There is provided a system for monitoring transpulmonary pressure of a mechanically ventilated individual, comprising: a feeding tube, at least one esophageal body, a pressure sensor, and a memory having stored thereon code for: computing an estimate of esophageal wall pressure according to pressure in the esophageal body when inflated and contacting the inner wall of the esophagus, computing the transpulmonary pressure of the mechanically ventilated target individual according to the esophageal wall pressure, periodically inflating and deflating the esophageal body for periodic monitoring of the transpulmonary pressure of the mechanically ventilated target patient while the feeding tube is in use, and computing instructions for adjustment of parameter(s) of a mechanical ventilator that automatically ventilates the target individual according to the computed transpulmonary pressure, wherein the instructions for adjustment of parameter(s) of the mechanical ventilator are computed while the feeding tube is in place without removal of the feeding tube.

The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to intra-body measurements and, more specifically, but not exclusively, to systems and methods for measurement of lung transpulmonary pressure.
The ventilation pressure delivered to ventilated patients (e.g., in the ICU) is selected to be sufficient to provide oxygen to the patient without causing damage to the lung of the patient. The ventilation pressure should be set to achieve a desired level of oxygen saturation while maintaining minimal stress on the lungs which may be subjected to ARDS. Low pressure level or low air volume exchange in the lungs will mean insufficient oxygenation while excess pressure may be damaging to the alveoli and cause other negative effects.

Systems and methods for assessment of lung transpulmonary pressure


Methods, systems, and data structures map credentials. A master credential is established for a user or an application. The master credential is mapped to one or more service credentials associated with one or more services. When a request for a service is received from a requestor, the request is authenticated using the master credential. If the master credential is authenticated, then an appropriate service credential associated with the appropriate requested service is acquired and sent directly (via proxy) to the service on behalf of the requestor.

Organizations are frequently establishing short-term or long-term electronic relationships (collaborations) with one another over the Internet using the World-Wide Web (WWW). These electronic relationships often entail providing electronic access to services of the organizations. However access needs to be provided using secure and easily managed techniques.
Correspondingly, electronic identifications and passwords are created for providing credentialing information to collaborating services. These credentials are used to authenticate users and applications accessing the collaborating services. Credentials can include user or application identifiers, passwords, digital signatures, digital certificates, and the like.
Conventionally, one problem for an organization that desires to electronically collaborate with services of another organization is that the organization may unwittingly expose internal credentials to the collaborating service. This occurs because the credentials provided to the desired service may and in many cases will be the credentials associated with an organization's internal systems or services. Thus, by sending these credentials to the collaborating service, a malicious user could potentially gain access to vital systems or services of the organization.
Another problem with individually providing credentials to each desired service for which an organization is collaborating, is that if many users of the organization are provided access to the service, then management of all the different and disparate credentials becomes a maintenance nightmare. Moreover, this problem is exponentially compounded when an organization collaborates with many external services associated with a plurality of organizations.
Collaborating in a secure manner can also occur within departments of a single organization, where the departments are electronically collaborating with one another. Thus, the secure collaboration problems discussed herein occur not just between organizations but also between departments of the same organization.
Therefore, there exists a need for improved techniques that more securely provide and manage credentials.


The invention proposes a method of destruction of volatile organic and inorganic compounds in wastewater, this method includes following stages: stripping the aforementioned volatile compounds in a stripping-chemisorption column; preliminary heating the gaseous medium containing these volatile compounds in a first heat regenerator; thermal, flare or thermo-catalytic oxidation of the volatile compounds in circulating gaseous medium; cooling the gaseous medium in a second heat regenerator; chemisorption of acidic gases from the gaseous medium in the stripping-chemisorption column with stripping at the same time additional amount of the volatile compounds from the wastewater. After specific period, direction of the gaseous medium flow is alternated. The proposed method can be executed at elevated temperature. The invention includes as well systems realizing the proposed method.

The problem of treatment of wastewater contaminated with volatile organic or inorganic compounds becomes very pressing for many facilities and for many branches of industry. In some cases, volatile organic and inorganic compounds present a major contributor to overall pollution in a facility.
There are different methods of volatile organic and inorganic compounds control in wastewater.
Detailed review of these methods is presented in the article: Victor H. Edwards "VOC-Control Options During Wastewater Treatment" CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, September 2000, pp. 105÷108.
According to this article, all methods of control of volatile organic and inorganic compounds in wastewater can be classified under two main types: 1) with transfer of volatile organic and inorganic compounds from wastewater into vapor phase by distillation, air stripping, steam stripping, inert-gas stripping, fuel-gas stripping, vacuum distillation and vacuum stripping; 2) with transfer of volatile organic and inorganic compounds into a liquid or solid phase: solvent extraction, liquid ion exchange, reverse osmosis, adsorption, ion exchange and precipitation.
Each aforementioned method is distinguished by its advantages and drawbacks.
In the case of application of air stripping related to the first group, this method should be combined with an additional method for treating air laden with volatile organic and inorganic compounds. There are several physicochemical methods of such additional treatment: flare, feed to a furnace or boiler, feed in a thermal or catalytic incinerator, condensation, cryogenic condensation, adsorption using activated carbon, alumina or zeolites.
Each of these additional methods has in turn several advantages and disadvantage related to its cost, efficiency, reliability and safety. As it is known from technical literature (see, for example, "THERMAL AND THERMO-CATALYTIC TREATMENT OF WASTE GASES" Naukova Dumka, 1984, pp. 17÷22 (in Russian)), thermal method of oxidation of waste gases requires about of 26÷45 kg of liquid fuel per 1000 m3 of waste gases and the thermo-catalytic method—15÷25 kg of liquid fuel correspondingly. It is clear, that higher concentration of volatile organic and inorganic compounds in the volatile organic and inorganic compounds-laden air after the air stripping process causes diminishment of a liquid or gaseous fuel required for thermal or thermo-catalytic oxidation of volatile organic and inorganic compounds presented in the wastewater.
In order to achieve higher concentration of volatile organic and inorganic compounds in the volatile organic and inorganic compounds-laden air it is possible to perform the air stripping process with a stage of previous heating wastewater in a heat exchanging unit, it allows achieving higher concentration of volatile organic and inorganic compounds in air after stripping process and, on the other hand, to treat wastewater containing volatile organic compounds with relatively high temperature of boiling at the atmospheric pressure.
In addition, the rate of stripping at elevated temperature is substantially higher, i.e. for the same size of an air-stripping tower, it is possible to treat greater amount of wastewater in the same period.
However, the common process of air stripping at elevated temperature is characterized by great heat losses at the expense of enhanced water evaporation into the volatile organic and inorganic compounds-laden air. As a result, energy cost for wastewater treatment by air stripping at elevated temperatures is very high.

