Various embodiments of the present technology may provide methods and apparatus for an interface. The interface may be configured to detect a hot unplug condition based on a first output voltage at an output terminal of a first buffer circuit and a second output voltage at an output terminal of a second buffer circuit, wherein the first and second buffer circuits receive a common input. The interface may further detect the hot unplug condition based on a difference of a peak magnitude of the first output voltage and a peak magnitude of the second output voltage.

Many electrical systems utilize an interface to receive and/or transmit data between a host device and a sink device. Many interfaces are designed to follow certain protocols to optimize the power in the system. For example, and referring to FIG. 9, optimization may be achieved by incorporating a state machine in the interface. Initially, the interface is in a low power mode. Once the interface detects connection of an external interface, the interface informs the host by making itself visible to the host. During "electrical idle," the interface stays in active mode for "Tidle" time, which is reset after each "electrical idle" ends. If there is no input from the host during the "Tidle" time period, then the interface enters a slumber mode (low power mode). In slumber mode, the interface polls for a load approximately every 12 ms. However, the interface isn't designed to perform polling in an active mode to avoid signal integrity issues.
Due to this optimization, the interface may not be able detect a hot unplug condition during the active mode, and therefore, will continue to consume power as the host device sends handshaking signals, which keep the interface in the active, high-power mode. Therefore, it may be desired to detect the hot unplug condition immediately and power-down the interface in response to the detected unplug condition. It may also be desired to detect the hot unplug condition across all operating conditions with varying supply voltages, varying input swings, varying gain, varying operating speeds, and the like.

SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC


A metal salicide layer is formed by sequentially depositing a physical vapor deposition (PVD) metal layer and a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) metal layer on a semiconductor device having an exposed silicon surface so as to form a double metal layer. The semiconductor device is annealed to react the double metal layer with the silicon surface. At least a portion of the double layer that has not reacted with the silicon surface is stripped. The semiconductor device is annealed after stripping at least the portion of the double metal layer.

There is continuing demand for semiconductor devices that have higher speed, lower power consumption, and higher integration density. The integration density can be increased by minimizing the dimensions of various elements, such as the width of gate lines, the junction depth of source/drain regions, and the sectional area of contacts. However, such microscopic patterns may increase the resistance of the semiconductor device, slow the operating speed, and/or increase the power consumption of the semiconductor device.
One method of solving the above-stated problems is to use metal silicide, which is a compound of a metal and silicon, in place of polysilicon. Examples of metal suicides include tungsten silicon, titanium suicide, and cobalt silicide. Because cobalt silicide is generally thermally and chemically stable and has a small sheet resistance, it is widely used for semiconductor devices that require high speed operation, low power consumption, and/or high integration density. When forming a cobalt suicide layer, a cobalt layer and a barrier metal layer may be sequentially stacked on a silicon surface and subjected to primary annealing, stripping to remove the unreacted cobalt layer and the barrier metal layer, and secondary annealing.
Conventionally, when forming a cobalt salicide layer, a cobalt layer that is formed by physical vapor Deposition (PVD) (PVD cobalt layer) may be used. (hereinafter a cobalt salicide layer formed using a PVD cobalt layer is referred to as a "PVD cobalt salicide layer.") Because it may include slight impurities and may prevent the formation of an interfacial oxide layer, the PVD cobalt salicide layer has a relatively low sheet resistance. Moreover, the PVD cobalt salicide layer is generally stable to a subsequent thermal budget, resulting in a relatively small junction leakage current. Therefore, the PVD cobalt salicide layer is commonly used in high-speed semiconductor memory devices.
However, the microscopic fine patterns resulting from increased integration density may raise problems when forming the salicide layer by a conventional method. For example, as the gate width decreased to less than 90 nm, the PVD cobalt salicide layer formed on a gate line may become agglomerated in subsequent annealing. When agglomeration occurs, the sheet resistance of the PVD cobalt salicide layer may increase, which may obstruct high speed operation. Furthermore, more severe agglomeration may cause disconnection of the PVD cobalt salicide layer.
One method suggested to solve the agglomeration problem is to form a Ni salicide layer or a NiTa salicide layer on the gate line instead of a PVD cobalt salicide layer. Even when formed on a gate line narrower than 90 nm, however, the Ni salicide layer or NiTa salicide layer suffer virtually no agglomeration in subsequent annealing. However, the NiSi layer phase shifts into a NiSi2 layer during the subsequent annealing, which increases its sheet resistance. Accordingly, to use the Ni salicide layer or the NiTa salicide layer, the subsequent annealing must be changed, which may require reinvestment in manufacturing facilities and/or other costs. As a result, it may be expensive and time consuming to form the Ni salicide layer or the NiTa salicide layer.
When the salicide layer is formed on source/drain regions, it is desirable to prevent increases injunction leakage in spite of forming microscopic patterns. Particularly, a cobalt salicide layer formed using a cobalt layer deposited by CVD (hereinafter referred to as a "CVD cobalt salicide layer") involves generally severe topography on its bottom surface profile and relatively high junction leakage current.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,514,859 to Erhardt et al., entitled "Method of Salicide Formation with a Double Gate Silicide," discloses one way of decreasing the resistance of a gate line and improving the characteristic of junction leakage current in the source/drain junction area. According to this patent, silicidation is performed twice to make the silicide layer thick on the upper surface of the gate line. On the other hand, silicidation is performed once to make the silicide layer thin on the source/drain junction area. This is achieved by extra patterning to expose the gate line after forming a barrier insulating layer such as an SOG layer. Consequently, the manufacturing process may be complicated and expensive.

Methods of forming a double metal salicide layer and methods of fabricating semiconductor devices incorporating the same


An air freshener which has a rigid plastic frame, a hollow shell of translucent, open cell foam which is placed over the frame and which is impregnated with a scent agent, a base which is removably connected to the frame and which has a light bulb extending therefrom into the interior of the frame for illuminating the shell and for heating the scent agent to increase its dispersion. The frame and shell are manufactured in the shape of a basketball, baseball, or other piece of sports equipment and the shell is imprinted with a name or team logo.

Because the interiors of automobiles are usually completely closed, either to prevent the passengers' exposure to the weather or to protect the contents of the vehicle, they can become stuffy, stale and uncomfortable environments. Air fresheners are therefore widely used to scent the air and provide a more pleasant conditions for persons riding in the automobile. Air fresheners found in the prior art include several different types, including scented liquids which are sprayed into the air or onto the carpet, and solid fresheners which are placed under the seats, on the dashboard or on strings which allow the air freshener to be hung from the rear view mirror.
The solid air fresheners are manufactured in a number of shapes. The under-seat type of air freshener need not be attractively packaged since it is to be placed out of sight and it may have a simple cylindrical or box-shaped container. The hanging type, on the other hand, is intended to be placed in a much more visible location and attempts are therefore made to make the air freshener more attractive, or at least to minimize its unattractiveness. This is usually accomplished by manufacturing this type of air freshener in a flat, card-like shape which can be printed on its two sides or which can be cut into a silhouette, such as that of a pine tree. Because these card-like air fresheners are typically just pieces of porous cardboard-like material, they do not last as long as the under-seat type.


A framework for quantifying a total quality of experience for subscribers in a communications network is disclosed. A weighted average score representing a quality of experience for at least one application is provided. A set of scores associated with network parameters is provided. A weighted sum using the set of scores and the weighted average score is calculated. A total quality of experience score based on the weighted sum is generated.

