A pyrometry imaging system for monitoring a high-temperature asset which includes at least one component is provided. The system includes a lens element in optical communication with the at least one component. The lens element is configured to receive at least a portion of thermal radiation emitted from the at least one component. The system also includes a view limiting device positioned between the lens element and a dispersive element. The dispersive element is configured to split the at least a portion of thermal radiation emitted into a plurality of wavelengths. The system further includes at least one camera device in optical communication with the dispersive element. The at least one camera device is configured to receive at least one wavelength from the dispersive element.

The field of the disclosure relates generally to component surface temperature measurement, and more specifically, to methods and a system for measuring component surface temperature in harsh environments based on hyperspectral imaging.
At least some known turbomachines, such as gas turbine engines, include a plurality of rotating turbine blades or buckets that channel high-temperature fluids, i.e., combustion gases, through the gas turbine engines. Known turbine buckets are typically coupled to a wheel portion of a rotor within the gas turbine engine and cooperate with the rotor to form a turbine section. The turbine buckets are typically spaced circumferentially in a row extending about the rotor. Moreover, known turbine buckets are arranged in axially-spaced rows that are separated by a plurality of stationary nozzle segments that channel the fluid flowing through the engine towards each subsequent row of rotating buckets. Each row of nozzle segments, in conjunction with an associated row of turbine buckets, is usually referred to as a turbine stage and most known turbine engines include a plurality of turbine stages. The arrangement of turbine buckets and nozzle segments is referred to as a hot gas path.
Such known turbine buckets and nozzle segments in the hot gas path may wear over time. For example, such components may exhibit stress-related cracking induced by temperatures at or above predetermined parameters. Furthermore, coatings are applied to such components to protect the components from temperatures of the hot gas path. Therefore, many known gas turbine engines include temperature monitoring systems that provide operational temperature data in real time, i.e., at the time of measurement. At least some of these known temperature monitoring systems monitor and record temperature data as an input to adjust operation, e.g., the firing rate of the gas turbine engine, i.e., the rate or ratio of fuel and air being combusted in the engine. In some cases, the temperature data may be used as an input into certain protective features of the engine.
A key challenge in the conversion from intensities to surface temperatures in gas turbine measurements is to separate the contributions from different sources in each point. Generally, the balance will vary over both time and over a given surface due to, for example, fouling and wear of surface and optics, and run conditions. Another key challenge is the measurement of the gas temperature in front of the blade/bucket. Another challenge in collecting thermal data from the surface of components of an asset while the asset is operating at high-temperatures is due to nature of the environment that the components are operating in. Impurities, such as soot and hot vapors, may also interfere with readings.

Hyperspectral imaging system for pyrometry applications and method of operating the same


Techniques and tools are described for compensating for rounding when estimating sample-domain distortion in the transform domain. For example, a video encoder estimates pixel-domain distortion in the transform domain for a block of transform coefficients after compensating for rounding in the DC coefficient of the block. In this way, the video encoder improves the accuracy of pixel-domain distortion estimation but retains the computational advantages of performing the estimation in the transform domain. Rounding compensation includes, for example, looking up an index (from a de-quantized transform coefficient) in a rounding offset table to determine a rounding offset, then adjusting the coefficient by the offset. Other techniques and tools described herein are directed to creating rounding offset tables and encoders that make encoding decisions after considering rounding effects that occur after an inverse frequency transform on de-quantized transform coefficient values.

