A method of applying a reflective optics system that requires the presence of both convex and a concave mirrors that have beam reflecting surfaces. Application thereof achieves focusing of a beam of electromagnetic radiation with reduced effects on a polarization state of an input beam state of polarization that results from adjustment of angles of incidence and reflections from the various mirrors involved.

It is known to focus beams of electromagnetic radiation onto samples, such as in the practice of ellipsometry, and said focusing can be achieved using refractive or reflective optics. Numerous Patents provide insight this in general, but a particularly relevant one is U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,818 to Johs et al. This Patent is specifically disclosed as it describes a "Beam Folding Optics", (best shown in FIG. 5 thereof), that comprises four similar mirrors oriented such that reflections from the first and second thereof define a plane of incidence that is substantially orthogonal to a plane of incidence formed by reflections for the third and fourth thereof. The result of applying said Beam directing Optics is to direct a beam of electromagnetic radiation in a desired direction that is other than along a locus of a beam input to said system, but because of polarization state change cancellation effects of reflections from the first two mirrors, and reflections from the last two mirrors, the system has essentially no effect on the polarization state of a beam exiting said Beam Folding Optics, as compared to that of a beam input thereto. Other Patents that describe the "Beam Folding Optics" are: U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,746,472; 7,746,471; 7,633,625; 7,616,319; 7,505,134; 7,336,361; 7,265,838; 7,277,171; 7,265,838; 7,215,424; 7,158,231; 6,859,278; 6,822,738; 6,804,004; and 6,549,282. Another, very recent Patent to Li et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,767,209, is disclosed as it describes forming angles between incoming and reflected beams of electromagnetic radiation. This is very different from forming angles between planes formed by two sets of incoming and reflected beams, however, as is done in the Present Invention. Additional Patents are further disclosed primarily as they describe beam focusing using mirrors. Said additional Patents are: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,790,659; 5,048,970; 5,608,526; 5,798,837; 5,917,594; 6,600,560; 6,734,967; 6,795,185; 6,819,423; 6,829,049; 6,943,880; 7,095,498; 7,130,039; 7,184,145; 7,248,364; 7,289,219; 7,359,052; 7,369,233; 7,505,133; 7,860,040 and 8,030,632.
Patents to Liphardt et al., U.S. Pat. No. 10,338,362, 10,018,815, 9,921,391 and 9,500,843 describe a system for providing a focused beam (FB) of electromagnetic radiation onto a location on a sample (SAM), said system being a reflective optics system (RFO) sequentially comprising first (M1), second (M2), third (M3) and fourth (M4) mirrors, each of said four mirrors (M1) (M2) (M3 (M4) providing reflective surfaces, with said third (M3) and fourth (M4) mirrors providing convex and concave reflective surfaces, respectively. In use an input beam (IB) of electromagnetic radiation having a specific polarization state is directed toward said first (M1) mirror and reflects from said reflective surface thereof, such that a first plane of incidence (P1) is formed between said incident beam (IB) and said beam which is reflected from said reflective surface of said first (M1) mirror, and such that said beam reflected from the reflective surface of said first (M1) mirror is directed toward said second mirror (M2) and reflects from said reflective surface thereof toward said convex third (M3) mirror, from which it reflects at an off-center location thereon toward said concave fourth (M4) mirror, wherefrom it is reflected by the reflective surface thereof toward said sample (SAM) as a focused (FB) outgoing beam (OB); said beam reflected from the reflective surface of said convex third (M3) mirror and that reflected from said reflective surface of said concave fourth (M4) mirror forming a second plane of incidence (P2), said first (P1) and second (P2) planes of incidence being substantially orthogonal to one another. The effect of said four reflections from said reflective surfaces of said four (M1) (M2) (M3) (M4) mirrors being to substantially minimize the effects of all said reflections on the specific polarization state of said input beam, and to direct said output beam (OB) and provide it as a focused beam (FB) onto said sample (SAM) at the point it impinges thereupon. See U.S. Pat. No. 9,921,395 FIG. 1A for disclosure of the identifiers.
While the just described prior art system provides utility, it happens in Ellipsometry and the like applications, that the angle of Incidence at which a Polarized Beam is directed at toward a Sample Surface is undesirable changed or limited by application thereof in a way that is not desired. Briefly, as shown in FIG. 3AA of the same 395 Patent, an Ellipsometer configuration provides that a Source (S) of electromagnetic radiation be oriented to direct a beam toward a Polarization State Generator (PSG) and impinge on a Surface of a Sample (SAM), then interact therewith and enter a Detector containing Polarization State Detector. FIG. 3AA also shows the presence of Reflective Optics (RFO) and (RFO′) on either side to the Sample which are applied to focus and collimate a beam of electromagnetic radiation, respectively. Note that the Angle at which the beam approaches the Sample is not changed by the presence of the (RFO). However, where the above described Planes (P1) and (P2) are orthogonal to one another in order to achieve maximum reduction in Polarization State affects, situations can develop in which the beam trajectory is changed by passing through the (RFO). The present invention provides that the Planes (P1) and (P2) can be oriented to be other than orthogonal to one another to overcome this problem.
It is also noted that a Patent to Johs et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,872,630, describes a mathematical regression approach to calibrating an ellipsometer system. The approach involves modeling each element in an ellipsometer system mathematically, followed by obtaining data from an actual system, and regressing the mathematical model thereonto to set parameter values in the model to their best least square error fit. This can include the presence of one or more Rotation Matrix in the mathematical model which compensate for the polarization state being rotated by an element, or series of elements, as is the case in application of the present invention.
Patents to Liphardt et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 10,338,362, 10,018,815, 9,921,391 and 9,500,843, and to Johs et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,872,630 are incorporated hereinto by reference.
Need exists for a beam focusing reflective optics system that does not significantly alter the Angle of Incidence a beam of electromagnetic radiation makes to a Sample surface because of passage therethrough, but provides focusing of said beam with reduced effects on polarization state, and in which remaining effects can be accounted for by calibrating the ellipsometer.


A soundproof panel connection structure including: a plurality of posts spaced apart from each other on the floor by a given distance; a plurality of soundproof panels each located between the neighboring posts and having fastening portions disposed on both end portions thereof; bending portions each extended from one side surface of each soundproof panel; soundproof materials each interposed between each fastening portion and each bending portion in such a manner as to be supportedly brought on one surface thereof into contact with one side surface of each post; and a plurality of connection joints each coupled on both ends thereof to the fastening portions disposed on both side surfaces of each post, wherein the post located at the corner portion in the plurality of posts has supports located at the outer surfaces thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a soundproof panel connection structure, and more particularly, to a soundproof panel connection structure that is installed on a press line or part production line to block the sound generated from the press line or part production line.
2. Background of the Related Art
Generally, soundproof panels are installed to absorb and block the sound generated from industrial sites, that is, from a press line or part production line.
The soundproof panels serve as a sound reduction structure that absorbs and blocks sound in the process of transmitting the sound to allow the sound transmitted to the surrounding area to be reduced to a given reference value.
As shown in FIGS. 1a and 1b, according to a conventional soundproof panel connection structure installed on a press line or part production line, soundproof panels 10 are coupled to each other by means of welding, and otherwise, they are installed on both side surfaces of an I-shaped frame 20.
Firstly, the soundproof panel connection structure through the welding undesirably needs lots of time and labor forces in removing the soundproof panels 10 if the press line or part production line is expanded, the layout is changed, or the whole equipment is discharged to the outside to repair the equipment disposed inside the soundproof panels 10.
If the soundproof panels 10 are reassembled after the completion of the equipment repairing, further, it is impossible to return them to their original state, and even if returned, the connection structure is not clean on the outer appearance thereof. On the other hand, if the flatness on the floor surface at which the soundproof panels 10 are located is not uniform, it is hard to assemble the soundproof panels 10 with each other.
Secondly, the soundproof panel connection structure, wherein the soundproof panels 10 are located on both side surfaces of the I-shaped frame 20, transmits the vibration value transmitted to the I-shaped frame 20 underneath the soundproof panels 10, thus increasing the vibration noise, and further, the soundproof panels 10 are not brought accurately into close contact with the I-shaped frame 20, thus making the sound emitted to the outside through the gap generated between the soundproof panels 10 and the I-shaped frame 20 to reduce the soundproof effect.