As service providers move forward with network optimization strategies, including congestion management, the need to ensure satisfactory customer quality of experience (QoE) will be critical.
High speed Internet customers no longer see the Internet as a platform for publishing and sharing static images. They are relying more and more on their service for entertainment, education and information, and their expectations of their broadband provider have increased as well. Therefore, the driving factors of rapid broadband deployment are the services that can be delivered on top of this technology. The services that are offered today go far beyond the best-effort services of a decade ago. The Internet technologies are being used to form an infrastructure that delivers data, audio and video traffic at the same time. QoE is essential for all these services. Multimedia services like IPTV are particularly sensitive to packet loss, delay and jitter, and often require a substantial amount of bandwidth, so a mechanism must be in place to detect QoE degradation and react appropriately to restore it.
Rapidly increasing video quality combined with rapidly increasing adoption, leads to traffic growth rates that put serious pressure on the network infrastructure. It is expected that IP traffic will double every two years. With broadband becoming ubiquitous, providing not only adequate but enhanced QoE will be the primary point of differentiation when it comes to customers' satisfaction and subscriber growth.
Existing research has identified key factors in customer experience that impact traditional best-effort broadband service QoE. Delay is one such factor. Delay refers to the initial system response time from providing URL until the end-user is aware that a download has started. The data download speed is frequently communicated to the end-user by means of a file transfer dialogue box that includes a numeric display of download status (% or number of bytes downloaded/total bytes) or by a network rate meter. The consistency of download speed is another factor that affects the customer experience. If the download is at a steady rate, then the user has a good idea (either intuitively or through a meter) of when it will finish. If on the other hand the rate varies greatly, then the finish time is much less certain and the user cannot plan how to use the intervening period so effectively. The incremental display factor is the time before there is some new, intelligible content to view. It is often the case that the display starts to update before the download is complete. As soon as the user has some new information to consider, the fact that the download is still in progress is of less importance. Action availability is the time before the user can undertake the next step in the browsing process, e.g., a new link or action button becomes useable. Again this may be before the download is complete. Finally, the absolute time until the download is complete has an impact on the customer experience.
Data associated with parameters of the network, such as such as jitter, latency, packet loss, signal power, signal quality, etc., are an objective measurement of the technical health of the network. However, the customer experience, i.e., quality of experience (QoE), should reflect the actual experience of the customer, not the measure of what is technically occurring on the network.
Moreover, even if individual quality of service parameters are correlated with aspects of the quality of experience of a subscriber, quantifying how to score the overall experience of a subscriber is still elusive. For example, providing a certain bandwidth may be very important to an actual customer experience, but the customer's response needs to be included in any quantification of QoE. Having a 40 megabit per second downloading capability is faster than having a 20 megabit per second, but if the customer does not see much of a difference, then the difference is not that important to the customer. What matters is how the customer is impacted.
Accordingly, there is a need for providing a framework for quantifying a total quality of experience for subscribers in a communications network.

Framework for quantifying a total quality of experience for subscribers in a communications network


A force sensor system includes a housing assembly, a sensor, an actuator, and an actuator travel stop. The sensor is disposed within the housing assembly, and is configured to generate a sensor signal representative of a force supplied to the sensor. The actuator is disposed at least partially within, and is movable relative to, the housing assembly. The actuator extends from the housing assembly and is adapted to receive an input force. The actuator is configured, upon receipt of the input force, to move toward, and transfer the input force to, the sensor. The actuator travel stop is disposed within the housing assembly, and between the housing assembly and a portion of the actuator. The actuator travel stop is configured to be selectively engaged by the actuator and, upon engagement by the actuator, to limit movement of the actuator toward, and the input force transferred to, the sensor.

Force sensors are used in myriad systems and environments. For some environments and systems, force sensors may need to provide relatively high resolution at relatively low force levels. To meet this need, some force sensors are configured to enhance the output signals by either increasing sensor sensitivity or by increasing the gain in the amplification stages of the signal processing circuitry. This latter approach can expose the design to potential noise issues, which can influence stability and accuracy. The former approach can make the sensor vulnerable to over-force events. While there are approaches that meet the need for higher resolution at low force levels, these approaches do not provide a force sensor that is both protected against an over-force event and compactly packaged.
Hence, there is a need for package level over-force protection for a force sensor that exhibits relatively high resolution at low force levels. The present invention meets at least this need.

Force sensor with mechanical over-force transfer mechanism


A reactor vessel is provided with a solvent in a supercritical PVT state for use in depositing films on a deposition substrate. A metal organic precursor is dissolved in the supercritical solvent, as is a reaction agent. A chemical reaction deposits a film, such as a metal film on a semiconducting wafer, and reaction byproducts including a ligand ensue from the chemical reaction. Effluent from the reactor vessel is submitted to a precursor-forming agent that reacts with the ligand to rejuvenate the precursor. Alternatively, the precursor-forming agent can be used for point-of-use formation of the precursor with or without recycle of reaction byproducts.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to the field of methods and apparatus for materials deposition. More specifically, the materials are deposited as films using a supercritical deposition reactor with recycle of metal organic precursors.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
There are a variety of deposition processes for making thin film or thick film materials. For example, vacuum sputtering processes, spin-on deposition, and chemical vapor deposition processes are used to deposit thin films for use in semiconductors or optics. Chemical vapor deposition ("CVD") processes are those in which a volatile precursor liquid, typically a metal organic liquid, is vaporized in a carrier gas at reduced pressure and at an elevated temperature below the decomposition temperature of material in the combined flow stream. A chemical reaction may occur to deposit material on a deposition substrate, for example, by thermal activity from a heated wafer or by the activity of plasma in the case of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition ("PECVD").
U.S. Pat. No. 5,789,027 issued to Watkins et al. is hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent as though fully replicated herein. The '027 patent describes chemical fluid deposition ("CFD") processing where a precursor material is dissolved into a solvent that is maintained in a supercritical state. Solvents for this purpose include carbon dioxide, propane, butane, pentane, dimethyl ether, ethanol, nitrous oxide, water, and hexafluorobenzene. Precursors for use in CFD deposition processes are chosen to produce a desired material on the deposition substrate following reaction with a reaction agent. The reaction reagent may be dissolved in the supercritical solvent, or it may be the supercritical solvent itself. By way of example, materials that may be deposited and/or formed using CFD processes include:                metals, such as Cu, Pt, Pd, and Ti;        elemental semiconductors including Si, Ge, and C;        compound semiconductors including Group III-V semiconductors such as GaAs and InP; Group II-VI semiconductors such as CdS; and Group IV-VI semiconductors such as PbS;        oxides such as SiO2 and TiO2; and        mixed metals and/or mixed metal oxides such as the YBaCuO low temperature superconducting materials.
CFD processes produce high quality films and offer the advantage of low process temperatures of less than 250° C. or even less than 100° C. On the other hand, the reactor effluent is problematic. The processes are performed in a supercritical reactor vessel that must be pressurized and depressurized to accommodate new wafers for processing. The supercritical solvent contains potentially harmful chemicals that have been partially reacted to deposit materials on the wafers or other deposition substrates. The potentially harmful chemicals frequently contain heavy metals that cannot be destroyed, even by calcination. Upon depressurization, there is a need to vent the supercritical solvent and the chemicals dissolved in the supercritical solvent. Special precautions must be taken to protect the environment from exposure to these chemicals. Processing and disposal of the reactor effluent is complicated by, for example, the tendency of carbon dioxide to expand as a gas. The supercritical solvent with dissolved chemical reagents and reaction byproducts must be renewed for each cycle of deposition processing. This requirement presents a tremendous challenge and expense in accommodating process waste disposal needs.

Deposition reactor with precursor recycle


A power source device is provided including a boosting circuit for stepping-up an input voltage to a desired output voltage, a starter circuit for starting the boosting circuit in a starting period thereof, and a drive circuit for driving the boosting circuit as a substitute for the starter circuit after the output voltage of the boosting circuit becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined level. The starter circuit comprises a starter signal generation circuit for generating a starter signal which on/off controls a MOS transistor used for stepping-up in the boosting circuit, and a determining/controlling circuit which detects whether or not a monitor voltage in the boosting circuit is equal to or greater than a predetermined level while the MOS transistor is in the on-state, and inhibits outputting if the starter signal if the monitor voltage is equal to or greater than the predetermined level.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power source device that controls output voltage by, for example, switching the input voltage to execute a boosting (step-up) operation.
2. Related Art
Known power source devices include boosting circuits for stepping-up input voltage to a desired output voltage by switching the input voltage, starter circuits for starting boosting circuits at the beginning of the operation of the boosting circuits, and drive circuits for driving the boosting circuits as substitutes for the starter circuits when the output voltage levels of the boosting circuits become equal to or greater than a predetermined level (See Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-92873, for example).
The starter circuits are arranged to generate clock signals with fixed frequencies, and transistors for performing the switching operations of the boosting circuits are on/off controlled using the clock signals (on/off signals).
However, in conventional power source devices, the clock signals generated in the starter circuits are constant. Accordingly, when the boosting circuit is in a starting period of an operation and triggered by starting the starter circuits, wasteful currents flow through the boosting circuits to problematically and wastefully consume electric power.
Further, in recent years switching frequencies have increased and the inductances of coil components have reduced (to smaller sizes) to reduce the size of mounting areas in power source devices used for portable devices such as mobile phones. Therefore, it has become difficult to increase output voltages without increasing the switching frequencies when starting operations from rather low voltages. However, if bipolar transistors are used for starting operations, the switching frequencies are problematically difficult to increase.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a power source device capable of reducing power consumption by reducing the wasteful current flowing through the boosting circuit and of a high speed switching operation by a switching element of the boosting circuit even in a low voltage condition when the boosting circuit starts to operate.