Digital video consumes large amounts of storage and transmission capacity. A typical raw digital video sequence includes 15 or 30 frames per second. Each frame can include tens or hundreds of thousands of pixels (also called pels), where each pixel represents a tiny element of the picture. In raw form, a computer commonly represents a pixel as a set of three samples totaling 24 bits. Thus, the number of bits per second, or bit rate, of a typical raw digital video sequence may be 5 million bits per second or more.
Many computers and computer networks lack the resources to process raw digital video. For this reason, engineers use compression (also called coding or encoding) to reduce the bit rate of digital video. Compression decreases the cost of storing and transmitting video by converting the video into a lower bit rate form. Decompression (also called decoding) reconstructs a version of the original video from the compressed form. A "codec" is an encoder/decoder system. Compression can be lossless, in which the quality of the video does not suffer, but decreases in bit rate are limited by the inherent amount of variability (sometimes called entropy) of the video data. Or, compression can be lossy, in which the quality of the video suffers, but achievable decreases in bit rate are more dramatic. Lossy compression is often used in conjunction with lossless compression—the lossy compression establishes an approximation of information, and the lossless compression is applied to represent the approximation.
A basic goal of lossy compression is to provide good rate-distortion performance. So, for a particular bit rate, an encoder attempts to provide the highest quality of video. Or, for a particular level of quality/fidelity to the original video, an encoder attempts to provide the lowest bit rate encoded video. In practice, considerations such as encoding time, encoding complexity, encoding resources, decoding time, decoding complexity, decoding resources, overall delay, and/or smoothness in quality/bit rate changes also affect decisions made in codec design as well as decisions made during actual encoding.
In general, video compression techniques include "intra-picture" compression and "inter-picture" compression. Intra-picture compression techniques compress individual pictures, and inter-picture compression techniques compress pictures with reference to a preceding and/or following picture (often called a reference or anchor picture) or pictures.
I. Intra Compression
FIG. 1 illustrates block-based intra compression in an example encoder. In particular, FIG. 1 illustrates intra compression of an 8×8 block (105) of samples by the encoder. The encoder splits a picture into 8×8 blocks of samples and applies a forward 8×8 frequency transform (110) (such as a discrete cosine transform ("DCT")) to individual blocks such as the block (105). The encoder quantizes (120) the transform coefficients (115), resulting in an 8×8 block of quantized transform coefficients (125).
With quantization, the encoder essentially trades off quality and bit rate. More specifically, quantization can affect the fidelity with which the transform coefficients are encoded, which in turn can affect bit rate. Coarser quantization tends to decrease fidelity to the original transform coefficients as the coefficients are more coarsely approximated. Bit rate also decreases, however, when decreased complexity can be exploited with lossless compression. Conversely, finer quantization tends to preserve fidelity and quality but result in higher bit rates.
Different encoders use different parameters for quantization. In most encoders, a level or step size of quantization is set for a block, picture, or other unit of video. In some encoders, the encoder can also adjust the "dead zone," which is the range of values around zero that are approximated as zero. Some encoders quantize coefficients differently within a given block, so as to apply relatively coarser quantization to perceptually less important coefficients, and a quantization matrix can be used to indicate the relative weights. Or, apart from the rules used to reconstruct quantized values, some encoders vary the thresholds according to which values are quantized so as to quantize certain values more aggressively than others.
Returning to FIG. 1, further encoding varies depending on whether a coefficient is a DC coefficient (the lowest frequency coefficient shown as the top left coefficient in the block (125)), an AC coefficient in the top row or left column in the block (125), or another AC coefficient. The encoder typically encodes the DC coefficient (126) as a differential from the reconstructed DC coefficient (136) of a neighboring 8×8 block. The encoder entropy encodes (140) the differential. The entropy encoder can encode the left column or top row of AC coefficients as differentials from AC coefficients a corresponding left column or top row of a neighboring 8×8 block. The encoder scans (150) the 8×8 block (145) of predicted, quantized AC coefficients into a one-dimensional array (155). The encoder then entropy encodes the scanned coefficients using a variation of run/level coding (160).
In corresponding decoding, a decoder produces a reconstructed version of the original 8×8 block. The decoder entropy decodes the quantized transform coefficients, scanning the quantized coefficients into a two-dimensional block, and performing AC prediction and/or DC prediction as needed. The decoder inverse quantizes the quantized transform coefficients of the block and applies an inverse frequency transform (such as an inverse DCT ("IDCT")) to the de-quantized transform coefficients, producing the reconstructed version of the original 8×8 block. When a picture is used as a reference picture in subsequent motion compensation (see below), an encoder also reconstructs the picture.
II. Inter Compression
Inter-picture compression techniques often use motion estimation and motion compensation to reduce bit rate by exploiting temporal redundancy in a video sequence. Motion estimation is a process for estimating motion between pictures. In one common technique, an encoder using motion estimation attempts to match a block of samples in a current picture with a block of samples in a search area in another picture, called the reference picture. When the encoder finds an exact or "close enough" match in the search area in the reference picture, the encoder parameterizes the change in position of the blocks as motion data (such as a motion vector). In general, motion compensation is a process of reconstructing pictures from reference picture(s) using motion data.
FIG. 2 illustrates motion estimation for part of a predicted picture in an example encoder. For an 8×8 block of samples, 16×16 block (often called a "macroblock"), or other unit of the current picture, the encoder finds a similar unit in a reference picture for use as a predictor. In FIG. 2, the encoder computes a motion vector for a 16×16 macroblock (215) in the current, predicted picture (210). The encoder searches in a search area (235) of a reference picture (230). Within the search area (235), the encoder compares the macroblock (215) from the predicted picture (210) to various candidate macroblocks in order to find a candidate macroblock that is a good match. The encoder outputs information specifying the motion vector to the predictor macroblock.
The encoder computes the sample-by-sample difference between the current unit and the predictor to determine a residual (also called error signal). The residual is frequency transformed, quantized, and entropy encoded. The overall bit rate of a predicted picture depends in large part on the bit rate of residuals. The bit rate of residuals is low if the residuals are simple (i.e., due to motion estimation that finds exact or good matches) or lossy compression drastically reduces the complexity of the residuals. Bits saved with successful motion estimation can be used to improve quality elsewhere or reduce overall bit rate. On the other hand, the bit rate of complex residuals can be higher, depending on the degree of lossy compression applied to reduce the complexity of the residuals.
Encoders typically spend a large proportion of encoding time performing motion estimation, attempting to find good matches and thereby improve rate-distortion performance. In most scenarios, however, an encoder lacks the time or resources to check every possible motion vector for every block or macroblock to be encoded. The encoder therefore uses motion vector search patterns and matching heuristics deemed likely to find a good match in an acceptable amount of time.
The number of motion vectors used to represent a picture can also affect rate-distortion performance. Using four motion vectors for four different 8×8 blocks of a 16×16 macroblock (instead of one motion vector for the macroblock) allows an encoder to capture different motion for the different blocks, potentially resulting in better matches. On the other hand, motion vector information for four motion vectors (instead of one) is signaled, increasing bit rate of motion data.
FIG. 3 illustrates compression of a prediction residual for a motion-compensated block of a predicted picture in an example encoder. The encoder computes an 8×8 prediction error block (335) as the difference between a predicted block (315) and a current 8×8 block (325).
The encoder applies a frequency transform (340) to the residual (335), producing a block of transform coefficients (345). Some encoders switch between different sizes of transforms, e.g., an 8×8 transform, two 4×8 transforms, two 8×4 transforms, or four 4×4 transforms for an 8×8 prediction residual block. Smaller transform sizes allow for greater isolation of transform coefficients having non-zero values, but generally require more signaling overhead. FIG. 3 shows the encoder using one 8×8 transform.
The encoder quantizes (350) the transform coefficients (345) and scans (360) the quantized coefficients (355) into a one-dimensional array (365) such that coefficients are generally ordered from lowest frequency to highest frequency. The encoder entropy codes the data in the array (365).
If a predicted picture is used as a reference picture for subsequent motion compensation, the encoder reconstructs the predicted picture. When reconstructing residuals, the encoder reconstructs transform coefficients that were quantized and performs an inverse frequency transform. The encoder performs motion compensation to compute the motion-compensated predictors, and combines the predictors with the residuals. During decoding, a decoder typically entropy decodes information and performs analogous operations to reconstruct residuals, perform motion compensation, and combine the predictors with the reconstructed residuals.
III. Computing Pixel-domain Distortion When Making Encoding Decisions
The previous two sections mention some of the decisions that an encoder can make during encoding. When encoding a block of a predicted picture, an encoder can evaluate and set a number of coding parameters, including: (1) whether the block should be encoded as an intra or inter; (2) the number of motion vectors; (3) the value(s) of motion vector(s); (4) the type of frequency transform; (5) the size of frequency transform (e.g., 8×8, 4×8, 8×4, or 4×4); (6) the quantization step size; (7) the quantization thresholds to apply; (8) the dead zone size; and (9) the quantization matrix. Or, for a block of an intra-coded picture, the encoder can evaluate and set various quantization-related parameters. Depending on implementation, an encoder may finalize certain parameter decisions before starting to evaluate other parameters. Or, the encoder may jointly explore different combinations of coding parameters, which makes the decision-making process even more complex given the number of permutations to evaluate.
In making encoding decisions, an encoder often evaluates the distortion and rate associated with the different choices. In particular, for a block to be encoded, pixel-domain distortion of the block encoded according to different coding choices is an important criterion in encoder mode decisions. There are several approaches to determining pixel-domain distortion.
In one approach, an encoder performs inverse quantization to reconstruct transform coefficients for a block and performs an inverse frequency transform on the de-quantized transform coefficients. The encoder directly measures pixel-domain distortion by comparing the reconstructed pixel-domain values for the block to the original pixel-domain values for the block. While this approach yields accurate pixel-domain distortion measurements, it is expensive in terms of encoding time and resources. Performing an inverse frequency transform for every evaluated coding choice greatly increases the computational complexity of the encoding task. As a result, encoding time increases or more encoding resources are required. Or, to handle practical time or resource constraints, an encoder evaluates fewer coding options, which can result in the encoder missing efficient options.
In another approach, an encoder performs inverse quantization to reconstruct transform coefficients for a block but measures distortion in the transform domain. The encoder measures transform-domain distortion by comparing the de-quantized transform coefficients for the block to the original transform coefficients for the block. To estimate pixel-domain distortion for the block, the encoder can multiply the transform-domain distortion by a scale factor that depends on the frequency transform used. If the transform is orthogonal, the encoder multiplies the transform-domain distortion by a non-zero scale factor so that the energy in the transform domain is roughly equivalent to the energy in the pixel domain. In this approach, the encoder does not perform an inverse frequency transform for every evaluated coding choice, so computational complexity is lowered. The pixel-domain distortion estimated by this approach is often inaccurate, however, particularly when only the DC coefficient of a block has a significant value. This inaccuracy in pixel-domain distortion estimation can lead to inefficient choices of coding parameters and poor rate-distortion performance.
Given the critical importance of video compression to digital video, it is not surprising that video compression is a richly developed field. Whatever the benefits of previous video compression techniques, however, they do not have the advantages of the following techniques and tools.