Method and system of destruction of volatile compounds in wastewater


A scanning optical system includes a light source, an optical deflector for deflecting a laser beam emitted from the light source, a first optical element for collimating the laser beam emitted from the light source into a parallel beam, a second optical element for focusing the parallel beam collimated by the first optical element to the optical deflector and making the parallel beam incident on the optical deflector, a third optical element for focusing the laser beam deflected by a deflection plane of the optical deflector onto a target irradiation surface. In a subscanning section of the scanning optical system, the following conditions are satisfied. An optical axis of the first optical element and an optical axis of the second optical element are parallelly decentered from each other. The second optical element and the third optical element are decentered from a central axis of the scanning optical system. The optical axis of the second optical element crosses the central axis of the scanning optical system near the optical deflector. The optical axis of the first optical element crosses the central axis of the scanning optical system near the second optical element. A central point of the third optical element is positioned on an extended line of the optical axis of the second optical element. The optical axis of the second optical element and a normal of the deflection plane of the optical deflector are not parallel to each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is designed to appropriately perform temperature compensation of a plastic lens applied to a scanning optical system or a multi-beam scanning optical system and, more particularly, to reduce defocus and a shift in scanning position even in a scanning optical system or a multi-beam scanning optical system using an oblique incident scheme in a laser beam printer apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a conventional scanning optical system using a single laser beam projected along the subscanning direction. FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a multi-beam scanning optical system using a plurality of laser beams projected along the subscanning direction.
In FIG. 1, a parallel beam (collimated beam) emerging from a laser collimator unit (not shown) is focused to a deflection point P near the deflection plane of an optical deflector 65 comprising, e.g., a polygon mirror through an incident lens 60 serving as an incident optical system. The laser beam deflectively reflected by the deflection plane is focused onto a target irradiation surface 66 through an f-.theta. lens 63 serving as an imaging optical system having a focusing function and f-.theta. characteristics so that the target irradiation surface 66 is scanned with the laser beam along the main scanning direction. In FIG. 1, the deflection point P and a focal point Q on the target irradiation surface 66 are optically conjugate with each other with respect to the f-.theta. lens 63 within the subscanning section.
The scanning optical system having this arrangement is used for, e.g., a laser beam printer apparatus (LBP) or a digital copying machine. In this case, the irradiation object is a photosensitive body. A latent image formed on the photosensitive body is printed on a paper sheet or the like by a generally known electrophotographic process.
In FIG. 2, two parallel beams (collimated beams) A and B emerging from two laser collimator units (not shown) are focused to a deflection point P near the deflection plane of an optical deflector 75 comprising a polygon mirror through incident lenses 70A and 70B serving as corresponding incident optical systems, respectively, and are focused to two focal points (exposure positions) Q.sub.A and Q.sub.B on a target irradiation surface 76 through f-.theta. lenses 71A and 71B serving as corresponding imaging optical systems, respectively. With this operation, the target irradiation surface 76 is simultaneously scanned with the two laser beams A and B.
In FIG. 2, since the two laser beams A and B are focused to very close positions on the deflection plane, the polygon mirror can be made thin. As a result, the load on the motor for rotating the polygon mirror can be reduced, so the operation speed can be increased.
Each of the incident optical systems 70A and 70B shown in FIG. 2 makes the laser beam obliquely incident on the deflection plane of the optical deflector 75 within the subscanning section parallel to the drawing surface and is called an oblique incident optical system.
To correct aberration generated when the laser beam is obliquely incident on the polygon mirror, the f-.theta. lenses 71A and 71B must be decentered from the principal rays of the laser beams A and B from the deflection plane within the subscanning section. In addition, the interval between the focal points Q.sub.A and Q.sub.B on the target irradiation surface 76 is defined by the specifications of the product. For a resolution of, e.g., 600 dpi, the interval is set to be an odd multiple of 42.3 .mu.m, as is known.
When the interval between the focal points Q.sub.A and Q.sub.B is increased, and an additional electrophotographic process unit is disposed between the focal points Q.sub.A and Q.sub.B, a two-color copy image can be obtained.
The f-.theta. lens 63, 71A, or 71B as an imaging optical system shown in FIG. 1 or 2 is increasingly formed from a plastic lens in recent years because of the following advantages.
(1) Since the imaging optical system can be formed by one lens, unlike a glass lens, the entire apparatus can be made compact and lightweight.
(2) Since the lens can be manufactured by molding, a large cost reduction and mass production are possible.
However, in the plastic lens, the change in the refractive index of the material or the shape due to an environmental variation (particularly a change in temperature) is larger than that of a glass lens by one or more orders of magnitudes, as is known. Consequently, the focal position of the laser beam on the target irradiation surface is shifted. Conventionally, the focal depth of the laser spot is set to be sufficiently large to cope with this phenomenon. In recent years, however, along with an increase in resolution of business equipment, a demand has arisen for an increase in stop diameter for making the laser spot small, so it is difficult to ensure a sufficiently large focal depth.
As a technique of coping with this requirement, the incident optical system 60 having a refracting power only within the subscanning section is constituted by a plano-convex cylindrical lens (glass plano-convex lens) 61 consisting of a glass material and a plano-concave cylindrical lens (plastic plano-concave lens) 62 consisting of a plastic material, as shown in FIG. 1, and caused to function as a temperature compensation system for the f-.theta. lens 63 consisting of a plastic material.
Assume that, upon an ambient temperature rise, (1) the refractive index of the material of the f-.theta. lens 63 decreases, and (2) the lens expands to relax a curvature R. The power of the f-.theta. lens 63 decreases in both the cases (1) and (2), so the focal point Q on the target irradiation surface 66 is defocused to Q'.
On the other hand, the absolute value of the power of the plastic plano-concave lens 62 of the incident lens 60 becomes small (the variation in the refractive index of the glass plano-convex lens 61 is much smaller than that of the plastic plano-concave lens 62). For this reason, the positive power of the entire incident lens 60 increases, so the deflection point P of the collimated beam is defocused to P'.
Therefore, when the respective elements are optimized such that the focal point P' after defocus and the focal point Q on the target irradiation surface 66 have an imaging conjugate relationship through the f-.theta. lens 63 upon a temperature rise, temperature compensation associated with defocus can be achieved.
The reason why the incident lens 60 is constituted by the glass plano-convex lens 61 and the plastic plano-concave lens 62 from the incident side in FIG. 1 is that spherical aberration can be easily corrected, and the glass plano-convex lens 61 can be easily manufactured.
However, the multi-beam scanning optical system using the oblique incident scheme as shown in FIG. 2 has the following problem. The f-.theta. lenses (71A and 71B) in FIG. 2 are optical systems symmetrical about a symmetrical axis M, and the following description will be provided of using the laser beam (light beam) passing through the f-.theta. lens 71B, as will be described below.
Upon a temperature rise as an environmental variation, the power of the f-.theta. lens 71B consisting of a plastic material decreases, so that the focal point Q.sub.B on the target irradiation surface 76 at room temperature moves to Q'.sub.B, i.e., defocus takes place. To correct this defocus, the oblique incident optical system 70B is constituted by a glass plano-convex lens and a plastic plano-concave lens as shown in FIG. 1 to change the deflection point P on the deflection plane at room temperature to a focal point P' after the temperature rise. With this arrangement, the focal point Q'.sub.B is also defocused and moves to Q".sub.B, so focus correction is enabled. More specifically, since the deflection point P moves to P' along the optical axis, the focal point Q'.sub.B also moves to Q".sub.B along the optical axis.
The focal point Q.sub.B at room temperature moves to Q".sub.B after temperature rise, so focus compensation is achieved. However, the spot position is shifted by the distance between the focal point Q.sub.B and the focal point Q". This positional shift of the spot is a serious problem in image formation because, especially in the multi-beam scanning optical system shown in FIG. 2, the interval between the focal points Q.sub.A and Q.sub.B of the two laser beams A and B on the target irradiation surface 76 changes before and after a temperature rise.


A battery terminal including a base configured to selectably engage a terminal tongue. An annular electrode-engaging portion is configured to receive a battery post, one end of the electrode-engaging portion extending contiguously from the base. An opposite end of the electrode-engaging portion terminates at a nonplanar member adjacent to the base. A lever-holding portion extends from the base toward the nonplanar member. A lever is pivotably connected to the lever-holding portion about an axis, the lever having a cam-shaped portion. In response to pivotal motion of the lever toward a closed position, the cam-shaped portion is urged into contact with the nonplanar member, the nonplanar member pivoting about an end along the base to resiliently draw the electrode-engaging portion into a gripping arrangement for engagement with the battery post.

Automobile engine compartments contain many components which substantially fill the compartment, making routine maintenance a challenge. One such component is the battery. Batteries typically are extremely heavy and have fixed positive and negative charged locations, often in the form of exterior extending posts for interconnection with corresponding connectors, usually referred to as battery terminals. Conventional battery terminals typically include threaded fasteners that must be actuated to draw the battery terminal into engagement with the corresponding battery post. Typically, a corresponding electrical cable is crimped onto each battery terminal representing an in-line orientation, which may or may not be the most convenient orientation for engaging the battery post. In addition, it may be desirable to add components requiring electrical power to a vehicle, the components including with electrical terminals having terminal tongues. It is also desirable to not disturb the electrical connection or engagement between the battery terminal and the cables associated with starting the automobile, preserving the electrical connection therebetween. Unfortunately, current battery terminal constructions are not configured to modify the electrical connection with other components, i.e., separate electrical terminal tongues, without discontinuing the electrical connection between the vehicle starting cables.
What is needed is a battery terminal construction that does not require special tools to provide electrical connections to a battery. What is also needed is a battery terminal construction configured to separately receive terminal tongues.


The present invention is a method of removing an impurity of plutonium, lead or a combination thereof from a mixture of radionuclides that contains the impurity and at least one parent radionuclide. The method has the steps of (a) insuring that the mixture is a hydrochloric acid mixture; (b) oxidizing the acidic mixture and specifically oxidizing the impurity to its highest oxidation state; and (c) passing the oxidized mixture through a chloride form anion exchange column whereupon the oxidized impurity absorbs to the chloride form anion exchange column and the 22.sup.9 Th or 2.sup.27 Ac "cow" radionuclide passes through the chloride form anion exchange column. The plutonium is removed for the purpose of obtaining other alpha emitting radionuclides in a highly purified form suitable for medical therapy. In addition to plutonium; lead, iron, cobalt, copper, uranium, and other metallic cations that form chloride anionic complexes that may be present in the mixture; are removed from the mixture on the chloride form anion exchange column.