Duty cycle error vectors that indicate both the magnitude and direction of the duty cycle error relative to a desired duty cycle are generated within a duty cycle measurement circuit, enabling threshold-based determination of whether duty cycle adjustment is necessary, refraining from power-consuming adjustment and follow-up measurement in those cases where the duty cycle is within a target range. When duty cycle adjustment is deemed necessary, the magnitude of the duty cycle error indicated by the duty cycle error vector may be applied to effect proportional rather than incremental duty cycle adjustment, quickly returning the clock duty cycle to a target range.

Clock duty cycle error is typically corrected in a continuous servo loop. In a conventional implementation, an error detector generates a continuous stream of error direction signals indicating which of the high and low clock phases is longer, and an adjustment circuit incrementally adjusts the clock duty cycle in response to each error direction signal.
While the continuous servo approach works acceptably in some applications, shrinking voltage supply headroom, decreasing output impedance, and increasing sub-threshold leakage are becoming problematic for traditional analog error detector implementations. Beyond the implementation challenges, continuous error detection and correction exacts a cost from increasingly limited power budgets, and the slow, incremental duty cycle adjustment is becoming a performance bottleneck in the face of increasingly complex clocking schemes employed in modern electronics devices (e.g., on-demand frequency transitions, and clock start/stop).


A bearing configuration for the purpose of mounting a shaft or axle in a housing in a manner allowing rotation. The bearing configuration has a rolling bearing designed as a roller bearing with at least one bearing ring which is functionally assigned to the housing, said bearing ring forming an outer race facing inward radially, wherein rolling elements are guided on said outer race, working together on the opposite side with a shaft which forms an inner race. The roller bearing of the bearing configuration is a combination of at least two joined polygonal bearings, wherein each polygonal bearing on the bearing ring includes at least one elastic segment which forms a convex, transversely rounded race curvature. This configuration ensures that at least one rolling element is radially pretensioned and supported on the outer race of the shaft, and the shaft is guided in the housing with no radial play.

Roller bearings are rolling bearings with rollers as the rolling elements. These rolling bearings have an inner and an outer race, with rolling elements arranged one after the other along the periphery, about an axis of rotation, between said races. The races are optionally designed on bearing rings or on the surface of the stationary component and the component mounted thereon. Cylindrical rollers or needles can be used as the rolling elements for the roller bearing, and can be designed with a slightly convex outer surface instead of an external cylindrical shape. The end faces are preferably flat, or alternatively have a convex and/or concave curvature. Needles are roller-like rolling elements wherein the ratio of the length thereof to the nominal diameter of the outer surface is greater than or equal to 2. The rolling elements are preferably inserted into a cage which guides the rolling elements along the periphery.
As a result of manufacturing tolerances and in consideration of ease of assembly, radial bearings typically have radial play. The play is introduced into the bearings in an annular gap between the rolling elements and/or the rollers and the races which are functionally assigned to the same. The radial spacing between the races positioned opposite each other is the sum of the diameter of the rollers and the radial play. The rollers can move radially inside this range of play, between the races, which can lead to a disadvantageous noise development. In addition, disadvantages may arise in bearing configurations of rolling bearings having radial bearings, for example, where the converter neck of a torque converter is mounted with an offset of the converter neck with respect to the component functionally assigned to the same, which leads to a radial deflection and an associated uneven load on the bearing configuration and/or the rolling bearing. This is associated with a disadvantageous noise development.
DE 41 34 369 A1 shows a motor vehicle transmission having a hydrodynamic torque converter, wherein an input gear shaft is connected in a non-rotatable manner to the turbine of the torque converter. An extension of the pump wheel of the torque converter with a cylindrical design forms the converter neck. The pump can be connected to a primary pump if necessary, wherein the transmission can be supplied with pressure medium, and the torque converter with oil, via said primary pump. The pump is rotatably mounted on a bearing via the converter neck, by means of a rolling bearing designed as a roller bearing. Due to offset or tilting of the axis of rotation in the arrangement, undesirable, and particularly uneven loads on the bearing configurations and/or the rolling bearings may occur, with an associated disadvantageous noise development.
A rolling bearing designed as a roller bearing is known from FR 27 89458 A1, for the purpose of mounting a steering column. As a way of making it possible to compensate play in the assembled bearing configuration, the roller bearing has an outer bearing ring which is bounded peripherally on both sides by end segments which are connected locally to a central, peripheral segment via mounting links. The segment which forms an inner race for the rolling elements is guided on the opposite side on the shaft and/or the steering column. In addition, the central, peripheral segment has a curved rolling element race which narrows in each of the mounting link positions, for the purpose of influencing the play in the bearing configuration, thereby elastically pretensioning the assembled rolling elements of the roller bearing.
The problem addressed by the example embodiments described herein is that of providing a noise-optimized roller bearing having no peripheral variation in rigidity, and with reduced bearing play.

Bearing configuration with two-row polygonal bearing


A system, method and apparatus for causing network routers such as Area Border Routers (ABRs) to use a preferred tie-breaking mechanism to select one path in the event of an ERO expansion operation resulting in multiple equal cost paths.

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) enables efficient delivery of a wide variety of differentiated, end-to-end services. Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) traffic engineering (TE) provides a mechanism for selecting efficient paths across an MPLS network based on bandwidth considerations and administrative rules. Each label switching router maintains a TE link state database with a current network topology. Once a path is computed, TE is used to maintain a forwarding state along that path.
As described in more detail in various Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Requests for Comment (RFC), such as RFC4726 and RFC5151, an Area Border Router (ABR) is a router located between several areas in a hierarchical Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) network. ABRs maintain topology information from multiple areas. In the case of Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) Inter-Domain TE-LSPs of type Contiguous LSP each Area Border Router (ABR) triggers a path computation (also referred to as an Explicit Route Object (ERO) expansion), before forwarding the RSVP Path message downstream. Thus, each ABR is responsible for calculating a TE-constrained path for its successive TE-Domain(s) or Area(s). Moreover, each ABR path computation may result in an equal cost multiple paths (ECMP) result where a tie-breaking procedure must be used to select one of the paths. For various reasons, it is preferable to ensure that the same tie-breaking procedure is used by each ABR along the LSP.

System and method for inter-domain RSVP-TE LSP load balancing


An end of arm tool that is capable of handling fragile items such as eggs that are packaged in containers (e.g., egg cartons) that require special handling is provided. The end of arm tool comprises vacuum cup assemblies to grip the top surfaces of the packages, clamp fingers to clamp the edges of the packages, and optionally a pusher assembly to release the packages from the clamp fingers. In addition, a method of loading packages into cases using the end of arm tool apparatus of the present invention is provided. A gripper may be provided to place divider sheets between packages in the cases.

The use of robotic arms has been readily adopted across diverse industries because they increase efficiency in the production process and reduce labor costs. The widespread use of robotic arms is due largely to their versatility of performing different tasks. This versatility is accomplished by the use of end of arm tools (EOATs) that are specifically designed to perform specialized tasks. For example, robotic arms are used to perform complex operations that require the highest degree of accuracy and precision, such as the manufacturing of circuit boards or computer chips. In other industries, robotic arms have replaced manual labor for tasks that were traditionally performed manually by humans such as packing bottles into shipper cases, painting automobiles on the assembly line, and many other similar tasks. All these tasks can be performed by end of arm tools that have been specifically designed to perform a task such as painting cars on the assembly line, soldering transistors onto circuit boards, and loading bottles into shipper cases.
Despite the many uses of robotic arms, there is still a need to provide an end of arm tool that is capable of handling fragile items that require special handling such as eggs that are packaged in containers (e.g., egg cartons) which are then placed in shipper cases. Heretofore, packing cartons of eggs into shipper cases has remained a manual task.


