of skill in the relevant art from the following detailed description and figures, wherein only the preferred embodiments of the invention are shown and described, simply by way of illustration of the best mode of carrying out the invention. As is readily recognized the invention is capable of modifications within the skill of the relevant art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
Monoclonal Antibody B6.1 (930610) was deposited under the terms of the Budapest Treaty on Jun. 7, 1995 with the American Type Culture Collection, 12301 Parklawn Drive, Rockville, Md., USA. ATCC Acession No. HB11925.

Candida albicans phosphomannan complex as a vaccine