A front panel operating apparatus and method of a vehicle display device such as a car audio can include a main chassis for accommodating an audio device, a front panel provided in the front side of the main chassis that opens or closes to allow access to a record medium for the audio device. The front panel can have a display part in the front side thereof. A supporting panel can be hinge-coupled to a lower side of the front panel to move a lower end of the front panel forward and backward by sliding from a prescribed location of the main chassis in forward and backward directions of the main chassis. A vertical guide can be formed at the front side of the main chassis, and a protrusion formed on the front panel can be inserted into the vertical guide for controllably moving an upper portion of the front panel up and down.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle display device and method, and more particularly, to a car audio in which a display part is provided on a front side of the car audio.
2. Background of the Related Art
Generally, car audios are discriminated according to the kind of front panel, and include electronic tuning radio (ETR) type, detachable type and flip down type. FIG. 1 is a front view of a conventional front panel according to the ETR type, and FIG. 2 is a front view of a conventional front panel according to the flip down type.
As shown in FIG. 1, the ETR type front panel is configured to include an insertion hole 2 (or entrance) formed at an upper portion thereof, and through which a data storage medium, such as cassette tape, compact disk (CD), mini disk, etc., is inserted, and a display section 3 provided below the insertion hole 2. A liquid crystal display (LCD) is generally used as the display section 3.
The flip down type front panel is configured to include a display section 6 formed throughout upper and lower portions of the front panel 4, and an insertion hole 5 provided in the front of the set. The display section 6 is selectively shielded by the front panel 4.
The display section 6 of the flip down type front panel 4 is sized larger than the display section 3 of the ETR type front panel 1. The flip down type has an improved convenience of use because of the larger display area.
FIG. 3 is a side view of a conventional flip down type car audio front panel driving apparatus. Referring to FIG. 3, a display section is provided throughout the entire area of a front panel 4. An apparatus for opening and closing the front panel 4 will now be described. A driving gear 7 which is supplied with a driving force of a separate motor (not shown) and thereby rotates is provided at one side of the car audio main body, and a slave gear 8 in mesh with and moving in combination with the driving gear 7 is provided in one end of the front panel 4. A spring 9 for providing a restoring force is provided at the rotational center shaft of the slave gear 8 such that the front panel 4 is opened and is then restored to a closed status.
FIG. 4 is a schematic view for illustrating an operation of the conventional flip down type front panel. As shown in FIG. 4, the conventional flip down type front panel 4 rotates up and down around the rotational center shaft of a slave gear 8.
FIG. 5 is a disassembled perspective view of a conventional flip down type car audio. As shown in FIG. 5, the conventional flip down type car audio includes a main chassis 10 having an insertion hole 11 for information medium such as compact disc, mini disc, cassette tape and so on, a panel coupling section 20 as a fixing section formed in the front of the main chassis 10 to rotate a front panel 30, and an escutcheon section 25 coupled to the panel coupling section 20 to be rotatable along upward and downward directions. An entrance 22 in the panel coupling section 20 corresponds to the insertion hole 11.
A rotational shaft 24 at both lower portions of the front side of the panel coupling section 20 rotatably supports the escutcheon section 25. The rotational shaft 24 includes a pair of damping gears 23 engaged with each other such that the escutcheon section 25 is slowly and downwardly rotatable. Also, a hanging protrusion 21 at an upper edge portion of the panel coupling section 20 restrains the downward rotation of the front panel 30 from the standing status.
The front panel 30 further includes a display section 32 for outputting and displaying information, a plurality of operating buttons 33 for selecting and operating the functions of the car audio, and an insertion groove 31 formed at both side portions of the front panel 30 into which both side edges of the escutcheon section 25 are inserted. In addition, at a corresponding position to the hanging protrusion 21 is a release button 34 for releasing the hanging status of the hanging protrusion 21 so that the front panel 30 is downwardly rotatable.
By rotating the front panel 30 upwardly, the upper edge of the front panel 30 is hung and maintained to the hanging protrusion 21 of the panel coupling section 20, so that the standing status of the front panel 30 is stably maintained.
In case it is intended to insert or withdraw the information medium into or from a corresponding player, the release button 34 of the front panel 30 is pushed, and the hanging protrusion 21 is disconnected. The front panel 30 rotates downwardly around the rotational shaft 24 by the elastic force of a spring (not shown). At this time, the damping gear 23 restrains an abrupt rotation of the front panel 30 such that it rotates gradually. Accordingly, the entrance 22 of the panel coupling section 20 is opened and viewed from an outside.
In the conventional car audio shown in FIG. 5, the escutcheon section 25 and the front panel 30 are further formed in the front of the entrance 22 for the information medium so as to shield the entrance 22. To this end, there is caused an inconvenience in that it is requested to rotate the front panel 30 and the escutcheon section 25 downwardly during the insertion and withdrawal of the information medium, and after the withdrawal or insertion, to rotate the front panel 30 and the escutcheon section 25 manually and upwardly. Further, when the front panel 30 rotates downwardly, there occurs a problem in watching the display section 32 formed in front of the front panel 30 and operating the operating buttons 33. The operation of the conventional flip down type front panel shown in FIGS. 2 to 5 is provided in additional detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,437.
However, as described above, the prior art has various disadvantages. In the ETR type as shown in FIG. 1, the size of the display section 3 is made small in size. Also, in the conventional flip down type shown in FIGS. 2 to 5, there exist user's inconveniences because the operation is manually performed, and although the display section 6 is turned on, it cannot be viewed in the open status of the front panel 30.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,398,168B1, the front panel has an advantage in that the display section can be viewed in the open status of the front panel. However, a smooth movement of the front panel is hindered sometimes because the front panel is sensitive to external conditions such as temperature, humidity and so on owing to a complicated mechanical operation. Also, the front panel has another disadvantage because a sufficient device reliability cannot be obtained due to the complicated mechanical operation when inserting or withdrawing compact disc, mini disc, cassette tape and so on.
The above references are incorporated by reference herein where appropriate for appropriate teachings of additional or alternative details, features and/or technical background.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Front panel operating apparatus and method


A weaving machine includes two temples whose axis is parallel to the weft threads and which are located at the lateral edges of the cloth, a cylindrical cloth-deflecting bar on which the cloth presses around an arc of contact before winding around a haul-off roll on which one or more backup rolls press. The clothdeflecting bar has a central cylindrical portion which connects coaxially on either side with two terminal portions next to the areas where the temples are installed, the terminal portions having a cross section which varies in shape proceeding from their ends adjacent to the central portion towards the free ends, causing a variation in the tension transmitted to the corresponding areas of the cloth by the hauloff roll, such that it varies from a minimum value at the ends of the terminal portions adjacent to the central portion to a maximum value at their free ends.

The present invention relates to weaving machines, and more particularly refers to a weaving machine provided with a device for correcting the distortion of the weft, that is a machine able to eliminate the aberrations of perpendicularity between the weft and warp.
As those skilled in the art know, a weaving machine comprises among other things, besides various structural and supporting parts, two temples consisting of rollers whose axis is parallel to the weft threads at the lateral edges of the cloth to be produced, and a smooth or threaded cylindrical cloth-deflecting bar, on which the said cloth presses, as soon as it is gathered, around an arc of contact before winding around a haul-off roll, in contact with which are one or more back-up rolls to draw the cloth off.
The said two temples perform the function of keeping the cloth taut during and after insertion of the warp threads, and to this end exert a pressure on the cloth, pressing it against a support surface. This arrangement of the parts means that the tension exerted on the cloth by the abovementioned haul-off roll due to the back-up rolls has effects which, in the areas where the said temples are installed, are very different from those which occur in the remaining areas of the cloth, that is in the central area.
In this area the cloth, coming under the said tension of the haul-off roll, stretches longitudinally, that is at right angles to the weft, to a considerably greater extent than in the areas near the temples, where the deformation of the cloth is opposed by the action of the temples themselves. As a consequence of this, the lines of the weft threads are not perfectly straight, and comprise a central section which is basically straight and then leads into two lateral sections which inflect towards the point on which the temples press.
This means that the lateral areas of the cloth are practically unusable because of the non-perpendicularity of the weft and warp with respect to each other. Because this lack of perpendicularity affects both lateral edges of the cloth for a length of at least 10 cm, a total of some 20 cm of the cloth has to be discarded, which, with current cloth sizes, corresponds to some 15% of the width of a fabric.
The economic damage caused by this problems, which is intrinsic to the modes of operation of a weaving machine, will be obvious.
In the present state of the art the only operation carried out to correct the distortions described above is to apply differential tensions to the cloth by a manual or other type of operation, and this operation means unacceptable additional costs. More importantly, with some types of cloth it is simply impossible to perform this operation: for example in cloths on which paints, resins or the like are spread in the course of processing, it is impossible to correct the distortions that occur during the actual weaving process.