The widespread recognition of the use of radiation to kill or neutralize unwanted cell growth such as cancer has led to increasing interest in various species of radionuclides. Of particular interest are radionuclides which emit alpha radiation, or alpha emitters, because the alpha radiation emitted by these radionuclides does not penetrate deeply into tissue. Thus, by placing alpha emitters adjacent to unwanted cell growth, such as a tumor, the tumor may be exposed to the alpha radiation without undue exposure of surrounding healthy tissue. In many such schemes, the alpha emitter is placed adjacent to the tumor site by binding the alpha emitter to a chelator which is in turn bound to a monoclonal antibody which will seek out the tumor site within the body. Unfortunately, in many instances, the chelator will also bind to metals other than the desired alpha emitter. Since a tumor may have a limited number of sites available for binding with the monoclonal antibody, it is desirable that the number of monoclonal antibodies bonded to metals other than the desired alpha emitter be minimized.
The radioactive decay chains are well known: .sup.233 U (1.62.times.10.sup.5 yr t.sub.1/2) .sup.229 Th (7,340 yr t.sub.1/2).fwdarw..sup.225 Ra (14.8 day t.sub.1/2).fwdarw..sup.225 Ac (10 day t.sub.1/2).fwdarw..sup.213 Bi 47 min t.sub.1/2); and .sup.235 U (7.13.times.10.sup.8 yr t.sub.1/2) .fwdarw..sup.231 Th (25.6 hr t.sub.1/2).fwdarw..sup.231 Pa (3.43.times.10.sup.4 yr t.sub.1/2).fwdarw..sup.227 Ac (22 yr t.sub.1/2).fwdarw..sup.227 Th (18.6 day t.sub.1/2).fwdarw..sup.223 Ra (11.1 day t.sub.1/2). Three alpha emitters particularly well suited for use in medical applications due to their short half lives are Radium-223 (.sup.223 Ra); and Actinium-225 and Bismuth-213 (.sup.225 Ra.fwdarw..sup.225 Ac.fwdarw..sup.213 Bi). Typically, .sup.223 Ra is derived as a daughter product of Thorium-227 which is in turn a daughter product of Actinium-227, (.sup.227 Ac) (Ac "cow"). .sup.227 Ac is normally produced by reactor irradiation of .sup.226 Ra. It is not currently being produced in the U.S. and most of that in existence as well as most of the available .sup.226 Ra exists as wastes or residues from other processes or studies, and, as such, is typically found in a mixture with a wide variety of degraded organic materials and other cations, including Pu, Fe, Co, Cu, and U. As used herein, the terms cation, ion, and metal ion are used interchangeably.
Similarly, .sup.225 Ra/Ac and .sup.213 Bi are daughter products of Thorium-229 (.sup.229 Th) (Th "cow") which is in turn a daughter product of Uranium-233 (.sup.233 U).
Because of the relatively long half-life of .sup.229 Th and the limited decay time of existing stocks of .sup.233 U metal, U.sub.3 O.sub.8, and UO.sub.2, other ions including Pu, Fe, Co, Cu, Pb, etc. generally greatly exceed the .sup.229 Th content on a molar basis. Previously recovered .sup.229 Th contains these and various other impurities including degraded organic materials.
To purify any of these radionuclides from a mixture containing one or more impurities to render the radionuclide in a form suitable for use in medical applications requires that the radionuclides be separated from the impurities. Impurities include but are not limited to any degraded organic compounds and/or cations for example Pu, Fe, Co, Cu, and U. Thus, there exists a need for a method to separate radionuclides from a mixture containing a variety of impurities, especially plutonium for utility in medical therapy.

Method of separating short half-life radionuclides from a mixture of radionuclides


The lighting device for a vehicle has at least one central reflector (10), which is formed as a substantially closed hollow body. The reflector (10) is formed from two reflector parts (11, 12), which have light outlet openings facing each other. The reflector parts (11, 12) are shaped like portions of an ellipsoid of revolution and are arranged so that their first focal points (Fl) coincide and their second focal points (F2) lie on the peak of the opposing reflector part (11, 12). The light emitting body (16) of the light source is arranged in the vicinity of the first focal points (F1). Because of this structure of the reflector (10) almost all of the light issuing from the light emitting body (16) is concentrated on the second focal points (F2) of the reflector parts. A light guide (18) is positioned to guide light away from each reflector part in the vicinity of its second focal point (F2). The light guide (18) conducts the light entering its end portion connected to the reflector (10) to a vehicle light outlet unit (19). The vehicle light outlet units (19) can have their own reflector (21) for collection and formation of the light beam from the light issuing from the light guide (18).

The present invention relates to a lighting device or lighting system for a vehicle and, more particularly, to a lighting device having at least one central light source and a plurality of light outlet units.
A lighting device for a vehicle is known, comprising at least one central reflector, which is formed as a substantially hollow body, a light source whose light emitting body extends inside the reflector, and a plurality of light guides which conduct light from the periphery of the reflector for transmission to vehicle light outlet units.
This kind of lighting device is known from European Patent Application EP-A2-0 367 032. This lighting device has a central reflector, which is formed as a substantially hollow body. This lighting device also has a light source whose light emitting body is located inside the reflector. The reflector is formed by a jacket of the light source, which is provided with a reflective coating. The light source is formed as a gas discharge lamp, whose electrodes project into the reflector. The light emitting body extends between the electrodes in the form of an electric arc. Several light guide connectors are connected to the periphery of the reflector. The reflector transmits light in the vicinity of the light guide connectors. The light guide connectors are distributed uniformly around the periphery of the reflector on a section through the reflector. The light guide connectors can only receive light transmitted directly from the light emitting body of the light source to them and, in the case of a spherical reflector, the light guide connectors can also receive light transmitted from portions of the reflector opposite from the light emitting body and reflected light to the light guide connectors. A desirable reflection of light to the light guide connectors is not possible with this structure of the reflector, since a substantial portion of the light reflected by the reflector cannot enter into the light guide connectors. Light guides are connected to the light guide connectors, which lead to vehicle light outlet units. The vehicle light outlet units have lenses for collecting and collimating the light conducted to them by the light guides. It is however difficult to collect the entire light issuing from the light guides in a certain angular range with the lenses.
The light guide connectors on the reflector have a circular cross section. The image of the light emitting body reflected by the reflector has however, as the light emitting body, an elongated form, so that the lighting device has an intrinsically poor efficiency.

Lighting device for a vehicle having at least one central light source


A measuring apparatus employing a differential transformer includes a high-frequency oscillator which generates a high-frequency signal having a frequency higher than the excitation frequency of the differential transformer, a frequency divider which divides the high-frequency signal to generate a driving signal for the differential transformer, a multiplier or divider which reduces the frequency of the high frequency signal by the frequency of the driving signal, a mixer which mixes the output from the multiplier or the divider with the output from the differential transformer, a high-pass filter or a band-pass filter which cuts a low-frequency component of the output from the mixer, and a double balanced mixer which synchronously detects the output from the high-pass filter or the band-pass filter with the use of the high-frequency signal. With the use of the thus configured apparatus, an output signal having a fast response speed can be obtained through the use of an existing head having a low excitation frequency.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a signal processing apparatus and method of a differential transformer for obtaining a measurement signal having a fast response speed from a differential transformer having a low excitation frequency. More particularly, the present invention relates to a signal processing apparatus and method of a differential transformer suitably employed in a high-resolution electric micrometer having a resolution of approximately 1 nm, in which the response speed of a measurement signal can be increased by a factor of 10 to 100 (200 Hz to 2 kHz) with the use of a conventional head having an excitation frequency of approximately 5 kHz.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional electric micrometer has been configured as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-340505. In the electric micrometer includes, as shown in FIG. 1, the displacement of a spindle 22 which is a part of a head 20 is transferred to a core 26, and sensor coils 28 and 30 are placed symmetrically with respect to the mechanical center point (neutral point) of the core 26 and are connected each other in series to form a differential transformer. When a voltage is applied to the sensor coils 28 and 30 through an external oscillator 32, voltages E1 and E2 are generated at the ends of the sensor coils 28 and 30, respectively, as shown in FIG. 2 due to the impedance change of the sensor coils 28 and 30 according to the position of the core 26. The displacement of the spindle 22 is detected through the voltage difference (E1−E2) based on the change in the position of the core 26.
Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, a sine-wave driving signal having a frequency of, for example, 5 kHz generated in the oscillator 32 is applied to the sensor coils 28 and 30 (not shown in FIG. 3) of the head (cartridge head or lever head) 20 via a driving amplifier 34. The output signal obtained from the neutral point of the sensor coils 28 and 30 is amplified by a preamplifier 36, and the amplified signal is half-wave or full-wave rectified by means of a synchronous detector 38 in synchronization with the excitation signal generated by the oscillator 32. The 5 kHz component of the rectified signal is removed by a low-pass filter (LPF) 40, and the filtered analog signal is then displayed on a meter. Alternatively, the filtered analog signal is converted into a digital signal by means of an analog-digital (A/D) converter 42, and the converted digital signal is digitally processed by a microprocessor 44 to digitally display. The digital data output signal output from the microprocessor 44 is subjected to processing by means of, for example, a parallel-serial converter, a shift register, a gate, a communication driver, and the like in accordance with need.
However, since the electronic micrometer is composed of the differential transformer (inductor), the balance adjustment for the capacitance component and also for the inductance component cannot be made with the use of a resistor. Therefore, the signal at the reference position cannot be accurately adjusted to zero. In addition, the excitation frequency cannot be increased due to the characteristics of the head 20, for example, it is at most 5 kHz. Therefore, a ripple component having a frequency of 5 kHz and generated at the synchronous detector 38 remains in the subsequent stages of the circuit. Therefore, the LPF 40 having a low cut-off frequency must be provided after the synchronous detector 38. However, this causes a reduction in the response speed (for example, approximately 20 Hz (−3dB) in a low-end product having a resolution of 0.1 μm). Further, in a high-precision electronic micrometer which requires a resolution of approximately 1 nm, the response speed becomes much slower (several hundred milliseconds (several Hz)).
Although the above problems may be solved through increasing the excitation frequency of a head, modifications to the head means that a newly designed head must be developed.