Estimating sample-domain distortion in the transform domain with rounding compensation


The present invention relates to cysteine protease inhibitors of the general formula (I): ##STR1## wherein Z is a cysteine protease binding moiety; X and Y are S, O or optionally substituted N; and R.sub.1 is optionally substituted alkyl or aryl.

Numerous cysteine proteases have been identified in biological systems. A "protease" is an enzyme which degrades proteins or peptides into smaller components. The term "cysteine protease" refers to proteases which are distinguished by the presence of a cysteine residue which plays a critical role in the catalytic process. Mammalian systems, including humans, normally degrade and process proteins via a variety of mechanisms including the actions of cysteine proteases. However, when present at elevated levels or when abnormally activated, or where introduced into a biological system in the context of a viral, bacterial or parasitic infection, cysteine proteases are thought to be involved in numerous pathophysiological processes and disease states.
For example, calcium-activated neutral proteases ("calpains") comprise a family of intracellular cysteine proteases which are ubiquitously expressed in mammalian tissues. Three major calpains have been identified: calpain I and II, and p94. The calpain family of cysteine proteases has been implicated in many diseases and disorders, including stroke, neurodegeneration, such as Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophy and motor neuron damage; acute central nervous system injury, muscular dystrophy, bone resorption, platelet aggregation, cataracts and inflammation. Calpain I has been implicated in excitatory amino-acid induced neurotoxicity disorders including ischemia, hypoglycemia and epilepsy. The cysteine protease p94, a muscle-specific member of the calpain family, has been identified as a gene product responsible for limb girdle muscular dystrophy (Barrett A. J., et al. ICOP Newsletter, 1-2 (1996)).
Lysosomal cysteine proteases or cathepsins (including cathepsins B, C, H, L, S, O and O2/K) belong to the papain superfamily of cysteine proteases. They are widely distributed and differentially expressed among tissues. Intracellularly, they serve a variety of digestive and processing functions. Extracellularly, they may be involved in tissue remodeling and in pathologies such as arthritis, inflammation, myocardial infarction, Alzheimer's disease, cancer and muscular dystrophy (Elliott E., et al., Per. in Drug Disc. and Des., 6:12-32 (1996)).
Interleukin-1.beta. converting enzyme ("ICF") is a member of the caspase family of cysteine proteases which catalyzes the formation of interleukin-1.beta. (IL-1.beta.), as well as the formation of interferon-.gamma. inducing factor (IGIF) from their inactive precursors, proIL-1.beta. and pro-IGIF, respectively. Interleukin-1.beta. is an immunoregulatory protein implicated in inflammation, diabetes, septic shock, rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer's disease. ICE and/or other caspases have also been linked to the apoptotic cell death of neurons which is implicated in a variety of neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson's disease, ischemia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)(Dinarello C., et al., New Eng. J. Med., 328: 106-113 (1993)).
Cysteine proteases are also produced by various viral pathogens and appear to be involved in every stage of reproduction including DNA and RNA translation and synthesis, and capsid formation (Gorbalenya A., et al., Per. In Drug Disc., 6:64-86 (1996); Krausslich et al., Ann. Rev. Biochem., 57:701-54 (1988)). Examples of viral pathogens include Picornaviridae, which includes the genera Enterovirus, Rhinovirus, Cardiovirus, and Aphthovirus, which cause numerous human disease syndromes, ranging from fatal paralysis, encephalitis, meningitis, hepatitis and myocarditis to the common cold (Krausslich et al., Ann. Rev. Biochem., 57:701-54 (1988)). The picornaviral 3C proteinases, which are produced by all picomaviruses, are responsible for processing viral polyproteins, an essential stage in viral growth (Malcolm B., et al. Biochemistry, 34:8172-8179 (1995)).
In addition, parasitic cysteine proteinases play significant roles in host-parasite interactions and pathogenesis (Robertson C., et al., Pers. in Drug Disc. and Des., 6:99-118 (1996)). For example, most of the proteinase activity detected in trypanosomes and various Leishmania species has been characterized as belonging to the cysteine protease class. Other proteases are produced by Clostridium histolyticum and malaria parasites, such as Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vinckei strains, and Schistosoma.
Cancer procoagulant, CP, a cysteine proteinase from malignant cells, has emerged as a probable activator of the coagulation system in cancer (Alessio M. G., et al., Eur. J Haematol, 45: 78-81 (1990); Gordon S., Methods in Enz., 244:568-581 (1994); Gordon S., Sem. in Thromb. and Hemo., 18,4:424-433 (1992)).
Existing cysteine protease inhibitors are primarily irreversible in nature; only weakly inhibit the enzymatic activity of the targeted protease and/or are toxic. Thus, there is a need for effective inhibitors of cysteine proteases as therapeutic and as prophylactic agents for the treatment and/or prevention of cysteine protease mediated pathologies.