Weaving machine with correction of the distortion of the weft


A hardware multimedia endpoint is located on an adapter card of a personal computer system and comprises an interface for interfacing to the computer system and a processor for receiving cryptographic information from the computer, for processing the cryptographic information and for outputting cryptographic information to the computer. This exchange of cryptographic information is performed such that an authentication procedure with a third party, which is different from the computer, is established for the purpose of decrypting encrypted media content.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of digital rights management and, particularly, relates to the protection of premium content such as blockbuster movies and other copyright protected content from being openly decoded on a computer such as a personal computer.
2. Description of Related Art
Personal computers are inherently insecure, because the software and hardware they are based on can be exchanged and extended freely, allowing a number of attack points to hackers and who else might want to get access to copy protected material.
On the other hand, this open architecture is exactly what has made the personal computer the success it has today.
Recently, efforts haven been made to thwart this open architecture in favor of a controlled environment in which copy protected material can be processed without exposing unencrypted data to the user. This requires considerable efforts that are both expensive and uncomfortable for the user experience.
Users will feel that they cannot decide freely what to do with their computers any more.
Nevertheless, the open nature of PC software still does not guarantee that by exploiting programming errors or utilizing holes in the security of the software that is used to create such a secure environment it is not possible to defeat the security built into such a controlled environment.
In the art, there exist a number of well-known content protection systems such as VCPS (VCPS=Video Content Protection System), CSS (CSS=Content Scramble System), or AACS (AACS=Advanced Access Content System).
Specifications for these systems are available in the internet. For example, the AACS system can be studied by referencing two "Advanced Access Content System (AACS), Introduction and Common Cryptographic Elements", Preliminary Draft, Revision 0.90, Apr. 14, 2005, available via "www.AACSLA.com/specifications". The same link provides access to two further AACS documents. These are "Advanced Access Content System (AACS), Recordable Video Book", Revision 0.90, Apr. 14, 2005, or "Advanced Access Content System (AACS), Pre-Recorded Video Book", Revision 0.90, Apr. 14, 2005.
AACS allows an encryption of all available content using an AES-128-bits-encryption algorithm. Furthermore, this system allows license key management, which means that even "protected" copies can be generated having a limited replay capability. Furthermore, license keys can be revoked, when it becomes known that certain players have been compromised in a non-legal way.
Thus, the advanced access content system specification defines an advanced and robust and renewable method for protecting audiovisual entertainment content, including high-definition content.
A problem of the application of all these well-known and cryptographically elaborate approaches is that, when those protocols are applied to personal computer systems, there exist several points of attack, which are not available when this scheme is applied within a player or even in a single chip. When, however, a computer system is considered, which includes an optical disk drive, a personal computer system having a main bus, to which the optical disk drive is connected, and having an output interface including a graphics adapter card and a connected display, the attacker has several possibilities to break the system.
Recently, the high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) has been developed, which provides a transmission of digital data from the graphics card to the display. However, in order to make sure that this digital data cannot simply be recorded, the digital data is encrypted before being output by the graphics card and is decrypted within the display device so that a hacker can only log encrypted data by observing the data connection between the graphics card and the display device.
On the other hand, there exist many well-known cryptographic protocols for establishing a secure connection between a first device and a second device such as the optical disk drive and the computer CPU. Such cryptographic protocols are illustrated in the "Handbook of Applied Cryptography", CRC Press, 1996. A well-known protocol is the Diffie-Hellman Exchange. Such protocols make sure that two parties can agree upon a communication key and can use this key for encrypting traffic between those parties without transmitting the key itself.
Therefore, also the traffic between the disk drive and the computer can be encrypted and, therefore, protected against un-authorized access.
However, an important point of attack remains, since the computer performs the cryptographic protocols in software on the general-purpose CPU. All actions performed by the CPU are, therefore, publicly available and are accessible so that all cryptographic protocols would not defeat attacks when they were implemented without a certain secure environment available on the personal computer itself. Such environments are known under the term "trusted platform module". Such a secure area on the computer would, however, contradict the open architecture philosophy for personal computers. Compromising this open architecture philosophy will result in a decreased flexibility of the whole system and, therefore, will end up in a decreased market acceptance of such a system. This is not acceptable for manufacturers due to the high-volume computer market.

Hardware multimedia endpoint and personal computer


The fabrication process of a conventional MRAM using a magnetoresistive effect element as a memory device is difficult, and the device structure makes it difficult to decrease the cell area and increase the degree of integration. It is an object of this invention to realize an MRAM which can achieve a high integration degree. A memory device is characterized by including a magnetoresistive element, a bit line formed above this magnetoresistive element, and a write line. The magnetoresistive element is formed immediately above the drain region of a field-effect transistor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nonvolatile solid-state memory device and memory using a magnetoresistive film, and a recording/reproducing method of the memory device and memory.
2. Related Background Art
A Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM) is a solid-state memory having no active portion similar to a semiconductor memory. Compared to a semiconductor memory, however, this magnetic thin-film memory has advantages that no information is lost even when the power supply is shut down, data can be repetitively rewritten an unlimited number of times, and no recorded contents disappear even upon incidence of radiation. In particular, a magnetic thin-film memory using a spin tunnel effect (TMR) has attracted attention because of its high output, compared to conventionally provided magnetic thin-film memories using an anisotropic magnetoresistive effect and a spin scattering type giant magnetoresistive effect (GMR).
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,319 discloses the structure of a device in which a memory cell is formed by connecting a transistor and a magnetoresistive element which is magnetized in the plane of the film, as shown in FIG. 1. This device is formed by a process shown in FIGS. 3 to 7.
First, a field-effect transistor (MOSFET) is fabricated by a CMOS process by forming a source region 2, a drain region 3, a LOCOS oxide film 11, a gate electrode 4, a source electrode 12, and a plug electrode 5 on a p-type Si substrate 1 (FIG. 3). After an insulating film is formed and patterned, write lines 10 are buried and planarized by CMP (FIG. 4). A lower electrode 14 of a magnetoresistive film is formed and planarized by CMP (FIG. 5), and a magnetoresistive film 9 is formed (FIG. 6). After that, this magnetoresistive film 9 and the lower electrode 14 are processed (FIG. 7), an insulating film is formed, and a bit line (upper electrode) 6 is formed to complete the device (FIG. 1).
To detect the resistive value of the magnetoresistive film, an electric current is supplied in a direction perpendicular to the film plane so that the current flows through a tunnel barrier film. Since an MRAM generally uses an in-plane magnetization film as the magnetoresistive film, the write lines 10 must be arranged below or above the magnetic film. For example, the write lines 10 are arranged below the magnetoresistive film 9 in FIG. 1. Accordingly, the lower electrode 14 and the insulating film are interposed between the write lines and the magnetoresistive film. Additionally, to connect the lower electrode 14 to the drain region 3 of the field-effect transistor, the magnetoresistive film must be formed in a place shifted sideways from the drain region.
This poses the following problems.
First, when the magnetoresistive film and the lower electrode are patterned (FIGS. 6 and 7), it is necessary to form a region in which the magnetoresistive film is removed and the lower electrode is not entirely removed but partially left behind. In this etching step, a film which produces any extra resistance cannot be inserted between the magnetic film and the lower electrode, because both the magnetic film and the lower electrode are metals. This makes it difficult to stop the etching at appropriate positions uniformly on the wafer.
Second, since it is necessary to selectively form a portion where both the magnetoresistive film and the lower electrode are removed and a portion where the lower electrode is left behind, the number of mask steps increases to complicate the process.
Third, both the insulating film and the lower electrode exist between the magnetoresistive film and the write lines. This increases the distance between the magnetoresistive film and the write lines and thereby prevents efficient application of a generated magnetic field from the write lines to the magnetoresistive film. In addition, the lower electrode must be thick since etching stop position variations during the process must be taken into consideration and it is necessary to prevent disconnection even when a repetitive electric current is supplied. This makes shortening of the distance and consequently miniaturization of the memory device difficult.
Fourth, the plug electrode 5 is formed on the drain region 3 with a certain positional deviation margin. Therefore, the device must be designed with an extra margin, and this makes the cell area difficult to reduce.
In addition to these problems, when an in-plane magnetization film is used as the magnetic film, a demagnetizing field (self-demagnetizing field) generated inside the magnetic layer becomes no longer negligible as the area of a bit cell is decreased, so the magnetization direction in the magnetic layer for recording is not fixed in one direction but becomes unstable. Accordingly, the information storage stability of the conventional magnetic thin-film memory lowers as the degree of microfabrication of bit cells increases, and this makes memory devices difficult to miniaturize. This is particularly significant when the size is 1 xcexcm or less. In an in-plane magnetization film, therefore, the length in the direction of the axis of easy magnetization must be twice or more, and in practice about four times the width of the film. FIG. 2 shows a structure in which a memory cell having the arrangement shown in FIG. 1 is viewed from above. As shown in FIG. 2, minimum dimensions of the cell are 3F (F is a minimum fabrication dimension) in width and 3F to 5F in the write line direction. Even when the alignment margin is completely ignored, the cell area is as large as 9xc3x97F2 to 15xc3x97F2. Referring to FIG. 1, the source electrode 12 is shared by adjacent cells. If this sharing is not performed, however, the cell width becomes 4F, and this further increases the cell area to 12xc3x97F2 or more. Accordingly, high integration is difficult to perform.
As described above, in an MRAM having a difficult fabrication process, the device structure makes it difficult to decrease the cell area and increase the degree of integration.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above situation, and has as its object to realize an MRAM which can achieve a high integration degree without complicating the fabrication process.
The above object is achieved by a memory comprising a substrate, a magnetoresistive element which is formed on the substrate and has a structure in which first and second magnetic layers are stacked, and a nonmagnetic layer is sandwiched between the first and second magnetic layers, a bit line formed on a side of the magnetoresistive element away from a side opposing the substrate, and a write line which changes a magnetization direction in the first or second magnetic layers by a magnetic field generated by an electric current, and a transistor, wherein the magnetoresistive element is formed immediately above a drain region of the transistor.
The above object is achieved by a memory in which the axis of easy magnetization of the first and/or second magnetic film is perpendicular to the film plane.
The above object is achieved by a memory in which the nonmagnetic layer is an insulator.
The above object is achieved by a memory in which the magnetoresistive effect elements are formed in a matrix on the substrate.
The above object is achieved by a memory in which a drain electrode occupies for 50% or more of the area of the drain region.
The above object is achieved by a memory in which the write line is formed closer to the substrate than the magnetoresistive effect element.
The above object is achieved by a memory in which the magnetoresistive effect element is formed after the transistor and the write line are formed on the substrate.
The above object is achieved by a memory in which the write line is formed, via an insulating layer, on an element isolation region or on a gate electrode of a transistor formed on a silicon substrate.
The above object is achieved by a memory in which a ground electrode is connected to a source region of the transistor and shared by two adjacent magnetoresistive elements.
The above object is achieved by a memory in which the write lines are formed on the two sides of the magnetoresistive element, and electric currents are allowed to flow through the write lines in opposite directions to change the magnetization states of the magnetic layers of the magnetoresistive element.
The above object is achieved by a memory in which at least one write line is formed on an element isolation region or on a gate electrode of the transistor via an insulating layer.
The above object is achieved by a memory in which the write line is shared by adjacent magnetoresistive elements.
The above object is achieved by a memory in which the ground electrode connected to the source region of the transistor also functions as the write line.
The above object is achieved by a memory in which the magnetoresistive film is directly formed on the drain region of the transistor.
The above object is achieved by a memory in which a gate electrode of the transistor also functions as the write line.
The above object is achieved by a memory in which the first magnetic layer and/or the second magnetic layer is made of a rare earth-iron family alloy.
The above object is achieved by a memory in which in the rare earth-iron family alloy, a rare earth element contains at least one element selected from the group consisting of Gd, Tb, and Dy, and an iron family element contains at least one element selected from the group consisting of Fe and Co.
The above object is achieved by a memory in which a magnetic layer containing at least one element selected from the group consisting of Fe and Co is formed between the first magnetic layer and the nonmagnetic layer and/or between the second magnetic layer and the nonmagnetic layer.
The above object is achieved by a recording/reproducing method of the above-mentioned memory, comprising recording information by initializing the magnetization direction in the first magnetic layer to a predetermined direction and determining the magnetization direction in the second magnetic layer of the magnetoresistive element by supplying an electric current to the write line, and reproducing recorded information by detecting the absolute value of the resistance of the magnetoresistive element.
The above object is achieved by a recording/reproducing method of the above-mentioned memory, comprising recording information by determining the magnetization direction in the first magnetic layer of the magnetoresistive element by supplying an electric current to the write line, and reproducing recorded information by reversing the magnetization direction in the second magnetic layer and detecting the generated change in the resistance.