A foot pedal for a stepping exercise machine for stimulating the climbing and descending of a sloped surface such as when climbing or descending a mountain slope. The foot pedal includes a plate having first and second surfaces, proximal and distal end edges and a pair of side edges extending between the proximal and distal end edges of the plate. The proximal end edge of the plate is designed for pivotally mounting to a free end of a pivoting lever arm of a stepping exercise machine. The plate is pivotable with respect to the pivoting lever arm between a raised position and a lowered position. The distal end of the plate extends in an upwards direction from the pivoting lever arm when the plate is pivoted to the raised position. The distal end of the plate extends in a downwards direction from the pivoting lever arm when the plate is pivoted to the raised position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to stepping exercise machines and more particularly pertains to a new foot pedal for a stepping exercise machine for simulating the climbing and descending of a sloped surface such as when climbing or descending a mountain slope.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of stepping exercise machines is known in the prior art. More specifically, stepping exercise machines heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art stepping exercise machines include U.S. Pat. No. 2,079,594; U.S. Pat. No. 5,336,142; U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,529; U.S. Pat. No. 5,183,448; U.S. Pat. No. Des. 360,441; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,035,671.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not disclose a new foot pedal for a stepping exercise machine. The inventive device includes a plate having first and second surfaces, proximal and distal end edges and a pair of side edges extending between the proximal and distal end edges of the plate. The proximal end edge of the plate is designed for pivotally mounting to a free end of a pivoting lever arm of a stepping exercise machine. The plate is pivotable with respect to the pivoting lever arm between a raised position and a lowered position. The distal end of the plate extends in an upwards direction from the pivoting lever arm when the plate is pivoted to the raised position. The distal end of the plate extends in a downwards direction from the pivoting lever arm when the plate is pivoted to the raised position.
In these respects, the foot pedal for a stepping exercise machine according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of simulating the climbing and descending of a sloped surface such as when climbing or descending a mountain slope.

Foot pedal for a stepping exercise machine


The invention provides an image processing apparatus and an image processing method by which efficient communication can be achieved. An image processing apparatus, comprising a playback section for playing back image data; a transmission section for transmitting the played back image data to a reception apparatus through a predetermined transmission line; and a control section for controlling, when an instruction to temporarily stop the playback of the image data is received, the playback section and the transmission section to stop the playback and the transmission of the image data, respectively, and further controlling the transmission section to transmit a message representing that the playback of the image data is temporarily stopped to the reception apparatus through the transmission line.

This invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method as well as a recording medium, and more particularly to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method as well as a recording medium by which a network which complies with the standard of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 1394 or the like can be used efficiently.
Communication in accordance with the IEEE 1394 standard which is one of standards for a digital interface allows isochronous transfer of data and therefore is suitable for transfer of data which need be played back on the real time basis such as image and sound data. Further, also from an increase in demand for communication of multimedia data in recent years, much attention is paid to the communication in accordance with the IEEE 1394 standard.
FIG. 1 shows a configuration of an example of an AV (Audio Visual) system (the term "system" is used herein to signify a plurality of apparatus gathered logically irrespective of whether or not the apparatus are accommodated in the same housing) which allows communication in accordance with the IEEE 1394 standard.
The AV system of FIG. 1 includes two camcorders (video camcorders) 1 and 2 of the DV (Digital Video) system which are IEEE 1394 apparatus as apparatus which comply with the IEEE 1394 standard, and an IEEE 1394 cable 3. The camcorders 1 and 2 are connected to each other by the IEEE 1394 cable 3.
It is to be noted that, in the following description, in order to avoid complicated description, description is given only of image data from between image data and sound data. Further, in the following description, it is assumed that image and sound data played back by the camcorder 1 are transmitted by the IEEE 1394 cable 3 to and outputted from the camcorder 2.
FIG. 2 shows an example of configuration of the camcorders 1 and 2 of FIG. 1.
The camcorder 1 includes a mechanism deck 11, a signal processing circuit 12, an interface circuit 13, a display 14, a control circuit 15, and an operation panel 16.
The mechanism deck 11 records image data supplied thereto from the signal processing circuit 12 onto a video tape not shown, and plays back image data from the video tape and supplies the played back image data to the signal processing circuit 12.
The signal processing circuit 12 performs necessary signal processing for image data supplied thereto from the interface circuit 13 and supplies the processed image data to the mechanism deck 11. Further, the signal processing circuit 12 performs necessary signal processing for image data supplied thereto from the mechanism deck 11 and supplies the processed image data to the interface circuit 13 and the display 14.
The interface circuit 13 functions as an interface for allowing communication compliant with the IEEE 1394 standard. In particular, the interface circuit 13 converts the format of image data and other data supplied thereto from the signal processing circuit 12 into that of data compliant with the IEEE 1394 standard and transmits the resulting data to the IEEE 1394 cable 3. Further, the interface circuit 13 receives image data and other data from the IEEE 1394 cable 3, converts the format of the received data back into its original format and supplies the data of the original format to the signal processing circuit 12.
The display 14 is formed from, for example, a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) or a liquid crystal panel and displays image data from the signal processing circuit 12.
The control circuit 15 controls the mechanism deck 11, signal processing circuit 12, interface circuit 13 and display 14 in response to an operation signal from the operation panel 16 and so forth.
The operation panel 16 includes buttons and so forth to be operated in order to input various instructions such as playback of image data, pause or fast feeding, and supplies an operation signal corresponding to an operated button to the control circuit 15. It is to be noted that the operation panel 16 may otherwise be a panel provided integrally on the camcorder 1 or a remote commander for remotely controlling the camcorder 1.
The camcorder 2 includes a mechanism deck 21, a signal processing circuit 22, an interface circuit 23, a display 24, a control circuit 25 and an operation panel 26 which have configurations similar to those of the mechanism deck 11, signal processing circuit 12, interface circuit 13, display 14, control circuit 15 and operation panel 16 of the camcorder 1, respectively.
Now, operation of the AV system of FIG. 2 is described.
First, for example, in order to cause the camcorder 1 to record image data, the user will connect an image inputting apparatus (not shown) which can input an image such as a video camera to the interface circuit 13 using the IEEE 1394 cable 3, and operate the button (recording button) of the operation panel 16 for inputting a recording instruction. In this instance, the operation panel 16 supplies an operation signal for a recording instruction to the control circuit 15. When the control circuit 15 receives the operation signal for a recording instruction, it sets the operation mode of the apparatus to a recording mode.
Thereafter, when image data are inputted from the image inputting apparatus to the interface circuit 13 through the IEEE 1394 cable 3, the interface circuit 13 receives the image data and supplies the image data to the signal processing circuit 12.
The signal processing circuit 12 performs predetermined signal processing for the image data from the interface circuit 13 and supplies the processed image data to the mechanism deck 11. The mechanism deck 11 records the image data from the signal processing circuit 12 onto the video tape.
On the other hand, in order to play back image data recorded by the camcorder 1 and transmit the image data to the camcorder 2 so that the image data are displayed by the camcorder 2, the user will operate the button (playback button) of the operation panel 16 for inputting a playback (normal playback) instruction. In this instance, the operation panel 16 supplies an operation signal for a playback instruction to the control circuit 15. The control circuit 15 receives the operation signal for a playback instruction and sets the operation mode of the apparatus to a playback mode.
After the playback mode is entered, the mechanism deck 11 starts playback of image data from the video tape and supplies the played back image data to the signal processing circuit 12. The signal processing circuit 12 performs predetermined signal processing for the image data from the mechanism deck 11, and supplies image data of, for example, the NTSC (National Television System Committee) system to the interface circuit 13 and supplies the image data to the display 14 so as to be displayed on the display 14. The interface circuit 13 transmits the image data from the signal processing circuit 12 to the camcorder 2 through the IEEE 1394 cable 3.
The image data transmitted from the camcorder 1 through the IEEE 1394 cable 3 in such a manner as described above are received by the interface circuit 23 of the camcorder 2. After the interface circuit 23 starts reception of the image data, it notifies the control circuit 25 that image data are inputted thereto. In this instance, the control circuit 25 sets the operation mode of the apparatus to an input mode.
After the input mode is entered, the interface circuit 23 supplies the image data received from the IEEE 1394 cable 3 to the signal processing circuit 22. The signal processing circuit 22 supplies the image data from the interface circuit 23 to the display 24 so that the image data are displayed on the display 24.
Then, if the user thereafter operates the button (recording button) of the operation panel 26 for inputting a recording instruction, then the operation panel 26 supplies an operation signal for a recording instruction to the control circuit 25. In this instance, the control circuit 25 sets the operation mode of the apparatus to a recording mode. After the recording mode is entered, the signal processing circuit 22 supplies the image data from the interface circuit 23 not only to the display 24 but also to the mechanism deck 21. The mechanism deck 21 records the image data supplied thereto from the signal processing circuit 22 in such a manner as described above onto the video tape.
Here, if the power supply to the camcorder 1 and the camcorder 2 is placed into an on state, then the interface circuit 13 of the camcorder 1 and the interface circuit 23 of the camcorder 2 recognize IEEE 1394 apparatus connected thereto by the IEEE 1394 cable 3 (in FIG. 2, the camcorders 1 and 2) and establish a cannel (logical channel) for use for delivery of image data. Then, between the camcorders 1 and 2, data are communicated through the channel. It is to be noted that detailed description of establishment of a channel in the IEEE 1394 is omitted herein.
Then, if the user operates, for example, the button (fast feed button) of the operation panel 16 for inputting a fast feed (Fast Forward) instruction, then the operation panel 16 supplies an operation signal for a fast feed instruction to the control circuit 15. In this instance, the control circuit 15 sets the operation mode of the apparatus to a fast feed mode.
After the fast feed mode is entered, the mechanism deck 11 feeds the video tape at a speed equal to several times that for playback at a normal speed (normal playback) to play back image data intermittently and supplies the played back image data to the signal processing circuit 12. The signal processing circuit 12 processes the intermittent image data from the mechanism deck 11 to produce normal image data of the NTSC system and supplies the image data to the interface circuit 13 and also to the display 14 so that the image data are displayed on the display 14. The interface circuit 13 sends the image data from the signal processing circuit 12 to the camcorder 2 through the IEEE 1394 cable 3.
The camcorder 2 controls the display 24 to display the image data from the camcorder 1 in a similar manner to that in the normal playback described hereinabove. It is to be noted that, while the image data transmitted thereto from the camcorder 1 in this instance are of the NTSC system, they are data of frames at intervals of several frames, and therefore, moving pictures in a fast fed state are displayed on the display 24.
Then, if the user operates, for example, the button (pause button) of the operation panel 16 for inputting a pause (temporarily stop) instruction, then the operation panel 16 supplies an operation signal for a pause instruction to the control circuit 15. In this instance, the control circuit 15 sets the operation mode of the apparatus to a pause mode.
After the pause mode is entered, the mechanism deck 11 stops feeding of the video tape and supplies image data of the same frame obtained by repetitively scanning the same portion of the video tape to the signal processing circuit 12. The signal processing circuit 12 processes the video data from the mechanism deck 11 to produce normal image data of the NTSC system and supplies the image data to the interface circuit 13 and also to the display 14 so that the image data are displayed on the display 14. The interface circuit 13 transmits the image data from the signal processing circuit 12 to the camcorder 2 through the IEEE 1394 cable 3.
The camcorder 2 controls the display 24 to display the image data from the camcorder 1 in a similar manner as in the normal playback. It is to be noted that, while the image data transmitted from the camcorder 1 are of the NTSC system, since they are of the same frame, moving pictures of a pause state are displayed on the display 24.
FIG. 3 shows another configuration of example of the AV system.
The AV system of FIG. 3 includes a hard disk recorder 31 and a digital television monitor 32 of the DV (Digital Video) system which are IEEE 1394 apparatus as apparatus which comply with the IEEE 1394 standard, and an IEEE 1394 cable 3. The hard disk recorder 31 and the digital television monitor 32 are connected to each other by the IEEE 1394 cable 3.
It is to be noted that, in the following description, it is assumed basically that an image played back by the hard disk recorder 31 is transmitted through the IEEE 1394 cable 3 to the digital television monitor 32 by which it is outputted (displayed).
The hard disk recorder 31 includes a hard disk 41, a signal processing circuit 42, an interface circuit 43, a control circuit 44 and an operation panel 45. The signal processing circuit 42, interface circuit 43, control circuit 44 and operation panel 45 are similar to the signal processing circuit 12, interface circuit 13, control circuit 15 and operation panel 16 of FIG. 2, respectively. Accordingly, the hard disk recorder 31 is configured basically similarly to the camcorder 1 of FIG. 2 except that it does not include the display 14 and includes the hard disk 41 in place of the mechanism deck 11.
The digital television monitor 32 includes a interface circuit 51, a signal processing circuit 52, an display 53 and a control circuit 54. The interface circuit 51, signal processing circuit 52, display 53 and control circuit 54 are similar to the interface circuit 23, signal processing circuit 22, display 24 and control circuit 25 of FIG. 2, respectively. Accordingly, the digital television monitor 32 is configured basically similarly to the camcorder 2 of FIG. 2 except that it does not include the mechanism deck 21 or the operation panel 26.
Now, operation of the AV system of FIG. 3 is described.
Also in the AV system of FIG. 3, similarly as in the AV system of FIG. 3, if the power supply to the hard disk recorder 31 and the digital television monitor 32 is placed into an on state, then the interface circuit 43 of the hard disk recorder 31 and the interface circuit 51 of the digital television monitor 32 recognize IEEE 1394 apparatus connected thereto by the IEEE 1394 cable 3 (in FIG. 3, the hard disk recorder 31 and the digital television monitor 32) and establish a cannel (logical channel) for use for delivery of data. Then, between the hard disk recorder 31 and the digital television monitor 32, data are delivered through the channel.
First, for example, in order to cause the hard disk recorder 31 to record image data, the user will connect an image inputting apparatus (not shown) which can input an image such as a video camera to the interface circuit 43 using the IEEE 1394 cable 3, and operate the button (recording button) of the operation panel 45 for inputting a recording instruction. In this instance, the operation panel 45 supplies an operation signal for a recording instruction to the control circuit 44. When the control circuit 44 receives the operation signal for a recording instruction, it sets the operation mode of the apparatus to a recording mode.
Thereafter, when image data are inputted from the image inputting apparatus to the interface circuit 43 through the IEEE 1394 cable 3, the interface circuit 43 receives the image data and supplies the image data to the signal processing circuit 42.
The signal processing circuit 42 performs necessary signal processing for the image data from the interface circuit 43 such as, for example, conversion into image data of the DV system and supplies the resulting image data to the hard disk 41 so as to be recorded onto the hard disk 41.
On the other hand, in order to play back image data recorded by the hard disk recorder 31 and transmit the image data to the digital television monitor 32 so that the image data are displayed, the user will operate the button (playback button) of the operation panel 45 for inputting a playback (normal playback) instruction. In this instance, the operation panel 45 supplies an operation signal for a playback instruction to the control circuit 44. The control circuit 44 receives the operation signal for a playback instruction and sets the operation mode of the apparatus to a playback mode.
After the playback mode is entered, the signal processing circuit 42 starts playback of image data from the hard disk 41. It is to be noted that, if the user operates the operation panel 45 to designate image data (contents) to be played back, then the signal processing circuit 42 starts playback of the image data designated by the user beginning with the top of the image data. On the other hand, for example, if the user does not particularly designate image data to be played back, then the signal processing circuit 42 starts playback from a position of the hard disk 41 determined in advance (for example, from a position at which the last playback ended).
The signal processing circuit 42 decodes the image data played back from the hard disk 41 and outputs the decoded image data from an output terminal not shown. In particular, since image data of the DV system are recorded on the hard disk 41, the signal processing circuit 42 decodes the image data of the DV system into image data of, for example, the NTSC system and outputs the decoded image data from the output terminal.
The signal processing circuit 42 supplies the image data of the DV system played back from the hard disk 41 to the interface circuit 43. The interface circuit 43 transmits the image data of the DV system from the signal processing circuit 42 to the digital television monitor 32 through the IEEE 1394 cable 3.
Accordingly, here, image data compression coded in accordance with the DV system are transmitted from the hard disk recorder 31 to the digital television monitor 32 through the IEEE 1394 cable 3. It is to be noted that, although it is possible to transmit image data of the NTSC system or the like obtained by decoding image data of the DV system from the hard disk recorder 31 to the digital television monitor 32, between different IEEE 1394 apparatus, image data of the DV system are usually communicated as they are.
The image data transmitted from the hard disk recorder 31 through the IEEE 1394 cable 3 in such a manner as described above are received by the interface circuit 51 of the digital television monitor 32. The interface circuit 51 supplies the image data to the signal processing circuit 52. The signal processing circuit 52 decodes the image data of the DV system from the interface circuit 51 into image data of, for example, the NTSC system and supplies the resulting image data to the display 53 so that the image data are displayed on the display 53.
Then, if the user operates, for example, the button (fast feed button) of the operation panel 45 for inputting an instruction for fast feeding, then the operation panel 45 supplies an operation signal for a fast feed instruction to the control circuit 44. In this instance, the control circuit 44 sets the operation mode of the apparatus to a fast feed mode.
After the fast feed mode is entered, the signal processing circuit 42 plays back the image data for each N frames.
While image data compression coded in accordance with the DV system are recorded on the hard disk 41, the data amount per one frame in the DV system is known and the data of the DV system include only intra-coded images without involving interframe coding, it is possible to play back image data of the DV system for each plurality of frames. It is to be noted that it is otherwise possible to record image data compression coded in accordance with a system which involves interframe coding such as, for example, the MPEG system on the hard disk 41. In this instance, for detection of image data of a predetermined frame, a method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 6-325553 or No. Hei 11-312381 filed for patent in Japan by the assignee of the present application can be adopted.
If the signal processing circuit 42 plays back image data after each N−1 frames from the hard disk 41, then N-fold speed playback is performed.
The signal processing circuit 42 supplies the image data played back from the hard disk 41 to the interface circuit 43. The image data are thereafter transmitted to the digital television monitor 32 in a similar manner to that in the normal playback.
The digital television monitor 32 controls the display 53 to display the image data from the hard disk recorder 31 in a similar manner to that in the normal playback described hereinabove. It is to be noted that, since the image data transmitted thereto from the hard disk recorder 31 in this instance are data of frames at intervals of N frames, moving pictures in a fast fed state are displayed on the display 53.
Then, if the user operates, for example, the button (pause button) of the operation panel 45 for inputting a pause instruction, then the operation panel 45 supplies an operation signal for a pause instruction to the control circuit 44. In this instance, the control circuit 44 sets the operation mode of the apparatus to a pause mode.
After the pause mode is entered, the signal processing circuit 42 supplies image data of the same frame obtained by repetitively playing back a frame of the image data, which has been played back last from the hard disk 41, from the hard disk 41 to the interface circuit 43. The interface circuit 43 transmits the image data from the signal processing circuit 42 to the digital television monitor 32 and also to the display 14 so that the image data are displayed through the IEEE 1394 cable 3.
The digital television monitor 32 controls the display 53 to display the image data from the hard disk recorder 31 in a similar manner as in the normal playback. In this instance, the image data transmitted from the hard disk recorder 31 are data of the same frame as described above, and therefore, moving pictures of a pause state are displayed on the display 53.
As described above, in the AV systems described above, even if a pause instruction is issued, image data of the same frame are transmitted repetitively through the IEEE 1394 cable 3. In other words, also when a pause mode is established, image data are transmitted occupying a transmission bandwidth similar to that in normal playback. More particularly, where the image data to be transmitted are data, for example, of the NTSC system, they are transmitted occupying a transmission bandwidth corresponding to 29.97 frames/sec.
Accordingly, although there is no problem if the communication through the IEEE 1394 cable 3 is used only for transmission of the image data, if it is used also for delivery of data by another application, a limited transmission bandwidth is used by transmission of image data of the same frame and the delivery of data by another application is limited. Thus, the transmission bandwidth is not utilized efficiently.