A method is disclosed for the catalytic polymerization of cyanoacrylate monomers by contacting said monomers with an organotin compound. Also included is a polymerizable system comprising cyanoacrylate monomer and an organotin compound, wherein upon contact of the monomer and the compound, the compound catalyzes the polymerization of the monomer. The organotin compound will have the formula R.sub.3 SnX (I), where each R is alkyl, cycloalkyl, alkaryl or aryl and X is alkyl, cycloalkyl, aryl, alkaryl, hydrogen, hydroxide or alkylcarboxyl, or the formula R.sub.2 R'.sub.s Sn (II), where each R is alkyl and each R' is alkyl, cycloalkyl, aryl, hydrogen, hydroxide or alkylcarboxyl. In each compound all substituents of the same chemical type may be the same species or two or more may be different species from each other, provided, however, that if in compound II both R and R' are of the same chemical type, each of the R substituents must be a different species from each of the R' substituents. The compounds may also be reacted or complexed with sulfur compounds, such as mercapto acid salts or mercaptides. Preferably R, R' and X are all C.sub.1 -C.sub.18 alkyl, more preferably normal alkyl.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention herein relates to catalytic polymerization methods and polymerization catalysts. More particularly, it relates to the polymerization of cyanoacrylate monomers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The cyanoacrylate polymers are well known, especially for their adhesive properties. Their chemistry, methods of formation, compositions and uses are detailed widely; see, for example, Millet, "Cyanoacrylate Adhesives," Ch. 6, pp. 249-307, in Hartshorn, ed., Structural Adhesives: Chemistry and Technology (1986); Seymour, Engineering Polymer Sourcebook, Ch. 8, pp. 131-142 (1989); and Coover, "Cyanoacrylate Adhesives," Ch. 31, pp. 409-414, in Skeist, ed., Handbook of Adhesives (1962).
When used in the form of thin films, some cyanoacrylate monomers polymerize very rapidly in the presence of moisture. For these polymers, the amount of moisture in surrounding air is sufficient to cause complete polymerization of a thin film of the cyanoacrylate monomer, thus leading to the wide use of such cyanoacrylates as adhesives for bonding of tightly fitting surfaces. However, many of these polymers, when in the form of thin films, lack flexibility, color stability or film strength. Other cyanoacrylate monomers polymerize only slowly in the presence of ambient moisture. In addition, many cyanoacrylate monomers (including those that otherwise would polymerize rapidly in the presence of ambient moisture) are initially mixed with inhibitors intended to prolong shelf life, which has the detrimental side effect that desirable polymerization speed is substantially slowed. There is thus a need for a catalyst that would speed the thin film polymerization of the normally slow cyanoacrylate monomers, overcome the retarding effects of inhibitors mixed with other cyanoacrylate monomers, and provide flexibility, color stability and/or strength to thin cyanoacrylate polymer films.
Further, when present in a thicker layer (i.e., in "bulk"), most cyanoacrylate monomers do not polymerize well. Polymerization in bulk is usually incomplete and the presence of unreacted monomer is detrimental to the properties of the polymerized product. It is believed that the polymerization of the bulk material is incomplete because the ambient moisture which catalyzes the thin film polymerization cannot penetrate satisfactorily into the body of the thicker layers of the cyanoacrylate monomer, and even that amount of moisture which does penetrate does not act effectively as a catalyst.
This is of particular significance in the adhesive field. As noted above, the cyanoacrylates in thin films usually form excellent bonds with nylons, polystyrenes, polyesters, polyacetals, metals, glass and non-porous ceramics, woods and similar materials. However, in the thicker layers, such bonds do not form properly and the adhesion is weak or non-existent. Thus it has been difficult to produce "gap filling" cyanoacrylate adhesives, i.e., those adhesives which will bond tightly even where the opposing faces of the objects to be adhered do not mate precisely.
To this end there have been suggestions of a number of additive materials which can be incorporated into the cyanoacrylate monomer composition in an attempt to catalyze bulk polymerization fully and to provide for "gap filling." Some of the additives have been in the form of polymerization initiators but these are not usually satisfactory since they do not provide for shelf life prior to use. Another group of additives which has been suggested are promoters, which rely on separate initiation of polymerization by a third component. While such promoters can be blended with the cyanoacrylate monomers without causing any reaction, there is still the necessity of having a separate initiator before the polymerization promoters become effective. In addition, there have been compositions in which fillers are added to provide intermediate surfaces to help form extended films to "bridge the gap" between irregular mating opposed faces, but such fillers do not appreciably aid in the bonding and provide foreign material (and occasionally discoloration) to the bonded region.
While a number of the additives have been effective for completing or accelerating polymerization, they present problems which can prevent their full utilization. First, many of the catalytic reactions which result generate severe exotherms and cause the polymerized cyanoacrylate material to become overheated. The presence of such excess heat can deteriorate the polymer bonds, discolor the polymerized body and detrimentally affect other additive materials which may be present in the composition or the surfaces with which the cyanoacrylate polymer is in contact. For instance, when cyanoacrylate polymers are used as a surface coating for natural human fingernails or as part of nail preparation compositions which are used to enhance the physical properties and appearance of human fingernails, the exothermic reaction which occurs can not only discolor the decorative nail surface but can often be of sufficient magnitude that the person's nails and in some cases even the underlying tissue are seriously harmed by the heat. Of course even where there is no actual burning or blistering of the nails or tissue, the person usually experiences a great deal of discomfort from the heat. As a similar example, the bonding of transparent or translucent sheets of plastic materials is detrimentally affected if the exotherm is sufficient to scorch or discolor the bonded surfaces.
It has also been found that many of the catalyst compositions are toxic, either when inhaled as fumes or when placed in contact with the human skin. Again considering nail compositions, a volatile toxic catalyst can be inhaled by both the wearer of the nail compositions and by the beautician or other person who applies the compositions. Both also can absorb the material through the skin, either by directly touching the composition while it is being applied to the wearer's nails or by absorption of fumes through the various skin surfaces which are in contact with the ambient air. The same will of course be true for other user of the material, whether is it being used to catalyze cyanoacrylate adhesives or other surface coatings.
Finally, many of the proposed catalytic materials react only fairly slowly and do not provide quick polymerization of the slow or bulk cyanoacrylate monomers. This requires that such compositions must be set in place for some time before the cyanoacrylate monomer is fully polymerized. In many cases this is difficult or disadvantageous.
Organotin compounds have been disclosed in the prior art as catalysts for vinyl halide polymerization in combination with an oxidizing agent; see related U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,382,223 and 3,390,143. Polymerization was conducted under cryogenic conditions (-40.degree. C.) but at room temperature (+30.degree. C.) there was no polymerization reaction.
It would, therefore, be of great value to have a catalytic system which would allow for complete and rapid polymerization of cyanoacrylate monomers in bulk (i.e non-thin-film) form so that the polymerization would be complete throughout the polymerized body, that would accelerate the polymerization of "slow" thin film cyanoacrylate monomers, that could be used to overcome the retarding effects of inhibitors and that would provide flexibility, color stability and/or strength to thin cyanoacrylate polymer films. Such a system would also advantageously operate without the presence of any significant exotherm; would be reactive at ambient temperatures; would not tend to discolor or distort the polymerized body; and would not cause harm to any adjoining material, whether human tissue or nails or any other type of material with which the cyanoacrylate compositions may be in contact. Further, the catalyst itself should be readily available, satisfactory for use in either direct or indirect contact with people and of sufficiently low toxicity to be suitable for prolonged use by and in the presence of people, particularly where such compositions are to be applied directly to the human body (such as nail dressings), in which case they must also be acceptable for use under appropriate public health and cosmetics laws.