Nonvolatile solid-state memory device using magnetoresistive effect and recording and reproducing method of the same


Background content suggestion for combination with identified items is described. Initially, a system receives digital visual content depicting an item, e.g., a product for purchase. The system identifies various content items that are available for suggesting as replacement backgrounds for the item and then determines a compatibility of these identified content items with the item depicted in the received digital visual content. In particular, the system determines compatibility based on both a scene compatibility and a color compatibility of the identified content items with the depicted item. Based on a combination of the scene and color compatibility, the system surfaces at least one of the identified content items (e.g., a highest scoring content item) as a suggested replacement background for the depicted item.

Advances in computing technology provide increasing accessibility to functionality that enables items (e.g., products, services, digital media, and so on) to be surfaced to multitudes of users via a listing platform. Examples of listing platforms include e-commerce platforms which surface listed products and services for purchase by client device users that navigate to these platforms. Other examples of listing platforms include rental platforms that list various items for rent (e.g., real estate, equipment, tools, vehicles, and contract employees), media platforms that list various digital content items for use (e.g., download or further propagation from the platform), and so forth. The functionality of these systems often includes provision of interfaces that enable digital visual content, indicative of an item to be listed, to be uploaded to the platform and surfaced with the respective listing.
By making this functionality easily accessible to a wide range of users, however, conventionally-configured listing platform systems often receive and thus expose digital visual content that is not optimized for conversion. By way of example, many digital images received by these listing platform systems depict a product to be listed on a white or transparent background. However, such backgrounds may not be effective to cause optimal conversion of the depicted product. This reliance on human users, to select and upload digital visual content for inclusion with listings, results in propagation by conventional listing platform systems of listings that fail to optimize conversion. Consequently, the performance of these conventional systems may be more closely tied to human judgement, e.g., to upload suitable digital visual content for listings, than to the actual capabilities of the system.


Ammonia off-gas, which is separated and recovered by an ammonia recovery device from gasification gas produced in a gasification furnace in a two-column gasification system, is injected as reducing agent for denitration into an inlet of a cyclone for separation of bed material heated in a combustion furnace from combustion exhaust gas and for returning the bed material to the gasification furnace. The ammonia off-gas is contacted with the high-temperatured combustion exhaust gas to reduce and remove NOx through non-catalytic decomposition. Any excess of the ammonia off-gas is distributed for burning to primary air to the combustion furnace.

It is recently proposed in view of probable petroleum depletion to conduct gasification using, as raw material, petroleum coke as residue in petroleum refinery and/or any resource currently not efficiently utilized such as oilsand, bitumen, brown or other low-quality coal or other fossil fuel, biomass and tire chips to produce and efficiently utilize gasification gas comprising hydrogen, hydrocarbon and the like.
FIG. 1 schematically shows an example of a gasification system for production of gasification gas. Illustrated is a two-column gasification system with gasification and combustion furnaces 1 and 2, the gasification furnace 1 being fed with water vapor 3 from below to form a fluidized bed of bed material 4 (such as silica sand or limestone) for gasification of raw material (such as coal, biomass or plastic waste) charged to the fluidized bed, resultant gasification gas 6 being fed to a succeeding gas refining system (not shown).
The bed material 4 in the gasification furnace 1 is guided, together with unreacted char 7 produced in the furnace 1, through a duct 1a on the furnace 1 to a combustion furnace 2 in an overflow manner, is blown up by primary air 8 fed to the furnace 2 from below and is heated by burning of the char 7.
Combustion exhaust gas 9 blown up in the combustion furnace 2 together with the bed material 4 is then guided through a top of the furnace 2 to a cyclone 10 where the bed material 4 is separated. The separated bed material 4 is returned through a downcomer 11 to the gasification furnace 1 while the combustion exhaust gas 9 discharged through a top of the cyclone 10 is fed for treatment to a succeeding exhaust gas treatment system (not shown).
Specifically, the combustion exhaust gas 9 resulting from the char 7 burned in the combustion furnace 2, which contains nitrogen oxides (NOx) of the order of several hundred ppm (several g/kg-fuel), requires to be denitrated. To this end, conventionally the combustion exhaust gas 9 discharged through the top of the cyclone 10 is guided, after heat recovered therefrom, to a catalytic NOx removal device (not shown) with NOx removal catalyst where ammonia, urea or the like is used as reducing agent to reduce the nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the combustion exhaust gas 9 to harmless nitrogen (N2) and water vapor (H2O).
On the other hand, the gasification gas 6 produced in and discharged from the gasification furnace 1, which contains high levels of ammonia, passes thorough a tar reforming furnace 12 or the like and is fed to an ammonia recovery device 13 where the ammonia in the gasification gas 6 is separated and recovered.
Specifically, it has been known that several percent by weight or more of nitrogen is contained in coal fed as raw material 5 to the gasification furnace 1, even more nitrogen being contained in the case of biomass. As a result, in the gasification furnace 1 of the two-column gasification system shown in FIG. 1 where the water vapor 3 is used as gasifying agent, the gasification of the nitrogen-containing raw material 5 as mentioned in the above brings about the gasification gas 6 having high levels of ammonia.
The ammonia recovery device 13 comprises an ammonia absorber 14 which absorbs and removes ammonia through contact of the gasification gas 6 with an absorptive liquid such as water and an ammonia diffuser 16 which diffuses the ammonia as ammonia off-gas 17 through heating of the ammonia-absorbing absorptive liquid by feed of water vapor 15. The ammonia off-gas 17, which has high levels of ammonia and problematically ammonical, is guided to a treatment device (not shown) for reduction and release to atmosphere through catalytic decomposition into harmless nitrogen (N2) and water vapor (H2O).
Prior art literatures on gasification systems pertinent to the invention are, for example, Patent Literatures 1 and 2.

Method and device for treating ammonia in gasification system


A precharge circuit may include a precharge control unit, a first precharge unit, and a second precharge unit. The precharge control unit may generate a read precharge signal and a write precharge signal in response to a read signal, a write signal, and a precharge signal. The first precharge unit may precharge a data input/output line to a first voltage level in response to the read precharge signal. The second precharge unit may precharge the data input/output line to either a second voltage level or a third voltage level in response to the write precharge signal.

1. Technical Field
Various embodiments generally relate to a memory apparatus, and more particularly, to a precharge circuit of the memory apparatus.
2. Related Art
In general a semiconductor memory apparatus performs data communication with a memory controller or a processor. The semiconductor memory apparatus includes a plurality of memory cells, and stores data transmitted from the memory controller or the processor into the plurality of memory cells. The semiconductor memory apparatus includes a lot of memory cells in order to store a large amount of data. However, there is limitation in a number of input/output lines to transfer data for high integration of the semiconductor memory apparatus, and therefore the semiconductor memory apparatus may adopt a hierarchical scheme of input/output lines.