Signal processing apparatus and method of differential transformer


An electronic power supply (10) comprising a rectifier circuit (100) and a voltage converter circuit (200). Voltage converter circuit (200) comprises a first inductor (220), a second inductor (230), an electronic switch (240), a control circuit (300), a first rectifier (250), a second rectifier (260), a first capacitor (270), and a second capacitor (280). First inductor (220) and second inductor (230) may be implemented either as separate inductors or as coupled inductors. Power supply (10) efficiently provides a high output voltage with greater efficiency than conventional boost converters.

Many types of AC power supplies, such as electronic ballasts for fluorescent lamps, include a boost converter for providing operational benefits such as power factor correction and line regulation. In theory, a boost converter can provide an output voltage that is many times greater than the input voltage. However, in actual boost converters, output voltages of greater than about twice the peak input voltage are highly impractical because the peak currents and power dissipation in certain components (particularly in the boost inductor and the boost switch) become prohibitively high under such conditions.
In certain applications, it is often desirable to have a boost output voltage that is on the order of at least two to three times the peak of the AC line voltage. One such application is in electronic ballasts that include a boost converter followed by a high frequency inverter. Because the boost output voltage serves as the input voltage to the inverter, and since the amount of dissipative current that flows in the inverter can be reduced by increasing the inverter input voltage, a higher boost output voltage tends to enhance inverter efficiency. Unfortunately, a higher boost output voltage may at the same time degrade the efficiency of the boost converter.
"Voltage doubler" circuits have been used for quite some time to provide a DC output voltage equal to twice the peak value of the AC line voltage. Conventional voltage doubler circuits are structurally simple and energy efficient, but are incapable of providing the high degree of power factor correction that is usually required in many types of power supplies and electronic ballasts.
A number of attempts have been made in the prior art to fulfill the need for a power factor correcting converter that efficiently provides high voltage gain. In particular, several inventors have developed "boost voltage doubler" circuits that combine the power factor correction advantages of a boost converter with the efficiency and high voltage gain of a voltage doubler. Examples of such circuits are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,383,109 and 5,502,630. Unfortunately, existing boost voltage doubler circuits have the significant disadvantage of requiring at least two power transistor switches. Consequently, the control circuit for turning the transistor switches on and off is quite extensive. Thus, the prior art circuits tend to be rather complicated and costly and are therefore unattractive for use in power supplies and ballasts for which low material cost and ease of manufacture are important requirements.
It is thus apparent that a need exists for a voltage converter that efficiently provides high voltage gain along with a high degree of power factor correction, and that has a structure that is considerably less complex and expensive than existing circuits. Such a circuit would constitute a significant improvement over the prior art.

Power supply and electronic ballast with high efficiency voltage converter


An apparatus is disclosed for generating image feature data from an image having an arbitrary shape for use in image search. The apparatus includes rectangular area generating unit (2); rectangular image generating unit (3); padded-pixel value selecting unit (5); and image feature data generating unit (4). First, rectangular image generating unit (2) draws a rectangular area around input image (1) such that input image (1) is included therein. Rectangular image generating unit (3) pads a pixel value in an area of the rectangular area generated by rectangular area generating unit (2) which does not include pixels associated with input image (1) to generate a rectangular image. Image feature data generating unit (4) generates feature data from the image generated by rectangular image generating unit (3).

Conventionally, image data has been represented by image feature data indicative of its feature, and this image feature data has been used to determine similarities in respective images. Also, apparatuses and computer programs have been developed for retrieving similar images (for example, from stored images). A method typically employed in such conventional image search techniques uses feature data which represents colors included in an image and a structure possessed by the image (hereinafter referred to as color structure feature data) to retrieve similar images from similarities in the features.
Exemplary prior art techniques for representing a chromatic feature and a structural feature possessed by an image are disclosed in JP-A-11-316819 and JP-A-2000-259832.
JP-A-11-316819 proposes a method which divides an image into a plurality of blocks, calculates a histogram for colors included in each block, defines a collection of values of the color histogram in each block as color distribution feature data, and uses the color distribution feature data to determinate similarities and searches. In this color distribution feature data, since the color histogram is indicated on a block-by-block basis, the chromatic feature and structural feature possessed by the image can be reflected to the determination of similarities.
JP-A-2000-259832 discloses an image search technique which utilizes frequency distribution feature data, which represents a color structure possessed by an image in the frequency domain, as image feature data. The frequency distribution feature data of an image refers to image feature data which represents the energy in each band that is found by dividing a frequency distribution of the spectrum of colors (average color) in the image into a plurality of bands, and analyzing each of the bands in terms of frequency.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a main portion of an image search system described in JP-A-2000-259832. This image search system comprises image feature data generating unit 102 for generating frequency distribution feature data 103 from input image data 101; frequency distribution feature data storage unit 104 for previously storing therein frequency distribution feature data of images to be searched; and similarity calculating unit 106 for calculating similarity 107 using frequency distribution feature data 104 of the input image and feature data 105 stored in frequency distribution feature data storage unit 104.
Image feature data generating unit 102 comprises reduced image generating means 110 for generating reduced image 111 from image data 101; frequency analyzing means 112 for performing a frequency analysis on generated reduced image 111; and DC component and partial AC component extracting means 114 for extracting a DC component and part of AC components from among orthogonal conversion coefficients 113 derived from frequency analyzing means 112 as frequency distribution feature data 103.
The foregoing image search system fails to extract color distribution feature data and frequency distribution feature data from an image having an arbitrary shape-because these feature data are extracted on the assumption that the image is rectangular. For this reason, this system cannot conduct an image search in an image database which mixedly stores images having various shapes.