Compositions and method for catalytic curing of cyanoacrylate polymers


Disclosed herein is a toilet cleansing block containing a polyacrylate polymer and a lauryl benzene sulfonate salt surfactant. The block is essentially free of other polymers that sequester ions. The block is for immersion in toilet tanks, and inhibits toilet bowl ring and stain formation, particularly those caused by iron oxide.

The present invention relates to cleansing blocks suitable for immersion in toilet tanks. The blocks are formulated to inhibit formation of toilet rings and surface stains.
Various cleansing blocks for use in toilet tanks and other water reservoirs are known. Such cleansing blocks typically contain a surfactant for cleaning, and often fillers, binders, colorants, extrusion aids and perfumes. They are designed to slowly release these materials into the toilet basin each time the toilet is flushed. See e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,336,427. The disclosure of this patent, and of all other publications referred to herein, are incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.
Such blocks should not include materials which leave undesirable residues in the toilet bowl, which are environmentally unacceptable, or which have unpleasant odors. While blocks having these desired attributes have been created, there are trade-offs between desired characteristics for each formulation. In particular, there is great difficulty in formulating a block that is long lasting, yet which sufficiently inhibits toilet bowl ring and stain formation.
Certain polymers have been added to assist in this regard. See e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,861,511, 4,899,398, 4,283,300, 4,302,350, and 4,428,872. However, such polymers are relatively costly, can require high concentrations in the toilet bowl in order to be effective, and in some cases can be counterproductive.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,511 a mixture of polyacrylate polymer with substantial amounts of an expensive polymer is stated to be required to achieve adequate results, particularly with respect to iron oxide deposits.
Thus, it can be seen that a need exists for an improved toilet cleansing block.

In-tank toilet cleansing block having polyacrylic acid/acrylate


A new Dianthus plant designated ‘KLEDP21367’ particularly distinguished by double pink flowers having darker pink macules and a medium-compact habit, is disclosed.

The present invention comprises a new and distinct variety of Dianthus, botanically known as Dianthus caryophyllus L., and hereinafter referred to by the variety name 'KLEDP21367'. 'KLEDP21367' originated from a controlled cross conducted in 2013 in Stuttgart, Germany between the proprietary Dianthus female parent 'KLEDP11109' (Unpatented) and the Dianthus male parent 'DCP-2012-0022' (Unpatented). The seeds from this cross were sown in Stuttgart, Germany and a single plant was selected in May 2015.
In August 2015, 'KLEDP21367' was first vegetatively propagated by vegetative stem cuttings in Stuttgart, Germany. 'KLEDP21367' was found to reproduce true to type in successive generations of asexual propagation in Stuttgart, Germany via vegetative cuttings.


A fully embedded electronic plug-in card pluggable into a slot of a plug-in socket having a plurality of elastic guide arms includes a main body, a plurality of conductive plates and a recessed structure. The main body can be wholly plugged into the plug-in socket without protruding out from the plug-in socket. The conductive plate is mounted onto the main body, and exposed from a side of the main body, and each conductive plate is electrically coupled to each respective elastic guide arm. The recessed structure is disposed on the main body and at a position corresponding to the slot of the plug-in socket. The electronic plug-in card can be plugged into the plug-in socket all the time to save the trouble and inconvenience of plugging the card for use or unplugging the card for removal.

At present, electronic plug-in cards include memory cards plugged into a plug-in socket, and card type flash drives plugged into a universal serial bus (USB) plug-in socket.
To eject a present existing memory card from a plug-in socket, it requires a card eject mechanism of the plug-in socket to elastically eject the card, and thus increasing the cost due to the card eject mechanism. In addition, the complicated structure of the card eject mechanism may cause failure easily. After a present existing card type flash drive (referring to the flash drive with a card type connector) is plugged into a USB plug-in socket, a portion of the flash drive is protruded out of the USB plug-in socket, so that the total length of the present existing card type flash drives is longer than the USB plug-in socket, and the card type flash drive may be bent or broken by hitting the protruding portion. Particularly, if a card type flash drive is used in a portable electronic device, it requires plugging in the flash drive for use and removing the flash drive when the flash drive is not in use. Obviously, such troublesome and inconvenient application requires improvements.
In view of the aforementioned drawbacks of the prior art, the inventor of the present invention based on years of experience in the related industry to conduct extensive researches and experiments, and finally designed a fully embedded electronic plug-in card having a simple structure and capable of being ejected easily.


