The present invention relates to a manufacturing method for an orifice plate to be used for an ink jet printer or the like. First, a master having a predetermined pattern firmly provided on a substrate is prepared. An electroformed film is then formed on the master by an electroforming method. Finally, the electroformed film is separated from the substrate. In this case, the mask pattern is firmly provided on the substrate, and a mechanical strength of the mask pattern itself is large. Furthermore, the mask pattern is insoluble to an alkali aqueous solution. Thus, the master can be reused, and it can be strongly washed. Accordingly, the master has a durability to repeated usage, thereby contributing to an improvement in the quality of the orifice plate to be manufactured and a reduction in the manufacturing cost.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manufacturing method for an orifice plate which forms an ink discharging portion of an ink jet printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a manufacturing method for an orifice plate which forms an ink discharging portion of an ink jet printer, the following method is conventionally known. In such a conventional manufacturing method, a photoresist having a nonconductive characteristic is first provided on a substrate having a conductive characteristic in accordance with a predetermined pattern, thereby preparing a master. An electroformed film made of nickel, which will later become an orifice plate, is then formed on the master by a known electroforming method. Finally, the electroformed film is separated from the master to thereby obtain the orifice plate.
An example of the conventional manufacturing method for the orifice plate will now be described with reference to FIGS. 5A to 5D. FIGS. 5A to 5D illustrate the exemplary conventional manufacturing method for the orifice plate in chronological order.
First, a photoresist 2 of a positive type is uniformly applied onto a conductive substrate 1 by a known spin coating method. As an example of the positive type photoresist 2, naphtho-quinone-diazide is known. The naphtho-quinone-diazide has an alkali insoluble characteristic. After dropping 2-3 cc of the naphtho-quinone-diazide on the conductive substrate 1, the conductive substrate 1 is retained by a spin coater and is rotated at 5000 rpm for 20 seconds. As a result, the photoresist 2 is uniformly coated on the conductive substrate 1. Thereafter, the conductive substrate 1 on which the photoresist 2 is coated is prebaked in a clean oven at about 90.degree. C. for about 30 minutes. As a result, the positive type photoresist 2 having a thickness of about 1 .mu.m (micro-meter) is formed on the conductive substrate 1. Thereafter, a photomask 3 having a light shielding portion 3A with a predetermined pattern is placed on an upper surface of the photoresist 2. The photomask 3 is a thin sheet or a thin plate having a characteristic of transmitting at least an ultraviolet light, so that light is permitted to penetrate only a light transmitting portion of the photomask 3, not the light shielding portion 3A. The light shielding portion 3A is constituted of a plurality of circles each having a diameter of about 152 .mu.m. The light shielding portion 3A is made of chromium (Cr), for example, and the circles constituting the light shielding portion 3A are formed on the photomask 3 at predetermined intervals, e.g., at intervals of 680 .mu.m. An ultraviolet light 4 radiates the photomask 3 from the upper side thereof, so that the photoresist 2 is exposed to the ultraviolet light 4 through the light transmitting portion of the photomask 3. The photoresist 2 exposed to the ultraviolet light 4 becomes ketene, and the ketene reacts with water in the air to become indene carboxylic acid. The indene carboxylic acid has an alkali soluble characteristic. On the other hand, a portion of the photoresist 2 located just below the light shielding portion 3A of the photomask 3 is not exposed to the ultraviolet light 4. Thus, this portion of the photoresist 2 remains naphtho-quinone-diazide (FIG. 5A).
Secondly, the conductive substrate 1 from which the photomask 3 has been removed is dipped into a developer liquid such as an alkaline solution, e.g., an aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide (NaOH). That is, as the photoresist 2 exposed to the ultraviolet light 4 in the above step has become indene carboxylic acid which has an alkali soluble characteristic, the photoresist 2 is dissolved in the aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide. As a result, a plurality of columnar photoresist portions each having a diameter of 152 .mu.m and a height of 1 .mu.m are formed on the conductive substrate 1 at intervals of 680 .mu.m. Thereafter, in order to remove moisture from the conductive substrate 1, the substrate 1 is placed in a clean oven and is baked in the clean oven at about 130.degree. C. for about 30 minutes, thereby improving an adhesion strength between the columnar photoresist portions and the conductive substrate 1 to some extent and solidifying the photoresist portions themselves. Accordingly, the columnar photoresist portions formed on the conductive substrate 1 are more stabilized and secured. In this manner, only the portion of the photoresist 2 not exposed to the ultraviolet light 4 is left on the conductive substrate 1 as a photoresist pattern 2A corresponding to the pattern of the light shielding portion 3A of the photomask 3. Thus, the photoresist pattern 2A is formed on the conductive substrate 1 to prepare a master (FIG. 5B).
A releasing film 5 is then formed on the master. The releasing film 5 is a high-molecular film mainly composed of a thiazole compound (the tradename, NIKKANON TACK manufactured by NIHON KAGAKU SANGYO CO., LTD.). Thereafter, an electroformed film 6 is electrodeposited by a necessary amount on the releasing film 5 by an electroforming method. The electroforming method is carried out in the following manner, for example. First, a nickel electrode and the master with the releasing film 5 thereon are dipped into an electroforming liquid such as nickel sulfamate. A current is then applied between the nickel electrode as an anode and the master as a cathode. As a result, the electroformed film 6 of nickel is electrodeposited on the master. At this time, a thickness and quantity of the electroformed film 6 may be changed by changing a current duty period or a total current quantity (FIG. 5C).
Finally, the electroformed film 6 is separated from the conductive substrate 1, thereby resulting in a manufactured orifice plate 7 (FIG. 5D).
However, in the conventional manufacturing method for the orifice plate as described above, the adhesion strength between the photoresist pattern 2A and the substrate 1 is not very large, and furthermore, the photoresist pattern 2A itself is not very hard. For these reasons, the following problems occur. That is, in releasing the electroformed film 6 from the conductive substrate 1 in the last step, there is a possibility that the photoresist pattern 2A partially sticks to the electroformed film 6 and is separated together with the electroformed film 6 from the conductive substrate 1. Accordingly, the photoresist pattern 2A on the conductive substrate 1 is damaged. The conductive substrate 1 with the damaged photoresist pattern 2A cannot be reused as the master for the manufacturing of the orifice plate. If the conductive substrate 1 with the damaged photoresist pattern 2A is intended to be reused, the whole of the photoresist pattern 2A must be removed from the conductive substrate 1 and a new master must be prepared by performing the above steps again, which results in an increase in manufacturing cost.
Even if the above problem does not occur, another problem occurs as will be described below. That is, in the course of repeated manufacturing of the orifice plate with the use of the master, the conductive substrate 1 itself is contaminated. Accordingly, the contaminated conductive substrate 1 must be washed. In washing the conductive substrate 1, an organic solvent such as an alkaline aqueous solution having a strong detergent is preferably used. However, since the photoresist pattern 2A is soluble in the alkaline aqueous solution, the alkaline aqueous solution cannot be used for the washing of the conductive substrate 1. Accordingly, the contamination of the conductive substrate 1 cannot be sufficiently eliminated, so that a quality of the orifice plate to be manufactured by repeatedly using the same master is reduced. As a result, the number of times of usage of the master is limited, causing an increase in manufacturing cost of the orifice plate.