Device for creating image feature from image having any shape


A multilayered wiring board has electrodes disposed on a first surface and a second surface, alternately layered insulation layers and wiring layers, and vias that are disposed in the insulation layer and electrically connect the wiring layers. The second electrode disposed on the second surface is embedded in the insulation layer exposed on said second surface, and the second wiring layer covered by the insulation layer exposed on said second surface does not have a layer for improving adhesion to the insulation layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wiring board on which a semiconductor element is mounted, a semiconductor device in which a semiconductor element is mounted on the wiring board, and a method for manufacturing the same, and more particularly relates to a thin multilayered wiring board having excellent high-speed transmission characteristics and to a semiconductor device that uses the wiring board.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic devices are rapidly becoming smaller, thinner, and increasingly dense, as recently seen in mobile equipment, and greater thinness, lighter weight, higher density, and other characteristics are needed in wiring boards used in device and semiconductor element mounting due to the increase in the number of terminals that is associated with higher speeds and functionality of semiconductor elements.
Built-up boards and other boards having through-holes have conventionally been commonly used as wiring boards, but boards having through-holes are thick and are furthermore not suited to high-speed signal transmission due to the presence of through-holes.
Tape boards and other thin boards, on the other hand, are also used, but such boards cannot meet the recent demand for higher density because the methods for manufacturing tape boards limit the wiring layers to one or two layers, and the pattern positioning accuracy is inferior to built-up boards due to considerable shrinkage of the tape material.
Coreless boards have been proposed as a method for improving the problems of these wiring boards. In these boards, a wiring structure body or the like is formed on a support board that has been prepared in advance, the support board is removed or separated after the wiring structure body has been formed, and through-holes are left unformed.
The thickness of the insulating resin needs to be reduced to about 10 μm per layer in order to match the impedance of the electric circuit due to increasingly smaller wiring, and the insulating resin must have sufficient mechanical strength to be able to be thin and still be used for multilayered wiring boards. In response to these needs, a polyimide-based material, or a PBO-based (polybenzoxazole-based) material must be selected for resins having good mechanical strength and thinness as a material for the insulating resin.
Also, from the aspect of electrical characteristics and wiring design, vias with a diameter of about 10 μm are required together with the smaller wiring. Photolithography must be used in order to form vias having a diameter of about 10 μm because of the difficultly of obtaining a required shape when laser-machining or dry-etching an insulating resin.
For this reason, an insulating resin that can meet these needs requires the use of a photosensitive polyimide-based material or a PBO-based material.
Disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2000-323613 (prior art 1) is a technique in which a copper plate is used as a support board, a wiring structure is formed on the plate, and the support board is then etched away to obtain a coreless board.
Disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 05-259639 (prior art 2) is a technique in which a stainless steel plate is used as a support board, a wiring structure is formed on the plate, and the support board is then peeled away to obtain a coreless board.
Disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2004-200668 (prior art 3) is a technique in which a copper foil is used as a support board, a wiring structure is formed on the foil and semiconductor elements are mounted, and the copper foil is etched to obtain a coreless board. Also disclosed in the publication is a semiconductor device in which the coreless board is used.
Disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2000-196243 (prior art 4) is a technique in which a glass board is used as a support board, a wiring structure is formed on the board, the insulation layer is abraded by laser light that is passed through the glass board, and the support board 30 is separated by exposure to pressurized steam to obtain a coreless board.
Nevertheless, the above-described methods for manufacturing the wiring boards and semiconductor devices in which a release layer is used have the following problems.
All of the prior arts 1 to 4 have structures that provided high expectations for improvements in transmission characteristics by obtaining coreless boards devoid of vias that lengthen the transmission distance, and prior arts 1 to 3 provide the necessary physical adhesive strength by roughening the surface of the insulating resin or conductor in order to ensure adhesion of the conductor on the insulating resin or the insulating resin on the conductor. Also adopted is a method for using an adhesive layer composed of chromium, titanium, tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, vanadium, nickel, or the like in order to assure adhesive strength on the insulating resin without roughening the surface.
However, it is known that the resistance value and shape of a wiring surface have a considerable effect on the transmission characteristics as the speeds and frequencies of the semiconductor element (skin effect) become higher. For this reason, the transmission characteristics are degraded by the roughening of the surface of the insulating resin and conductor and the use of an adhesive layer composed of chromium, titanium, tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, vanadium, nickel, or another material that has a much higher specific resistance than copper.
A photosensitive polyimide-base material and PBO material that allow vias having a diameter of about 10 μm to be formed must have a shape in which the via walls stand vertically erect because of the high resolution. Positive materials that use diazonaphthoquinone (DNQ) as a photosensitizer are excellent from the aspect of via resolution for meeting the demand for these micro-vias. However, the diazonaphthoquinone-based (DNQ-based) materials have a problem in that these materials considerably reduce the adhesion of the boundary between the insulating resin and chromium, titanium, tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, vanadium, nickel, and other materials used in the adhesive layer and that the conductive pattern peels away because decomposition products, reaction products, and other products of the material itself are produced during heating.
In prior art 4, there is no disclosure in relation to using an adhesive layer on the wiring and roughening the surface of the insulating resin and conductor. However, since only a method for manufacturing by using CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing) is disclosed, it is believed that the use of a non-photosensitive resin is assumed. In particular, there is no disclosure regarding the characteristics of a photosensitive polyimide-based material in which a diazonaphthoquinone-based (DNQ-based) material is used as a photosensitizer, which is the subject matter of the present invention.

Multilayered wiring board, semiconductor device in which multilayered wiring board is used, and method for manufacturing the same


Extending from an upper surface of an n− semiconductor layer on a p− semiconductor substrate to the interface between the n− semiconductor layer and the p− semiconductor substrate, a p+ impurity region is provided. The p+ impurity region defines a high-potential island region, a low-potential island region and a slit region in the n− semiconductor layer. The n− semiconductor layer in the high-potential island region and the n− semiconductor layer in the low-potential island region are connected by the n− semiconductor layer in the slit region, and a logic circuit is formed in the n− semiconductor layer in the high-potential island region. A width in the direction of Y axis of the n− semiconductor layer in the slit region is set to be narrower than a width in the direction of the Y axis of the n− semiconductor layer in the high-potential island region.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a semiconductor device, and in particular to a high voltage IC (hereinafter referred to as an "HVIC").
2. Description of the Background Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-324848 discloses a technique for an HVIC. This technique utilizes a RESURF (REduced SURface Field) effect to achieve a high breakdown voltage, and supplies electric charge to a semiconductor element to which a high potential is applied by using a capacity element for the semiconductor element.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,292,642, for example, describes the RESURF effect. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-190693 (1993) discloses a technique of forming multiple field plates isolated from the surroundings and stabilizing an electric field on a surface of a semiconductor substrate by capacitive coupling between the field plates.
In the technique described in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-324848, the capacity element is charged through a diode. Therefore, electric charge accumulated in the capacity element is sometimes insufficient due to a voltage drop of the diode, and desired electric characteristics are sometimes unattainable depending on the required specification of a semiconductor device.
Also in the technique described in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-324848, a p-type impurity region which is an anode region of the diode is formed in an n-type semiconductor layer on a p-type semiconductor substrate. Therefore, the p-type impurity region, the n-type semiconductor layer and the p-type semiconductor substrate form a pnp parasitic bipolar transistor which operates to sometimes cause leakage of a charging current to the capacity element, making the desired electric characteristics unattainable.


Provided is a phantom device having an internal organ simulating phantom. The phantom device comprises: a phantom receiving radiation emitted from a radiation emitting unit and comprising therein a simulant that simulates an internal organ; a lifting unit installed under the phantom to support the phantom and moving the phantom relative to the radiation emitting unit, the lifting unit comprising: a worm shaft axially rotated by an external torque and having a worm formed on an outer circumferential surface thereof, a cylindrical worm wheel having gear grooves formed on an outer circumferential surface thereof to engage with the worm and a female screw formed on an inner circumferential surface thereof, and rotated by the axial rotation of the worm shaft; and a driven screw engaging with the female screw of the worm wheel, and moved up and down by the rotation of the worm wheel to move up and down the phantom; and a horizontal moving unit interlocking with the lifting unit and horizontally moving the phantom. Accordingly, since the phantom device can simulate any movement pattern, even the respiratory movement pattern of a patient's internal organ to accurately determine a desired dose of radiation to be delivered to the body part, high quality assurance of radiation therapy equipment can be achieved and therapeutic effect can be improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a phantom device having an internal organ simulating phantom.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among various uses of radiation, medical radiation therapy is used to kill cancer cells or alleviate pain for a patient suffering from cancer by emitting radiation to a tumor and preventing the tumor from growing.
In particular, radiation therapy is very useful when cancer cells remain after surgery and there is a high risk of cancer recurrence, when surgery cannot be practiced, when radiation therapy is more effective than surgery, when a combination of surgery and radiation therapy improves the quality of life for a cancer patient, or when a combination of drug treatment and radiation therapy maximizes anticancer effect.
Meantime, radiation therapy is performed by means of expensive medical equipment called a linear accelerator. Since the linear accelerator cannot only output high-dose-rate X-rays and electron beams but also can finely adjust output energy, it is currently used as standard equipment for radiation therapy.
It is essential to radiation therapy that the linear accelerator outputs radiation of appropriate energy. Since radiation conforming to the grade, size, or depth of a tumor results in maximum treatment effect, it is very important to enable the linear accelerator to produce optimal energy radiation.
As such, before using the linear accelerator, it is necessary to check whether the linear accelerator can operate normally and, in particular, can emit radiation at desired energy levels after radiation dose adjustment. This process, called quality assurance, is performed in hospitals periodically or non-periodically.
Various dosimetric systems are used for quality assurance. In principle, a dosimetric system is located under a radiation emitting unit to receive radiation emitted by the radiation emitting unit, and generates and outputs signals corresponding to the radiation. Since optimal radiation appropriate for a patient's tumor cannot be measured without the dosimetric system, an optimal dose of radiation cannot be delivered to the tumor, thereby reducing therapeutic anticancer effect and even causing medical malpractice in cases of excessive radiation exposure.
Conventional dosimetric systems can measure the dose of radiation while being fixed within a radiation path, but disadvantageously cannot move, for example, in repetitive patterns of internal organs of the human body which move according to respiration.
Accordingly, whether accurate or not, information about radiation dosage is obtained from a fixed target, not from a moving one. Since there is a difference between a dose administered to a moving target and a dose administered to a fixed target, it is somewhat difficult to use this information as data for quality assurance of radiation therapy equipment that is to be used to emit radiation to the target moving according to respiration.
As described above, in order to emit appropriate energy radiation to a moving target in a patient's body, that is, to enable the linear accelerator to deliver an accurate dose of radiation to the moving target, quality assurance should be performed by using a phantom simulating the dynamics of the moving target. However, a device that can precisely move a phantom in desired patterns has not yet been developed.

Phantom device having internal organ simulating phantom

Catholic University Industry Academic Cooperation Foundation


In one aspect of the invention, an off-circuit tap changer includes a switch base and a rotation shaft penetrating the switch base. An upper end of the rotation shaft is connected to an operation positioning device, a lower end of the rotation shaft is disposed with moving contacts, and fixed contacts corresponding to the moving contacts are circumferentially disposed at a spacing on the switch base; the moving contacts are radial elastic rolling moving contacts, and the radial elastic rolling moving contacts span between two adjacent fixed contacts and closely contact the fixed contacts.