Precharge circuit and semiconductor memory apparatus using the same


Color photographic films are processed using a final dye image stabilizing solution containing certain aromatic or heterocyclic aldehydes, acetals or hemiacetals, and a mixture of specific surfactants. One surfactant is a nonionic polyethoxylated, nonfluorinated compound, or an anionic non-fluorinated sulfate or sulfonate, and the second surfactant is a nonionic or anionic fluorinated compound. This processing solution provides processed films, with or without a magnetic backing layer, that are free of scum or other residues, non-tacky, and resistant to abrasion and fingerprinting. The stabilizing solution can be provided in concentrated form, particularly when a glycol is included.

During the processing of photographic materials, one or more rinsing or washing steps may be used to remove residual processing solution from the materials prior to contact with the next processing solution. Moreover, before processed materials are dried, they are generally washed a last time to remove all remaining chemical residues so that when they are dried, they are free of lines, water spots or scum. For example, in processing most films and papers (both color and black and white), a final rinsing or stabilizing step is used prior to drying.
Many different formulations have been proposed for use as final rinse solutions in photographic processes immediately prior to drying. Generally, they include one or more surfactants that facilitate the "cleaning" of the photographic material and uniform liquid drainage. Some final processing solutions also contain dye image stabilizers and are thusly known as stabilizing solutions. In addition, rinse or stabilizing solutions can contain one or more biocides to prevent unwanted biological growth in the processing tank or on the photographic material. The solutions may additionally contain calcium ion sequestering agents or polymers such as polyvinylpyrrolidone to reduce precipitation of sulfur or sulfides.
To meet all of the needs of a final processing solution, a careful formulation of components, generally surfactants and biocides, must be made. Proper balancing is required to keep costs low, minimize foaming and biological growth, while achieving the desired drainage and defect free processing expected by highly critical customers.
For final processing solutions that are dye image stabilizing solutions, the presence of a dye image stabilizer further complicates the formulation needs. Dye image stabilizers typically have a methylene group (or is capable of producing a methylene group) that prevents redox degradation of certain magenta dye forming couplers. Thus, dye stain can be reduced or dye image enhanced with such solutions. Typical stabilizers include aldehydes, such as formaldehyde. Hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) is a known substitute for formaldehyde because of its lower volatility. The addition of the stabilizer, and the type of stabilizer, can render some conventional surfactants in final rinse solutions ineffective in washing scum and other residue from the processed films.
Not every final processing solution (either final rinse or stabilizing solution) useful for processing one type of photographic element may be useful for processing other types of elements. Each type of photographic element may have surface characteristics, or be processed using unique chemicals that require unique final processing solution components.
For example, stabilizing solutions useful to process many conventional color negative films can contain an aldehyde) such as formaldehyde or a benzaldehyde) or hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) and one or more surfactants, including a mixture of a nonionic surfactant and an anionic surfactant. Such processing solutions are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,676,136 (Mowrey), U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,583 (Schwartz), U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,890 (McGuckin et al) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,578,432 (McGuckin et al) and EP-A-0 530 832 (Koma et al). In addition, recently allowed and commonly assigned U.S. Ser. No. 08/639,858 (filed Apr. 19, 1996, by McGuckin et al) describes the use of HMTA and mixtures of surfactants, including fluorinated nonionic surfactants, in final processing solutions for photographic films having a magnetic backing layer.
However, it has been observed that such stabilizing solutions are not always useful when processing a variety of commercial photographic films including those having a magnetic recording layer on one side of the polymeric film support. Thus, there is a continuing need in the art for an improved, low cost, effective, formaldehyde-free and non-scumming photographic stabilizing solution that achieves all of the desired results when various films are processed in various processing machines.

Photographic stabilizing processing solution and method of use


A dielectric film is formed on a semiconductor substrate, and on the dielectric film an inorganic dielectric mask film is deposited by CVD. The mask film comprises a first component which is relatively high in etch rate by isotropic plasma etching and a second component relatively low in etch rate, and the content of the first component is linearly gradient in the film thickness direction so as to become lowest at the interface between the mask film and the underlying dielectric film. For example, the mask film is a phosphosilicate glass (P.sub.2 O.sub.5 --SiO.sub.2) film. A resist film is formed on the mask film, and a window is opened in the resist film by electron beam lithography. Then a window is opened in the mask film by isotropic plasma etching, and the underlying dielectric film is also etched to form a window under the window in the mask film. In cross section, the window in the mask film is tapered toward the substrate by the effect of the gradient of the content of the first component in the mask film. So, the width of the window in the underlying dielectric film becomes narrower than the width of the window in the resist film. After removing the resist film and the mask film, a metal film is deposited on the exposed dielectric film so as to fill the narrow window. This method is useful for forming a T-shaped gate electrode of a heterojunction FET in which the gate length can be shortened to the extent of about 0.05 .mu.m.

This invention relates to a method of forming a fine electrode on a semiconductor substrate. The method is particularly suitable for forming a so-called T-shaped gate electrode of a heterojunction field-effect transistor (FET) with a very short gate length.
Heterojunction FETs are known as low-noise transistors and have been used, for example, in parabolic antennas for receiving satellite broadcast. Recently there is a demand for further improvements in the low-noise characteristics of FETs.
In general, for improving the low-noise characteristics of a FET in high-frequency bands such as microwave bands it is effective to shorten the gate length. However, shortening of the gate length leads to narrowing of the cross-sectional area of the gate and hence causes an increase in a parasitic resistance in the gate region in the direction of the high-frequency wave propagation. Such a resistance is called gate resistance. If the gate resistance increases, the high-frequency signal gain of the FET decreases.
In recent heterojunction FETs, a T-shaped gate structure is employed in order to shorten the gate length and decrease the gate resistance. In this gate structure, the gate electrode is T-shaped in cross section. The stem part of the T-shaped gate electrode stands on the substrate so that the arm part extends above the substrate. The gate length is determined by the width of the stem part. For further improvements in the low-noise characteristics of heterojunction FETs it is desired to decrease the width of the stem part of the T-shaped gate electrode.
Electron beam lithography is useful for defining very fine gate electrode patterns, but the resolution of electron beam lithography is limited at about 0.1 .mu.m. On the other hand, it is desired to form a T-shaped gate electrode shorter than 0.1 .mu.m in gate length. To accomplish this desire by using electron beam lithography, some special techniques are required.
In the accompanying drawings, FIGS. 6(A) to 6(F) illustrate a recently developed process for forming a T-shaped gate electrode by which the gate length is shortened to the extent of about 0.07 .mu.m.
Referring to FIG. 6(A), on a GaAs substrate 50 an insulating film 52 such as a silicon dioxide film or a silicon nitride film is formed, and a resist film 54 (will be referred to as EB resist film) for electron beam lithography is formed on the insulating film 52. In a region for forming a gate electrode, a window 56 is opened in the resist film 54 by electron beam exposure and subsequent development. The width D of the window 56 is 0.1 .mu.m.
Next, as shown in FIG. 6(B), a relatively thick resist film 58 (will be referred to as UV resist film) for ultraviolet ray lithography is formed over the entire area of the EB resist film 54 including the opening 56. At the interface between the UV resist film 58 and the already developed EB resist film 54, chemical reactions take place to form an intermediate layer 60 which differs in chemical composition from both the EB resist film 54 and the UV resist film 58. In the window 56 in the EB resist film 54, the intermediate layer 60 provides a sidewall. The thickness of the intermediate layer 60 is about 0.015 .mu.m.
Referring to FIG. 6(C), a window 62 for a T-shaped gate electrode is formed in the UV resist film 58 by a conventional image reversal method which includes the following process steps. It is assumed that the UV resist film 58 is a positive resist film. First, the UV resist film 58 is exposed to UV rays except in the area for the window 62. In the exposed region the UV resist film 58 becomes soluble in a developer solution (an alkali solution). Then, ammonia gas is applied to the UV resist film over the entire area. In the region exposed to UV rays, the resist film 58 reacts with ammonia gas and gradually becomes insensitive to UV rays and insoluble in developer solutions. Since the reaction starts on the surface of the UV resist film 58 and gradually proceeds in the film thickness direction, the extent of the changes in the sensitivity and solubility of the UV resist film becomes smaller as the depth from the film surface increases. Next, the whole area of the UV resist film 58 is exposed to UV rays. As a result, the UV resist film becomes soluble in a developer solution only in the area for forming the window 62. Then the UV resist film is developed to form the window 62. In cross section, the window 62 becomes inversely tapered toward the substrate because in the initially exposed region of the resist film 58 the extent of lowering of solubility by reaction with ammonia gas was inversely proportional to the depth from the UV resist film surface.
The intermediate layer 60 is insoluble in the developer solution and hence remains on the EB resist film 54. In the window 56 in the EB resist film 54, the intermediate layer 60 remains as a sidewall. Therefore, the effective width D' of the window 56 in FIG. 6(C) is narrower than the initial width D of the window 56 in FIG. 6(A). When D is 0.1 .mu.m and the thickness of the intermediate layer 60 is about 0.015 .mu.m, D' becomes about 0.07 .mu.m.
Next, as shown in FIG. 6(D), a window 66 is opened in the insulating film 52 under the window 56 in the EB resist film 54 by dry etching. Furthermore, under the window 66, a recess 68 is formed in the GaAs substrate 50 by dry etching. In these dry etching processes the intermediate layer 60 serves as an etch mask. The recess 68 in the substrate serves the purpose of reducing the unfavorable influences of a surface depletion layer right beneath the gate electrode.
Referring to FIG. 6(E), a gate electrode metal 70 such as, for example, WSi is deposited on the UV resist film 58 by directional sputtering. In the window 62 in the resist film 58, the metal 70 deposits on the intermediate layer 60, fills the window 56 in the resist film 54 and reaches the bottom of the recess 68 in the substrate through the window 66 in the insulating film 52. The metal film 70 deposited in the window 62 forms a T-shaped gate electrode. Since the cross section of the window 62 is tapered upward, the cross section of the metal film 70 deposited on the intermediate layer 70 is tapered upward. This is favorable for planarization of an interlayer insulator film (not shown) formed over the gate electrode.
After that, the UV resist film 58 is removed together with the overlying metal film 70 by a lift-off technique, and the intermediate layer 60 and the EB resist film 54 are removed. FIG. 6(F) shows the T-shaped gate electrode 70 formed by the above-described process. With this gate electrode, the gate length L is equal to the width D' of the opening 56 in FIG. 6(C). That is, by this process the gate length L is shortened to the extent of about 0.07 .mu.m by using the intermediate layer 60 as a sidewall in the opening 56 for defining the base part of the gate electrode.
However, the above-described process is not fully satisfactory for several reasons. First, the gate length cannot be made shorter than about 0.07 .mu.m because the intermediate layer 60 does not become thicker than about 0.015 .mu.m and undergoes etching when the insulating film 52 and the substrate are etched to form the window 66 and the recess 68. Second, it is difficult to accurately control the gate length because the composition and thickness of the intermediate layer 60 depend on many factors in the reaction between an EB resist and a UV resist. In the case of mass production, reproducibility of the intermediate layer will not be good, and therefore the yield of the aimed gate electrode will be insufficient.

