A coated wire for medical applications including a length of biocompatible wire material. The wire material can be coated along a portion of the perimeter of the wire. The deposition of the coating can cover less than the total circumference of the wire.

The present invention relates to the medical field of intraluminal wires used to access distal areas of the body. Specifically, the present invention relates to wires partially coated with a lubricious material. The coated wire may be used to construct a guide wire with a central core and surrounded by the coated wire coiled around the core. Alternatively, the partially coated wire may be used to construct a variety of devices including baskets, snares, laparoscopic instruments or small coils that may be used within numerous medical specialties, including cardiology, urology, and radiology.
Minimally invasive medical procedures can be performed at remote sites by inserting and navigating endoscopic equipment into and through blood vessels or body lumens to the treatment site. A specific site may be difficult to reach for many reasons including vessel or tract tortuosity, lumen constriction e.g. edema or tumor impingement or lumen blockage e.g. ureterolithiasis.
Insertion of a guide wire can facilitate access to the treatment site. Catheters or medical tools can then be advanced over the guide wire to the specific site. To achieve accurate placement the guide wire should incorporate the somewhat competing features of pushability, kink resistance, torqueability and bendability. Guide wire designs known in the art to meet these criteria include a guide wire design characterized by a solid metal core surrounded by a metal coil. Metals for the core may include spring steels, stainless steels and NiTi alloys. The same variety of metals used as core materials can be used for the coil wire, including stainless steel or NiTi alloys such as NITINOL wire. The coil wire may be round wire or flat wire; the coil wire may be made of a single wire strand or may be made of multifilar wire. The coil wire may wrap around the entire length of the core or only a portion of the core. The adjacent turns of the coil wire may or may not be tightly wrapped with succeeding turns of the coil wire touching, the coil wire may be wrapped around the core in an open fashion, or the core may be surrounded by coil wire that is tightly wrapped along a portion of the core and open wrapped along a subsequent portion of the core. The coil can be, but need not be, in axial compression.
Important to smooth advancement and retraction of the guide wire is an exterior surface of the guide wire that creates minimal friction between the inner wall of the vasculature or body lumen and the exterior surface of the guide wire. Similarly, to advance catheters or other equipment over or along a guide wire, a balance is required between ease of movement of the catheter or equipment along the guide wire and retention of the desired positioning of the guide wire at the treatment site.
Guide wire construction typically includes use of a pre-coated coil wire to minimize friction between the external surface of the guide wire and the inner wall of the bodily lumen or medical equipment. The guide wire could, however, be spray coated after assembly to increase lubricity.
Circumferential coating of the wire coil may interfere with or prevent desired bonding (including adhesive, weld, and solder) between the coil wire and core. Abrasion between adjacent coated coils of the coil wire may result in flaking or sloughing of coating material. Abraded particles of coating material could enter the vascular or body lumen.
Construction and use requirements of various other coated medical wires and endoscopic instruments, such as urology baskets and snares, laparoscopic instruments or radiology coils may mimic the construction and use requirements of a coated guide wire.
The invention pertains to a wire partially coated with a lubricious material. The present invention provides benefits over the prior art by providing a wire that is coated only along a portion of the wire perimeter. The lubricious coating is deposited on the wire along the exterior perimeter portion of the wire that could have direct contact with either an internal body lumen or an inner lumen of a catheter. Lubricious materials for coating select portions of the wire include PTFE and hydrophilic materials such as HYDROPASS or GLIDEX. A single material may be coated along the selected portion of the wire, or different materials may be applied along different segments of the wire.
The uncoated portions of the wire provide surfaces for bonding to other materials that are preferably free of interference from the coating material. For example, guide wire construction may require bonding between a wire core and wire coil surrounding the core. The uncoated portions of the coil wire provide a surface preferably free from a coating material; such uncoated portion may more readily enhance bonding between the core and the coil wire.
If the partially coated wire is formed into a coil configuration, such as may occur in construction of a guide wire, where interstices of the coils are preferably uncoated, the potential for coating material flake-off or rub-off resulting from abrasion between adjacent turns of the coiled wire is reduced or eliminated.


To provide a technique of embedding information in a document image containing character strings, photos, and graphics, an image processing apparatus for inputting a document image and embedding watermark information by controlling the line spacing between character strings in the document image includes an input unit which inputs a document image as image data, an image reduction unit which generates reduced image data from the image data, a determination unit which determines reduced objects corresponding to character strings in the image data, a specifying unit which specifies the position of each character string in the image data based on the positions of the reduced objects in the reduced image data, and an embedding unit which embeds the watermark information in the image data by moving the positions of a plurality of specified character strings in the image data based on a preset line spacing correspondence relationship.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing technique of embedding watermark information in a document image based on the line spacing between the character strings in the document image.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a technique of adding information of, for example, copyright or copy control to a document image, a method described in Kineo Matsui, "Basics of a digital watermark", Morikita Publishing Co., Ltd. pp. 198-199, 1998 (ISBN:4-627-82551-X) is known, in which information is embedded using line spacing (to be referred to as a line spacing watermark hereinafter). FIG. 3 is a view showing the concept of a line spacing watermark. To extract embedded information from a document image using a line spacing watermark, first, the line spacing between the character strings in the document image is obtained. To obtain the line spacing, generally, a histogram is obtained by fully scanning the document image. The line spacing is derived from the histogram. Then, information is extracted in accordance with the derived line spacing and a rule used for embedding. To embed, e.g., binary information "0", line spacings U and D are set to U>D, as shown in FIG. 3. On the other hand, to embed binary information "1", the line spacings U and D are set to U<D.
However, the above-described method of extracting information embedded in a document image using a line spacing watermark has the following problems. To measure the line spacing, it is necessary to fully scan the document image and obtain a histogram. Hence, the information extraction process is time-consuming. In particular, when copy control information is embedded, the copy control information is extracted in a copying machine, whether copying is possible is determined based on the extracted information, and then, a copy process is performed. The series of processes of copying one document takes a lot of time.
Additionally, a method of embedding information in a document image containing character strings, photos, and graphics is not described in the prior art. A method of extracting information from a mixed document image is not described either.

Image processing apparatus and method of controlling the same


A guard for use with rotary cutters in the cloth cutting and related arts. The design includes a wide, clear plate for placement over cloth to be cut and an upturned edge portion to allow application of a rotary cutter device. The method steps of the invention use the apparatus in combination with a guide ruler to enable the easy and safe use of conventional rulers in combination with rotary cutting devices.

The present invention is generally related to the rotary cutter and guard arts and to a novel method and apparatus for protecting the user of items such as rotary cutters.
Prior art rotary cutter guarding means have generally been attached to the lateral portions of a rotary cutter as illustrated by the cited patents.
Such designs, while somewhat effective, are costly to add to a rotary cutter and still do not fully perform the needed safety requirements for the user.
A simpler and easier to use design for rotary cutter systems would therefore be of advantage in the art.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to show a novel rotary cutter guard which is economical to make and sell for widespread commercial appeal.
It is further object of the invention to demonstrate a novel rotary cutter guard which is easy to use by the consumer to enhance the desired safety and work results.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those of skill in the art from the description which follows.


A tri-state signal driver circuit includes a signal driver circuit to generate a driven signal. A tri-state enable logic circuit generates a pass gate disable signal corresponding to a tri-state command signal. A demultiplexer connected to the signal driver circuit and the tri-state enable logic circuit includes a set of pass gate switches to route the driven signal to a selected output node of the demultiplexer. The set of pass gate switches are responsive to the pass gate disable signal so as to produce a tri-state output signal at the selected output node.