Chinese Patent No. CN2465289Y discloses a disk-shaped off-circuit tap changer, of which a moving contact is a clip-type structure; two upper and lower moving contacts press a fixed contact with a spring, and when the top changer is shifted, the two upper and lower moving contacts slide and displace on the fixed contact, so as to implement voltage regulations of a transformer. The clip-type moving contact structure has the following shortcomings: sliding friction exists between the moving contact and the fixed contact, and the great frictional resistance not only incurs great operating torque and great contact abrasion, but also has poor handleability during gear shifting; the moving contact has a complicated structure and greatly wastes the materials.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.

WUHAN TAIPU TRANSFORMER CHANGER CO., LTD.


Provided are methods of preparing a cathode/separator assembly for use in electrochemical cells in which a microporous separator layer is coated on a temporary carrier substrate and a cathode active layer is then coated or laminated on the separator layer prior to removing the temporary carrier substrate from the separator layer. The microporous separator layer may comprise one or more microporous xerogel layers. Optionally, the cathode/separator assembly may comprise one or more protective coating layers which are in contact with at least one of the microporous xerogel layers, and one of the protective coating layers may be coated on the temporary carrier substrate prior to coating the separator layer. Also, provided are methods of preparing electrochemical cells utilizing cathode/separator assemblies prepared by such methods, and cathode/separator assemblies and electrochemical cells prepared by such methods.