Method of forming fine electrode on semiconductor substrate


An electronic control unit (ECU) and a tester are connected to exchange a CAN message through full duplex communication. A CAN communication control unit included in the ECU executes processings such as CAN message reception, response data generation, and CAN message transmission. A buffer management unit included in the ECU is equipped with a plurality of buffers that has uninterrupted ring address structure. The buffer stores reception and transmission data in common with a state sign. The state sign is attached by the CAN communication control unit to indicate a state currently executed in the buffer. The CAN communication control unit selects to use one of the buffers based on the state sign of the buffer when the reception of the request data or the transmission of the response data is executed.

Failure diagnosis is conducted by reading out information stored in an electronic control unit (ECU) through a control area network (CAN) protocol from a vehicular communication device with a tester. In communication with the tester, two temporary storage areas (buffer) for reception and transmission data are secured in the ECU.
The two buffers for reception and transmission each has a maximum memory size, so that, the buffers for the CAN protocol involves a memory size of total 8 k bytes (4 k bytes for each of reception and transmission).
To save the buffers, a ring buffer is adopted for simultaneously storing the reception and the transmission data. Here, all areas of the ring buffer can be used for either reception or transmission data with setting up a writing pointer and a reading pointer for indicating an address for writing and reading, respectively. For instance, as shown in FIG. 8, after a datum 1 of one byte is written, the writing pointer advances by one byte. By contrast, after the byte of the datum 1 is read out, the reading pointer advances by one byte.
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) develops standards for the CAN protocol. For instance, in ISO 15765-2, full duplex communication simultaneously executing reception and transmission is specified in the CAN protocol. In the full duplex communication, the ring buffer cannot be simply used as explained above.

Vehicular communication device exchanging reception and transmission with external tool


A system and method for securing an insulated concrete wall form to a bracing structure such as a scaffolding frame to keep the form straight and plumb during construction. The system uses anchoring and tensioning members, which may be formed as pieces separate or integrally as a single piece to hold the bracing structure against insulated panels of the insulated concrete wall form. Openings may be cut through the insulated panels to provide a pathway for the tensioning member. The anchoring member is positioned against an inner face of the insulated panel. A portion of the anchoring member or the tensioning member extends into the wall form concrete receiving space to fix the system in place once the concrete sets. The tensioning member may be disposed through one of the openings, around the bracing structure and through the other opening and around the anchor member to maintain the tension. Alternatively, the tensioning member may be disposed through an interface between upper and lower wall form blocks. The bracing structure may be adjusted to align the wall form vertically.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to insulated concrete form ("ICF") wall bracing, and more particularly, to a system and method for bracing an insulated concrete wall form to a support/bracing structure to align and support the ICF wall during construction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional building construction utilizes concrete walls that are normally produced by constructing form walls, pouring concrete into the space between the walls and, upon setting of the concrete, removing the form walls. A conventional concrete form wall is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,289 to Strickland. The form wall includes a pair of spaced opposed panels made from plywood and defining therebetween a space into which fluid concrete is poured in forming the wall. Horizontally spaced vertical stiffeners or strongbacks are provided outwardly of each plywood panel to provide major strengthening for the panel support structure. Elongate beams or walers are also provided to extend horizontally along the outer side of each panel. An outwardly opening pocket formed as part of the waler retains a wooden nailer to which the plywood form panel can be nailed, screwed or otherwise fastened to the waler.
Another system for temporarily attaching a reinforcing beam to a poured concrete structural member is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,838 to Truitt et al. An insert is adapted to be set in the poured concrete member. The insert has a body that creates a void in the concrete structural member and leg members that are partially set in the poured concrete with portions thereof extending through the body of the insert so as to be free of concrete. A special bolt engages with the leg members and provides a means for securing a reinforcement beam to the concrete structural member.
More recent building systems involve the use of insulated concrete forms (ICFs), which use a foam insulating material to construct permanent concrete form walls. The form walls are typically constructed by placing separate building components (also known as form blocks) upon each other. The concrete is then poured and the form walls are left in place after the concrete hardens to become a permanent part of the wall. Advantages provided by the use of ICFs include a reduction in the number of operations normally associated with building construction and generally the elimination of a need to provide further insulation. An example of particularly advantageous types of ICFs appears in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,390,459; 5,657,600; and 5,809,727 to Mensen (Mensen), the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. In general, the ICFs taught by Mensen are made from a building component or block that includes first and second foam side panels. The side panels are preferably made of expanded polystyrene and are arranged in spaced parallel relationship with their inner surfaces facing each other. Plastic bridging members hold the side panels together against the forces applied by the fluid concrete. Each bridging member includes end plates, which may be arranged to line up when the components are stacked to form furring strips for attachment of finishing materials.
With the advent of the use of stay-in-place forms or permanent concrete form work, such as ICFs, there is a need in the building construction art for an efficient, cost-effective and reliable system and method to support the building components that make up the ICFs against construction loads, and to align the walls during construction. The insulated side panels of an ICF do not provide a strong surface to which reinforcing beams can be easily attached, as with plywood side panels. Commercial, institutional and industrial buildings often require walls higher than 8 to 12 feet (hereinafter referred to as "tall walls") in order to incorporate machinery, warehousing and high wall assemblies. Wall forms used in pouring in place such high vertical walls must be supported against various construction loads including wind loads, alignment loads, scaffold loads, and loads created by the hydrostatic pressure of the fluid concrete poured into the wall forms. Falsework is the construction industry term for structural supports and the necessary bracing required for the temporary support of loads during construction. Existing means for attaching strongbacks or reinforcing beams to wall forms do not lend themselves to attachment to insulated panels on ICFs as they do to conventional falsework.
Existing bracing systems used in ICF wall construction also do not adequately address the problems of supporting and controlling ICFs during construction, particularly in high wall applications of ICF (such as when the ICF is used to construct a wall of greater than 12 feet in height).
Accordingly, a bracing system such as shown in FIG. 1 has been used in ICF wall construction. This known system includes a vertical box channel 120 that is connected to the ICF blocks before they are filled with concrete using screws 122 that pass through the box channel 120 and into exposed end plates 124 of the plastic bridging members in the ICF blocks. As discussed above, the end plates 124 of each bridging member in the ICF blocks may be arranged to line up when the ICF blocks are stacked. The resulting "furring strip" provides the support for the vertical box channel 120. A two-piece diagonal bracing pole 130 is joined at the threaded ends of each piece of the pole by a turnbuckle 132, which allows for adjustments in the length of pole 130. The diagonal pole is attached to the ground or sub-floor at one end 130′, and to the box channel 120 at the opposite end 130″. A standard scaffold angle 140 is also attached to the vertical box channel 120 to support scaffolding upright 150 and planks 152. Adjustments in the length of diagonal pole 130 by turning turnbuckle 132 result in end 130″ of pole 130 either pushing or pulling on vertical box channel member 120, thus affecting the angle of the wall formed from the stacked ICF blocks. A disadvantage of this type of alignment system is that it requires the step of screwing a structural member such as vertical box channel 120 into the furring strips 124 in order to provide a member for transferring loads such as wind loads from the ICF wall to bracing members such as diagonal pole 130. Furthermore, this system has height limitations, imposed by the length of the box channel.
Other bracing systems may be used in ICF wall construction such as the bracing system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,250,024 to Sculthorpe et al., which is commonly assigned with this application. The bracing system disclosed in this patent includes an anchoring member adapted to be set in pourable building material received in the wall form and supported by the bridging member extending between the ICF form walls. A flexible tensioning member may be wrapped around the anchoring bar to secure a bracing member to the ICF form. While the bracing system of Sculthorpe et al. is advantageous, the anchoring member typically is supported by the bridging members and generally spans the distance between two or more bridging members. Moreover, the location of the anchoring member then is limited by the location of the bridging members.
Hence, the foregoing discussion shows that there is a need for a temporary bracing system capable of supporting and aligning ICF walls during construction, particularly in tall wall applications, that can be more easily, reliably and efficiently used with a variety of falsework systems than heretofore possible.