A signal driver is a circuit that receives an input signal and increases its power so that it can be properly processed by another circuit. Tri-state logic is digital logic in which there are three possible states, rather than the usual two states of digital off (0) or digital on (1). In tri-state logic there is a digital off (0) state, a digital on (1) state, and a high impedance state.
A tri-state signal driver is a signal driver that can operate in the three tri-state logic states. Prior art tri-state signal drivers may be implemented by modifying a conventional inverter. For example, a conventional inverter may be modified by adding a new PMOS transistor in series with an existing PMOS transistor of the inverter, and a new NMOS transistor in series with an existing NMOS transistor of the inverter. However, with this approach, to achieve the same drive strength of the original inverter, the new transistors must be relatively large. Thus, this implementation technique is relatively space-intensive.
Consequently, it would be highly desirable to provide an improved tri-state signal driver circuit. Such a device should use less die space than known tri-state signal driver circuits. Ideally, the device would use a conventional inverter and implement the tri-state operation through another circuit element associated with the tri-state signal driver circuit.

Apparatus and method for implementing a tri-state signal driver


After passing through respective contact insertion holes 3A to 3E of a guide connector 3 and penetrating the substrate 110, the contacts 120 are inserted into a female housing 10. After the electrical connection between the contacts 120 and female contacts 20 are respectively established, a slider 1 is pressed down, which causes pressing pins 4 and 5 to press a first movable body 50 and a second movable body 60. With this, a lower stage 50L of the first movable body 50 and a lower stage 60L of the second movable body 60 detach from restriction beams 84 and 85. This allows springs 141 and 142 to extend, to move the first movable body 50 and the second movable body 60 away from the contacts 120.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector including a housing configured to guide a contact into a contact insertion hole formed through a substrate.
2. Description of Related Art
As a connector mounted in an automobile or the like, there has been known a connector configured to be placed on a substrate, into which connector a counterpart contact is inserted from below through the substrate. The counterpart contact is inserted into the connector after passing through a contact insertion hole formed through the substrate. If there is misalignment between the counterpart contact and the contact insertion hole due to the tolerance or the like at the time of manufacturing, the counterpart contact cannot be smoothly inserted into the contact insertion hole. Such a problem becomes a more significant concern, with an increase in the number of counterpart contacts.
To address this problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 146873/2010 (Tokukai 2010-146873: Patent Literature 1) discloses a guide housing configured to guide a counterpart contact into a contact insertion hole. The guide housing has a guide hole (through hole) into which the counterpart contact is able to be inserted. When the guide housing is positioned below the substrate, the guide hole is located below the contact insertion hole, and these holes communicate with each other. The guide hole has a funnel-like shape such that its diameter increases with an increase in the distance from the contact insertion hole. The diameter at the lower end of the guide hole is larger than the diameter of the contact insertion hole. Therefore, even if there is misalignment between the counterpart contact and the contact insertion hole due to tolerance or the like at the time of manufacturing, the counterpart contact is inserted into the guide hole, and then guided to the contact insertion hole.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A key variable correction scheme allows errored encryption key material in mobile and portables radios to be quickly identified and corrected. The errored encryption material can be corrected automatically by a key management controller, once detected. Consequently, a mismatch problem can be diagnosed and resolved in a manner which is automatic, therefore quick and efficient, and in a way which overcomes the difficulty which users have in identifying by themselves a mismatch condition since the result is often only silence out of their respective radio speaker. Once the mismatch is corrected by the reassignment of correct keys, the user is free to join the radio call already in progress.

Wireless communication systems are well-known. Such systems typically include a plurality of communication units that transceive wireless communication resources with each other and a fixed infrastructure. The fixed infrastructure typically comprises base stations/repeaters that also transceive the wireless communication resources. In some systems, such as a PRIVACY PLUS.RTM. system by Motorola, Inc., the base stations operate under the direction of a central controller that controls allocation of the wireless communication resources. Regardless, it is often the case that the communication units include various communication unit parameters used for their normal operation. An example of such a parameter is an encryption key, as known in the art, used for the encryption and decryption of digitally transmitted voice and data communications.
Many of the parts of a public safety land mobile radio communications system will use encryption to protect the information which is sent through the system. The encryption algorithm requires keys in order to protect the confidentiality of this information. The process by which these encryption keys are generated, stored, protected, transferred, loaded, used and destroyed is known as key management. In order to maintain system security, there are known methods for protecting these keys from disclosure including frequent or periodic updating or replacement.
Oftentimes, a portable or mobile radio is assigned an incorrect or improper encryption key variable. Failure to detect and correct an improper encryption key variable results in the inability for the subscriber radio to transmit or receive in the encrypted mode.
In first generation secure radio systems, an improper key variable would result in either unintelligible noise or silence coming from the radio speaker. The operator would need to realize that he was not receiving and verbally request that the call continue in the unencrypted or "clear" mode. At the earliest possible time (shift change usually), the user would return to have the proper key variable loaded by physically connecting the mobile or portable radio to a handheld key variable loader. This loader device would electronically program the mobile or portable radio.
In modern day, second generation secure radio systems, an improper key variable still results in either unintelligible noise or silence coming from the radio speaker. The user now, however, has the additional capability of requesting that his radio have the key updated by a "rekey request" message being sent over the air to a "key management controller" (KMC). The KMC would then respond to the subscriber rekey request by sending a new key via an encrypted data message. This process is known as over-the-air rekeying (OTAR) and is a secure way of encrypting and sending new encryption keys and other related key management messages through an air interface in such a way that they are protected from disclosure and unauthorized modification.
In modern systems, when subscriber units communicate with the central controller, because the central controller has the ability to monitor a voice channel logical ID (LID) and to identify key variable information transmitted from a particular subscriber unit, the central controller can automatically recognize a mismatch condition between the variable key transmitted by a subscriber unit and key information stored in a key variable database maintained by the central controller. Presently, however, when a mismatch is detected, the problem is merely logged for later consideration by the system administrator (or console operator). The system administrator may wish to correct a mismatch condition, but at the present there is no facility to allow this to occur automatically ("on the fly") so that communications can continue.
Similarly, in direct link communications between subscriber units, i.e., between portable and/or mobile radios, each transceiving subscriber unit exchanges LID information with the other and upon receipt of an invalid LID from a communicating subscriber unit, presently, automatically mutes audio during an encrypted voice channel call. Thus, there is a need, even in this situation, for automatic correction of the secure call key variable once mismatch is detected.
The prior solutions all fail to alert the mobile/portable radio user or the console operator to the existence of a key mismatch problem. Because improper or mismatched keying material can result in silence out of the radio speaker, this condition can be difficult for radio operators to become aware of. There is a need for a solution that alerts the mobile/portable radio users or the key management controller to the existence of a key mismatch problem.
There is also a need for a solution that (a) does not require manual intervention by a radio user or console operator and (b) overcomes the mismatch problem in a speedy and efficient manner so that secure communications can resume as quickly as possible.

Method for correcting subscriber-based secure call keys


A portable X-ray foundation which is lightweight and easily placed under a patient which helps to quickly align, stabilize, and position the patient in relation to the X-ray film grid cassette. The foundation includes level indicators, alignment indicator lines for aligning the patient on the foundation in proper position with the film grid cassette thereby preventing grid-cut-off, saving considerable time, and also allowing any bed to be used for X-rays. The foundation also includes a means for securing and aligning the patient and the film grid cassette for lateral X-rays.

Numerous devices have been developed which assist the X-ray technician with properly positioning a patient prior to and during X-ray secessions. These prior devices recognize the need to correctly position the patient and stabilize the patient for achieving usable X-rays without the need for repetitious shots. This devices are extremely useful for situations where the patient may be mobilized and positioned on a specialized table or X-ray equipment, however a portable device, like the present invention solves many problems with positioning patients who are unable to be brought to one of these specialized imaging devices.
McKenna, U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,415 discloses a patient trauma table for use in trauma situations where the patient may be positioned for imaging and for surgical intervention. This device is extremely useful, however this device is not portable and cannot be used with existing operating beds and other hospital beds. One aspect of the present invention is that it allows the existing hospital beds to be utilized as imaging beds if necessary.
Other patient support tables are disclosed in the following Patents: Sebring, U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,166; Van Steenburg, U.S. Pat. No. 4,912,754; Rice, U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,259; and Masuzawa U.S. Pat. No. 4,841,585. Those support table recognize the problems with correctly positioning the patient for X-ray and other imaging procedures, however theses devices do not provide a simple portable device for the purpose of stabilizing a patient laying on a normal hospital bed.
Prior to the present invention, when a patient is not able to be transported the technician must attempt to properly align and stabilize the patient wherever the patient is found. The present invention solves the problem of aligning and stabilizing patients when portable X-ray equipment must be used to go to a patient, or when a patient is brought to X-ray equipment on a bed and cannot be removed from the bed.