In one embodiment, a local oscillator and mixer architecture may include a frequency divider having I and Q channel master storage elements formed of devices of a first size, and I and Q channel slave storage elements formed of devices of a second size, where the second size is smaller than the first size. In such manner, power consumption may be reduced while reducing phase noise in signals provided from the frequency divider to the corresponding mixer.

In various systems including receivers, tuners, radios, cellular telephones and the like, a down conversion process occurs in which a received signal at a very high frequency, such as a radio frequency (RF) is received and processed to obtain a lower frequency signal to be used for further processing. Such lower frequency signals may include an intermediate frequency (IF) signal, such as a low IF signal. In other systems, a RF signal may be directly downconverted to a zero IF signal.
Typically, such down conversion is effected by taking a received signal at a first frequency (typically RF) and mixing it with a local oscillator (LO) frequency to obtain a desired IF or other lower frequency signal. In certain systems, the LO frequency may be generated using a crystal oscillator or other such reference frequency generator. Often, such a frequency is provided to a frequency divider, where the reference frequency is divided by either a fixed or programmable amount. The divided frequency may then be provided to a mixer for mixing with a received signal.
In systems using quadrature signals (i.e., an in-phase (I) signal and a quadrature-phase signal (Q)), the LO signals provided to the mixer are preferably low noise signals, as the noise created in generating the LO frequency such as via a frequency divider and a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) can adversely affect receiver performance. For example, if a divide by two frequency divider is present, noise and other interference may exist, such as second harmonics of the divided frequency. Accordingly, oftentimes for RF communications a divide by four frequency divider is used. Such frequency dividers also suffer from noise problems and require a high frequency VCO with buffers capable of driving large capacitances at high frequencies, such that the VCO consumes high power. Furthermore, outputs from such a frequency divider may be jittery, causing a modulation in terms of phase that may appear as phase noise.
Similarly, a frequency divider used in developing a LO frequency should be well matched between its I and Q sides, as mismatches can cause a phase error and therefore image rejection degradation. The image rejection of a frequency divider (and more specifically the image rejection of a receiver including the divider) refers to the ability to reject responses resulting from RF signals at a frequency offset from the desired RF carrier frequency by an amount equal to twice the IF of the receiver.
Still further, a frequency divider should be well shielded, as 45° phase-shifted signals are present inside the frequency divider and an asymmetric coupling between the signals can cause degradation. Also, a frequency divider should consume low power, particularly where the circuitry operates at gigahertz frequencies.
However, these different criteria lead to expensive and inefficient designs, particularly with respect to power consumption. Thus a need exists for a frequency divider that can provide desired frequencies while maintaining low power and accurate operation.

Local oscillator and mixer for transceiver


A display device includes: a first display panel; a second display panel opposite to the first display panel; and an electro-optical active layer between the first display panel and the second display panel, wherein the first display panel includes a thin film transistor including a gate electrode, a source electrode, a drain electrode and a semiconductor layer, a gate line configured to transmit a gate signal to the gate electrode of the transistor and extending in a first direction, and a sensing electrode extending in the first direction and overlapping the gate line, where the sensing electrode and the gate electrode define a capacitor.

(a) Field
A display device including a sensor is provided.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A display device may include a flat panel display device, such as a liquid crystal display ("LCD"), an organic light emitting display, e.g., organic light emitting diode ("OLED") display, and an electrophoretic display, typically includes a plurality of pairs of field generating electrodes and an electro-optical active layer. The LCD typically includes a liquid crystal layer as the electro-optical active layer, and the organic light emitting display includes an organic light emitting layer as the electro-optical active layer. One of the pair of electric field generating electrodes is generally connected to a switching element to receive an electric signal, and the electro-optical active layer converts the electric signal into an optical signal to display an image.
The display device may further have a touch sensing function for an interaction with a user, based on which an image may be displayed. The touch sensing function typically detects a touch on a screen and touch position information thereof by sensing a change of pressure or light that occurs on the screen in the display device when a user contacts a finger or a touch pen to the screen to write a character or to draw a picture.
In general, a touch sensing method may be divided into a resistive type, a capacitive type and an electro-magnetic ("EM") type, for example.
The display device using the capacitive type typically includes a film including a transparent electrode for touch sensing, and a change of the capacitance, which occurs when a conductor such as a finger provides a contact while the voltage is applied to the transparent electrode, is sensed to detect the contact existence and the contact position.