A driving transistor for outputting a current for driving an organic electroluminescent (EL) element is formed on a pixel circuit of an organic EL display. A first capacitor is coupled between a power supply voltage and a gate of the driving transistor, and a second capacitor is coupled between the gate and a scan line. First a voltage matched with a data current is stored in the first capacitor in response to a select signal from the scan line. The voltage of the first capacitor is changed by variation of the select signal's voltage level. A driving current is output from the transistor because of the changed voltage of the first capacitor, and the organic EL element emits light as a result of the driving current.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic electroluminescence (EL) light emitting display, a light emitting display panel, and a driving method thereof
2. Description of the Related Art
An organic EL display is a display that emits light by electrical excitation of fluorescent organic compounds and an image is displayed by driving each of M×N organic luminescent cells with voltage or current.
This organic cell includes an anode, an organic thin film and, a cathode layer. The anode may be formed, for example, of indium tin oxide (ITO) and the cathode may be formed, for example, of a metal. The organic thin film is formed as a multi-layered structure including an emission layer ("EML"), an electron transport layer ("ETL"), and a hole transport layer ("HTL") so as to increase luminescence efficiency by balancing electron and hole concentrations. In addition, it can include an electron injection layer ("EIL") and a hole injection layer ("HIL") separately.
Organic EL displays that have such organic luminescent cells are configured as passive matrix configuration or active matrix configuration. The active matrix configuration includes thin film transistors (TFTs) or MOSFETs. In the passive matrix configuration, organic luminescent cells are formed between anode lines and cathode lines that cross each other and the organic luminescent cells are driven by driving the anode and cathode lines. While in the active matrix configuration, each organic luminescent cell is connected to a TFT usually through an ITO electrode and is driven by controlling the gate voltage of the corresponding TFT. The active matrix method may be classified as a voltage programming method and/or a current programming method depending on the format of signals that are applied to the capacitor so as to maintain the voltage.
Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, a conventional organic EL display of the voltage and current programming methods will be described.
FIG. 2 illustrates a pixel circuit following the conventional voltage programming method for driving an organic EL element. FIG. 2 illustrates one of the N×M pixels as a representative. A transistor M1 is coupled to an organic EL element OLED to supply the current for emission. The current of the transistor M1 is controlled by the data voltage applied through a switching transistor M2. A capacitor C1 for maintaining the applied voltage for a predetermined time is coupled between a source of the transistor M1 and a gate thereof. A gate of the switching transistor M2 is coupled to a scan line Sn, and a source thereof is coupled to a data line Dm. When the switching transistor M2 is turned on according to a select signal applied to the gate of the switching transistor M2, a data voltage from the data line Dm is applied to the gate of the transistor M1. The current IOLED flows to the switching transistor M2 depending, for example, on the voltage VGS charged between the gate and the source by the capacitor C1, and the organic EL element OLED emits light depending, for example, on the current IOLED. In this case, the current IOLED flowing to the organic EL element OLED is expressed in Equation 1.
                              Equation 1:                                                                                I            OLED                    =                                                    β                2                                                                            (                                                            V                      GS                                        -                                          V                      TH                                                        )                                2                                      =                                          β                2                                                                            (                                                            V                      DD                                        -                                          V                      DATA                                        -                                                                                        V                        TH                                                                                                    )                                2                                                                                where IOLED is a current flowing to the organic EL element OLED, VGS is a voltage between the source and the gate of the transistor M1, VTH is a threshold voltage at the transistor M1, VDATA is a data voltage, and β is a constant.
As expressed in Equation 1, the current corresponding to the applied data voltage is applied to the organic EL element OLED, and the organic EL element emits light in relation to the applied current in the pixel circuit. The applied data voltage has multiple-stage values within a predetermined range so as to display different gray scales.
However, it is difficult for the conventional pixel circuit of the voltage programming method to obtain a wide spectrum of gray scales because of deviations of the threshold voltage VTH of the TFT and electron mobility caused by non-uniformity in the manufacturing process. For example, for driving a TFT in the pixel circuit by supplying a 3V voltage, the voltage is to be applied to the gate of the TFT each 12 mV (=3V/256) interval to express 8-bit (256) grays. If the deviation of the threshold voltage at the TFT caused by the non-uniformity of the manufacturing process is greater than 100 mV, it becomes difficult to express a wide spectrum of gray scales. It is also difficult to express a wide spectrum of gray scales because β in Equation 1 becomes differentiated due to deviation of the electron mobility.
However, if the current source can supply substantially uniform current to the pixel circuit over the whole data line, the pixel circuit of the current programming method generates uniform display characteristics even when a driving transistor in each pixel has non-uniform voltage-current characteristics.
FIG. 3 shows a conventional pixel circuit of the current programming method for driving an organic EL element, illustrating one of the N×M pixels as an example. In FIG. 3, a transistor M1 is coupled to an organic EL element OLED to supply the current for emission to the OLED, and the current of the transistor M1 is set to be controlled by the data current applied through a transistor M2.
First, when the transistors M2 and M3 are turned on according to a select signal from a scan line Sn, the transistor M1 is diode-connected, and a voltage corresponding to the data current IDATA from the data line Dm is stored in the capacitor C1. Next, the select signal from the scan line Sn becomes a high level voltage to turn off the transistors M2 and M3, and an emit signal from a scan line En becomes a low level voltage to turn on the transistor M4. Power is then supplied from the power supply voltage VDD, and the current corresponding to the voltage stored in the capacitor C1 flows to the organic EL element OLED to emit light. In this case, the current flowing to the organic EL element OLED is expressed in Equation 2.
                              Equation 2:                                                                                I            OLED                    =                                                    β                2                                                                            (                                                            V                      GS                                        -                                          V                      TH                                                        )                                2                                      =                          I              DATA                                                                                where VGS is a voltage between the source and the gate of the transistor M1, VTH is a threshold voltage at the transistor M1, and β is a constant.
As expressed in Equation 2, because the current IOLED flowing to the organic EL element is matched with the data current IDATA in the conventional current pixel circuit, an organic EL panel has substantially uniform characteristics when a programming current source is uniform over the organic EL panel. However, because the current IOLED flowing to the organic EL element is a micro-current, it problematically takes a lot of time to charge the data line in order to control the pixel circuit using the micro-current IDATA. For example, if the load capacitance of the data line is 30 pF, it takes several milliseconds to charge the load of the data line with the data current of about several tens to several hundreds nA. Taking a long time to charge the data line is problematic because the charging time is not sufficient (i.e., too long) when considering the data line time of several tens of μs.

Light emitting display, light emitting display panel, and driving method thereof


This invention is directed to removing contaminants from an oxygenate-containing feedstream for an oxygenate to olefin reaction system. Oxygenate feeds used in the conversion of oxygenates to olefins, and which contain contaminants, are heated to form a vapor stream and a liquid stream. The heating is conducted so that a majority of the metalloaluminophosphate molecular sieve catalyst contaminants is contained in the liquid stream. The vapor stream is separated from the liquid stream, and the separated vapor stream is contacted with the metalloaluminophosphate molecular sieve catalyst to form olefin product. The heating of the feedstream and the separation of the vapor stream can be carried out in one or more stages.

Light olefins, defined herein as ethylene, propylene, butylene and mixtures thereof, serve as feeds for the production of numerous important chemicals and polymers. Typically, light olefins are produced by cracking petroleum feeds. Because of the limited supply of competitive petroleum feeds, the opportunities to produce low cost light olefins from petroleum feeds are limited. Efforts to develop light olefin production technologies based on alternative feeds have increased.
An important type of alternate feed for the production of light olefins are oxygenates, such as, for example, alcohols, particularly methanol, ethanol, n-propanol, and iso-propanol, dimethyl ether, methyl ethyl ether, diethyl ether, dimethyl carbonate, and methyl formate. Many of these oxygenates may be produced by fermentation, or from synthesis gas derived from natural gas, petroleum liquids, carbonaceous materials, including coal, recycled plastics, municipal wastes, or any organic material. Because of the wide variety of sources, alcohol, alcohol derivatives, and other oxygenates have promise as an economical, non-petroleum source for light olefin production.
Oxygenates can be converted to olefins using various molecular sieve catalysts. This conversion of oxygenates to olefins (OTO) is an exothermic process. Therefore, the reactor outlet temperature is typically higher than the reactor inlet temperature.
Many methods and/or process schemes have been proposed to manage the heat of reaction generated from the exothermic process in order to avoid temperature surges and hot spots. A well managed process can also lead to a reduction of the rate of catalyst deactivation, as well as the production of undesirable products, such as methane, ethane, carbon monoxide and carbonaceous deposits or coke. Such processes tend to involve heating the feed or cooling the effluent to appropriate temperatures and pressures.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,121,504 (Kuechler et al.) discloses a process for catalytically converting a feedstock comprising an oxygenate to olefins. The process includes direct product quenching to increase heat recovery and to improve heat integration. In particular, a heavy product formed in the reaction process is used to provide at least a portion of the heat used to heat the feedstock.
U.S. Patent Application Publication, Pub. No. US 2003/0088136 A1, published May 8, 2003, discloses a process for recovering heat in an oxygenate to olefin production process. The process includes removing heat while maintaining the temperature of an effluent gas stream above the dew point temperature of the effluent gas stream. A step of washing the effluent gas stream to remove solid catalyst particles from the gas stream is also provided.
Well managed utilization of heat in the oxygenate to olefins conversion processes are continuously sought. In addition, well managed processes that result in the reduction of the rate of catalyst deactivation or a reduction in production of undesirable products are also continuously sought.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Treating oxygenate containing feedstreams in the conversion of oxygenates to olefins


Disclosed are manufacturing of a golf ball. A golf ball has a plurality of circular dimples in its spherical outer surface, dividing into the faces of a spherical polyhedron by a plurality of division lines, wherein border lines are formed at the position of ±1˜2 latitudinal degrees to the division lines, the circular dimples are arranged by using the border lines as an occupation limit line of the circular dimples positioned opposite to the division lines, and the golf ball has no dimple on the pole in the center of the spherical polyhedron is provided, thereby increasing the performance such as a carry distance by raising the proper amount of area ratio of dimples, obtaining the uniformity thickness cover molding without the inferior product due to the balanced gates with uniform size.