A process for manufacturing a non-volatile memory cell having at least one gate region, the process including the steps of depositing a first dielectric layer onto a semiconductor substrate; depositing a first semiconductor layer onto the first dielectric layer to form a floating gate region of the memory cell; and defining the floating gate region of the memory cell in the first semiconductor layer. The process further includes the step of depositing a second dielectric layer onto the first conductive layer, the second dielectric layer having a higher dielectric constant than 10. Also disclosed is a memory cell integrated in a semiconductor substrate and having a gate region that has a dielectric layer formed over a first conductive layer and having a dielectric constant higher than 10.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manufacturing process of a semiconductor non-volatile memory cell, and to the corresponding memory cell, and more particularly, to the manufacture of a non-volatile memory cell, e.g., of the flash EEPROM type, having an interpoly dielectric layer of reduced electrical thickness, for a given number of interpoly dielectric layers, to ensure proper performance of the device as regards its electrical characteristics and retention of a logic state programmed therein.
The invention further relates to a process for manufacturing, either to a very large integration scale or single wafer scale, flash EEPROM non-volatile memory devices exhibiting the above features.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known in this technical field, re-programmable non-volatile memory cells integrated in a semiconductor substrate, particularly flash EEPROM cells, comprise a floating gate FET (Field-Effect Transistor), and an interpoly dielectric layer provided between the floating gate region and the control gate region to function as an insulator layer of charges stored into the floating gate region. The absence or presence of charges in the floating gate region sets the logic state of the memory cell, usually by a binary code of 0 or 1.
The interpoly dielectric layer can be formed from different materials in a number of different ways. A common technique is that of successively depositing three dielectric layers onto the floating gate region, the latter being comprised conventionally of an amorphous or polycrystalline silicon layer (polysilicon layer) deposited onto a thin layer of silicon oxide, known as the tunnel oxide, to isolate the gate region from the semiconductor substrate. The resulting stack dielectric layer usually comprises a first silicon oxide layer, a second silicon nitride layer, and a third silicon oxide layer. The resulting dielectric is known by the ONO acronym (Oxide Nitride Oxide), or as the interpoly ONO dielectric.
Within the ONO layer, the capability of the cell to retain its logic state is provided essentially by the two layers of silicon oxide. The nitride layer is used to promote the integration of the three-stack layer to the device process flow. The interpoly dielectric forming step is followed by treatments with oxidizing species (O2, O, OH, H2O). The nitride layer is impervious to said oxidizing species, and is therefore used as a barrier to stop them from diffusing through to the floating gate region. Thus, the nitride layer prevents further oxidation of the floating gate region and consequent alteration of the interpoly dielectric layer thickness during subsequent device manufacturing steps. In the state of the art, the need to maintain a nitride layer of sufficient thickness to function as a barrier against later thermal treatment, and the need to keep the ONO layer retention properties unchanged, inhibit reducing the overall electrical thickness of the three-stack layer to less than 14 nm. Alternatively, with memory cells that require no particularly thin interpoly dielectric or that are subjected to no post-formation oxidizing treatments, a single silicon oxide layer (single oxide interpoly) may be used instead of the ONO layer.
The thickness of the interpoly dielectric layer is co-responsible, irrespective of its composition and manufacturing method, for the capacitive coupling of the memory cell. Thus, additionally to retaining the logic state over time, it contributes to set the program and erase parameters.
The extant demand for miniaturization of electronic devices and for lower power usage, involving lower device bias voltages, requires that the thickness of the active dielectric layers be reduced at no performance loss.
The underlying technical problem is to provide a memory cell manufacturing process, whereby the EOT (Equivalent Oxide Thickness) of the dielectric layer between the floating gate and control gate regions can be reduced while maintaining the same fisic thickness and achieving good capacitive coupling of the floating and control gate regions.

Manufacturing process of a semiconductor non-volatile memory cell


A Chiron Twister magnet structure is provided from a right circular cylinder constructed of a passive material, such as iron, formed into a continuous helical bar deployed around a tunnel-like working space, in which it produces a transverse helical magnetic field, and through which a charged particle beam is sent by an electron beam means, causing the electrons to move in a helical pattern. The continuous helical bar is coupled to an external magnetic field means. The continuous helical bar has a substantially rectangular cross section, with a plurality of south poles opposed by a plurality of north poles. The continuous helical bar may be constructed of a circular right cylinder, such as a pipe, made of iron, or any other high saturation passive magnetization material.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to magnet designs. More particularly, the present invention relates to a magnet structure providing a Chiron Twister that produces a magnetic field capable of causing an electron to have a helical trajectory.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Magnetic fields are commonly used in the operation of numerous electronic devices, including those which accelerate and focus electrons in a free electron laser. Such magnetic fields are generated by large mass, current driven systems typically comprised of a solenoid, an external power source and a means for cooling the coils of the solenoid. One significant disadvantage of such conventional systems, however, is that they are large, expensive and energy-intensive.
The foregoing disadvantages are apparent when conventional electromagnetic apparatus are used to operate a free electron laser. A free electron laser typically has a passageway, which is often an excavated cylindrical space, through which an electron beam can pass. This passageway can be comprised of hard ferromagnetic material, i.e. permanent magnets, or it can be an iron Chiron Wiggler, which is a well-known type of free-electron laser structure affording much shorter magnetic periods than usual in such devices. The term "Chiron" is an abbreviation for Circular Hollow Iron, the material used to fabricate Chiron-type magnetic devices. References on Chiron Wigglers include R. H. Jackson et al., "The Coaxial Hybrid Iron Wiggler," Nuclear Instrumentation Methods, Physics Research, Vol. A (1994) and Leupold, Statutory Invention Registration No. H1615, entitled, "Magnetic Fields For Chiron Wigglers," issued on Dec. 3, 1996. In a Chiron Wiggler, an externally mounted solenoid can create an axial magnetic field along the length of the passageway. This axial field then saturates the passageway's material, i.e. iron, to induce a transverse magnetic field alternating in direction with displacement along the length of the passageway. Such a transverse field would accelerate and cause the electrons to oscillate circumferentially as they pass longitudinally along the passageway.
Wigglers accelerate electrons, so that they radiate energy, the frequency of which depends on the strength and periodicity of the magnetic field. However, the radiation produced by an electron beam oscillating in an alternating field is of a wave length commensurate with the period of the magnetic field, so that for short wavelengths it becomes difficult to space magnets sufficiently thin to operate and attain sufficient field strength for accelerating the electrons. This "tyranny of size" may be somewhat overcome by using relativistic electrons which "see" a magnet structure that shrinks with increasing electron energy. While such an arrangement works, it still requires massive equipment generating the high voltage needed to impart sufficient energy to the electrons to make them relativistic, which frustrates the goals of compactness and lightness. Until now, a permanent magnet structure addressing the long-felt problems of unattainably thin magnets of sufficient strength has been needed to simultaneously generate sufficient field strength and sufficiently short magnetic periods.
Many devices utilizing magnetic fields also need to provide a helically oriented transverse magnetic field. See, for example, Leupold, "Augmentation of Field Uniformity and Strength in Spherical and Cylindrical Magnetic Field Sources," 70 Journal of Applied Physics No. 2, p. 6621 (1991). Examples of such permanent magnetic devices include the structures found in Leupold, et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,743, entitled, "Permanent Magnet Structures For The Production of Transverse Helical Fields," issued on Aug. 16, 1988, Leupold, U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,778, entitled, "Adjustable Twister," issued on Feb. 19, 1991 and Leupold, U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,217, entitled, "Constant Gap Cladded Twister," issued on Mar. 24, 1992. Each of these references are incorporated herein by reference.
While these prior art structures all produce useful magnetic fields within a central working space, they are all relatively complex permanent magnet structures with numerous different magnets, making them disadvantageous in terms of complexity, weight and cost. Until now, the numerous advantages of the Chiron magnetic structures in the terms of electron acceleration and the desirable transverse helical magnetic fields of the magnetic twister have never been effectively combined to address the problems of higher field amplitudes and high power circularly polarized radiation, without suffering from the disadvantages of numerous complex magnetic pieces, high cost and excessive weight.
The present invention overcomes these disadvantages and offers numerous other advantages by conventional electromagnetic systems with a compact, light-weight and inexpensive Chiron Twister structure that provides the desired magnetic field and eliminates dependence on relatively expensive permanent magnets that are hard to fabricate and assemble. While the Chiron Wiggler's internal iron elements are saturated within the passageway to form a periodic pole distribution that creates a transverse sinusoidal magnetic field, the Chiron Twister forms a transverse helical field. The present invention addresses the problems of attaining higher field amplitudes in short periods, known as FEL's, for use in high power radiation sources by providing a source of high power circularly polarized radiation in a magnet structure comprising a Chiron Twister able to simultaneously generate both sufficient field strength and sufficiently short periods.
The present invention provides several embodiments of a simple, cost-effective and advantageous Chiron Twister structure providing the much-needed transverse helical magnetic fields that other magnet structures cannot provide, without any of the drawbacks, limitations and shortcomings of prior art magnetic structures in terms of complexity, cost and weight.