The present invention relates generally to the fields of electrochemical cells and of separators for use in electrochemical cells. More particularly, this invention pertains to methods of preparing a cathode/separator assembly in which a microporous separator layer is coated on a temporary carrier substrate and a cathode active layer is then coated on the separator layer prior to removing the temporary carrier substrate from the separator layer. Also, this invention pertains to methods of preparing electrochemical cells utilizing cathode/separator assemblies prepared by the methods of this invention. The present invention also pertains to cathode/separator assemblies and electrochemical cells prepared by such methods.
Throughout this application, various publications, patents, and published patent applications are referred to by an identifying citation. The disclosures of the publications, patents, and published patent applications referenced in this application are hereby incorporated by reference into the present disclosure to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains.
In an electrochemical cell or battery, discharge of the cell from its charged state occurs by allowing electrons to flow from the anode to the cathode through an external circuit resulting in the electrochemical reduction of the cathode active material at the cathode and the electrochemical oxidation of the anode active material at the anode. Under undesirable conditions, electrons may flow internally from the anode to the cathode, as would occur in a short circuit. To prevent this undesirable internal flow of electrons that occurs in a short circuit, an electrolyte element is interposed between the cathode and the anode. This electrolyte element must be electronically non-conductive to prevent the short circuiting, but must permit the transport of ions between the anode and the cathode during cell discharge, and in the case of a rechargeable cell, also during recharge. The electrolyte element should also be stable electrochemically and chemically towards both the anode and the cathode.
Typically, the electrolyte element contains a porous material, referred to as a separator since it separates or insulates the anode and the cathode from each other, and an aqueous or non-aqueous electrolyte in some or all of the pores of the separator. The aqueous or non-aqueous electrolyte typically comprises ionic electrolyte salts and water or electrolyte solvents, and optionally, other materials or additives such as, for example, ionically conductive polymers. A variety of materials have been used for the porous layer or separator of the electrolyte element in electrochemical cells. These porous separator materials include polyolefins such as polyethylenes and polypropylenes, glass fiber and paper filter papers, and ceramic materials. Usually these separator materials are supplied as porous free standing films which are interleaved with the anodes and the cathodes in the fabrication of electrochemical cells. Alternatively, the porous layer can be applied directly to one of the electrodes, for example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,625,771 to Arrance et al., 5,194,341 to Bagley et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,721 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,948,464 to Delnick; and in Eur. Pat. Application Nos. 848,435 to Yamashita et al.; and 892,449 to Bogner.
Porous separator materials have been fabricated by a variety of processes including, for example, stretching combined with special heating and cooling of plastic films, extraction of a soluble plasticizer or filler from plastic films, and plasma oxidation. The methods for making free standing separators typically involve extrusion of melted polymeric materials either followed by a post-heating and stretching or drawing process or followed by a solvent extraction process to provide the porosity throughout the separator layer. U.S. Pat. No. 5,326,391 to Anderson et al. and references therein, describe the fabrication of free standing porous materials based on extraction of a soluble plasticizer from pigmented plastic films. U.S. Pat. No. 5,418,091 to Gozdz et al. and references therein, describe forming electrolyte layers by extracting a soluble plasticizer from a fluorinated polymer matrix either as a coated component of a multilayer battery structure or as a free standing separator film. U.S. Pat. No. 5,894,656 to Menon et al. describes forming an electrode directly on the surface of an electrolyte layer having a soluble plasticizer and then extracting the plasticizer to activate the battery. U.S. Pat. No. 5,194,341 to Bagley et al. describes an electrolyte element with a microporous silica layer and an organic electrolyte. The microporous silica layer was the product of the plasma oxidation of a siloxane polymer.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/995,089 titled xe2x80x9cSeparators for Electrochemical Cells,xe2x80x9d filed Dec. 19, 1997 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,153,337, to Carlson et al. of the common assignee, describes separators for use in electrochemical cells which comprise a microporous pseudo-boehmite layer, and electrolyte elements and cells comprising such separators. The pseudo-boehmite separators and methods of preparing such separators are described for both free standing separators and as a separator layer coated directly onto an electrode.
When a separator layer is coated directly onto an electrode, such as onto the cathode, the porous separator coating may require a relatively smooth, uniform surface on the cathode and also may require a mechanically strong and flexible cathode layer. For example, for a microporous pseudo-boehmite layer having a xerogel structure, these cathode surface and layer properties may be required to prevent excessive stresses and subsequent cracking of the xerogel layer during drying of a pseudo-boehmite coating on the cathode surface and also during fabrication and use of electrochemical cells containing the pseudo-boehmite layer.
In addition to being porous and being chemically stable to other materials of the electrochemical cell, the separator should be flexible, thin, economical in cost, and have good mechanical strength. These properties are particularly important when a cell with thinner cathode, separator, and anode layers is spirally wound or is folded to increase the surface area of the electrodes and thereby increase the capacity and high rate capability of the cell. Typically, free standing separators for batteries have been 25 microns or greater in thickness. As batteries have continued to evolve to higher volumetric capacities and smaller lightweight structures, there is an increasing need for separators that are 15 microns or less in thickness with a substantial increase in the area of the separator contained in each particular size of battery. Reducing the thickness from 25 microns to 15 microns or less greatly increases the challenge of providing porosity and good mechanical strength while not sacrificing the protection against short circuits or not significantly increasing the total cost of the separator in each battery.
This protection against short circuits is particularly critical in the case of secondary or rechargeable batteries with lithium as the anode active material. During the charging process of the battery, dendrites may form on the surface of the lithium anode and may grow with continued charging. A key feature of the separator in the electrolyte element of lithium rechargeable batteries is that it have small pore structures, such as 1 micron or less in pore diameter, and sufficient mechanical strength to prevent the lithium dendrites from contacting the cathode and causing a short circuit with perhaps a large increase in the temperature of the battery leading to an unsafe explosive condition.
Further it would be advantageous to be able to prepare electrochemical cells having separators with ultrafine pores and a wide range of thicknesses coated in contact to another layer of the electrochemical cell by a process of coating without requiring any subsequent solvent extraction or other complex process which is costly, difficult to control, and not effective in providing interconnected ultrafine pores.
A method for preparing electrochemical cells having a separator, particularly a separator with a thickness less than 15 microns, which can avoid the foregoing problems often encountered with the use of porous polyolefinic and other conventional porous separator materials made using extrusion, extraction, or other conventional processes would be of great value to the battery industry.
The present invention pertains to methods of preparing a cathode/separator assembly for use in an electrochemical cell, wherein the cathode/separator assembly comprises a cathode active layer and a microporous separator layer, which methods comprise the steps of (a) coating a microporous separator layer on a temporary carrier substrate; (b) coating a cathode active layer in a desired pattern on a surface of the separator layer, which surface is on the side of the separator layer opposite from the temporary carrier substrate; and (c) removing the temporary carrier substrate from the separator layer to form the cathode/separator assembly. In one embodiment, the separator layer comprises one or more microporous xerogel layers. In one embodiment, the cathode/separator assembly further comprises one or more protective coating layers comprising a polymer, wherein the one or more protective coating layers are in contact with at least one of the one or more microporous xerogel layers of the separator layer. In one embodiment, one of the one or more microporous xerogel layers of the separator layer is coated directly on the temporary carrier substrate. In one embodiment, one of the one or more protective coating layers of the cathode/separator assembly is coated directly on the temporary carrier substrate, and one of the one or more microporous xerogel layers of the microporous separator layer is then coated on a surface of the one of the one or more protective coating layers, which surface is on the side of the one of the one or more protective coating layers opposite from the temporary carrier substrate, and further wherein the temporary carrier substrate is removed in step (c) from the surface of the one of the one or more protective coating layers, which surface is on the side of the one of the one or more protective coating layers opposite from the separator layer. In one embodiment, one of the one or more protective coating layers of the cathode/separator assembly is coated after step (a) directly on the surface of the separator layer, which surface is on the side of the separator layer opposite from the temporary carrier substrate layer, prior to coating the cathode active layer in step (b).
In a preferred embodiment of the methods of preparing a cathode/separator assembly of this invention, the separator layer comprises one or more microporous pseudo-boehmite layers. In a more preferred embodiment, the cathode/separator assembly further comprises one or more protective coating layers comprising a polymer, wherein the one or more protective coating layers are in contact with at least one of the one or more microporous pseudo-boehmite layers of the separator layer. In one embodiment, one of the one or more microporous pseudo-boehmite layers of the separator layer is coated directly on the temporary carrier substrate. In one embodiment, one of the one or more protective coating layers of the cathode/separator assembly is coated directly on the temporary carrier substrate, and one of the one or more microporous pseudo-boehmite layers of the microporous separator layer is then coated on a surface of the one of the one or more protective coating layers, which surface of the one of the one or more the protective coating layers is opposite from the temporary carrier substrate, and further wherein the temporary carrier substrate is removed in step (c) from the surface of the one of the one or more protective coating layers, which surface is opposite from the separator layer. In one embodiment, one of the one or more protective coating layers of the cathode/separator assembly is coated after step (a) directly on the surface of one of the one or more microporous pseudo-boehmite layers of the separator layer, prior to coating the cathode active layer in step (b).
In one embodiment of the methods of preparing a cathode/separator assembly of the present invention, the temporary carrier substrate is a flexible web substrate. Suitable web substrates include, but are not limited to, papers, polymeric films, and metals. In one embodiment, the flexible web substrate is surface treated with a release agent.
In one embodiment of the methods of preparing a cathode/separator assembly of this invention, the cathode active layer comprises an electroactive material selected from the group consisting of electroactive metal chalcogenides, electroactive conductive polymers, and electroactive sulfur-containing materials. In one embodiment, the cathode active layer comprises elemental sulfur. In one embodiment, the cathode active layer comprises an electroactive sulfur-containing organic polymer, wherein the polymer, in its oxidized state, comprises one or more polysulfide moieties selected from the group consisting of xe2x80x94Smxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94Smxe2x88x92, and Sm2xe2x88x92; where m is an integer equal to or greater than 3.
In one embodiment of the methods of preparing a cathode/separator assembly of the present invention, the desired pattern of the cathode active layer does not completely coat or cover the surface of the separator layer, which surface is on the side of the separator layer opposite from the temporary carrier substrate.
In one embodiment, the methods further comprise a step of coating an edge insulating layer in a desired pattern on the surface of the separator layer. In one embodiment, the step of coating the edge insulating layer occurs subsequent to the steps of coating the microporous separator and cathode active layers and prior to the step of removing the temporary carrier substrate from the separator layer. In one embodiment, the desired pattern of the edge insulating layer comprises substantially the remaining area of the surface of the separator layer that is not coated with the desired pattern of the cathode active layer. In one embodiment, a portion of the desired pattern of the edge insulating layer is in contact with a portion of the desired pattern of the cathode active layer. In one embodiment, the thickness of the edge insulating layer is substantially the same as the thickness of the cathode active layer. In one embodiment, the step of coating the edge insulating layer occurs subsequent to the step of coating the microporous separator layer and prior to the steps of coating the cathode active layer and removing the temporary carrier substrate from the separator layer. In one embodiment, the edge insulating layer comprises an insulating xerogel layer. In one embodiment, the edge insulating layer comprises an insulating non-porous, polymeric layer.
In one embodiment of the methods of preparing a cathode/separator assembly of this invention, the methods further comprise a step of depositing a cathode current collector layer in a desired pattern on the surface of the cathode active layer, which surface is opposite from the separator layer. In one embodiment, the step of depositing the cathode current collector layer occurs subsequent to the steps of coating the microporous separator and cathode active layers and prior to the step of removing the temporary carrier substrate from the separator layer. In one embodiment, the methods further comprise a step of coating an electrode insulating layer in a desired pattern on the surface of the cathode current collector layer, which surface is opposite from the separator layer.
In one embodiment of the methods of preparing a cathode/separator assembly of the present invention, the methods further comprise a step of depositing a cathode current collector layer in a desired pattern on the outer surface of the cathode active layer and, optionally, on the outer surface of the edge insulating layer. In one embodiment, the step of depositing the cathode current collector layer occurs subsequent to the steps of coating the microporous separator, cathode active, and edge insulating layers, and prior to the step of removing the temporary carrier substrate from the separator layer. In one embodiment, the step of depositing the cathode current collector layer occurs subsequent to the steps of coating the microporous separator and cathode active layers, prior to the step of coating the edge insulating layer, and prior to the step of removing the temporary carrier substrate from the separator layer. In one embodiment, the methods further comprise a step of coating an electrode insulating layer in a desired pattern on the outer surface of the cathode current collector layer and, optionally, on the outer surface of the edge insulating layer.
Another aspect of the present invention pertains to methods of preparing an electrochemical cell, which methods comprise the steps of: (a) providing a cathode/separator assembly prepared by a method comprising the steps of (i) coating a microporous separator layer on a temporary carrier substrate, (ii) coating a cathode active layer in a desired pattern on a surface of the separator layer, which surface is on the side of the separator layer opposite from the temporary carrier substrate, and (iii) removing the temporary carrier substrate from the separator layer to form the cathode/separator assembly; (b) providing an anode; (c) providing a cathode current collector layer; (d) providing an electrode insulating layer interposed between the anode and the cathode current collector layer; and (e) providing an electrolyte, wherein the electrolyte is contained in pores of the separator layer; and wherein the separator layer of the cathode/separator assembly and the anode are positioned in a face-to-face relationship and the cathode active layer and the cathode current collector layer are positioned in a face-to-face relationship. In one embodiment, the separator layer comprises one or more microporous xerogel layers. In one embodiment, the cathode/separator assembly further comprises one or more protective coating layers comprising a polymer, wherein the one or more protective coating layers are in contact with at least one of the one or more microporous xerogel layers of the separator layer.
In a preferred embodiment of the methods of preparing an electrochemical cell of this invention, the separator layer comprises one or more microporous pseudo-boehmite layers. In a more preferred embodiment, the electrochemical cell further comprises one or more protective coating layers comprising a polymer, wherein the one or more protective coating layers are in contact with at least one of the one or more microporous pseudo-boehmite layers of the separator layer.
In one embodiment of the methods of preparing an electrochemical cell of this invention, the anode comprises an anode active material selected from the group consisting of lithium metal, lithium-aluminum alloys, lithium-tin alloys, lithium-intercalated carbons, and lithium-intercalated graphites. Suitable electrolytes include liquid electrolytes, gel polymer electrolytes, and solid polymer electrolytes. In one embodiment, the electrolyte comprises a liquid electrolyte.
In one embodiment of the methods of preparing an electrochemical cell of the present invention, the electrode insulating layer comprises a polymeric plastic film. In one embodiment, the electrode insulating layer comprises a polymeric coating.
In one embodiment of the methods of preparing an electrochemical cell of this invention, the cell is a secondary cell. In one embodiment of the methods of preparing an electrochemical cell of this invention, the cell is a primary cell.
Another aspect of the present invention pertains to methods of preparing an electrochemical cell, which methods comprise the steps of: (a) providing a cathode/separator assembly prepared by a method comprising the steps of (i) coating a microporous separator layer on a temporary carrier substrate, (ii) coating a cathode active layer in a desired pattern on a surface of the separator layer, which surface is on the side of the separator layer opposite from the temporary carrier substrate, (iii) coating an edge insulating layer in a desired pattern on the surface of the separator layer, and (iv) removing the temporary carrier substrate from the separator layer to form the cathode/separator assembly; (b) providing an anode; (c) providing a cathode current collector layer; (d) providing an electrode insulating layer interposed between the anode and the cathode current collector layer; and (e) providing an electrolyte, wherein the electrolyte is contained in pores of the separator layer; and wherein the separator layer of the cathode/separator assembly and the anode are positioned in a face-to-face relationship, and the cathode active layer and the cathode current collector layer are positioned in a face-to-face relationship.
Another aspect of this invention pertains to methods of preparing an electrochemical cell comprising a casing and a multilayer cell stack, which methods comprise the steps of: (a) providing a laminar combination of (i) an anode assembly comprising an anode comprising an anode active layer, wherein the anode active layer comprises an anode active material comprising lithium; a first cathode current collector layer; and an electrode insulating layer interposed between the anode and the first cathode current collector layer; and (ii) a cathode/separator assembly comprising a cathode active layer in a first desired coating pattern on a surface of a microporous separator layer and with an edge insulating layer in a second desired coating pattern on the surface of the separator layer; wherein the first cathode current collector layer and the cathode active layer are positioned in a face-to-face relationship; (b) winding the laminar combination to form an anode-electrode insulating layer-first cathode current collector layer-cathode/separator assembly multilayer cell stack, wherein the first cathode current collector layer is in contact with the cathode active layer; (c) providing an electrolyte, wherein the electrolyte is contained in pores of the separator layer; (d) providing a casing to enclose the cell stack; and (e) sealing the casing. In one embodiment, the anode further comprises an anode current collector layer interposed between the anode active layer and the electrode insulating layer. In one embodiment, a second cathode current collector layer is deposited in a third desired pattern on the outer surface of the cathode active layer and on the outer surface of the edge insulating layer.
In one embodiment of the methods of preparing an electrochemical cell of this invention, the cathode/separator assembly of step (a) further comprises a temporary carrier substrate on a surface of the separator layer, which surface is on the side of the separator layer opposite from the cathode active layer and the edge insulating layer, and the methods further comprise a step of removing the temporary carrier substrate from the separator layer prior to completion of step (b). In one embodiment, a second cathode current collector layer is deposited in a third desired coating pattern on the outer surface of the cathode active layer and on the outer surface of the edge insulating layer.
In one embodiment of the methods of preparing an electrochemical cell of the present invention of the methods of preparing an electrochemical cell of the present invention, the anode of the anode assembly and the separator layer of the cathode/separator assembly are positioned in a face-to-face relationship in step (a), and a first cathode current collector layer-electrode insulating layer-anode-cathode/separator assembly multilayer cell stack is formed in step (b). In one embodiment, a second cathode current collector layer is deposited in a third desired coating pattern on the outer surface of the cathode active layer and on the outer surface of the edge insulating layer.
In one embodiment of the methods of preparing an electrochemical cell of this invention, the cathode/separator assembly of step (a) further comprises a temporary carrier substrate on a surface of the separator layer, which surface is on the side of the separator layer opposite from the cathode active layer and the edge insulating layer, and the methods further comprise a step of removing the temporary carrier substrate from the separator layer prior to completion of step (b). In one embodiment, a second cathode current collector layer is deposited in a third desired coating pattern on the outer surface of the cathode active layer and on the outer surface of the edge insulating layer.
Another aspect of this invention pertains to methods of preparing an electrochemical cell comprising a casing and a multilayer cell stack, which methods comprise the steps of: (a) providing a laminar combination of (i) an anode assembly comprising an anode comprising lithium metal; and (ii) a cathode/separator assembly comprising a cathode active layer in a first desired coating pattern on a surface of a microporous separator layer and further comprising an edge insulating layer in a second desired coating pattern on the surface of the separator layer; a cathode current collector layer in a third desired coating pattern on the outer surface of the cathode active layer and on the outer surface of the edge insulating layer; an electrode insulating layer in a fourth desired coating pattern on the outer surface of the cathode current collector layer and on the outer surface of the edge insulating layer; wherein the anode and the electrode insulating layer are positioned in a face-to-face relationship; (b) winding the laminar combination to form an anode-electrode insulating layer-cathode current collector layer-cathode/separator assembly multilayer cell stack, wherein the anode is in contact with the separator layer; (c) providing an organic electrolyte, wherein the organic electrolyte is contained in pores of the separator layer; (d) providing a casing to enclose the cell stack; and (e) sealing the casing. In one embodiment, the cathode/separator assembly of step (a) further comprises a temporary carrier substrate on a surface of the separator layer, which surface is on the side of the separator layer opposite from the cathode active layer and the edge insulating layer, and the methods further comprise the step of removing the temporary carrier substrate from the separator layer prior to completion of step (b). In one embodiment, the anode and the separator layer of the cathode/separator assembly are positioned in a face-to-face relationship in step (a), and an anode-cathode/separator assembly-cathode current collector layer-electrode insulating layer multilayer cell stack is formed in step (b).
Another aspect of this invention pertains to cathode/separator assemblies prepared according to the methods of this invention, as described herein. Another aspect of the present invention pertains to electrochemical cells prepared according to the methods of the present invention, as described herein, and comprising a cathode/separator assembly, as described herein.
As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, features of one aspect or embodiment of the invention are also applicable to other aspects or embodiments of the invention.