The present invention relates to manufacturing of a golf ball, and more particularly, to the method of dimple arrangement capable of improving formability and performance of a golf ball simultaneously, and the golf ball thereof.
Generally, it is known that straightness, consistency, carry distance and so on, used as a measure of performance of a golf ball, are greatly affected by aerodynamic action depending on the size, depth, shape, arrangement of dimple formed on a surface of a golf ball.
Specifically, when a golfer hit a golf ball, strong repulsive elasticity is generated and launching the ball, at the same time back spin is generated by the loft angle of a golf club. For example, if the club is 10 degree driver, the impacted ball will fly away and also be formed the back spin of approximately 2200˜4000 revolutions per minute at an initial state. At the moment, the dimples accelerate the transition of turbulent air flow around the boundary layer of a rotating ball surface in flight through the high speed air stream, in the meantime, the air pressure will increase beneath the reversed rotating ball whereas it decrease above the ball, as a result, aerodynamic lift equivalent to many times of gravity is generated due to the Bernoulli effect, that extends the carry distance of a golf ball.
Moreover, it lowers a coefficient of drag even at a low speed area by reducing the Critical Reynolds Number. But the speed and rotational strength of the ball does not maintain as initial state of hitting, they rapidly reduce from the peak of a ballistic trajectory to the landing point Which is called as a low speed area, accordingly the Critical Reynolds number will rapidly increase and a coefficient of drag as well.
Meanwhile, the dimples being arranged by dividing the outer surface of a golf ball into the faces of a spherical polyhedron with the great circle paths that has a symmetry of left and right side of a golf ball. That spherical polyhedron is, for instance, spherical tetrahedron composed of 4 spherical triangles, spherical hexahedron composed of 6 spherical squares, spherical octahedron composed of 8 spherical triangles, spherical cube-octahedron composed of 6 spherical squares and 8 spherical triangles, spherical icosahedron composed of 20 spherical triangles, spherical icosi-dodecahedron composed of 20 spherical triangles and 12 spherical pentagons, and so on. There are many kinds of the dimple arrangement of the divisional composition of the surface of a golf ball into the faces of a spherical polyhedron by this manner. As a reference, FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 illustrate plane view of a golf ball that dimples being arranged on the spherical cube-octahedron and spherical icosi-dodecahedron respectively among the spherical polyhedron.
In this regard, recently the circular dimples are used a lot in general, the important matters of the dimple arrangements are volume ratio by it's depth of dimple and area ratio of dimples coverage on the surface of a golf ball. In case of volume ratio of dimples on the surface of a golf ball having circular dimples, which has a correlation with the area ratio of dimples on its surface due to the definite size of a ball, it is impossible to make cavities for cover mold allowing to freely change the volume of dimples by ignoring the area of dimples except the required volume ratio for obtaining fundamental aerodynamic lift, that due to the material and metal working for cover mold cavity which arranged the dimples directly. Therefore, if the area ratio of dimples corresponds to about 75%˜84% of the total surface area of a golf ball having circular dimples, the total volume of dimples on its surface will be around 350 mm3˜490 mm3. A volume ratio becomes proportional to the area ratio of dimples, that is, increasing the diameter of dimple results in a larger volume of dimple, and decreasing the diameter of dimple results in a smaller volume of dimple.
For convenience' sake, if a diameter of dimple is more than 0.15 inches (3.81 mm), that is called a large sized dimple, a diameter of dimple is smaller than 0.15 inches, called a small sized dimple. If hit a golf ball, large sized dimple lowers a coefficient of drag in a low speed area whereas it raise the coefficient of drag in a high speed area, on the contrary, small sized dimple lowers a coefficient of drag in a high speed area, but it tends to raise the coefficient of drag in a low speed area. But, the small sized dimple aid the aerodynamic stability. Drag which mentioned above is a combination of pressure drag and friction drag. The strength of pressure drag is affected by the shape, size of the substance and the stream direction, speed against it, whereas the strength of friction drag varies with the shearing strength caused by the viscosity of fluid flow the surface of the substance and the roughness of the surface of the substance. And a coefficient of drag varies with the Reynolds number, in case of a golf ball, there is no problem in terms of a carry distance and a stable flight at a high speed area from the hitting point to the apex of the ballistic trajectory, because a coefficient of drag diminish as the Reynolds number grows in that area. But the problems occurred in a low speed area from the apex of the ballistic trajectory to the landing point when decreasing the hitting power.
Meanwhile, recently it tends to make the dimple size have some similarities each other in a diameter by reason of an appearance of a golf ball, total number of dimples are get fewer 300˜400, the composed size of dimple diameter get bigger than 0.15 inches inevitably, which the trajectory is seriously affected in accordance with the flow direction of the air. In addition, the carry distance is the first consideration in development of a golf ball which has an irrespective aerodynamic direction and the flight stability in dimple arrangement, which cause so many problems.
And, in order to raise the area ratio of dimples on the surface of a golf ball, or the reason of an appearance of it, the dimple arrangement is depart from the border and miss matched each other on the border of each polygon (for example, the spherical triangles and the spherical squares which composed of a spherical polyhedron in cube-octahedron) of the polyhedron, as a result of it, the mold parting line which the meeting line of the upper mold and bottom mold, that is not a straight line as the great circle paths which divide the surface of a golf ball into the faces of polyhedron, being a kind of meanderingly wave line with a regular continuity or discontinuity wave line. In addition, there is a type of zigzag line in actuality.
Specifically, the manufacturing of mold becomes very difficult for making cover with an accurate symmetry between right and left side of the dimples of these golf balls. The difficulty of manufacturing mold, firstly, the matching of upper mold and bottom mold correctly which have same kind of a mold parting line with the meanderingly wave line, secondly, it is very difficult to make the gate size evenly and settle the gate position correctly for flowing the polymer materials uniformly which forming the cover of the golf ball. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, if dimples 12a˜12o are arranged by the boundary of great circle 13 forming an equator of a golf ball, a wave type mold parting line 14 is formed. And this wave type mold parting line 14 occupied 100% of the line composed the circumference of a circle as a straight line.
Therefore, it is difficult to form gates 15, 16, 17, 18 due to the narrow gap of dimples between upper and bottom side. And the size of the gates becomes so smaller that it is difficult to flow resin regularly. Also, the excessive pressure inflicted on the resin by an enforced passing through the smaller gate, that cause the phenomena of resin being decomposed, and the weld—lines by an unsealing molding of the polar region due to the clogged vent pin which exhaust the gas like materials, the burning phenomena which the resin being partially burned by the high pressure, and the cover filled with the gas. That is the seriously inferior phenomena, the cover has not a uniformly thickness and being an inferior appearance.
Meanwhile, if the molding by maintaining the holder pin for a long time for preventing an eccentricity of insert one which inserted in the cavity as a half finished goods, such as a core, dual core, the mantle covered the said core and inner cover until the resin get firmer, that achieved the inferior cover molding of a collapse, crack and something like this. By the inferior phenomena, a finished product having an undesirable appearance and which being split easily.
And, after treatment of the cover molding which made by using a mold in a hard way, for example, the removal of the gates and the remains of resins which flowing out from the edge of the mold parting line, the buffing (the treatment by using a cutter, sand paper and a sand stone) process for eliminating the interior part of molding near the vent pin and the polar region, a variation of the size of equator region, a difference between the size of equator to equator and pole to pole by an immoderate buffing due to the irregular parting line, or the dimple depth may be shallower and the polar region may be irregularity by that reason, which is changed the aerodynamic characteristics of the golf ball, and it has the unsettled landing point from the apex of the ballistic trajectory.
Meanwhile, a kind of golf ball, which has a dimple on the pole, and as shown in FIG. 4, the mold parting line 24 same as the straight line of the great circle path 23, that arranged the gates 25, 26, 27, 28 on the upper and bottom side of the mold parting line 24 in regularity, there is no problem for making the cavity mold, and in the after treatment process, the productivity is good for reducing the inferior phenomena of molding by the easy buffing process, but there is a limit for raising the area ratio of dimples of the surface of a golf ball basically.

Dimple arrangement on the surface of a golf ball and the golf ball thereof


Techniques for data evaluation using machine learning are provided. A textual document is received, and the textual document is parsed using a recurrent neural network (RNN) to extract a plurality of keywords. A first subset of keywords which are known by a user and a second subset of keywords which are unknown by the user are each identified. A summary of the textual document is generated based on the second subset of keywords. The summary is output, comprising: outputting information related to a first keyword of the second subset of keywords and, upon determining that the first keyword is understood by the user, outputting information related to a second keyword of the second subset of keywords.

The present disclosure relates to machine learning, and more specifically, to using machine learning to parse text in order to generate keyword summaries.
Machine learning has been applied to a variety of text processing problems. Natural language text, however, can be highly complex and it is difficult or impossible to efficiently and effectively extract meaningful data. As the volume of text increases, scalability problems cause the time required to read and parse the data to increase rapidly, and the resulting accuracy of the data extraction can be significantly reduced. Existing systems are not able to effectively or accurately extract meaningful data from textual content in a way that allows the data to be consumed efficiently.

Effective text parsing using machine learning


The present invention is directed to novel neuro-attentuating norketamine (NANKET) compounds according to any one of formulas (I—shown below), (I-A) and (I-B), or any of the compounds described in Tables A-D, or in any of the Examples provided herein, and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, novel pharmaceutical formulations and novel methods of uses thereof. The present invention also features novel oral neuro-attenuating ketamine (NAKET) and neuro-attenuating norketamine (NANKET) modified-release pharmaceutical formulations, and novel methods of administration thereof, which ensure the steady release of a therapeutically effective amount of ketamine, norketamine, or derivatives thereof from the oral modified-release pharmaceutical formulations without neurologically toxic spikes in plasma concentration of the ketamine, norketamine, or derivatives during the release periods.