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army


A flip-chip underfill method is proposed for the purpose of underfilling a gap formed beneath a semiconductor chip mounted in a flip-chip manner over an underlying surface. The flip-chip underfill method comprises the following procedural steps of: preparing a dispensing needle having an outlet; then, moving the dispensing needle in such a manner as to position the outlet thereof at a corner point between the upper surface and the sidewall of the semiconductor chip; and finally injecting resin at the targeted corner point, which allows the injected resin from the outlet of the dispensing needle to flow down along the sidewall of the semiconductor chip to the edge of the lower surface of the semiconductor chip and subsequently fill into the gap through capillary action. This flip-chip underfill method is more advantageous to use than the prior art since it allows the dispensing needle to be unobstructed by any gold wires or passive components mounted beside the chip and also allows the injected resin to be substantially confined to the targeted area beneath the chip without being wasted.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to semiconductor device packaging technology, and more particularly, to a method of underfilling a flip-chip semiconductor device.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 1A shows a flip-chip semiconductor package which utilizes a conventional flip-chip underfill method. As shown, this package includes a semiconductor chip 1 whose circuit surface 11 (the side where active semiconductor and circuit elements are formed) is provided with a plurality of solder bumps 6. Through reflow treatment, the circuit surface 11 of the chip 1 is bonded and electrically coupled to the top surface 31 of a substrate 3. After this treatment, a gap 5 is left between the circuit surface 11 of the chip 1 and the top surface 31 of the substrate 3. It is required to perform a flip-chip underfill process to fill up this gap 5 with resin for the purpose of increasing the solder joint between the solder bumps 6 and the substrate 3 and preventing the solder bumps 6 from being damaged. A conventional method for this purpose is to use a dispensing needle 2 and place the outlet of the dispensing needle 2 beside the chip 1 at a position below the circuit surface 11 of the chip 1 and above the top surface 31 of the substrate 3. The injected resin will then spread out over the top surface 31 of the substrate 3 and fill into the gap 5 through capillary action until the gap 5 is entirely filled with the resin.
One drawback to the forgoing flip-chip underfill method, however, is that the injected resin from the dispensing needle 2 would spread randomly over the top surface 31 of the substrate 3, making some portions of the resin flash to other surface part beyond the gap 5. As a result, a cleaning process is required after the flip-chip underfill method is completed, which would increase the overall manufacture cost.
Still one drawback is that the foregoing flip-chip underfill method is unsuitable for use on a stacked type of flip-chip package configuration, such the one shown in FIG. 1B. As show, this package configuration includes two chips: a first chip 9 and a second chip 1. The first chip 9 is wire bonded to a set of gold wires 90 for electrically coupling to substrate, while the second chip 1 is bonded and electrically coupled to the first chip 9 through a plurality of solder bumps. In this case, the dispensing needle 2 would be obstructed by the gold wires 90 from lowering to a suitable position where resin injection can be made.
Moreover, the foregoing flip-chip underfill method is also unsuitable for use on a package configuration with passive components such as the one shown in FIG. 1C. As shown, this package configuration includes a semiconductor chip 1 and a plurality of passive components 32 mounted on the top surface 31 of a substrate 3. In this case, the dispensing needle 2 would be obstructed by the passive components 32 from lowering to a suitable position where resin injection can be made.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,942,798 entitled xe2x80x9cAPPARATUS AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATING THE UNDERFILL OF FLIP-CHIP DEVICESxe2x80x9d discloses an advanced flip-chip underfill technique, which is briefly described in the following with reference to FIG. 2. As shown, this patented flip-chip underfill technology is utilized on a package configuration having a semiconductor chip 1 mounted in a flip-chip manner on a substrate 3, and is characterized in the forming of an underfill dam 7 beside the chip 1 for preventing the injected resin from the dispensing needle 2 from spreading to other areas beyond the intended area. One drawback to this patented technology, however, is that the forming of the underfill dam 7 requires additional layout areas over the substrate 3, and thus would make the overall package configuration less compact.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,710,071 entitled xe2x80x9cPROCESS FOR UNDERFILLING A FLIP-CHIP SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICExe2x80x9d discloses another flip-chip underfill technique, which is briefly described in the following with reference to FIG. 3.
As shown, this patented flip-chip underfill technology is utilized on a package configuration having a semiconductor chip 1 mounted in a flip-chip manner on a substrate 3, and is characterized in the forming of an opening 8 in the substrate 3 at a position directly beneath the center of the chip 1. This opening 8 allows the air in the gap 5 to be substantially entirely dispelled out therethrough by the injected resin from the dispensing needle 2, so that the filled resin beneath the chip 1 would be substantially free of voids. One drawback to this patented technology, however, is that it requires the dispensing needle 2 to move around the chip 1 in order to inject resin around the chip 1, and therefore, in the case that gold wires or passive components are mounted beside the chip 1, the dispensing needle 2 would be obstructed from entering these positions.
It is therefore an objective of this invention to provide a method for underfilling a flip-chip semiconductor device, by which the resin injection would be unobstructed by gold wires or passive components beside the flipped chip.
It is another objective of this invention to provide a method for underfilling a flip-chip semiconductor device, which allows the injected resin to be confined to the intended area so that no resin would be wasted.
In accordance with the foregoing and other objectives, the invention proposes a new flip-chip underfill method.
In one embodiment, the flip-chip underfill method of the invention comprises the following procedural steps: preparing a substrate having a front surface and a back surface; preparing a semiconductor chip having an active surface and an inactive surface; providing a plurality of solder bumps on the active surface of the semiconductor chip; mounting the semiconductor chip in a flip-chip manner over the front surface of the substrate, which forms a gap between the active. surface of the semiconductor chip and the top surface of the substrate; and moving a dispensing needle having an outlet in such a manner as to position the the outlet of the dispensing needle at a corner point between the inactive surface and the sidewall of the semiconductor chip, allowing injected resin from the outlet of the dispensing needle to flow down along the sidewall of the semiconductor chip to the edge of the active surface of the semiconductor chip and subsequently fill into the gap through capillary action.
In another embodiment, the flip-chip underfill method of the invention comprises the following procedural steps: preparing a substrate having a front surface and a back surface; preparing a first semiconductor chip having an active surface and an inactive surface; preparing a second semiconductor chip having an active surface and an inactive surface; mounting the second semiconductor chip on the front surface of the substrate; providing a plurality of solder bumps on the active surface of the first semiconductor chip; mounting the first semiconductor chip in a flip-chip manner over the active surface of the second semiconductor, which forms a gap between the active surface of the first semiconductor chip and the active surface of the second semiconductor chip; moving a dispensing needle having an outlet in such a manner as to position the outlet of the dispensing needle at a corner point between the inactive surface and the: sidewall of the first semiconductor chip, allowing injected resin from the outlet of the dispensing needle to flow down along the sidewall of the first semiconductor chip to the edge of the active surface of the first semiconductor chip and subsequently fill into the gap through capillary action.
Fundamentally speaking, the flip-chip underfill method of the invention can be utilized for underfilling a gap formed beneath a semiconductor chip mounted in a flip-chip manner over an underlying surface, and comprises the steps of preparing a dispensing needle having an outlet; moving the dispensing needle in such a manner as to position the outlet thereof at a corner point between the upper surface and the sidewall of the semiconductor chip; and injecting resin at the targeted corner point, which allows injected resin from the outlet of the dispensing needle to flow down along the sidewall of the semiconductor chip to the edge of a lower surface of the semiconductor chip and subsequently fill into the gap through capillary action.
The flip-chip underfill method of the invention is more advantageous to use than the prior art since it allows the dispensing needle to be unobstructed by the gold wires and also allows the injected resin to be substantially confined to the targeted area without being wasted.