In this pattern inspection device, the optical scanning section scans the inspected pattern using a laser beam. A photoelectric image processing section generates an image of the inspected pattern. A reference image generation section calculates the gray level of each pixel according to the number of sub-pixels belonging to the pattern developed in each pixel and calculates the pattern width for the inspected pattern and the reference data with treating the count obtained by dividing the gray level by the gray level step count as the width of the pattern developed in that pixel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pattern inspection device and particularly relates to a pattern inspection method and a pattern inspection device characterized by its reference image preparation procedure to prepare the reference image for Die-To-Data Base Inspection from the design data.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is generally necessary to inspect fine patterns of the semiconductor integrated circuit or the like formed on the photo-mask, reticle or wafer liquid crystal using a pattern inspection device to see whether they are correctly drawn according to the dimensions and shapes of the ideal pattern prepared from the design data.
In this type of pattern inspection device, the design data given with square or trapezoid position coordinates and line length are expressed as binary bit string consisting of 0 and 1 corresponding to the inspected pattern. Density values in a pixel are generated by integration of the bit string within the pixel width of a predetermined resolution.
Next, a certain optical point spread function is prepared based on the pattern information obtained by scanning the inspected pattern with the laser beam and making an image on the light receiving device with the light which has passed the pattern or based on the edge profiling of the pattern image obtained from the image sensing system. Using this function and executing the convolution operation with the multiple gray scale data (multi-value data) in the design data, the reference image is obtained.
Defects on the inspected pattern are detected by reading the reference image obtained from the design data synchronizing with the image of the inspected pattern obtained by optical scanning or by input from the image sensing system and by finding discrepancies between the image of the inspected pattern and the reference image at corresponding pixel positions (Die-To-Data BASE inspection).
Under the optical conditions and influence of the manufacturing processes, the image of the inspected pattern has thicker or thinner line widths and other dimensional errors when compared with the ideal design values. Pseudo discrepancies from the reference image obtained from the design data tend to result in pseudo defects, which should not be judged as defects.
Therefore, it is necessary to execute appropriate characteristics extraction such as edge position detection corresponding to the characteristics amount in each inspection zone and to correct in advance the pattern width of the multiple gray scale image in the design data before convolution processing with the optical point spread function so that such width comes to the edge position of the image in the inspected pattern.
In the conventional reference image preparation method, when correcting the pattern width of the reference image, the inspected pattern image is subjected to an appropriate edge detection processing so that the pattern correction width in the design data are used for correction as it is, i.e. the binary data by the unit of bits (pixel).
In this case, by preparing the change bit pattern from the design bit pattern and obtaining its EX-OR with the bit data of the inspected pattern as the binary expression of the actual image, the pattern of the reference image is resized.
In addition, for edges and corners extracted from the design data by edge position detection and corner recognition, corrective templates by the unit of bits expressing an edge or corner of a certain pattern edge angle (0, 45, 90 and 135 deg. for example) are prepared.
Then, the correction template the most similar to the actual image of the edges and corners is selected for correction of the original design data. The corrected design data are formed into multi-value data again for reference image preparation. Defects are detected by judging whether the gray scale difference between the obtained reference image and the actual image is defective or not using the threshold of a proper defect algorithm (Refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 350776/1992, for example).
Conventionally, image processing methods have been often used to detect the edge position of the inspected pattern. Such methods using image processing can be largely classified into density methods, methods using primary differentiation of density and methods using secondary differentiation of density (Reference material: Yoshihiko Nomura et al. "Sub-pixel Expression of Edge Position Measurement And Error Analysis". (Electronic Information Communication Association Paper D-11 Vol. J73-D-11 No. 9 pp. 1458–1467, September 1990).
According to a density method, a virtual edge pattern which can be applied the most suitably to the original image is determined for the primary to the third density moment so as to detect the edge position.
Density methods with primary differentiation include the method to consider the gravity center of the primary differentiation for all pixels forming the edge to be the edge position, the method to apply the primary differentiation of three consecutive pixels near the peak to the parabola so that the peak of the obtained regression curve is considered the edge position, and the method to apply the primary differentiation of density to the normal distribution by regression with least squares so that the extreme position of the regressive curve is considered the edge position. In the method using secondary differentiation of density, the secondary differentiation is determined using a special filter and the zero-cross position when the secondary differentiation result of two adjacent pixels with their positive and negative values transferred are linearly interpolated is considered to be the edge position.
A fine pattern drawn on the substrate such as photo mask has a zone of only about three pixels for transition from the black pixel level to the white pixel level at the pattern edge section and the edge profile is quite sharp. For this reason, when using the edge position detection method according to the conventional image processing, there is a drawback that a high level calculation is required even if the edge extraction algorithm by the unit of pixels or sub-pixels is used. Another drawback is that it takes a long time for calculation to identify the edge position by the unit of sub-pixels.
Further, in the conventional reference image preparation method, the relation between the optical point spread function corresponding to the beam spot strength including the machine system and the pattern edge position is not clear. Since the edge measurement position by the optical system and the edge extraction position by the image processing do not coincide, the pattern width of the inspected pattern and the pattern correction width of the reference data cannot be determined correctly.

Pattern inspection method and pattern inspection device


A heat dissipation device for the central processing unit (CPU) with larger area mainly comprises a finned plate and a board member mounted to the finned plate. The finned plate includes a plurality of rows and/or columns of fins extending upwardly from an upper side, wherein gaps are formed among every adjacent fins for the purpose of air circulation, and two separable grooves are defined among every adjacent fin block. The board member includes a hole, and a support member provided in the hole and connected to the periphery defining the hole by a plurality of ribs extending to the support member. A stud is formed on an upper side of the support member and includes a second hole defined therein for rotationally receiving a rotor shaft of fan. At lease one holder is provided at the grooves for mounting the heat dissipation device onto the central processing unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat dissipation device, and more particularly to, a heat dissipation device for the central processing unit with larger area.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heat dissipation is an important factor to performance of central processing unit (CPU). Although a wide variety of cooling devices have been provided, the effects thereof are not satisfactory in every respect. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,299,632 issued to Lee on Apr. 5, 1994 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,309,983 issued to Bailey on May 10, 1994 disclose heat dissipating devices comprising a fan assembly with relatively large volume and thus cannot be used in a portable computers. Furthermore, it has been found that dust tends to a accumulate in the cooling device or other elements, resulting in malfunction of the fan as well as noise of the fan. Besides, the amount of cool air induced by conventional heat dissipation device is not maximized for larger CPU. Accordingly, it has been taught to combine two or more cooling devices in one assembly to solve this problem. The present invention is intended to provide an improved design to mitigates and/or obviates the above problem.

Sunonwealth Electric Machine Industry Co., Ltd.


A shift-by-wire (SBW) column shifter for a vehicle includes a shift lever configured to be moved to shift gears. A shaft enables the shift lever to rotate the shaft about an axis. A lever detent is coupled to the shaft, enabling the shaft to rotate the lever detent about the axis. A slider magnet is constrained to move along a path, such as a linear path. The slider magnet has a groove that is engaged by a projection of the lever detent. Rotation of the lever detent about the axis is converted into movement of the slider magnet along the path via the engagement of the projection and the groove. A plurality of sensors are configured to output signals indicating a position of the slider magnet along the path to indicate a requested change in operating gear of the vehicle.

Vehicles having an automatic transmission typically include a shift control lever or a shifter mounted on a dashboard, a console, or the steering column of the vehicle. An operator of the vehicle may manually move the shifter between designated positions to change the gear position in which the transmission is commanded to operate. These gear positions include Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive, and sometimes others, such as Low. The shifter is therefore commonly referred to by its acronym—a PRNDL or PRND shift mechanism.
Shift-by-wire (SBW) systems are known. In SBW systems, movement of the shift control lever causes electronic signals to be sent to a controller, which correspondingly electronically commands a change in the operating gear of the vehicle.