Ketamine is a non-selective N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist that has been approved by FDA for induction and maintenance of the general anesthesia. It has also been shown effective in treating other conditions, for example, to alleviate different kinds of pain (Correll, 2003), depression (Zarate, 2012), acute brain injury and stroke (Hertle, 2012), epilepsy (Synowiec, 2013), alcohol dependence, Alzheimer's disease, asthma and other disorders.
The oral efficacy of ketamine for treatment of pain has been confirmed by multiple investigators and recently reviewed (Blonk, 2010). In most cases, ketamine was used as an oral solution prepared from the commercially available injectable formulation (1 or 10% ketamine in water), often times mixed with fruit juice or syrup for taste masking. Solid dose forms of ketamine have also been reported in several examples. In particular, Yanagihara et al. (Yanagihara 1999, 2003) reported preparation of oral tablets of ketamine by dry and wet granulation with pharmacokinetics in humans similar to the orally administered syrup formulation. Furthermore, oral and sublingual formulations of ketamine as gelatin-based lozenges having a total weight of 1 g and ketamine load of 25 mg have also been prepared by Chong (Chong, 2009).
When administered orally, ketamine is a subject to the first-pass liver metabolism via N-demethylation and conversion to the active metabolite Norketamine. The elimination half-life of ketamine has been estimated at 2-3 hours, and 4 hours for norketamine. Consequently, the therapeutic window of orally administered ketamine is relatively short, and prompts an oral administration of multiple daily doses of the drug, e.g., 3-5 times a day, to achieve desirable therapeutic effect.
Moreover, solid dose forms of ketamine have been consistently limited by their inability to provide therapeutically effective doses, even in the short-term, without neurologically toxic spikes in ketamine concentration. In fact, exceeding an optimal efficacy plasma concentration of the drug (10-300 ng/ml) leads to more pronounced side effects, such as sedation, hallucination, dizziness, and/or nausea, which can not only have immediate repercussions, but also effect treatment compliance.
In order to achieve the optimal therapeutic index, the most successful route of administration for maintaining the stable levels of the drug in the system over longer periods of time appears to be by infusion (Correll, 2004). Such administration affords direct titration control of the manner of the administration, and enables eliminating the presence of neurological side effects, e.g., resulting from psychotomimetic toxic plasma concentration spikes of ketamine. However, the process of infusion presents significant challenges in patient management, as well as the cost of the procedure, being difficult to administer outside of the Intensive Care Units (ICU).
As such, there remains a need for efficient, more convenient, and controllable ketamine formulations that mimic the results of ketamine infusion and afford no neurologically toxic (e.g., psychotomimetic toxic) plasma concentrations, and which address the identified gap in ketamine treatment of conditions such as pain, depression, traumatic brain injury, stroke, epilepsy, alcohol dependence, or Alzheimer disease.

Neuro-attenuating ketamine and norketamine compounds, derivatives thereof, and methods


A clamping seat includes a pipe seat, a movable clamp and a fixed clamp. The pipe seat includes an inner pipe space and an outer pipe space to insert the inner pipe and the outer pipe. The pipe seat includes a side opening beside the inner pipe space and a side space beside the outer pipe space. The movable clamp includes an arc block beside the side opening, and a screwing member pressing the arc block into the inner pipe space then to press and fix the inner pipe. The fixed clamp includes a clamping plate in the side space, and a tightening bolt pressing the pipe seat against the clamping plate, allowing the clamping plate to press the outer pipe.

Telescopic rod is a common supporting structure for a lamp, musical instrument and the like. As shown in FIG. 1, it is a prior art disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,977,332 B2 and comprises an inner pipe 1 and an outer pipe 2 which are sleeved with each other. The height of the inner pipe 1 and the outer pipe 2 is adjusted by fixing and stressing the relative positions of the inner pipe 1 and the outer pipe 2 by a screw 3. However, when it is overloaded, in order to avoid sliding between the inner pipe 1 and the outer pipe 2, a user may lock the screw 3 excessively, causing a rod body of the inner pipe 1 to be deformed by over-pressing of the screw 3. After the inner pipe 1 is deformed, the gap between the inner pipe 1 and the outer pipe 2 is increased, causing problems of structural bending, shaking and the like. In addition, during maintenance, the inner pipe 1 and the outer pipe 2 are not easily disassembled, or the inner pipe and the outer pipe 2 are damaged together to increase maintenance cost.


When a digital broadcast receiver selects a channel and thereby changes an MPEG picture stream, a video decoder starts a decoding operation in response to an instruction to start decoding. When a predictive coded picture includes an intra slice and an intra macroblock, the video decoder decodes the intra slice and the intra macroblock of the predictive coded picture without waiting for an intra picture to be decoded. When a macroblock to be referred to has previously been decoded, the video decoder further decodes a non-intra slice and a non-intra macroblock of the predictive coded picture by using a decoding result of the macroblock to be referred to. Thus, when changing the channel, for example, it is possible to quickly obtain output picture data, shorten interruption of the pictures, and check a picture of the next channel in a short time.

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for decoding an MPEG picture stream suitable for use in a digital broadcast receiver, for example. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and the like for decoding an MPEG picture stream that make it possible to quickly obtain output picture data by decoding, when a predictive coded picture includes an intra slice or an intra macroblock, the intra slice or the intra macroblock of the predictive coded picture after an instruction to start decoding, without waiting for an intra picture to be decoded.
As a picture stream handled in a digital broadcast receiver, there is an MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) picture stream. As is well known, MPEG coded data is represented by a hierarchical structure. The hierarchical structure comprises, from the top down: a sequence layer, a GOP (Group of Picture) layer, a picture layer, a slice layer, a macroblock layer, and a block layer.
FIG. 5 shows a sequence layer and a GOP layer. The sequence layer begins with a sequence header and ends with a sequence end. The sequence layer comprises more than one GOP. The GOP layer begins with a GOP header and comprises a plurality of pictures. The first picture is always an I-picture (intra coded picture), followed by a P-picture (predictive coded picture) and a B-picture (bidirectional predictive coded picture).
The I-picture is an intra-frame coded picture, and therefore a single picture can be decoded with only the I-picture. The P-picture is an inter-frame forward-direction predictive coded picture, and transmits its difference with respect to a previous picture, as shown in FIG. 6. A decoding apparatus (decoder) adds the difference to the previous picture and thereby decodes a picture. Thus, the P-picture requires a picture to be referred to first, and the picture decoding uses the I-picture described above as the picture to be referred to and the P-picture created by referring to the I-picture.
The B-picture is a bidirectional predictive coded picture, and transmits its difference with respect to two pictures: a temporally preceding and a temporally succeeding picture, as shown in FIG. 7. The decoding apparatus adds the difference to the preceding and succeeding pictures, and thereby decodes a picture. Thus, the B-picture makes it possible to reduce difference data as compared with the P-picture by referring to two pictures.
FIG. 8 shows an example of an MPEG picture stream formed by I-, P-, and B-pictures. When such an MPEG picture stream is decoded, a conventional method decodes an I-picture, then decodes P-pictures by using a decoding result of the I-picture as a reference picture, and thereafter decodes B-pictures.
FIG. 9 shows a conventional decoding procedure. First, decoding is started at a step ST1. At a step ST2, a first picture is read from a receiving buffer, for example. At a step ST3, operations of the steps ST2 and ST3 are repeated until an I-picture is read.
When an I-picture is read from the stream, the process proceeds to steps ST4 and ST5 to branch according to the type of a read picture. When the read picture is an I-picture, the I-picture is decoded at a step ST6, and then the process proceeds to a step ST7. When the read picture is a P-picture, the P-picture is subjected to forward-direction decoding processing at a step ST8, and then the process proceeds to the step ST7. When the read picture is a B-picture, the B-picture is subjected to bidirectional decoding processing at a step ST9, and then the process proceeds to the step ST7.
At the step ST7, picture data as a decoding result is output. At a step ST10, the next picture is read, and then the process returns to the step ST4 to subject the read picture to decoding processing as described above according to the picture type.
As described above, even when an instruction to start decoding an MPEG picture stream is provided, the conventional decoding apparatus cannot decode P-pictures and B-pictures until the apparatus decodes an I-picture, and therefore a method such as blanking is adopted for the intervening period. Hence, when the digital broadcast receiver selects a channel and thereby changes the MPEG picture stream, for example, picture display on a display unit is interrupted for a moment.
A P-picture and a B-picture may have a small intra coded block unit. An intra coded block enables decoding using only the block and thus does not require a reference picture.

Apparatus for decoding an MPEG picture stream


An electronic device and method for displaying phone call content are provided. The electronic device includes a communication unit configured to transmit and receive voice data during a phone call connection, an audio unit configured to input and output voice data, an input unit configured to receive a user input, a controller configured to determine whether a connected phone call corresponds to an automatic response system (ARS) phone call, and convert received voice data into text data when the connected phone call corresponds to the ARS phone call, and a display unit configured to display the converted text data.

Recently, an electronic device such as a portable mobile communication terminal has been developed to complexly perform various functions such as a voice and video phone call function, a function of transmitting a message or e-mail, a function of inputting or outputting information, a multimedia reproduction function, and a game function.
In order to provide complex functions, the electronic device often includes a display screen. However, the electronic device usually displays only a simple menu for an operation of a user, phone call counterpart information, or an icon on the display screen during a phone call connection. Therefore, during an automatic response system (ARS) call such as a voice guidance service of a specific phone number, in the case in which a user does not remember a voice guidance content or in the case of a user having diminished hearing, the user should repeatedly listen to the voice content or should receive the voice guidance service by making a call again.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.

Electronic device and method for displaying phone call content


A method of designing a 3D integrated circuit (3D IC) including providing a first layout corresponding to a first device of a 3D IC and a second layout corresponding to a second device of a 3D IC is provided. A verification, such as LVS or DRC, may be performed not only on each device separately, but may also be performed to ensure proper connectivity between devices. The verification may be performed on a single layout file (e.g., GDS II file) including the interface layer of the first and second die. Dummy feature pattern may be determined for the 3D IC using a layout including the interface layers of the first and second devices.