Method of underfilling a flip-chip semiconductor device

Siliconware Precision Industries Co., Ltd.


A process as been found for the removal of water from reaction mixtures of acids or acid anhydrides or of aqueous alkali metal hydroxide solutions with alcohols using vapor permeation/pervaporation at the boiling point of the reaction mixture, which includes initially introducing the lowest-boiling educt in less than the stoichiometric amount, based on the other particular educt, together with this other educt, heating the reaction mixture to the boiling point and freeing the vapor mixture, which is formed from the boiling reaction mixture and includes chiefly water and the lowest-boiling component, from water on a membrane, recycling the vapor mixture which has been freed from water into the reaction mixture and topping up the reaction mixture with the lowest-boiling educt in the course of the reaction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for the removal of water from reaction mixtures for the esterification of acids or acid anhydrides with alcohols or for the preparation of alcoholates from aqueous alkali metal hydroxide solutions and alcohols at the boiling point of the reaction mixture, in which the lowest-boiling educt is first employed in less than the stoichiometric amount, the resulting vapor mixture of chiefly water and the lowest-boiling component is freed from water on a membrane, the vapor mixture which has been freed from water is recycled into the reaction mixture and the reaction mixture is topped up with the lowest-boiling educt in the course of the reaction.
2. Description of the Related Art
In chemical equilibrium reactions in which water is formed, it is already known to remove this by pervaporation or vapor permeation with the aid of semipermeable membranes and as a result to shift the equilibrium and thus to bring the reaction to completion. Such membrane processes for fraction of mixtures with organic components are described in detail in the literature (Rautenbach, Chem. Ing. Techn. 61 (1989) pages 539-544). Pervaporation and vapor permeation have also already been described in detail (DE 3 610 011, DE-A 4 019 170 and EP-A 294 827).
Generally, in these processes, the substance mixture to be separated (feed) is fed along a membrane which has different permeabilities to the individual compounds of the approaching substance mixture. The driving force for transportation of matter through the membrane here is a transmembrane difference in the electrochemical potential of the individual substances of the feed mixture. In the case of pervaporation and vapor permeation, this potential difference is accentuated by a vacuum applied to the membrane side facing away from the feed (permeate side) or by flushing the permeate side with inert gas, which has the result of diverting the preferentially permeating components out of the feed. An increased pressure is in general applied to the feed side of the membrane. The depleted feed is called the retained material and the substance amounts passing to the permeate side are called the permeate. The separation properties of membranes are highly temperature-dependent, but are limited by the heat stability of the membrane employed. As, for example, the heat stability of the membrane Pervap 1000 from Deutsche Carbone, GFT, of the polyvinyl alcohol/polyacrylonitrile type is stated as 100.degree. C.
Pervaporation is described, inter alia, by Klatt (dissertation paper "On the use of Pervaporation in the Environment of the Chemical Industry", Rheinisch-Westfalische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen 1993). Pervaporation is distinguished by the fact that the feed mixture is fed in liquid form just below the boiling point at the given system pressure. The system pressure must be chosen such that, at the membrane, the temperature of the substance mixture to be separated corresponds as far as possible to the optimum temperature in respect of permeate flow and selectivity, but must in no way be above the maximum permitted operating temperature of the membrane (membrane stability). Vapor permeation is described in detail, inter alia, by Helmus (dissertation paper "Vapor permeation-separation capacity, process development and possible uses", RWTH Aachen 1994). In vapor permeation, in contrast to pervaporation, the feed is fed over the membrane in vapor form.
Kitha reports in Chemistry Letters (Chem. Soc. of Japan) 1987 2053-2056 on the esterification of carboxylic acids with alcohols, for example with ethanol, in which ethanol/water corresponding to the thermodynamic equilibrium is evaporated off from the reaction mixture initially introduced, the escaping vapor is fed along a vapor permeation membrane, and the retained material depleted of water is recycled into the reaction mixture. The degrees of conversion which can be achieved are increased up to complete conversion of the carboxylic acid with the process described. The membranes employed are polyimide, chitosan and Nafion membranes, the polyimide membranes employed having adequate selectivities in particular. Gref (Proc. Fourth Int. Conf. Pervaporation, Proc. Chem. Ind. 1989, 344) also describes the use of pervaporation for removing water of reaction from the circulation in the preparation of carboxylic acid esters using PVA membranes. Sander (EP 299 577) describes the use of a PVA membrane for selective removal of water from the vapor of a reaction mixture during the preparation of alcoholates from NaOH and alcohol. Blum (De 4 019 170 A1) reports on the successful use of vapor permeation for removal of water in the preparation of dodecyl acetate and isopropyl myristate (esterification reactions of alcohols with carboxylic acid) in a bubble reactor. EP 0 476 370 describes the use of pervaporation/vapor permeation for removal of water from a mixture comprising water and alcohols and/or carboxylic acids and/or carboxylic acid esters, a membrane which has been obtained by plasma polymerisation being used. EP-A 691 324 describes the use of vapor permeation for the preparation of maleic acid alkyl esters from maleic anhydride and alcohol, the vapor mixture fed to the module comprising condensed contents in order to avoid overheating of the vapor mixture when flowing over the membrane and the associated reduction in the performance of the membrane.
All the procedures described have the common feature that the lowest-boiling educt (in many cases the alcohol) is added at least stoichiometrically, but as a rule in more than the stoichiometric amount. It is attempted by this means to shift the reaction equilibrium to higher degrees of conversion of the acid employed or the alkali metal hydroxide employed, so that the reaction time is simultaneously shortened in this way. Kitha (see above) employs a stoichiometric excess of ethanol of 2:1 and 3:1 in his studies on the esterification of oleic acid with ethanol. Sander (see above) mentions an alcohol excess of 1:2 to 1:10 for the preparation of alcoholates from alkali metal hydroxide and alcohol with removal of the water of reaction from the circulation by vapor permeation (page 2 column 2 line 20). Gref (see above) has systematically investigated the influence of the excess factor in the esterification of propionic acid with isopropanol when pervaporation is employed to remove the water of reaction from the circulation, and comes to the conclusion that a reduction in the excess factor of an educt leads to longer reaction times in respect of the conversion of the minor component (FIG. 13 there). Gref states the stoichiometric use of the educt as the optimum. Blum (see above) also indicates an optimum with stoichiometric use of the educts and use of vapor permeation for removal of the water of reaction from the circulation.