Methods of preparing electrochemical cells


On a first piezoelectric sheet of a piezoelectric vibrator, a second piezoelectric sheet is stacked with interposition, between the sheets, of first-set electrodes (24(1), 24(2)) formed on an upper surface of the first piezoelectric sheet. Second-set electrodes are formed on an upper surface of the second piezoelectric sheet with each placed halfway between two adjacent ones of the first-set electrodes. The second piezoelectric sheet is poled in directions from each second-set electrode to the two adjacent ones of the first-set electrodes. Preferably, third-set electrodes are formed on a lower surface of the first piezoelectric sheet with each arranged halfway between two adjacent ones of the first-set electrodes. In this event, the first piezoelectric sheet is poled in directions from each third-set electrode to two adjacent ones of the first-set electrodes. Each first-set electrode has a first end along a side surface of the first piezoelectric sheet with each second-set and each third-set electrode possessed of a second and a third end along opposite side surfaces of the first and the second piezoelectric sheets. First and second common outside electrodes are formed on such side surfaces in contact with the first end of each first-set electrode either directly or through a first common electrode and in contact with the second and the third ends of the second-set and the third-set electrodes either directly or through second and third common electrodes.

The present invention relates to a piezoelectric vibrator or actuator which comprises a plurality of stacked or piled piezoelectric sheets. It is known that the piezoelectric vibrator can convert electric energy into mechanical vibration or energy and can convert the mechanical vibration or energy into the electric energy.
A conventional piezoelectric vibrator comprises a plurality of stacked piezoelectric sheets each of which has an upper surface, a plurality of first-set elongated electrodes on the upper surface in parallel, and a plurality of second-set electrodes on the upper surface in parallel. Each of the second-set elongated electrodes is arranged halfway between two adjacent ones of the first-set elongated electrodes. As will later be described more in detail, the conventional piezoelectric vibrator is incapable of reliably preventing dielectric breakdown of the piezoelectric sheets.

Piezoelectric vibrator capable of reliably preventing dielectric breakdown and a method of manufacturing the same


An apparatus for measuring a thickness or wear amount and a temperature of the ceramic member by using a terahertz wave includes a terahertz wave generating unit configured to output a terahertz wave, a terahertz wave analysis unit configured to analyze a terahertz wave and an optical system configured to guide the terahertz wave output from the terahertz wave generating unit to the ceramic member and guide reflected waves of the terahertz wave reflected from the ceramic member to the terahertz wave analysis unit. The terahertz wave analysis unit obtains an optical path difference between a first reflection wave reflected from a front surface of the ceramic member and a second reflection wave reflected from a rear surface of the ceramic member and measures a thickness of the ceramic member based on the optical path difference.

In a substrate processing apparatus for performing plasma etching or the like on a semiconductor wafer, components made of various materials are provided in a processing chamber where the semiconductor wafer is accommodated. Some of the components are worn by a plasma. Therefore, there are suggested various methods that measure a wear amount of a component to check replacement timing of the worn component.
For example, there is suggested a method for measuring a wear amount of a focus ring based on a thickness of the focus ring which is measured by using interference between reflected light from a front surface of the focus ring and reflected light from a rear surface of the focus ring in the case of irradiating low-coherence light in a thickness direction of the focus ring in a processing chamber (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-227063). The method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-227063 utilizes principle that an optical path difference between the reflected light from the front surface and the reflected light from the rear surface of the component to which the low-coherence light is irradiated is changed by thermal expansion depending on a temperature of the component. There is also suggested a method for measuring a temperature of a component by using low-coherence light based on the above principle (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-220461).
The wear amount measuring method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-227063 and the temperature measuring method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-220461 can be applied to a component made of a material, e.g., Si, which transmits a wavelength of the low-coherence light. However, such methods cannot be used for measuring a thickness or wear amount and a temperature of a component made of a material, e.g., ceramic or the like, which does not transmit the low-coherence light.
Therefore, it is general to take out a ceramic member as a measurement target component from the processing chamber and measure a thickness or wear mount thereof by using a three-dimensional measuring device. In addition, there is suggested an ultrasonic diffraction method used for measuring a thickness of a ceramic film formed on a surface of a ceramic member (see, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-333366).
However, the thickness measurement using the three-dimensional measurement device or the thickness measurement using ultrasonic diffraction method is a contact-type measuring method and thus cannot be used in a state where the ceramic member is disposed in the processing chamber. In that case, it is required to expose the inside of the processing chamber to the atmosphere, take out the ceramic member from the processing chamber, measure a thickness of the ceramic member at the outside of the chamber, return the ceramic member into the processing chamber after the thickness measurement, and depressurize the inside of the processing chamber to a vacuum state. Accordingly, the operating rate of the substrate processing apparatus is considerably decreased. Further, a temperature of a ceramic member provided in a processing chamber cannot be measured by the three-dimensional measuring device or the ultrasonic diffraction method.

Apparatus and method for measuring thickness and temperature and substrate processing system