The present disclosure related generally to the physical design and verification of three-dimensional(3D) integrated circuits.
A 3D integrated circuit (3D IC) includes a semiconductor a device with two or more layers of active electronic components integrated (e.g., vertically stacked and connected) to form an integrated circuit. Various forms of 3D IC technology are currently being developed including die-on-die stacking, die-on-wafer stacking, and wafer-on-wafer stacking. In 3D IC technology electronic components (e.g., integrated circuits) are built on two or more substrates and packaged to form a single integrated circuit. The electronic components are aligned and bonded together, either after dicing into singulated die or while in wafer form (which may then be subsequently diced). Vertical connections are made between the electronic components such as through the use of through-silicon vias (TSVs). The stacked die may be then packaged such that I/Os can provide connection to the 3D IC.
3D IC technology is desirable in that it allows greater functionality to be provided in a smaller footprint and with increased speed (for example, a shorter vertical connections may provide for decreased delay). However, 3D IC technology also includes challenges. Each electronic component or device (e.g., die) itself includes complicated design features. The interaction of the stacked die create even greater design challenges, which have not yet been addressed by designers, including CAD tool developers. Both the physical connections and the electrical connections between stacked devices must be made accurately and robustly made. An improved method of connection, and verification of such a connection is desired.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


The present invention relates to a thermoplastic resin composition, more precisely, a thermoplastic resin composition with enhanced impact resistance, gloss, weather resistance and scratch resistance, compared with the conventional thermoplastic resin compositions, by containing an acrylate-styrene-acrylonitrile (ASA) graft copolymer, an aromatic vinyl compound and vinyl cyan compound copolymer, an alkyl methacrylate/aromatic vinyl compound/vinyl cyan compound terpolymer and a di-block copolymer (aromatic vinyl compound/vinyl cyan compound—alkyl methacrylate/aromatic vinyl compound/vinyl cyan compound).

High impact strength thermoplastic resin is prepared by mixing the styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer with rubber particles. In general, the high impact strength thermoplastic resin is prepared by graft-copolymerization of styrene and acrylonitrile in the presence of rubber and by mixing the graft product with hard matrix resin containing another styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer.
The high impact strength thermoplastic resin exhibits different characteristics according to the used rubber. The rubber that has been added to the acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) polymer is the butadiene polymer.
The ABS polymer has excellent impact strength even at a very low temperature but poor weather resistance and aging resistance. Thus, to produce a resin with excellent impact strength and at the same time excellent weather resistance and aging resistance, it is essential to eliminate the unsaturated ethylene polymer from the graft copolymer. Therefore, the acrylate-styrene-acylonitrile (ASA) polymer cross-linked with the alkyl acrylate rubber polymer is preferred. The ASA polymer has been widely applied to glossy colored outdoor products including garden furniture, boat, land mark, street light cover, etc.
German Patent No. 1,260,135 describes the preparing method of the ASA polymer having excellent weather resistance and aging resistance. The core used for the ASA polymer is 150˜800 nm in mean diameter and is a cross-linked acrylate large-caliber polyacrylate latex with narrow size distribution. The polymer containing the large-caliber polyacrylate latex exhibits enhanced notched impact strength, higher hardness and reduced contraction, compared with the polymer containing the small-caliber polyacrylate latex. However, the large-caliber graft copolymer has problems of poor levels of gloss and scratch resistance, compared with the small-caliber graft copolymer.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 6,448,342, a monomer comprising aromatic vinyl compound, vinyl cyan compound and alkyl methacrylate is graft-copolymerized in the presence of butadiene rubber particles and then the terpolymer comprising aromatic vinyl compound, vinyl cyan compound and alkyl methacrylate is used as a hard matrix to produce butadiene-based rubber-reinforced thermoplastic resin composition for laser marking having excellent transparency and white chromogenic property. The transparent butadiene-based rubber-reinforced thermoplastic resin has excellent gloss and scratch resistance but reduced weather resistance and impact resistance.
One of the problems of the conventional resin compositions is the unbalance among properties, such as impact-resistance, weather resistance, gloss and scratch resistance, meaning that this property is excellent but the other property is poor.


An optical head device includes a first light source and a second light source respectively emitting a first light beam and a second light beam, a luminous flux separating section selectively separating the first and second light beams for which the same optical path is used, to first and second optical paths, respectively, and a first objective lens converging the first light beam that has been separated to the first optical path on the first optical information recording medium. Further, the optical head device includes a second objective lens made of resin and converging the second light beam separated to the second optical path on the second optical information recording medium, and a first filtering section formed on a beam exit face of the second objective lens and reducing the transmittance of the first light beam to be lower than transmittance of the second light beam.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical head device for use in recording and/or reproducing on and/or from an optical information recording medium, such as an optical disc, and to a recording and/or reproduction device provided with such optical head device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Commercially available high density and high capacity optical information recording media include optical discs such as DVDs, Blu-ray Discs (hereinafter referred to as BDs), and the like. The use of these optical discs have been increasing rapidly in recent years as recording media for recording images, music, computer data and the like. In response, developments have been made eagerly to realize smaller size and lighter weight of compatible optical head devices for recording and/or reproducing information on and/or from optical recording media of different standards such as BD, DVD, CD and the like.
Here, the laser beams for use in recording and reproducing on and from BDs, DVDs and CDs respectively have different wavelengths. Specifically, BDs use a laser beam having a wavelength of 405 nm, DVDs use a laser beam having a wavelength of 660 nm, and CDs use a laser beam having a wavelength of 785 nm. For an optical head device compatible with three wavelengths, an optical path is used both for the laser beam for use in recording and reproducing on and from CDs and DVDs and for the laser beam for use in recording and reproducing on and from BDs, and the components are used in common so as to reduce the number of components and to realize cost reduction.
For recording and/or reproducing on/from the CDs and DVDs, a material that strikes a balance between durability and high performance has already been developed with respect to the light having the wavelength for use in recording and reproducing on and from the CDs and DVDs. However, such optimal material for the CDs and DVDs does not necessarily have sufficient durability against the light of the blue wavelength range for use in recording and reproducing with respect to the BDs.
In fact, when such an optical component made of an optimal material for the CDs and DVDs is used in a three-wavelength compatible optical head device for CDs, DVDs, and BDs, it has discovered that the durability of the optical component, through which a light beam of the blue wavelength range for use in recording and reproducing with respect to the BDs may pass, is liable to deteriorate. Specifically, when adopting such optical component made of an optimal material for the CDs and DVDs, a problem arises in that its inherent durability and characteristics cannot be ensured in the three-wavelength compatible optical head device of CDs, DVDs, and BDs.
International Publication No. 2008/001636 describes a conventional example of a compatible optical head device provided with a light source which emits light in a blue wavelength range, which prevents deterioration of the durability of the optical component made of a material optimized for an optical path of the laser beam for use in recording and reproducing on and from CDs and DVDs. In this conventional example, an optical multilayer film is formed on an optical component such as a polarized hologram with a phase plate so as to prevent deterioration of the organic material used in the optical component by shielding blue stray light with the optical multilayer film even if such blue stray light is generated from the blue laser light as emitted from blue laser beam source.
However, it is extremely difficult to effectively prevent such material optimized for the CDs and DVDs from deteriorating when used for the three-wavelength compatible optical head device for CDs, DVDs, and BDs. In particular, it has been discovered that even with a small amount of light in the blue wavelength range, the objective lens made of resin, which is an essential component of the optical head device, may deteriorate.

Optical head device and recording/reproduction device


A color filter includes a plurality of pixels, each of which includes a red, a green, and a blue sub-pixel alternately arranged in a first direction, edges of the red, green, and blue sub-pixels having bent portions. The sub-pixels of a same color are continuously arranged in a second direction being substantially perpendicular to the first direction. Displaying color images of a liquid crystal display using the color filter may be better than that of the liquid crystal display using the typical color filters. The yield ratio in mass production of the liquid crystal display using the color filter is lower than that of the liquid crystal display using the typical color filters. In addition, a liquid crystal display using the color filter is disclosed.

Liquid crystal displays are passive display devices. To display color images, a color filter needs to be provided. Referring to FIG. 4, a first kind of typical color filter 1 defines a plurality of pixels formed by arranging red (R), green (G), and blue (B) sub-pixels in a matrix. Each pixel includes a red sub-pixel, a green sub-pixel, and a blue sub-pixel. The structure of the color filter 1 is simple. However, in each of areas such as that shown within rectangular area I in FIG. 4, there is only one kind of sub-pixel. The area within rectangular area I has the same size as each of the pixels. Therefore, the capability of fine color mixing is poor, and a liquid crystal display using the color filter 1 tends to display poor quality color images.
Referring to FIG. 5, a second kind of typical color filter 2 includes a plurality of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) sub-pixels. The red, green and blue sub-pixels are arranged such that their centers define a regular, repeating array of equilateral triangles. Each of areas such as that shown within rectangular area II in FIG. 5 has a same size as the area within rectangular area I of the color filter 1. However, there are three kinds of sub-pixels in the area within rectangular area II. Accordingly, the quality of color images displayed by a liquid crystal display using the color filter 2 is better than that of the liquid crystal display using the color filter
Referring to FIG. 6, part of a driving circuit of the liquid crystal display using the color filter 2 is shown. The driving circuit includes a plurality of gate lines 11 being parallel to each other, and a plurality of signal lines 12. The gate lines 11 are connected to gate electrodes of corresponding thin film transistors, and are driven by a driving integrated circuit (IC) 13. Each signal line 12 is connected to source electrodes of thin film transistors according to the same color sub-pixels, and is driven by a driver 14. Therefore the distribution of the signal lines 12 is complex, and the signal lines 12 are always configured with right-angled bends. However, disruption or cutoffs may easily occur at the right-angled bends of the signal lines 12. This tends to result in a low yield rate in mass production of the color filter 2.
Referring to FIG. 7, a third kind of typical color filter 3 includes a plurality of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) sub-pixels arranged in a regular, repeating mosaic. Each of areas such as that shown within rectangular area III in FIG. 5 has a same size as the area within rectangular area I of the color filter 1. However, there are three kinds of sub-pixels in the area within rectangular area III. Accordingly, the quality of color images displayed by a liquid crystal display using the color filter 3 is better than that of the liquid crystal display using the color filter 1.
Referring to FIG. 8, part of a driving circuit of the liquid crystal display using the color filter 3 is shown. Signal lines 15r, 15g, 15b are respectively connected to corresponding thin film transistors according to red, green, and blue sub-pixels. Therefore the distribution of the signal lines 15r, 15g, 15b is complex, and the signal lines 15r, 15g, 15b are always configured with right-angled bends. However, disruption or cutoffs may easily occur at the right-angled bends of the signal lines 15r, 15g, 15b. This tends to result in a low yield rate in mass production of the color filter 3.
What is needed is a color filter which can overcome the above-described problems.