A data relay server connected between a client computer and a database server produces a query message obtained by encrypting a retrieval condition designated by the client computer, and transmits the query message to the database server. The database server encrypts a specific data item which is designated by the retrieval condition and read out from the database, retrieves service information matched with the retrieval condition by encrypted data matching, and replies the service information as a retrieval result to the data relay server.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a database access method and system and, more particularly, a database access method and a data retrieval system, especially, a data relay server and a database server system capable of concealing the contents of a query for data retrieval requested from the user or an application program from the manager of a database.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the advance and spread of the network technology such as the Internet, an increasing number of computers are connected to networks. In association with this, information providing service of providing various information to the users via networks is being widely used. Good examples of the information providing service are a patent information retrieval system and a gene arrangement information retrieval system.
The users of such information providing service access computers providing the information service via networks from various computers or terminals. In the following description, the computer or terminal operated by the user will be called a client computer, and the computer for providing information service will be called a server computer or DB server. Under the present circumstances, as client computers, a workstation, a personal computer, a small portable terminal, and a portable telephone are often used. As server computers, a mainframe, a UNIX server, and a PC server are often used.
To access the information providing service, the user uses dedicated software or a WEB browser on the client computer. On the other hand, data management and retrieval on the server computer for providing information service are usually performed by a database management system (hereinbelow, called a DBMS).
In an access to information providing service, for example, in the case of retrieving gene arrangement information or patent information, it is desirable for the user that who accessed the information under which conditions can be concealed, that is, confidentiality of the name of the user who accessed the information and the contents of retrieval is ensured for the following reason. In the retrieval of gene arrangement retrieval, patent keyword retrieval, and the like, a condition itself designated by a query is a confidential item, so that retrieval of information while ensuring the confidentiality is important to promote product development and research and development.
By a conventional security technique, for example, (1) protection on communication information against phone tapping on a network and (2) user authentication on the server side to prevent an unauthorized access are realized.
Known security realizing methods include a method of using an encryption protocol such as SSL (Secure Socket Layer) between a client computer and a server computer which perform communication with each other and, as shown in FIG. 13, a method of transferring an encrypted inquiry 202 from a client computer 10 via a network 203 to a server computer 205 for providing information service, in the server computer 205, transferring the encrypted inquiry 202 received by a network interface 206 to a query decryption unit 210, decrypting the encrypted inquiry 202 by the query decryption unit 210, and searching a database 211 in accordance with the decrypted inquiry condition by a DBMS 208. A retrieval result 207 is encrypted as necessary, and the encrypted result is sent to the client computer 10 via the network interface 206 and the network 203.
In the conventional method, however, although the inquiry 202 is transferred in the encrypted state on the network, since the searching process is performed in a state where the inquiry is decrypted in the server computer 205, the contents of the retrieval the user wishes to make them confidential is not concealed from the server computer. Consequently, there is a danger that the contents of the retrieval as confidential information are leaked to the ill-intentioned manager on the server side.
In the conventional database access via a network, information is secured on condition that the server is reliable. In the case where a retrieval condition itself designated by a query is the target of confidentiality, it is difficult to make retrieval while concealing the contents of the retrieval from the others.
"Data Retrieval System" disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 11-259512 (Literature 1) is a system for preventing leakage of confidentiality of the location of the user, retrieval conditions, and the like from history data of a database trace of a retrieval server by (1) eliminating conditions corresponding to pre-registered confidential items from conditions of a query sent from the user, (2) replacing a condition value with a similar term or a broader term by using an inclusive relation (conceptual hierarchy) of the condition value, (3) dividing the input retrieval condition, and (4) allowing a proxy server installed between a data retrieving apparatus and a data retrieval server to access the data retrieval server.
According to the conventional technique disclosed in Literature 1, a part of confidential information of the user can be concealed from the server, but there is a problem such that the retrieval conditions are acquired by the server. For example, in fields where a value of a retrieval condition such as name or gene arrangement is difficult to be replaced with another term by using the inclusive relation, there is a problem such that the retrieval condition cannot be sufficiently concealed.
According to "resident basic register file system" disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 64-14665 (Literature 2), by encrypting resident basic register data at the time of data input to store the encrypted data into a data file, the resident basic register file is prevented from being accessed to obtain personal information by an ill-intentioned person. In the conventional technique disclosed in Literature 2, when data registered in the resident basic register file is matched with user inquiry data, the encrypted data stored in the data file is decrypted, and the inquiry from the user is not concealed on the server side. If the manager of the server has an ill intention, a problem such that the contents of the query are known by the manager arises.
According to "Method and medium for recording personal information" disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 11-272681 (Literature 3), in consideration of the problem of Literature 2 that retrieving efficiency in association with data decryption is low and there is a condition which cannot be retrieved according to an encrypting method, a personal information recording method in which it is unnecessary to encrypt whole file data is proposed. According to the method, (1) personal information is divided into a basic information file for storing a basic data item and an attribute information file for storing the other data, (2) a special code for associating the two files with each other is used as a personal code for specifying the personal information, and (3) as necessary, the personal code is encrypted. The conventional technique, however, also has a danger of leakage of the condition on the server side since the retrieval condition designated by the user is not encrypted like the technique of Literature 2.
According to "Method and apparatus for secure storage of data" disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,963,642 (Literature 4), data itself to be stored in a database is converted in a bit map, a query of the user is also converted in a similar bit map, and a retrieval is made by using the bit maps without decrypting the query. In the conventional technique disclosed in Literature 4, however, all of data to be stored in a server has to be preliminarily encoded in the form of a bit map, so that it is difficult to apply the method to an existing database.

Database access method and system capable of concealing the contents of query


A method and system for temperature and boost control of engine intake air by use of an active conditioner control unit, which regulates relative amounts of electric current to at least one active conditioning device and an electrically driven booster motor. In one preferred embodiment it controls valves which optimally direct the path of airflow through a plurality of thermal conditioner storage chambers in response to signals from engine load level, temperature, and other sensors in order to optimally provide temperature conditioned air to the engine. This embodiment of the invention features immediate and efficient provision of conditioned and pressurized airflow to an internal combustion engine and removes parasitic power drains during low demand situations. This invention enhances cold start performance and operation with a pre-start thermal conditioner with warming capabilities. System increases flexibility for stationary operation and traffic restraints by supplementing heat sink transfers. System sensor array with advanced sensors monitoring combustion parameters to safely facilitate additional power output from host engines.