Image processing apparatus and image processing method as well as recording medium


An inductively coupled power distribution system for moving vehicles, in which resonating primary circuits to distribute power for resonating secondary circuits to collect and use in an optimized manner. In order to have all circuits resonating at substantially the same frequency, devices which detect and adjust resonating components are used, such as a frequency drift compensator in which the present frequency is compared to a reference voltage and causes a driver to be ON or OFF accordingly. Switches are driven CLOSED or OPEN respectively and when CLOSED, supplementary capacitors are included with a main capacitor in a primary resonant circuit. Dithering or pulsed control provides a continuous control of resonance, as the system takes some milliseconds to respond.

1. Technical Filed of the Invention
This invention relates to the provision of inductively coupled electric power across a gap to mobile or portable power consuming devices such as vehicles. It more particularly relates to those inductively coupled systems that employ resonant circuits, and most particularly to ways to maintain mutually consistent resonant frequencies in both primary and secondary circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern semiconductor developments have made feasible the provision of inductively coupled power to moving vehicles, and have permitted the use of resonant LC circuits in either or both the primary and the secondary circuits. Resonance provides--among other advantages--(a) large circulating currents despite relatively small power supplies, (b) relatively low emission of electromagnetic fields at harmonics of the operating frequency, (c) small ferromagnetic cores, if any, and (d) novel means for control of the electromagnetic coupling across spaces.
Clearly the system will be most efficient when all resonant circuits resonate naturally at substantially the same frequency, and substantially in phase. Despite careful tuning at the time of installation, effects on inductance and also on the operating parameters of switches caused by varying loads can cause operating frequencies to change. This variability owes its origin in part to combined use in preferred embodiments of the invention of the trackway conductor as both the resonating inductor and as the emitter of changing magnetic fields. The resonant inductor is actually the distributed inductance of the trackway and is inherently vulnerable to induced currents in adjacent secondary coils, which vary according to consumption. The preferred prior-art switching power supply simply detects each zero crossing within the current in the resonant circuit and causes immediate switching transitions. It has no means to determine the actual operating frequency--apart from a momentarily applied start-up oscillator.
The tightness of primary-secondary coupling may give rise to more than one condition for which the entire system appears to be in resonance but generally only one of these conditions correlates to a frequency at which optimal power transfer can take place.
Because the efficiency of power transfer will fall if the resonant frequencies are not well matched, it is hence desirable to maintain a relatively constant operating frequency during all reasonable conditions of use.


This invention relates to an apparatus and method for increasing microelectronic package density by stacking multiple microelectronic packages in an array and controlling package to package scalability without stressing the carrier substrates and without limiting the number of signal and input/output leads. Specifically, an intermediate substrate having conductive risers therein is used to enable pitch control of the package to package interconnection, control of the standoff distance and act as a microelectronic package stiffener.

Trends in microelectronic devices are toward increasing miniaturization, circuit density, operating speeds and switching rates. These trends directly impact the complexity associated with the design and manufacture of microelectronic packages, which may include dice, carrier substrates and the like, as well as computing devices in general. Examples of computing devices include, but are not limited to servers, personal computers and "special" purpose computing devices. Personal computers may have form factors, such as desktop, laptop, tablet, and the like. "Special" purpose computing devices may include set top boxes, personal digital assistants, wireless phones, and the like.
In particular, attention has increasingly shifted to microelectronic packaging as a way to help meet the demands for enhanced system performance. As demand increases, it has become necessary to use multiple dice and or microelectronic packages that work in conjunction with one another. When using multiple dice or microelectronic packages, however, it becomes critical to position the dice close together since excessive signal transmission distance may deteriorate signal integrity and propagation times. The use of conventional single-die microelectronic packages, however, is not commensurate with the need to shorten signal transmission distance because they typically have an area (or footprint) many times larger than the area of the die. This not only increases transmission distances, but it also decreases packaging density.
One solution to create higher density packaging, reduce area requirements and shorten signal transmission distances has been to vertically stack microelectronic packages, such as ball grid arrays (BGA) and chip scale packages (CSP), in an array. Although these stacked microelectronic packages provide certain advantages, further size reduction and performance enhancement has been difficult to obtain due to the physical dimension, design and manufacturing constraints of the individual microelectronic packages and the interconnection to the other microelectronic packages in the array.
A number of problems exist with stacking microelectronic packages. One problem, for example, is that carrier substrates may warp or flex during manufacturing or under certain operating conditions due to factors such as heat, pressure and weight. Flexing and sag are undesirable because it can result in open connections and reduce solder ball co-planarity, which makes it more difficult to couple microelectronic packages together, electrically and mechanically. These problems can result in microelectronic package failure or significantly reduce effectiveness and performance.


A method and apparatus of determining an encoding rate associated with a received signal (12), where the method including the steps of demodulating in a demodulator (80) to produce a series of metrics (22) representing energies of a series of data symbols carried by received signal (12); decoding in a decoder (20) series of metrics (22) to produce a set of total metrics (TM) (90) corresponding to a set of possible encoding rates; normalizing in a TM normalizer (28) set of TM (90) to produce a corresponding set of normalized TM (23); and determining the encoding rate in a rate determination (24) based on set of normalized TM (23). The normalizing step in TM normalizer (28) includes multiplying a set of effective finger counts (19) by a constant (410) to generate a corresponding set of numbers (420); and subtracting numbers (420) from associating TM (90) to produce normalized TM (23).

In certain communication systems, such as in a code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular system as defined by interim specification (IS) IS-95, a receiver in the communication system determines an estimated encoding rate for each received frame. In such systems, the accuracy of the estimated encoding rate affects speech quality since any rate determination error typically causes annoying artifacts in the decoded speech signal.
In prior arts, several methods of determining estimated encoding rate have traditionally been proposed. However, when the estimated encoding rate is based on a calculated total metric information of the received frame, the estimated encoding rate very often is inaccurate and inconsistent. A calculated total metric information of a received frame may be biased by an unknown amount. The amount of bias is unknown because the environments through which the signal has propagated, demodulated and decoded have varying and unpredictable effects on the total metric information. As a result, the estimated encoding rate based on a biased total metric information becomes to some degree inaccurate and inconsistent. Inaccuracy and inconsistency in the estimated encoding rate cause annoying artifacts in the decoded speech signal.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved apparatus and method for performing rate determination in a communication system.