Color filter and liquid crystal display using the same


A purified xylanase produced by Acidothermus cellulolyticus is disclosed having a pH optimum of between about 3.6-4.2 and a molecular weight of between about 50-55 kD as determined by gel filtration. The disclosed xylanase is useful in the bleaching of pulp for the production of paper and in treating feed compositions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a novel xylanase composition and a method for its production. Specifically, the invention is related to a purified xylanase composition derived from Acidothermus sp., and particularly Acidothermus cellulolyticus, and the use of that enzyme in bleaching pulp and paper and treating feed compositions.
2. State of the Art
Xylanases are known to be produced by a number of different microorganisms. Several different xylanolytic enzymes are generally produced by a microorganism, each of the xylanases acting to attack different bonds in the wood complex. Attempts to use enzymes derived from both fungal and bacterial sources in industrial processes, e.g., for enhancing delignification and brightening while lowering or eliminating the use of chlorine in the bleaching of lignocellulosic pulp in the paper industry or for improving the value of animal feed have been described in the literature.
Xylanases, e.g., endo-.beta.-xylanases (EC 22.214.171.124), which hydrolyze the xylan backbone chain, have been studied for their use in bleaching lignocellulosic material. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,179,021, the combination of xylanase and oxygen treatment in the bleaching of pulp is disclosed as being particularly useful. In PCT Application Publication No. WO 92/03541, a method of dissolving hemicellulose with hemicellulases derived from the fungus Trichoderma reesei is disclosed. The search for xylanases, however, has focused on thermophilic and alkalophilic xylanases which are useful under pulp bleaching conditions utilizing high temperatures and alkali. However, the use of oxygen or ozone bleaching generally occurs at a lower pH. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to discover a low pH xylanase which has significant activity at high temperatures.
Recently, several thermophilic xylanases from fungal and bacterial microorganisms have been identified. For example, a thermophilic xylanase has been isolated from Actinomadura reclassified as Microtetraspora having an optimal pH of 6.0-7.0 and temperature range of 70-80.degree. C. (Holtz, C. et al Antonie van Leewenhoek 59:1-7, 1991). EP 473 545 discloses that the bacterial strain Thermomonospora fusca produces thermostable xylanases active at temperatures 10-90.degree. C., preferably, 50-80.degree. C. over a wide pH range, i.e., from about 5-10, with the more preferred range between 6.6-9.5. In addition, WO92/18612 discloses a xylanase enzyme derived from the genus, Dictyoglomus, having activity over a broad pH range (5.0-9.0) and thermostability at temperatures ranging from 60-90.degree. C. The thermophilic cellulolytic bacteria Acidothermus cellulolyticus is described in Mohagheghi et al., Int. J. Systematic Bact., vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 435-443 (1986), and the production of cellulase is described in Shiang et al., Appl. Microb. Biotech., vol. 34, pp. 591-597 (1991). However, neither reference describes a purified xylanase which may be useful at low pH and high temperature.
Xylanases have also been useful in animal feeds to enable animals to digest the feeds more efficiently. One result of adding xylanase to feed is an improvement in the Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) of a feed without increasing its cost per unit weight. The FCR of a feed is the ratio of the amount of feed consumed relative to the weight gain of the animal. A low FCR indicates that a given amount of feed results in a growing animal gaining proportionately more weight. This means that the animal is able to utilise the feed more efficiently. One way in which the FCR can be reduced is to improve its digestibility by an animal thereby increasing the nutritional benefit which the animal can derive from it.
However, there are various constraints on the digestibility of the nutritional components of a feed such as its starch, fat, protein and amino acid content. These constraints include:
(i) the viscosity of materials present in the animal's gut. Such viscosity is due, at least in part, to soluble non-starch polysaccharides such as mixed-linked .beta.-glucans and arabinoxylans; PA1 (ii) entrapment of nutrients within the cell walls of the feed, particularly those of the aleurone layer in cereals. Such entrapment is caused by the high levels of non-starch polysaccharides in the cell walls of cereals which are relatively resistant to break-down by the animal's digestive system. This prevents the nutrients entrapped within the cells from being nutritionally available to the animal; and PA1 (iii) a deficiency in endogenous enzyme activity, both of the animal and of the gut microbial population particularly in a young animal.
The above problems which interfere with digestibility are particularly noticeable in the case of cereal-based diets, such as those having a high wheat content.
Due to the problem of poor digestibility of nutrients from the feed, it is normally necessary to formulate feeds to contain higher levels of energy and protein providing materials in order to meet the nutritional demands of animals.
There is now a substantial body of evidence showing that incorporating certain (supplementary) enzymes in cereal-based animal feeds can be advantageous in reducing the viscosity of material present in the animal's gut. This reduction can be achieved by enzymes such as xylanases which hydrolyse soluble xylans thereby reducing digesta viscosity which is an important constraint on the process of digestion.
The xylanases which are added as supplements must be stable and active at the pH and temperature conditions found within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of the target animal. If they are not stable and active when exposed to such in vivo conditions, then they will not be able to reduce digesta viscosity to any significant extent. It is presently known to include xylanases as a supplement in an animal feed derived from fungi such as Trichoderma longibrachiatum, Aspergillus niger and Humicola insolens. Bedford and Classen (The Journal of Nutrition, vol. 122, pp 560-569) disclose that there is a significant correlation between digesta viscosity measured in vivo in the case of broiler chickens and bodyweight gain and FCR values. In the case of wheat and rye-based diets fed to poultry, it was shown that as much as 70-80% of the variations in the weight gain and FCR are based upon differences in intestinal viscosity alone. This highlights the importance of digesta viscosity in cereal-based feeds containing high levels of soluble arabinoxylans. As digesta viscosity increases, it reduces the digestibility of all nutrients by interfering with the diffusion of pancreatic enzymes, substrates and the end products of the digestion process.
However, the use of enzyme supplements, such as xylanase, in animal feed is complicated by the processing requirements for grain supplements. Often, such enzyme supplements are obtained by impregnating the enzyme onto a physiologically acceptable carrier, such as a cereal. The impregnated carrier is mixed with the other components of the feed and then pressed into cubes or pellets for feeding directly to animals. The processes which have been developed make use of relatively high temperatures. This is firstly to improve the efficiency of the manufacturing process and secondly to produce feeds which are free from harmful bacteria, particularly Salmonella. In addition, the use of high temperatures improves the quality and durability of the resulting cubes and pellets, increases the range of ingredients which can be efficiently handled and also increases the level of liquid ingredients, such as fat and molasses, which can be incorporated into the feed.
Processing techniques for feed components currently employ relatively high temperatures for a relatively long period. Further, the mixture is subjected to relatively high pressures during pelleting to increase the durability of the cubes or pellets formed. One of the processing methods which has been developed to improve the nutritional properties of the feed is steam pelleting. This method includes the step of treating the compounded feed with steam to increase its temperature and moisture content. This step is termed conditioning. Conditioning lasts from a few seconds up to several minutes depending on the type and formulation of the feed. The temperature in the conditioner may rise to 100.degree. C. Afterwards, the feed is passed through a pelleting die which causes a rapid increase in its temperature due to friction.
Recently, a new device for pretreatment or conditioning of feeds has been introduced called an expander. This device allows sustained conditioning under pressure followed by pelleting. According to this technique, various feed components which have previously been subjected to steam-conditioning are fed into a compression screw into which more steam is injected, and the mass is then subjected to increasing pressure and shear action and then forced through a variable exit gap. The compressed product, after reduction in particle size, is fed into a standard pelleting press. The dwell time of the feed components in the expander is about 5-20 seconds, and the temperature reached may be as high as 145.degree. C. A compression pressure of about 3.5 MPa is reached, but the build-up of both temperature and pressure is very quick and both fall rapidly as the product is expelled through the exit gap. The use of expanders is advantageous because they effectively eliminate harmful bacteria, particularly Salmonella. Furthermore, it is possible to include relatively high levels of fat and other liquid ingredients in the mixture prior to pelleting. In addition, the cooking and pressure/shear action results in greater starch gelatinisation.
Unfortunately, the high temperature and high pressure processing conditions characteristic of the expander and pelleting technology, particularly when applied in the moist conditions normally encountered during pelleting, are potentially destructive to certain feed components. This is particularly true of any enzymes, including xylanases, which are present. Thus, the prior art enzymes have generally had the problem that they are not sufficiently stable under the processing conditions of commercial pelleting operations to allow economical use of such pelleting techniques.
Accordingly, even though partial solutions to the problem of enzyme stability during feed processing are available, none of them solves the problem in a totally effective manner.