1. Technical Field of Invention
This invention relates to systems and methods for maximizing engine power output through the use of smart controllers for active conditioners and pressurizers of incoming air. The Smart System Controller for Flowing Fluid Conditioners (SSCFFC) invention is specifically for monitoring and control of the pressure boosting, cooling and heating of said incoming air in applications that require environmental flexibility and on-demand efficiency enhancement capability.
2. Description of Prior Art
The trend toward smaller automobile engines is driven by a need to meet targets for lower carbon dioxide and other emissions. In order to achieve this goal, the auto industry is introducing smaller engines that are more fuel-efficient, but customers have come to expect a high level of performance. Designers are able to choose from two main methods of raising output power of smaller engines; first, tweaking, that is to adjust cam timing (lift, attack and duration of cam lobes), advance spark and duration, and fuel timing and duration. Second, boost assist, that is adding a compressor that will increase the amount of air injected into an engine for a given inlet valve opening. With either of these methods, incoming air temperature is critical to performance and emissions. Whether an engine is self-combusting (as with diesels) or sparked, a critical amount of air and fuel at a set temperature will contribute to efficient combustion. A small variation in temperature (above or below optimal) can cause operational problems at best and even catastrophic failures in some cases. In order to meet these tight restrictions, designers have most often used boosted or assisted aspiration technologies. For example, small engines with turbochargers have been implemented to match the peak power of larger naturally aspirated units while still having the benefit of using less fuel and exhausting lower CO2 concentrations. Intercoolers have been used as a natural complement to forced air aspiration systems that naturally tend to heat the air as they compress. This choice has much to do with the reality that to date only reactive technologies have been available to compensate for temperatures outside ideal ranges. Reactive technologies in this disclosure refer to passive intercoolers; spark retarding engine controllers, and other devices without smart control and engine monitoring sensors.
Temperature directly affects the performance of an internal combustion engine. So that the ability to cool the air input into an engine will directly increase efficiency and horsepower. Air charge temperature also affects wear and reliability of engine components. Therefore, a lower temperature input during high demand load periods will lengthen engine life, reduce emissions and improve overall performance. Recently several new active fluid conditioning devices have been introduced for use in motor vehicles to accomplish cooling of the air just prior to engine intake. Specifically, active elements have now been applied to intercoolers. Said designs such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,019 provide cooling from thermoelectric devices. But invention U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,019 will have too slow a response time to be effective with the type of loads, and under such conditions, that can be characterized as "on-demand operation". Because it is located directly in the air path for normal operation it will constantly be draining the power supply. A mechanism is necessary to control this large power drain. U.S. Pat. No. 6,758,193 introduces a by-pass or alternative air passage to the active cooler. Chilling of incoming air is more efficient because it is provided only upon operator initiation. There is no advantage to conditioning during normal driving. That is, requiring operation of the Peltier Junctions in a steady-state condition would be prohibitively power demanding. Also, use in a strictly manual fashion during vehicle driving is not practical. The cooling response time of U.S. Pat. No. 6,758,193 (with a reservoir of stored BTU) can be useful when turned on manually for competition in drag racing type events. But neither invention described above provides for practical automatic control for embodiment operation. Therefore, a control solution, which can perform under demand conditions as required in normal driving conditions for passing does not exist. For example, no WOT signal is discussed or provided in prior discussion of intercoolers. Without adequate strategic controls, the existing intercooler inventions will achieve no net benefits in real world (non-performance competition) applications. Despite technological advances with intercoolers, several critical weaknesses remain in all prior systems. Prior art does not provide for handling large temperature gains in the charged air by virtue of being air-to-air based intercoolers (these designs can not achieve wide temperature differentials due to the heat sink temperature always at or above ambient temperature). Of the active systems, prior art runs the thermoelectric continuously during peak demands thereby draining engine power and does not have a control mechanism to achieve efficiency of operation. Additionally, no production engines have been tweaked (tuned for absolute maximum performance) as no dedicated intercooler control system has offered smart temperature compensation. No smart controller has been proposed that can supervise and schedule operation, enhancement, recharging, and system override of an actively chilled electronic supercharger. Also, no controllable conditioner with active temperature enhancement for increased temperature range was available prior to disclosure by present inventor, Flowing Fluid Conditioner (FFC), Perkins, Ser. No. 10/930,998, Aug. 31, 2004. No warmer type intercooler with active temperature enhancement was available prior to FFC. Additionally, no integrated conditioning and boosting system was available prior to On Demand Boost Conditioner (ODBC), Perkins, 60/628,490, Nov. 15, 2004. No systems that can alternately cool or warm boosted air are available prior to FFC. No system buffer was available that complements a smart controller. No system that could provide advanced sensing capabilities for measurement of critical temperature and combustion signatures is presently available. No sensor or control unit exists that can detect or moreover correct for engine abnormal combustion situations. No system is available that integrates these functions, is compatible with OBD-2 and CAN standards, and can interface them interactively with the host vehicle.

System and method for smart system control for flowing fluid conditioners


A method for fabricating a reservoir capacitor of a semiconductor device where a first peripheral circuit region and a second peripheral circuit region are defined comprises: forming a gate on an upper portion of a semiconductor substrate of the second peripheral circuit region; forming an interlayer insulating film on the entire upper portion of the semiconductor substrate including the gate; etching the interlayer insulating film of the second peripheral circuit region to form a bit line contact hole; forming a bit line material and a sacrificial film on the upper portion of the interlayer insulating film including the bit line contact hole; and etching the sacrificial film of the first peripheral circuit region to form a trench that exposes the bit line material.

An embodiment of the present invention relates to a reservoir capacitor of a semiconductor device and a method for fabricating the same, and more specifically, to a reservoir capacitor formed when a buried gage process is applied.
In general, a semiconductor device such as a Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) comprises various micro-sized elements. In order to operate these micro-sized elements, the semiconductor device generates an internal voltage.
Meanwhile, the use of the internal voltage can generate noise, thereby destabilizing a voltage level. In order to inhibit the generation of noise, a reservoir capacitor having a large capacitance is fabricated. The reservoir capacitor is located in a peripheral circuit region where micro-sized elements are formed.
However, in the current buried gate, a storage node contact of a cell region is formed before a bit line pad of a peripheral circuit region is formed. That is, a gate of the cell region, the gate of the peripheral circuit region, a bit line of the cell region and the bit line pad of the peripheral circuit region are formed to have different heights.
As a result, the storage node contact of the cell region and the gate material of the peripheral circuit region, that is, a MOS capacitor, are formed to have the same height. When the reservoir capacitor is formed using the storage node contact, the storage node contact is formed in the MOS capacitor of the existing peripheral circuit region, so that the MOS capacitor and the reservoir capacitor cannot be used simultaneously.

Reservoir capacitor of semiconductor device


Resources such as VCs (Virtual Connections) are efficiently reserved. When an ASP (AMInet Setup Protocol) message is sent from a receiving terminal (RECEIVER) to a sending terminal (SENDER), virtual connections of a predetermined bandwidth individually specified by the ASP message are established in the direction from the receiving terminal to the sending terminal and in the direction from the sending terminal to the receiving terminal independently at an edge router, backbone routers, and an edge router in this order through which the ASP message passes.

The present invention generally relates to a network resource reservation control method, a network resource reservation control apparatus, a receiving terminal, a sending terminal, and a relay apparatus and, more particularly, to a network resource reservation control method, a network resource reservation control apparatus, a receiving terminal, a sending terminal, and a relay apparatus that are constituted so that both of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal can independently establish predetermined unidirectional or bidirectional virtual connection.
In building an IP (Internet Protocol) network by use of ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode), how to transmit connectionless IP packets by virtual connection (hereafter appropriately referred to as VC) of ATM, a connection-oriented technology, presents a problem to be solved.
Conventionally, RSVP (Resource Reservation Protocol) and ST-II (Stream Transport Protocol-II) are available as protocols for making a reservation of network resources such as virtual connection. RSVP allows a receiving side to establish connection while ST-II allows a sending side to establish connection.
However, in RSVP and ST-II, the establishment of connection can be made only in a unidirectional manner by either receiving side or sending side, sometimes causing a problem of inefficient connection establishment.
Further, RSVP and ST-II present another problem that resource requests from sending side to receiving side and vice versa cannot be made independently.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to allow both of the sending side and the receiving side to efficiently establish connection in various methods.
In carrying out the invention and according to one aspect thereof, there is provided a network resource reservation control method comprising the steps of: sending a message composed of first information for specifying, as a direction in which the resource reservation is performed, one of unidirectional communication in which the resource reservation is performed in a first direction from the sending terminal to the receiving terminal, a second direction from the receiving terminal to the sending terminal, or bidirectional communication in which the fist direction and the second direction are combined, and second information for independently requesting resources in the first direction and the second direction; and reserving the resource requested by the second information in the direction specified by the first information of the message sent in the sending step.
In carrying out the invention and according to another aspect thereof, there is provided a network resource reservation control apparatus comprising: a sender for sending a message composed of first information for specifying, as a direction in which the resource reservation is performed, one of unidirectional communication in which the resource reservation is performed in a first direction from the sending terminal to the receiving terminal, a second direction from the receiving terminal to the sending terminal, or bidirectional communication in which the first direction and the second direction are combined, and second information for independently requesting resources in the first direction and the second direction; and a resource reserving system for reserving the resource requested by the second information in the direction specified by the first information of the message sent by the sender.
In carrying out the invention and according to still another aspect thereof, there is provided a receiving terminal having a sender for sending a message to the sending terminal, the message being composed of first information for specifying, as a direction in which the resource reservation is performed, one of unidirectional communication in which the resource reservation is performed in a first direction from the sending terminal to the receiving terminal, a second direction from the receiving terminal to the sending terminal, or bidirectional communication in which the first direction and the second direction are combined, and second information for independently requesting resources in the first direction and the second direction.
In carrying out the invention and according to yet another aspect thereof, there is provided a sending terminal having a sender for sending a message to the receiving terminal, the message being composed of first information for specifying, as a direction in which the resource reservation is performed, one of unidirectional communication in which the resource reservation is performed in a first direction from the sending terminal to the receiving terminal, a second direction from the receiving terminal to the sending terminal, or bidirectional communication in which the first direction and the second direction are combined, and second information for independently requesting resources in the first direction and the second direction.
In carrying out the invention and according to a different aspect thereof, there is provided a relay apparatus comprising: a relay for relaying a message composed of first information for specifying, as a direction in which the resource reservation is performed, one of unidirectional communication in which the resource reservation is performed in a first direction from the sending terminal to the receiving terminal, a second direction from the receiving terminal to the sending terminal, or bidirectional communication in which the first direction and the second direction are combined, and second information for independently requesting resources in the first direction and the second direction; and a resource reserving system for reserving the resource requested by the second information in the direction specified by the first information of the message relayed by the relay.
In the network resource reservation control method and the network resource reservation control apparatus, a message is sent composed of first information for specifying, as a direction in which the resource reservation is performed, one of unidirectional communication in which the resource reservation is performed in a first direction from the sending terminal to the receiving terminal, a second direction from the receiving terminal to the sending terminal, or bidirectional communication in which the first direction and the second direction are combined, and second information for independently requesting resources in the first direction and the second direction. A resource requested by the second information is reserved in the direction specified by the first information of the sent message.
In the receiving terminal, the sender sends to the sending terminal the message composed of first information for specifying, as a direction in which the resource reservation is performed, one of unidirectional communication in which the resource reservation is performed in a first direction from the sending terminal to the receiving terminal, a second direction from the receiving terminal to the sending terminal, or bidirectional communication in which the first direction and the second direction are combined, and second information for independently requesting resources in the first direction and the second direction.
In the sending terminal, a sender sends to the receiving terminal the message composed of first information for specifying, as a direction in which the resource reservation is performed, one of unidirectional communication in which the resource reservation is performed in a first direction from the sending terminal to the receiving terminal, a second direction from the receiving terminal to the sending terminal, or bidirectional communication in which the first direction and the second direction are combined, and second information for independently requesting resources in the first direction and the second direction.
In the relay apparatus, the relay relays the message composed of first information for specifying, as a direction in which the resource reservation is performed, one of unidirectional communication in which the resource reservation is performed in a first direction from the sending terminal to the receiving terminal, a second direction from the receiving terminal to the sending terminal, or bidirectional communication in which the first direction and the second direction are combined, and second information for independently requesting resources in the first direction and the second direction; and the resource reserving system reserves the resource requested by the second information in the direction specified by the first information of the message relayed by the relay.