Method and apparatus for encoding rate determination in a communication system


A machinable, high strength epoxy tool which is the polymeric reaction product of a mixture containing 5 to 12 weight percent of a bisphenol A epoxy, 3 to 8 weight percent of at least one polyoxypropylene amine catalyst, 60 to 85 weight percent of a mixture of no less than three different sized particulate fillers, the major portion of which is iron powder, 5 to 15 weight percent of short (<250 .mu.m) glass fibers, and 0.02 to 1 weight percent of a surface active agent.

Forming dies for the repetitive stamping of large numbers of identical sheet metal parts are made of high strength tool steel because of its rigidity and durability. In the automotive industry, forming dies made of tool steel are used to stamp automobile body parts from steel sheets. However, such dies are expensive and require appreciable manufacturing time because large castings must be made and complex forming surfaces accurately machined.
It is a common practice in the automotive industry that before a new vehicle having a new body style is put in production, prototype vehicles are first built for testing. Designing forming tools with tool steel for stamping sheet metal parts used in these prototype vehicles would not be practical for several reasons. First, a prototype vehicle has to be built in a relatively short time which prohibits the use of tool steel for stamping dies due to the extensive machining required. Secondly, the design of a prototype vehicle is frequently changed many times from its original design before it reaches a final production model. This means that many stamping dies would have to be built before the design of a sheet metal part is finalized, thus making the building of stamping dies with tool steel prohibitive for cost reasons.
Prototype stamping tools have been made using a zinc alloy material called Kirksite. Even though a Kirksite tool is more economical to make than a steel die, a Kirksite tool still requires the use of a foundry as well as extensive machining to obtain the desired contour and close match between the tool halves. Furthermore, Kirksite tools are heavy and difficult to handle.
In recent years, there has been a renewed effort to develop mass-castable polymeric materials to make large and durable sheet metal forming tools. One family of these commonly used materials is epoxy resins.
It is well known in the art that it is extremely difficult to formulate a mass-castable, room temperature, fast curing epoxy that can be cast-to-size into high strength tools. By mass-castable, we mean the pouring of a liquid epoxy composition in one casting step to produce a completed portion of a tool. By cast-to-size, we mean a process in which the exact contour is obtained on the surface of a tool such that no machining, barbering or spotting on the tool surface is required.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,094 to Dearlove et al disclosed a tough, durable bisphenol A epoxy composition for use in making sheet metal stamping dies. While this material exhibits good mechanical strength, it does not form a durable punch for stamping tools. Moreover, it requires an extensive curing procedure, i.e., it must be hardened at room temperature overnight and then post-cured at 150.degree. C. for two hours. Since most stamping tools for automobile body panels are large in size and weight, it is preferable to make dies that need no elevated temperature curing.
Others have used room temperature-curable epoxy resin systems such as those based on bisphenol A and an aromatic amine catalyst to make plastic tools. An extensive curing period of from four days to one week is required for this type of room temperature-curable epoxy composition. To achieve rapid cure, i.e., to cure in less than 24 hours, an aliphatic amine catalyst instead of an aromatic amine catalyst must be used in an epoxy molding composition. This type of rapid curing epoxy system has been used in adhesives and coatings where the maximum thickness of the epoxy layer is no more than 6.4 mm thick.
Attempts to use unfilled aliphatic amine catalyzed epoxy compositions in bulk casting epoxy tools met with little success. The major problems encountered in casting a bulk section epoxy tool with a rapid curing epoxy composition were severe shrinkage and dimensional distortion which led to unacceptable warpage of the tool. These problems were caused by the extreme heat generated by the exothermic curing process. Since the curing process proceeds very rapidly, the exothermic heat accumulated in a bulk section epoxy tooling could not be rapidly dissipated by heat transfer due to the low thermal conductivity of epoxy. This caused the formation of localized heat pockets and thermal shocks which led to shrinkage, cracking, and dimensional distortions.
When a material is selected for building stamping tools, both its compressive strength and its tensile strength are important considerations. To sustain a high compressive load in the vertical direction, a tooling material must have high compressive strength. Similarly, to sustain a high tensile load in the horizontal direction, a tooling material must also have high tensile strength. This type of tensile load, for example, is frequently seen in the cavity of a stamping tool having a V-shaped concave configuration in the tool surface. No commercially available mass-cast epoxy tooling materials have the necessary combination of compressive strength and tensile strength for making stamping tools.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,161 to Wang et al disclosed that within a specific range of formulations, 24-hour room temperature cured cast-to-size epoxy tooling materials with high tensile strength can be obtained. These formulations contained high loadings of specific particle sizes of inert fillers, in particular, silicon carbide and silica. The patent specifically taught rapidly-curable, distortion-free compositions that achieved high tensile strength as compared to commercial tooling materials.
It is desirable to use inert fillers other than silicon carbide or silica in epoxy tooling compositions. Tools cast with silicon carbide and/or silica fillers were found to be very difficult to subject to post processing such as minor machining, drilling, tapping, etc., for incorporating engineering changes. In addition, silicon carbide is moderately expensive and adds to the cost of the tooling material. However, substitution of other known suitable particulate fillers for the silicon carbide resulted in significant reductions in tensile strength.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a mass-castable, highly filled epoxy tooling composition that has high tensile and compressive strength sufficient for making durable stamping tools that can be machined to make post-processing changes.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an epoxy tooling composition that can be rapidly cured at room temperature in less than 24 hours without significant dimensional distortion.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an epoxy tooling composition that can be rapidly cured at room temperature in less than 24 hours to make a cast-to-size metal sheet forming die by utilizing inert fillers other than silicon carbide.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an epoxy tooling composition that can be rapidly cured into a dimensionally stable machinable sheet metal forming tool by utilizing a suitable combination of appropriately-sized iron fillers, short glass fiber reinforcements, and a surface active agent.

Machinable, high strength epoxy tooling compositions


An earth-boring bit has a rotating cutter of a hybrid design. The bit has a bit body and a bearing shaft which is cantilevered downwardly and inwardly from the bit body. The cutter is mounted for rotation on the bearing shaft and has a plurality of cutting elements arranged in circumferential rows on the cutter. These rows include inner rows and a heel row. The cutting elements in the inner row are formed of a hard metal such as tungsten carbide and are pressed interferingly into apertures in the cutter. The heel row is made up of steel teeth formed on the cutter.

In drilling bore holes in earthen formations by the rotary method, rock bits fitted with one, two or three rolling cutters are employed. The bit is secured to the lower end of a drillstring that is rotated from the surface, or the bit is rotated by downhole motors or turbines. The cutters mounted on the bit roll and slide upon the bottom of the bore hole as the bit is rotated, thereby engaging and disengaging the formation material to be removed. The roller cutters are provided with cutting elements that are forced to penetrate and gouge the bottom of the borehole by weight of the drillstring. The cuttings from the bottom and sidewalls of the borehole are washed away by drilling fluid that is pumped down from the surface through the hollow drillstring.
One type of cutting element in widespread use is a tungsten carbide insert which is interference pressed into an aperture in the cutter body. Tungsten carbide is metal which is harder than the steel body of the cutter and has a cylindrical portion and a cutting tip portion. The cutting tip portion is formed in various configurations, such as chisel, hemispherical or conical, depending upon the type of formation to be drilled. Some of the inserts have very aggressive cutting structure designs and carbide grades that allow the bits to drill in both soft and medium formations with the same bit.
Although very successful, several areas in the world have relatively soft non-abrasive formations which can cause severe frictional heat cracks to the outer ends of the inserts which rub on the borehole wall. Premature failure of the heel row inserts occurs when harder formations are encountered later in the run.
Another type of rolling cutter earth-boring bit is commonly known as a "steel-tooth" or "milled-tooth" bit. Typically these bits are for penetration into relatively soft geological formations of the earth. The strength and fracture-toughness of the steel teeth permits the use of relatively long teeth, which enables the aggressive gouging and scraping actions that are advantageous for rapid penetration of soft formations with low compressive strengths.
However, it is rare that geological formations consist entirely of soft material with low compressive strength. Often, there are streaks of hard, abrasive materials that a steel-tooth bit should penetrate economically without damage to the bit. Although steel teeth possess good strength, abrasion resistance is inadequate to permit continued rapid penetration of hard or abrasive streaks. Consequently, it has been common in the arts since at least the 1930s to provide a layer of wear-resistance metallurgical material called "hardfacing" over those portions of the teeth exposed to the severest wear. The hardfacing typically consists of extremely hard particles, such as sintered, cast or macro-crystalline tungsten carbide, dispersed in a steel matrix. Such hardfacing materials are applied by welding a metallic matrix to the surface to be hardfaced and applying the hard particles to the matrix to form a uniform dispersion of hard particles in the matrix.
Unlike a tungsten carbide insert bit, teeth of a steel-tooth bit are not susceptible to stress cracking due to excessive heat. A steel-tooth bit would be able to drill the relatively soft non-abrasive formations mentioned above which cause stress cracking on heel rows of insert bits. However, because of the hardness and thickness of adjacent formations, a steel-tooth bit would wear too quickly, thus is not a preferred choice in those areas.


Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for navigating user interface elements of a computer program application. In one aspect, a method includes grouping user interface elements of an application into groups based on a hierarchical arrangement of the elements, detecting a navigation key press of a sibling or a parent navigation key, and if it is a sibling navigation key, shifting input focus to a next sibling group in the hierarchy, and if it is a parent navigation key, shifting input focus to a parent group in the hierarchy. In another aspect, a method for navigating editable cells of a table includes detecting a forward or a backward navigation key; if it is a forward navigation key, shifting input focus to a next editable cell of the table; and if it is a backward navigation key, shifting input focus to a previous editable cell of the table.

The present invention relates to data processing by digital computer, and more particularly, to navigating user interface (UI) elements of a software application using a keyboard.
Users interact with a software application using UI elements presented by the software application. Some UI elements have fields that can be used by the user to provide input using a keyboard. Some UI elements have associated commands for the software application that are executed when the user selects the UI element. Buttons and menus are examples of UI elements that have associated commands.
Many users of a software application require the ability to interact with the UI elements presented by the software application efficiently using a keyboard. Software applications provide navigation keys and activation keys to allow users to interact with the UI elements using the keyboard. The user presses the navigation keys to shift input focus between or among the UI elements of the software application. Shifting input focus to a UI element that has associated commands does not result in the execution of the associated commands. Typically the user must take some further action, e.g., press the ENTER key, to execute the associated commands for a UI element after the UI element has input focus. Activation keys can be associated with a UI element that has associated commands. Pressing the activation key for a UI element results in the execution of the associated commands.
Tab chain navigation is one example of using navigation keys to navigate the UI elements of a software application. In tab chain navigation, UI elements for the software application are in effect grouped into a list, which can be circular. The elements in any particular list are typically those available on one display screen. Pressing the TAB key changes the input focus from one UI element to the next UI element in the list. In some environments, pressing shift-TAB changes the input focus to a previous UI element in the list.
Tab chain navigation can be slow when navigating from a currently selected UI element to a desired UI element. The user must press the TAB key to navigate through all the intermediate UI elements between the UI element currently having input focus and the desired UI element in order to access the desired UI element.
Hot keys are one example of activation keys. A hot key can be a single keyboard key, or a combination of keyboard keys, that is associated with a UI element for the software application. Pressing the hot key results in the execution of the command associated with the hot key. An example of the use of a hot key is the use of the key combination CTRL-P to execute the print command in a software application.
Hot keys can require a significant effort to maintain when applications are localized. For example, the hot key CTRL-P may correspond to the English word "print" but it does not correspond to the German word "drucken" or the French word "imprimer." It is generally desired that all UI elements appearing on a screen be assigned unique hot keys. In order to do so and localize the application, a set of localized hot keys must be generated for each screen of the application. In addition, it may be desired that some hot keys be unique over all screens of the application.

Keyboard navigation in hierarchical user interfaces


A photovoltaic energy conversion system, apparatus, and method for controlling DC sub-arrays of a photovoltaic array are disclosed. The method may include coupling each of N homerun branches from N sub-arrays to an inverter via N switches and monitoring current through each of the N homerun branches. A forward current through each of the N homerun branches is compared with a forward current threshold, and any backfeed current through any of the N homerun branches is compared with a backfeed current threshold. One or more of the N switches are opened in response to either the forward current exceeding the forward current threshold or the backfeed current exceeding a backfeed current threshold.

1. Field
The present invention relates generally to photovoltaic energy conversion systems, and more specifically to control of sub-arrays of photovoltaic energy conversion systems.
2. Background
Referring to FIG. 1, shown is a typical prior art photovoltaic (PV) system that includes a photovoltaic array that includes several sub-arrays (also referred to herein as branches). As shown, each of the sub-arrays may include a string of several PV panels (also referred to as modules), and each sub-array is typically coupled to a combiner via a corresponding fuse (as shown in FIG. 1) or a corresponding breaker. As depicted, the sub-arrays may be arranged in parallel and each sub-array may be stacked up to one of a variety of voltages (e.g., 1000 VDC) so that the DC output of the combiner provides an input to an inverter, which produces an AC voltage from the DC output of the combiner.
As depicted, when many sub-arrays are combined, there is the possibility that a damaged branch will be "back-fed" with current from the other healthy branches to which it is connected. This fault current, for a large number of combined branches, may far exceed the ampacity of the conductors used in the ailing branch. For this reason, conventionally applied protective combining (using protective devices such as fuses or breakers) is used to protect against excessive backfeed currents.
But there are several problems with this approach. For example, fuses (with associated disconnection equipment) and breakers are very expensive, and neither fuses nor breakers have "directional" settings (enabling them to open with a lower level of backfeed current), so they must be sized according to the maximum "forward" current of the sub-array. This means that it takes a substantial level of backfeed current to actuate these devices. This is problematic because backfeed current, even at small levels, can cause PV array damage. Two of the situations that can result in backfeed currents that are less than the forward current limit but high enough to cause PV array damage are a) sub-array shorts in low sunlight conditions and b) sub-array open-circuit mismatches.
In addition to the high cost and often ineffective protection that is provided by fuses or breakers, these typical protective devices only provide protection; thus the cost associated with these protective devices does not provide any added value (other than protection) to the operator of the system. As a consequence, there is a need in the art for alternative approaches to the system depicted in FIG. 1.

Photovoltaic DC sub-array control system and method


A current reference (10) includes first and second connected resistors (R1 and R2), a voltage source (12) independent of a supply voltage (Vdd). The voltage source is applied to the first and second resistors (R1 and R2) and has a positive temperature coefficient (TC). The first resistor (R1) has a TC less than the voltage source (12) TC and the second resistor (R2) has a TC greater than the voltage source (12) TC. A resistance value of each of the first and second resistors (R1 and R2) is set such that a combined TC of the first and second resistors (R1 and R2) is essentially equal to the voltage source (12) TC such that the current reference (10) produces a current essentially independent of a temperature of the current reference (10) and the supply voltage (Vdd).

Many of today's electronic circuits require highly accurate voltage or current references in order to function within stringent specification requirements. These references provide either a supply independent and/or temperature independent current or voltage, which allow the entire circuit to function properly under a wide range of the external supply voltages and temperatures. Consider electronic sensors used to measure a physical quantity like pressure or acceleration. It is required that the measurement of the carrying information output will be within some predetermined error band. This implies that sensor's signal conditioning circuit must be implemented in a way that meets the required output accuracy. To accomplish this, among other things, some sort of accurate reference is needed, for example a biasing current. It is not unusual that this reference current has to be accurate to +/-30 parts per million per degree Celsius (ppm/.degree.C.).
Also, as the technology of integrated circuits advances, minimizing the size of the IC and keeping any external parts needed to a minimum is of primary importance.
Some prior art solutions have used a precision reference voltage such as a bandgap circuit embodied on the IC and an external, low temperature coefficient (TC) resistor, to generate a precision current. When referring to a low TC resistor, it is meant that the TC of the resistor is on the order of magnitude of +/-30 ppm/.degree.C. The integrated bandgap circuit acts as a source of a supply independent and temperature compensated voltage. While this solution accomplishes the goal of providing a precision current reference which is temperature and supply independent, the need for the external low TC resistor takes up valuable board space and significantly increases the cost and decreases the reliability of the circuit.
Other prior art solutions use a bandgap voltage reference and a special internal, integrated resistor that has the lowest possible TC. However, the lowest possible TC resistor in, for example, a typical CMOS IC process is a special buried n-type resistor with a TC of approximately 320 ppm/.degree.C. Because the TC of this resistor is non-zero, the resultant current reference does not generate a temperature independent current reference and will have a TC of -320 ppm/.degree.C. when sourced with a zero TC bandgap circuit voltage. Thus, this solution does not accomplish the goal of providing a precision current reference which is temperature independent even though supply independence is achieved. Therefore, it would be highly desirable to provide a temperature and supply independent current reference fully contained on the IC and without the need for any external resistors.

Temperature independent current reference