Xylanase from acidothermus cellulolyticus


A method for measuring lung collapse and for providing information regarding recruitment and successfulness of actions taken to recruit the lung is provided. Alveolar- and proximal pressures are determined at different lung pressures or volumes. Patient airway resistance is calculated combining these measurements with flow measurement. Plotting the resistance against the lung pressure or volume gives a within-breath distribution of the resistance. Increase of this resistance at end-expiration volume or pressure indicates lung collapse.

Improper ventilator settings during long-term ventilation may cause lung damage, known as ventilator induced lung injury (VILI). Limiting or eliminating VILI has been a topic of scientific discussion for years. As a result of this, two main damaging mechanisms have been identified: (1) shear stress caused by lung collapse at end-expiration and (2) over-distension causing tissue breakage allowing fluidic communication between alveolar space and lung capillaries.
To reduce VILI, lung-protective low tidal volume-high positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) ventilation strategies have been recommended. The high PEEP is used to prevent lung collapse. However, high PEEP distends the lung tissue, reducing the tidal volume range that can be used without overstretching the lungs. Therefore the strategy is accompanied with reduced tidal volume. Such strategies are also called permissive hypercapnia because low tidal volume may not maintain sufficient CO2 clearance from the circulation, causing blood CO2 content increase, i.e. hypercapnia. Hypercapnia is a non-normal physiological state in which negative side effects are possible. Therefore, optimal ventilation settings incorporate the lowest PEEP that prevents end-expiration collapse of the lungs to maximize the elastic lung volume range for the tidal volume.
Adjusting the ventilator for optimal PEEP for a particular patient is problematic since diagnostic real-time bedside measurements for lung collapse are missing. In state of the art therapy, common values based on statistical studies are used for patients classified to represent particular forms of lung sicknesses. From an individual patient point of view, such statistical values may be too low or too high compared to the optimal. Visual inspection for inflection point in the curvature of a graph where the breathing volume is presented as a function of breathing circuit pressure has been used. Locating this point is difficult and, when found, it may represent properties other than the end-expiratory lung collapse, such as properties of the chest wall, ventilator, breathing circuit, or endotracheal tube.
Although PEEP is very a common property of artificial ventilation and is effective in preventing lung collapse, it is not very effective in recruiting collapsed lung regions. For this purpose, recruitment manoeuvres are used wherein the lung is opened with one or more inspirations with increased tidal volume and duration. Also, patient positioning can be used to recruit the lungs. Prone or side positioning may open the lungs compared to more normal supine positions. Further forms of recruitment may be obtained by infusion of drugs, such as surfactants or bronchodilators. Clinical problems result however because direct measurements indicating the need for recruitment and its efficacy are missing at the bedside. Without such information, decisions have to be made based on indirect parameters such as oxygenation, which are not very sensitive for lung collapse.


A system that determines where a particular XIP component is stored on a medium and loads the component into RAM for execution, providing the ability to demand page specific components at will from storage media, frees up working RAM on memory constrained devices. A Binary File System uses a generic block driver component that loads the XIP code from a block based storage medium. Features of the file system include the ability to load pre-“fixed up” components from a block based device. The invention thus allows an operating system to load code that was previously Executed In Place (XIP) from a block-oriented device.

Execute in place (XIP) images are fixed position images and are built to execute on a CPU or processor from a specific location in a computer memory device. The location must be accessible in a linear format so that the CPU can fetch and execute individual instructions; thus, DRAM and NOR flash memory are commonly used memory storage devices that are used for XIP image execution. Block addressable devices such as disk storage systems are generally not usable for execute in place images because memory in such devices must be read one block at a time and is not addressable at the individual instruction level.
Contemporary computer systems combine various types of memory and storage subsystems such flash memory, ROM, RAM, and disk storage. Read access times can vary greatly among various storage devices and often influences the combination of the various storage subsystems to maximize cost and performance. For example, the following list of devices have read access times that are listed in order starting with the shortest read access time to the longest read access times): SDRAM, flash memory (NAND and NOR are not differentiated, it depends on read mode), and then disk drives. For non-volatile memory types, erase and write times, or the ability to update data, also varies greatly among device types. For example, the following device types are listed in order starting with the shortest write times: NAND flash memory, NOR flash memory, and then disk drives. SDRAM has the fastest erase and write times.
NAND flash memory typically does not support executing code in place from the flash memory part and thus typically requires a linear non-volatile memory solution such as NOR flash memory or ROM for boot-time initialization. NAND vendors offers hybrid designs like NAND flash memory with a small NOR boot block or logic designs that enable a CPU to read from a particular good NAND block at reset time to address this issue.
NOR flash memory provides non-volatile storage. Typically there is no BIOS or boot loader present, this means that code execution will need to start from the NOR flash memory at CPU reset, thus prohibiting compression of the entire image to save space and perhaps allow for a smaller NOR part.
Non-writeable ROM, most likely production masked ROM, provides non-volatile storage. The topology is very similar to NOR flash memory with the same design trade offs. The main benefit of ROM designs over NOR flash memory is typically related to the cost advantage, depending on volumes, of replacing the NOR flash memory with a ROM part. A downside is effectively the lack of a real software upgrade path for field devices other than physical replacement of the ROM part.
A single NAND flash memory device provides non-volatile storage. Because NAND is a block device and does not support a linear interface, the CPU cannot directly execute code stored in NAND flash memory. As a result, for this configuration to work, conventionally a non-volatile linear storage area is required—many hybrid NAND flash memory parts contain a small linear NOR region called a boot block.
NAND flash memory is a block-accessed storage device, very much like a conventional electro-mechanical disk drive with a serial interface. For this reason, NAND flash memory is generally not suitable for XIP solutions because the CPU requires program memory to be linear. Instead, NAND flash memory images are typically moved to DRAM during execution either at boot time or by OS paging. This ties the cost of NAND flash memory-based devices more closely to the fluctuating DRAM market prices.
The typically shorter erase and write access times for NAND flash memory over conventional linear flash memory is an advantage. Read access times for both NAND flash memory and conventional linear flash memory are comparable. In addition, the erase cycle is typically an order of magnitude greater than linear flash memory, thereby extending the lifespan of the NAND flash memory part. This cost-per-byte benefit and the larger storage sizes offset the added complexity involved in the NAND solution and any additional expense in DRAM.
The standard ATA or IDE hard disk drive can also be a good choice for image storage. Like NAND flash memory, disk drives are non-linear, block-accessed devices. This means that a CPU cannot directly execute (XIP) code from disk. Instead, the XIP code must first be copied to linear memory (DRAM), where the CPU can execute it. Read and write access times are significantly longer than that of solid-state devices, but the storage capacity of disk drives is much larger.

System and method for executing binary images


A flat cavity RF power divider wherein a flat cavity and an input waveguide share a common wall, coupling slots being disposed in the common wall offset from the centerline of the input waveguide for exciting a dominant TE.sub.4,0 mode in the flat cavity, the power divider also including short circuit means for exciting the transverse axis column of the flat cavity, and RF absorber means in the cavity to improve the frequency response of the divider, output coupling means also being provided for providing an RF power output.

The present invention relates generally to microwave transmission systems and more particularly to an RF power divider capable of handling relatively high power with forced air cooling.
Cavity power dividers have proven to be the best suited component to interface with active phase array elements of satellite microwave transmission antenna systems. Prior RF power dividers are mostly corporate feed types. The prior art includes either waveguide tee junctions, or hybrid couplers. Square coaxial hybrid couplers are also used as power dividers.
One example of a prior art power divider is described in a document entitled "44 GHz Monolithic Conformal Active Transmit Phased Array Antenna," 1987, delivered under contract number F19628-83-C-0115 by Harris Corporation. There is disclosed a power divider consisting of a rectangular waveguide plate (parallel plate or Pillbox Feed), a ridged waveguide to coaxial transition, a short section of ridged waveguide, and coaxial to output port.
Another example of the prior art is described in a document entitled "20 GHz Monolithic Conformal Active Receive Phased Array Antenna," March 1989, delivered under contract number F19628-83-C-0109 by Ball Aerospace Corporation. The Ball power divider consists of complex microstrip coupler power dividing circuits, wave-guide-to-E-plane transitions, and mini-coax connected directly to microstrip as output port. The disadvantages of these above-noted conventional devices include: low thermal dissipation efficiency, complex cooling systems, high manufacturing costs, and high RF insertion loss.


Post-compaction treatments of iron compacts to improve the mechanical strength of the compacts are provided. Powder is compacted into the desired part. The part is then subjected to a strengthening operation. This operation involves a heat treatment at a moderate temperature combined with an optional resin impregnation. The heat treatment is done at a temperature sufficient to increase the mechanical properties of the compact while maintaining the magnetic losses low for the required application. Impregnation with an insulating binder can be effected to increase the mechanical strength of the part without creating electric contacts between the powder particles.