Temporary bracing system for insulated wall form and method


An object detection apparatus includes an object detecting unit, a temporary determination unit a speed acquiring unit, and a final determination unit. The object detecting unit detects a pedestrian or a two-wheeled vehicle as an object that is present in a periphery of an own vehicle by performing image processing on a captured image capturing an advancing direction of the own vehicle. The temporary determination unit temporarily determinates a type of the object detected by the object detecting unit by analyzing the captured image. The speed acquiring unit acquires a movement speed of the object using reflected waves of a carrier wave. The final determination unit finally determines the type of the object temporarily determined by the temporary determination unit using the movement speed acquired by the speed acquiring unit.

Detection of an object that is present in the periphery of an own vehicle through image processing of a captured image capturing an advancing direction of the own vehicle, and identification of a type of the object through analysis of the captured image are performed. However, in cases in which the type of the object is identified through use of the captured image, the type of the object may be erroneously determined depending on a shape and the like of the object. Therefore, determination accuracy regarding the type of the object has been improved through modification of an analysis method for the captured image.
For example, PTL 1 describes improvement in detection accuracy regarding a laterally oriented two-wheeled vehicle including a rider. Specifically, in an image that shows a laterally oriented two-wheeled vehicle including a rider, a person is present in an upper portion of the image and the two-wheeled vehicle is present in a lower portion of the image. In addition, in the lower portion in which the two-wheeled vehicle is present, two wheels are present and left-right symmetry thereof is strong. Meanwhile, the upper portion in which the person is present has no left-right symmetry because the person may be at a forward-tilted attitude, or a hand or foot may be extended towards the advancing direction. Therefore, taking advantage of such characteristics, the image showing the laterally oriented two-wheeled vehicle is divided into upper and lower portions. Feature characteristics taking into consideration left-right symmetry are used only for the lower portion. As a result, identification accuracy regarding a laterally oriented two-wheeled vehicle is improved.

Object detection apparatus and object detection method


A security protection method and an apparatus to implement security protection for a plurality of non-access stratum (NAS) connection links. The method includes determining, by a terminal, a first parameter, where the first parameter is used to indicate an access technology used to transmit a non-access stratum NAS message. The terminal can support at least two access technologies, and can separately maintain a corresponding NAS COUNT for each of the at least two access technologies. The method further includes performing, by the terminal, security protection on the NAS message based on the first parameter, a NAS key, and a NAS COUNT corresponding to an access technology used to transmit the NAS message. This application is applicable to a process of performing security protection on a NAS message.

In a 5th Generation (5G) system, a terminal may access an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) node via only a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access technology, or via only a non-3GPP (non-3GPP) access technology, or via both a 3GPP access technology and a non-3GPP access technology. When the terminal accesses the AMF node via both the 3GPP access technology and the non-3GPP access technology, there are two non-access stratum (NAS) connection links between the terminal and the AMF node at the same time. If the terminal uses one set of NAS keys and one set of NAS COUNTs to separately protect the two connection links, the following case may occur: the AMF node first receives a relatively small NAS COUNT transmitted through one link, and then receives a relatively large NAS COUNT transmitted through the other link. Consequently, a replay attack occurs, resulting in a problem of relatively poor data security of NAS connection link transmission between the terminal and the AMF node. Therefore, when a plurality of NAS connection links exist between the terminal and the AMF node, how to perform security protection on the plurality of NAS connection links is an urgent problem to be resolved.

Security protection method and apparatus


First and second semiconductor devices are separated by a field oxide on a semiconductor substrate, and a field plate is positioned over the field oxide. A leakage detector detects a field leakage current between the first and second semiconductor devices. A field plate generator tunes a potential of said field plate according to a magnitude of the field current detected by the leakage current detector. In this manner, field leakage is optimized, and total dose effects may be monitored for signs of device failure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to semiconductor devices, and in particular, the present invention relates to a device and method for maintaining a field transistor in an off state notwithstanding long-term exposure of field oxides to radiation.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 illustrates a somewhat typical configuration in which two n-channel MOS devices 101 and 102 are positioned side-by-side along the surface of a common bulk substrate 103. The device 101 includes an n-region source 104 and an n-region drain 105 defining a channel region therebetween. Positioned over the channel region of the device 101 are a gate oxide layer 106 and a gate electrode 107. Similarly, the device 102 includes a gate oxide layer 110 and a gate electrode 111 positioned over another channel region defined between an n-region drain 108 and an n-region source 109. The non-gated portion between the devices 101 and 102 is covered by a field-oxide 112. Typically, a number of metal overlays functioning as device interconnects will be positioned atop the field-oxides. Such an interconnect is shown by reference number 113 in FIG. 1.
As is apparent from FIG. 1, the n-regions 105 and 108, the field-oxide 112 and the metal overlay 113 together constitute the necessary parts of a transistor device. As such, if the potential of the overlay 113 exceeds a given potential, the intermediate region between the devices 101 and 102 will be inverted. In other words, a pseudo-channel will exist between the devices 101 and 102. In some operational states, the drain 105 of the device 101 and the drain 108 of the device 102 will be at different potentials. For example, the drain 105 may carry a logic 1 while the drain 108 is carrying a logic 0. In such a state, the presence of a pseudo-channel between the devices would result in substantial leakage.
To avoid this problem, the field-oxides are typically made much thicker than the gate-oxides in the device configuration, thereby increasing the absolute value of the threshold voltage in the field regions relative to that of the gated regions of the device. This prevents inversion of the field-oxide regions at potentials required for normal device operation.
However, notwithstanding the thick field-oxides, long-term exposure to radiation (which, for example, can occur in military and space applications) can reduce the field-oxide thresholds to the point where pseudo-channels are generated. Accumulation of charges in field-oxides can result, for example, from radiation exposure in the form of cosmic rays, solar winds, X-rays, and the like. The charge accumulations induced by such irradiation cause both an increase in the fixed charge within the field-oxide and an increase in the insulator-semiconductor interfacial-trap (or surface) concentration, which in turn can reduce the field region threshold voltage. This problem is especially acute for the relatively thick field-oxides which tend to accumulate more charges. In fact, it has been shown that the shift in threshold voltage for both the fixed charge and the interfacial traps is at least roughly proportional to the oxide thickness. The field-oxide may have a thickness on the order of 5000 .ANG., whereas the gate-oxide is typically around 50 .ANG.. Thus, while the shift in gate voltage resulting from radiation might be only a few tens of millivolts for the gate regions, the impact on the field threshold shift might be one-hundred times greater.
A number of techniques are known for attempting to counter the effects of field threshold shifts induced by radiation. For example, one technique commonly used to offset the field threshold shift is to heavily dope the silicon surface. Analogous to a threshold adjust implant in the gate of a transistor, a field implant can be employed to shift the field threshold. A disadvantage of this approach is the increase in junction capacitance resulting from the heavy implant. Other techniques involve growing the oxide in such a way as to minimize charge trapping sites. That is, special techniques are sometimes employed to "harden" the oxides, i.e., to make the oxides less sensitive to incoming radiation.
Yet another technique which has been used to control field leakage (primarily in the days before the ion implantation approach) is the use of the "field plate". This is a conductive layer or plate placed above the silicon surface that acts like a common gate for all the field transistors. The plate is then held at a fixed potential to offset the field threshold voltage shift, and thus keep the field transistors in an off-state. That fixed potential could be something like -5 volts in the case of n-channel field transistors, and +5 volts in the case of p-channel field transistors. As such, one common plate would be provided for the n-channel field transistors, and a second common plate would be provided for the p-channel field transistors. An advantage of this approach is that it is not necessary to modify the part of the fabrication process involved in active device formation. Rather, the relatively simple addition of one or more conductive layers to form the field plates is all that is needed. On the other hand, one disadvantage of the field-plate approach is that the use of the relatively high fixed potentials results in a certain degree of constant power dissipation. Further, even in the presence of the fixed potentials, long-term exposure to excessive radiation can still create pseudo-channels in the field regions. Thus, the field transistors can be switched to an on-state without warning, making device failure imminent.