Network resource reservation control method and apparatus, receiving terminal, sending terminal, and relay apparatus


Described is a bioprocess for the high-yield production of food flavor-acceptable jasmonic acid and methyl jasmonate, as well as a novel jasmonic acid isomer produced thereby and organoleptic uses thereof. The process yields at least 5% of the “cis” isomer defined according the structure:

This invention concerns a microbial process for production of compositions of matter containing isomers of jasmonic acid having the structure:
which are flavor acceptable as well as isomers having the structure:
which are also flavor acceptable. This invention is also concerned with the production of methyl jasmonate isomers from the aforementioned jasmonic acid isomers.
Considerable time and effort have been expended by microbiologists in the search for better processes for the production of jasmonic acid and methyl jasmonate which are flavor acceptable isomers, including those isomers defined according to the structure:
wherein R is methyl or hydrogen. Thus, Broadbent in United Kingdom Patent Specification No. 1,286,266 published on Aug. 23, 1972 discloses and claims a process for the manufacture of jasmonic acid which comprises cultivation of the organism Lasiodiplodia theobromae in a nutrient medium containing an assimilable source of carbon and an assimilable source of nitrogen followed by isolation of the product from the culture medium. Günther, et al, German Democratic Republic Patent DD 279 688 published on Jun. 13, 1990 discloses a process for the production of 7-iso-jasmonic acid by strains of the organism Botryodiplodia theobromae in aerobic culture. This work is also discussed in the paper Miersch, et al, Phytochemistry, Volume 26, No. 4, pages 1037-1039, 1987, entitled "(+)-7-ISO-JASMONIC ACID AND RELATED COMPOUNDS FROM BOTRYODIPLODIA THEOBROMAE." The organisms, Botryodiplodia theobromae and Lasiodermea theobromae are synonyms of Diplodia gossypina as discussed in the paper Jones, MYCOTAXON, Volume VI, No. 1 at pages 24-26, July-September 1997 (title: "THE CURRENT TAXONOMIC STATUS OF DIPLODIA GOSSYPINA." As confirmed by Häusler and Münch in the article entitled "Microbial Production of Natural Flavors," Volume 63, No. 10, ASM News at pages 551-559:
"Another plant fatty acid metabolite, jasmonic acid, an endogenous plant growth regulator with a variety of physiological functions, is produced by means of a similar metabolic pathway. After a lipoxygenase produces a hydroperoxide derivative of linolenic acid, this compound is converted to its allene oxide, which cayclizes. β-Oxidation and double-bond reduction yields jasmonic acid. The methylester of jasmonic acid is not only a volatile plant hormone, possibly involved in interplant communication, but is also an important flavor and fragrance molecule that imparts a sweet-floral, jasmine-like note.
Otto Miersch and his collaborators at the Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Halle-Saale, Germany, who were studying fungal plant pathogens, including Botryodiplodia theobromae, discovered that such microorganisms produce jasmonic acid. The biosynthetic steps leading to jasmonic acid in this filamentous fungus are probably similar to those found in plants. Recently our laboratory, which is evaluating this strain's capacity for producing jasmonic acid, found that B. theobromae yields only very low concentrations of jasmonic acid in liquid culture. Such findings suggest that the biosynthesis and excretion of jasmonic acid is strictly controlled during the growth cycle of this fungus on plants in its natural habitat."
no bioprocesses for the high yield production of fruit flavor-acceptable jasmonic acid or methyl jasmonate exist. The Häusler and Münch paper was published in October 1997. ASM News is published by the American Society for Microbiology.
Thus, in the flavor and fragrance art, a need has arisen for the development and efficient high yield production of naturally occurring jasmonic acid and methyl jasmonate, which have heretofore been found to be useful and necessary for the creation of flavor formulations used in augmenting or enhancing the aroma or taste of foodstuffs, chewing gums, toothpaste, medicinal products, chewing tobaccos and smoking tobaccos and also useful in augmenting or enhancing the aroma of perfume compositions, colognes and perfumed articles (e.g., solid or liquid anionic, cationic, nonionic or zwitterionic detergents, perfumed polymers, fabric softener compositions, fabric softener articles, hair preparations, cosmetic powders and the like).
Methyl jasmonate (without indicating which isomer) is disclosed by Arctander, Perfume and Flavor Chemicals at monograph 2093 to have a "Powerful floral-herbaceous, sweet-tenacious odor representing typical background notes of Jasmin absolute." Arctander further discloses that this material "is an almost obvious candidate for work on improved artificial Jasmin absolute." Acree, et al, J. Agric. Food Chem., 1985, Volume 33, pages 425-427, discloses that the isomer of methyl jasmonate having the structure:
and having an optical rotation (αD20) of +58° has a strong odor, whereas the other stereoisomers of (Z)-methyl jasmonate are substantially odorless.
No specific disclosures exist in the prior art showing the use of the jasmonic acid isomers of our invention defined according to the structure:
or defined according to the structure:
for use as flavor adjuvants (wherein R is methyl or hydrogen). Furthermore, nothing in the prior art discloses the stereoisomer of the compound having the structure:
particularly the stereoisomer having the optical rotation (αD20) of +58°.

Jasmonic acid and jasmonic acid ester stereoisomers and compositions

Abstract: (wherein R is hydrogen or methyl) or at least 5% of the “cis” isomer defined according to the structure:

Abstract: (wherein R is hydrogen or methyl). Compositions containing at least 98% of the isomer having the structure:

Abstract: with an optical rotation (αD20) of +58° are novel. Compositions containing at least 98% of the isomer having the structure:

Abstract: with an optical rotation (αD20) of +58° are also novel. The process of our invention comprises the cultivation under aerobic condition of one or more specific strain of Diplodia gossypina in a nutrient medium followed either by (1) isolation of the jasmonic acid product or (2) esterification of the jasmonic acid to form methyl jasmonate followed by the isolation of the methyl jasmonate and novel products produced by such process.