Steel laminations have been used for decades in low frequency magnetic components, i.e. components which are subject to magnetic flux. The design of stacked magnetic components must take into account that the magnetic flux is confined in planes parallel to the sheet surfaces. Additionally, there are difficulties with miniaturisation and waste materials with steel laminations which can be important for some type of electric motors.
Since the beginning of the century, iron powder has been used for the production of magnetic components. Powder metallurgy offers the possibility of controlling the spatial distribution of the magnetic flux and allows practically full utilisation of materials even for the manufacture of complicated shapes. Recent advances in powder metallurgy offer new opportunities in the design of electromagnetic components. Several authors have shown the advantages of using iron/resin composites especially for applications in the medium and high frequency ranges.
The required mechanical and magnetic properties of a material depend of the application. For low frequency applications (50-60 Hz typically), the magnetic induction and the permeability must be as high as possible and the core losses must be minimised. Permeability is strongly influenced by the effective length of distributed air-gaps in iron/resin composites. Previous works have shown that permeability decreases dramatically when the resin content increases in iron/resin composites. The resin content should therefore be minimised to keep the permeability high in these materials.
When a magnetic material is exposed to an alternating magnetic field, it dissipates energy. The power dissipated under an alternating field is defined as core loss. The core losses are mainly composed of hysteresis and eddy current losses. Hysteresis losses are due to the energy dissipated by the domain wall movement. The hysteresis losses are proportional to the frequency and are mainly influenced by the chemical composition and the structure of the material. Some currents (i.e., eddy currents) are induced when a magnetic material is exposed to an alternating magnetic field. These currents lead to an energy loss through Joule (resistance) heating. Eddy current losses are expected to vary with the square of the frequency, the square of the powder diameter and inversely with the resistivity. Thus the relative importance of the eddy current losses depends on the material and increases as the frequency increases. At 60 Hz, the losses are mainly constituted of hysteresis losses in iron/resin composites. In contrast, in the case of sintered iron components, eddy currents are the most important part of the losses at the same frequency.
Uncoated iron powders are currently used to make sintered parts for DC magnetic applications. Sintered parts have low resistivity and are generally not used in AC applications. For applications in alternating magnetic field, a minimal threshold resistivity is required. Unsintered iron powder (green compact) has good magnetic properties, acceptable resistivity and can be used for low frequency magnetic applications. However, green compacts have low mechanical properties which will keep these materials off many applications. In AC applications, coated powders or powder mixes containing insulating resins are generally used. The dielectric is used to insulate and bind the magnetic particles together. Ward et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,896 presented a review of the techniques to electrically insulate particles with coatings. A wide range of organic and inorganic insulating binders has already been used. Double coatings have also been used (Roseby, U.S. Pat. No. 1,789,477; Katz, U.S. Pat. No. 2,783,208; Rutz, U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,011; Soileau, U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,765) for applications in alternating magnetic fields.
T. Werber (Joining of Metallic Grains by Thermal Oxidation, J. Novotny and W. Weppner eds., Non-stoichiometric Compounds Surfaces, Grain Boundaries and Structural Defects, 547-556, 1989) studied the mechanism of formation of intergranular oxide joints in uncompacted iron powder in air at 400-800.degree. C. Oxide layers of identical chemical compositions (e.g. Fe.sub.2 O.sub.3) exist on both sides of the contact interface. The external (last formed) lattice planes are only partly ordered and the contact on the interface between growing oxide surfaces is very close. This generates an ordering process at the interface and the formation of a grain boundary between crystallites consisting of the same oxide. Therefore, the interparticle joint is a cohesive bond created by grain boundary formation. The oxide located between the remainders of both initial metal particles can be treated as a monolithic layer common to both particles.
Y. P. Orekhov et al. (Some Properties of a Soft Magnetic Material from Oxidised Iron Powder, Soviet Powder Metallurgy and Metal Ceramics, 15, No. 9 (September 1976), 706-710), studied the effect of the sintering temperature and atmosphere on the magnetic and electric properties of soft magnetic materials fabricated from oxidised iron powder. They showed that the electrical resistivity decreases as the sintering temperature varies from 350.degree. C. to 750.degree. C. (sintering time 0.5 h, steam atmosphere). They associate the variation of the electrical resistivity to changes in the composition and properties of the oxide. Using x-ray diffraction, the authors identified the oxide present at the surface of the powder as magnetite. As the sintering temperature increases, the diffusion of iron and oxygen ions increases in the oxide. The diffusion of oxygen ions in magnetite is slow compared to the diffusion of iron and the concentration of the Fe.sup.2+ rises as the temperature increases. The presence of Fe.sup.2+ facilitates the ionic exchange in the oxide layer between the oxide layer between the iron powder and then reduces the electrical resistivity of the material. These explanations do not take into account possible growing oxide thickness during the sintering.
The oxide naturally present at the surface of the iron powder insulates the particles and the oxide formed during the thermal oxidation treatment binds the particles together. If the sintering temperature is low, the sintering time is short and the atmosphere is appropriate, the insulative oxide layer between iron particles will be continuous and effective to provide parts with improved electrical resistivity compared to sintered iron, and improved mechanical strength compared to untreated iron powder compacts. This is important in soft magnetic material fabricated by P/M (powder metallurgy), intended for AC applications.
It is well known that dielectromagnetics containing iron and resins (thermosets or thermoplastics) such as those described above have very low eddy current losses and perform well in alternating magnetic fields. However, at low frequencies, e.g., 60 Hz, the amount of insulating material must be kept as low as possible in order to improve the ease of magnetisation. It is also known, as it is the case for most of the metal powders, that iron powder is naturally covered by a thin oxide layer which increases significantly the resistivity of bulk iron. For instance, the resistivity of green iron compacts is usually more than two orders of magnitude higher than for cast iron. However, it has not been expected that iron powder compacts can be used at low frequencies without any insulating material. It has been believed that eddy current losses are too high and that the mechanical strength is too low.
It is an object of the invention to develop a method of treatment of iron compacts to obtain the necessary magnetic and mechanical properties of the compacts for magnetic applications at low frequencies.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method to produce powder parts, or elements, with properties offering a compromise between the properties of sintered parts (high permeability) and dielectromagnetics composed of iron powder and resin (low eddy current losses).
It is also an object of the invention to provide powder compacts having the above-described advantageous properties.
Where iron powder is referred to, it is understood that another suitable ferrous alloy may be substituted for pure iron. It is also recognized that entirely pure, non-oxidized iron is practically non-feasible in an industrial environment.

Treatment of iron powder compacts, especially for magnetic applications


Reactors having multiple electrodes and/or enclosed reciprocating paddles are disclosed. The reactor can include multiple electrodes spaced apart from a process location to provide virtual electrodes proximate to the process location for transferring material to or from the workpiece. A magnet may be positioned proximate to the process plane to orient magnetically sensitive material deposited on the workpiece. The electrodes may be removable from the reactor without passing them through the magnet to reduce interference between the electrodes and the magnet. The workpiece may be carried by a rotatable workpiece support to orient the workpiece for processing. At least one of the electrodes can operate as a current thief to reduce terminal effects at the periphery of the workpiece. An electric field control element positioned between the electrodes and the workpiece circumferentially varies the effect of the thieving electrode current to account for effects created by elongated paddles as they oscillate proximate to the workpiece.

Microdevices are manufactured by depositing and working several layers of materials on a single substrate to produce a large number of individual devices. For example, layers of photoresist, conductive materials, and dielectric materials are deposited, patterned, developed, etched, planarized, and so forth to form features in and/or on a substrate. The features are arranged to form integrated circuits, micro-fluidic systems, and other structures.
Wet chemical processes are commonly used to form features on microfeature workpieces. Wet chemical processes are generally performed in wet chemical processing tools that have a plurality of individual processing chambers for cleaning, etching, electrochemically depositing materials, or performing combinations of these processes. In some cases, the processing chambers include a vessel configured to electrolytically apply material to the workpiece and/or remove material from the workpiece. The workpiece is partially immersed in a bath that includes an electrolyte in fluid communication with an electrode. When material is to be added to the workpiece, electrical potentials of opposite polarities are applied to the electrode (which functions as an anode) and the workpiece (which functions as a cathode). When material is to be removed from the workpiece, the polarities are reversed so that the electrode operates as a cathode and the workpiece operates as an anode.
During electrolytic processing, a diffusion layer develops at the surface of the workpiece in contact with the electrolytic liquid. The concentration of the material applied to or removed from the workpiece varies over the thickness of the diffusion layer. In many cases, it is desirable to reduce the thickness of the diffusion layer so as to allow an increase in the speed with which material is added to or removed from the workpiece. In other cases, it is desirable to otherwise control the material transfer at the surface of the workpiece, for example to control the composition of an alloy deposited on the surface, or to more uniformly deposit materials in surface recesses having different aspect ratios.
One approach to reducing the diffusion layer thickness is to increase the flow velocity of the electrolyte at the surface of the workpiece. For example, some vessels include paddles that translate or rotate immediately adjacent to the workpiece to create a high speed, agitated flow at the surface of the workpiece. In other arrangements, fluid jets are directed at the workpiece to agitate the flow at the workpiece surface.
The foregoing arrangements suffer from several drawbacks. For example, the electrode may not apply or remove material from the workpiece in a spatially uniform manner, causing some areas of the workpiece to gain or lose material at a greater rate than others. Existing devices are also not configured to transfer material to and/or from different types of workpieces without requiring lengthy, unproductive time intervals between processing periods, during which the devices must be reconfigured (for example, by moving the electrodes and/or a shield to adjust the electric field within the electrolyte). Another drawback is that the paddles can disturb the uniformity of the electric field created by the electrode, which further affects the uniformity with which material is applied to or removed from the workpiece. Still another drawback with the foregoing arrangements is that the vessel may also include a magnet positioned proximate to the workpiece to control the orientation of material applied to the workpiece. When the electrode is removed from the vessel for servicing or replacement, it has been difficult to do so without interfering with and/or damaging the magnet.

Reactors having multiple electrodes and/or enclosed reciprocating paddles, and associated methods