A splicing assembly comprising a splicing plate having a structure defining at least two cutting grooves. A positioning marker is disposed on the splicing plate, and at least one clamping assembly is coupled to the splicing plate. A method for installing a roll of labels on a labeler comprising removing from the labeler a first core which supports a sheet having labels. The sheet is positioned on a support surface. A second core, which supports a sheet having labels, is positioned on the labeler. The sheet from the second core is disposed on top of the sheet from the first core after the latter has been disposed on a support surface. The sheets are subsequently cut and spliced. A method for splicing comprising cutting a pair of superimposed pliable substrates to produce a pair of residual pliable substrates which are subsequently spliced.

Conventional labeling machines produced by manufacturers are capable of automatic splicing rolls of labels on the fly. These machines are roll-up units that use a dual unwind system to feed a sheet of remaining labels from an exhausted roll of labels into a bin to produce a sheet of buffer labels. A new roll of labels is spliced onto the sheet of buffer labels. These machines are large and costly.
Operators of other conventional labeling machines typically use an extended length of time to replace an exhausted roll of labels with a new roll of labels. Because of the complexity involved in threading a sheet of labels, many operators of these conventional machines often improperly thread sheets of labels, causing a long downtime. Some operators require frequent retraining in order to readily possess the ability properly change rolls of labels.
What is needed and what has been invented is a splicing assembly that reduces the length of time for changing a roll of labels, the downtime created by the improper threading of sheets of labels, and the amount of time that is spent training operators to thread labelers.


A vehicle global positioning system includes a mirror assembly having a reflective element and a housing for the reflective element that is made from a material that is electrically substantially non-conducting. The system further includes a global positioning system (GPS) receiver and control module and at least one receiving antenna. The vehicle GPS is adapted to receive earth satellite signals with the receiving antenna and to convert the signals to location, velocity and/or time parameters. The GPS receiving antenna is positioned within the housing of the mirror assembly. In a preferred embodiment, the GPS receiving antenna is positioned within the housing of a vehicle exterior mirror. The vehicle GPS may include a plurality of GPS receiving antennas, such as one located in the vehicle's driver side exterior mirror and the other located in the vehicle's passenger side exterior mirror.

This invention relates generally to electronic systems for vehicles and, more particularly, to global positioning systems for vehicles.
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based radio navigation system capable of providing continuous position, velocity, and time information to an unlimited number of users throughout the world. The global positioning system includes a satellite constellation in orbit around the earth. The satellites transmit orbit data. By measuring the ranges from the satellites to a low cost global positioning system receiver, the three-dimensional location of the receiver can be accurately located, provided that the signals from a plurality of satellites, typically four or more satellites, can be received.
Applications of global positioning system in vehicles, such as automobiles, trucks, vans, sport utility vehicles, minivans, and the like, have been developed. Examples of present applications of the global positioning system to vehicles include automatic navigation systems for driver assistance in route guidance, intelligent vehicle highway systems for road tolling and traffic flow assessment and route diversions, as well as automatic vehicle location systems for monitoring a vehicle's position and movement which is provided to a fleet control center.
A global positioning system receiver includes one or more receiving antennas and an electronic system which converts the satellite signals received by the antenna to information pertaining to the location of the vehicle, as well as auxiliary information, such as precise time measurement. One difficulty with application of the global positioning system to vehicles is positioning of the receiving antenna or antennas. In order to precisely receive the signals transmitted by the satellites, a clear line of sight must be provided between the antenna and the satellite without blockage by intervening electrically conductive materials, such as metals. One solution has been to mount a separate casing to the roof of the vehicle with the antenna in the casing. While such solution provides a clear line of sight to the global positioning system satellites in a hemisphere around the antenna, this mounting technique results in a protrusion from the vehicle, which is visually distractive and aerodynamically disturbing. Additionally, means must be provided to attach the casing to the vehicle body, which must either penetrate the vehicle's sheet metal exterior surface or adhere to the exterior surface. Another solution that has been proposed is to form the upper portion of the vehicle passenger compartment roof of a non-conductive material, with the receiving antenna positioned under the electrically non-conductive roof. Such extensive modification to the vehicle would not readily be commercially acceptable to automobile manufacturers and would preclude any simple retrofit of existing vehicles. Locations in most other parts of the vehicle are precluded by extensive use of metal in the vehicle, which results in a cage effect, wherein the areas are significantly surrounded by electrically conductive metal.
Accordingly, a need exists to find a manner of mounting a receiving antenna of a global positioning system receiver that would hide the antenna from observation in order to avoid distracting from the appearance of the vehicle and to avoid tipping off thieves to the presence of the receiving antenna and the global positioning system receiver. Such mounting technique should additionally provide for ease of accommodation of the receiving antenna without significant modification to the vehicle or its internal structure. Furthermore, the mounting must be achieved in a manner which accommodates the functionality of the receiving antenna by providing a clear line of sight, free from any cage effect, to a sufficient number of transmitting global positioning system satellites in order to carry out the purpose of the application.


A vehicle door lock assembly having a housing to be secured to a vehicular door structure. The housing has a dent extending along an about up-and-down direction, a striker secured to the vehicular body, a latch rotating from its open position to its fully locked position through its half-latched position, a ratchet preventing the latch from reverse-rotating, a motor functioning when the latch rotates to the half-latched condition, and a lever driven by a motor in order to engage with the latch positioned at the half-latched position so as to rotate the latch to its fully latched position. The lever, latch and ratchet are operative arranged in the dent of the housing along an up-and-down direction and secured to the housing wall by three parallel shafts.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an auto-closing vehicle door lock device, in particular to a door lock device for completely closing and compulsorily locking, for example, a side door of a motor vehicle after the door is closed halfway by hand by a power of a motor or the like functioning after the halfway closing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,735,447 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,183, respectively disclose conventional lock devices for vehicular side doors, which having no auto-closing mechanism. According to the U.S. patents above, a latch and a ratchet are installed at the front side of the vehicular body, a number of manual operation members such as a lock lever and an open lever are installed at the back face of the vehicular body, so as to thin as much as possible the front-and-back thickness of the conventional lock device. The shape of such lock device is given or determined with the size and shape of the space usable to install the lock device in the side door.


The exemplified methods and systems facilitate the configuration and training of a neural network (e.g., a deep neural network, a convolutional neural network (CNN), etc.), or ensemble(s) thereof, with a biophysical signal data set to ascertain estimate for the presence or non-presence of disease or pathology in a subject as well as to assess and/or classify disease or pathology, including for example in some cases the severity of such disease or pathology, in a subject. In the context of the heart, the methods and systems described herein facilitate the configuration and training of a neural network, or ensemble(s) thereof, with a cardiac signal data set to ascertain estimate for the presence or non-presence of coronary artery disease or coronary pathology.

Ischemic heart disease, also known as cardiac ischemia or myocardial ischemia, is a disease or group of diseases characterized by a reduced blood supply to the heart muscle, usually due to coronary artery disease (CAD). CAD typically occurs when the lining inside the coronary arteries that supply blood to the myocardium, or heart muscle, develops atherosclerosis (the hardening or stiffening of the lining and the accumulation of plaque therein, often accompanied by abnormal inflammation). Over time, CAD can also weaken the heart muscle and contribute to, e.g., angina, myocardial infarction (cardiac arrest), heart failure, and arrhythmia. An arrhythmia is an abnormal heart rhythm and can include any change from the normal sequence of electrical conduction of the heart and in some cases can lead to cardiac arrest.
The evaluation of CAD can be complex, and many techniques and tools are used to assess the presence and severity of the condition. In the case of electrocardiography, a field of cardiology in which the heart's electrical activity is analyzed to obtain information about its structure and function, significant ischemic heart disease can alter ventricular conduction properties of the myocardium in the perfusion bed downstream of a coronary artery narrowing or occlusion. This pathology can express itself at different locations of the heart and at different stages of severity, making an accurate diagnosis challenging. Further, the electrical conduction characteristics of the myocardium may vary from person to person, and other factors such as measurement variability associated with the placement of measurement probes and parasitic losses associated with such probes and their related components can also affect the biophysical signals that are captured during electrophysiologic tests of the heart. Further still, when conduction properties of the myocardium are captured as relatively long cardiac phase gradient signals, they may exhibit complex nonlinear variability that cannot be efficiently captured by traditional modeling techniques.
Machine learning techniques predict outcomes based on sets of input data. For example, machine learning techniques are being used to recognize patterns and images, supplement medical diagnoses, and so on. Machine learning techniques rely on a set of features generated using a training set of data (i.e., a data set of observations, in each of which an outcome to be predicted is known), each of which represents some measurable aspect of observed data, to generate and tune one or more predictive models. For example, observed signals (e.g., heartbeat signals from a number of subjects) may be analyzed to collect frequency, average values, and other statistical information about these signals. A machine learning technique may use these features to generate and tune a model that relates these features to one or more conditions, such as some form of cardiovascular disease (CVD), including coronary artery disease (CAD), and then apply that model to data sources with unknown outcomes, such as an undiagnosed patient or future patterns, and so on. Conventionally, in the context of cardiovascular disease, these features are manually selected from conventional electrocardiogram and combined by data scientists working with domain experts.

Methods and systems to configure and use neural networks in characterizing physiological systems