Photoconductors comprise a substrate, a charge transport layer, and a charge generation layer. The charge transport layer comprises binder and a charge transport compound comprising at least one of a hydrazone, aromatic amine, or substituted aromatic amine, and the charge generation layer comprises binder, a phthalocyanine charge generating compound and a hindered hydroxylated aromatic compound. The hindered hydroxylated aromatic compound reduces electrical fatigue upon cycling without adversely effecting the electrical performance of the photoconductors.

In electrophotography, a latent image is created on the surface of an imaging member such as a photoconducting material by first uniformly charging the surface and then selectively exposing areas of the surface to light. A difference in electrostatic charge density is created between those areas on the surface which are exposed to light and those areas on the surface which are not exposed to light. The latent electrostatic image is developed into a visible image by electrostatic toners. The toners are selectively attracted to either the exposed or unexposed portions of the photoconductor surface, depending on the relative electrostatic charges on the photoconductor surface, the development electrode and the toner.
Typically, a dual layer electrophotographic photoconductor comprises a substrate such as a metal ground plane member on which a charge generation layer (CGL) and a charge transport layer (CTL) are coated. The charge transport layer contains a charge transport material which comprises a hole transport material or an electron transport material. For simplicity, the following discussions herein are directed to use of a charge transport layer which comprises a hole transport material as the charge transport compound. One skilled in the art will appreciate that if the charge transport layer contains an electron transport material rather than a hole transport material, the charge placed on a photoconductor surface will be opposite that described herein.
Generally, when the charge transport layer containing a hole transport material is formed on the charge generation layer, a negative charge is typically placed on the photoconductor surface. Conversely, when the charge generation layer is formed on the charge transport layer, a positive charge is typically placed on the photoconductor surface. Conventionally, the charge generation layer comprises a polymeric binder containing a charge generating compound or molecule while the charge transport layer comprises a polymeric binder containing the charge transport compound or molecule. The charge generating compounds within the CGL are sensitive to image-forming radiation and photogenerate electron-hole pairs within the CGL as a result of such radiation. The CTL is usually non-absorbent of the image-forming radiation and the charge transport compounds serve to transport holes to the surface of a negatively charged photoconductor. Photoconductors of this type are disclosed in the Adley et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,215 and the Balthis et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,545,499.
Generally, various materials which are included in the photoconductor are sensitive to oxidative degradation. Typically, antioxidants are incorporated into the charge transport layer in order to improve the resistance of the photoconductor to oxidative degradation. For example, the Iwasaki et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,633, the Shigematsu et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,595,846 and the Kishi et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,670,284 all disclose the use of antioxidants in a charge transfer layer of a dual layer photoconductor in order to improve the oxidative degradation resistance of the photoconductor.
Unfortunately, many commonly employed antioxidants have been determined to significantly increase photoconductor fatigue, both initially and upon cycling, when incorporated into the charge transport layer. Generally, increased fatigue is evidenced by increases in the discharge voltage of the photoconductor, either initially or upon cycling. Fatigue is undesirable as it can reduce the development vector thereby resulting in light or washed out print as well as print that varies from page to page. Accordingly, there is a continuing need for improved photoconductors which exhibit good resistance to oxidative degradation while maintaining good sensitivity, stability and durability.

Dual layer photoconductors with charge generation layer containing hindered hydroxylated aromatic compound


Disclosed herein is a technique which performs the thinning of a wafer and the separation thereof from a support substrate with high yields and in a short time. Described specifically, a hole-free support substrate is bonded to a second surface of a support substrate having holes with an adhesive layer melted by heating so as to bloc the holes. A wafer is bonded to a first surface of the support substrate having the holes with an adhesive layer melted by solvent. The wafer is thinned by grinding and etching. The adhesive layer is melted by heating and the support substrate having the holes is slid with respect to the hole-free support substrate to thereby separate the support substrate having the holes from the hole-free support substrate. Further, the adhesive layer is melted by solvent from the holes defined in the support substrate having the holes to thereby separate the wafer from the support substrate having the holes. Since the separation of the hole-free support substrate from the support substrate having the holes depends on heating and sliding, it can be carried out in a short time. Since the adhesive layer is melted by solvent which enters through the holes, the separation of the wafer in a short time is allowed. Both work do not put a load on the wafer and hence damage is prevented from occurring.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing it, and particularly to a technology effective for application to a technology for grinding the back of a semiconductor substrate (semiconductor wafer) with semiconductor elements formed thereon to thereby thin the semiconductor substrate.
As semiconductor elements operated at high speed, for example, a GaAs-MESFET (Metal Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor), an HEMT (High Electron Mobility Transistor), and an HBT (Hetero Junction Bipolar Transistor) are used in a high-frequency power amplifying module built in a radio communication apparatus such as a cellular phone system.
As for these semiconductor elements, there is known one which adopts a so-called PHS (Plated Heat Sink) wherein via holes extending from the surface (main surface) of a semiconductor substrate to the back thereof are provided and conductors are provided in the via holes to electrically connect predetermined electrodes on the surface of the semiconductor substrate to a metal layer provided on the back of the semiconductor substrate, and in which the thickness of the semiconductor substrate is made thin and the length of each via hole is shortened to reduce inductance, whereby an increase in high-frequency characteristic is achieved.
A technology for thinning the semiconductor substrate to 100 xcexcm or less has been disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. Hei 10(1998)-294246 and Hei 5(1993)-335292. The former publication has described a method of increasing the temperature of wax to the neighborhood of a melting point after the thinning of a semiconductor substrate bonded to a reinforcing plate with wax has been completed, and peeling the semiconductor substrate from the reinforcing plate while the wax is being melted.
A technology for thinning the semiconductor substrate to 25 xcexcm has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7(1995)-221051. This reference describes a GaAsFET used for ultra high-frequency applications. The GaAsFET has a PHS structure wherein a metal layer, which acts as a heat sink, is provided on the reverse side (back) of a semiconductor substrate. Further, the present reference also discloses a technology for bonding the surface of the semiconductor substrate to a protective plate such as glass with wax and thereafter the wax is melted by solvent to separate a semiconductor chip brought to a PHS structure from a glass substrate.
Thinning a semiconductor element (semiconductor chip) built in a high-frequency power amplifying module (high-frequency power amplifier) is essential for improvements in high-frequency characteristics and heat dissipation.
Conventionally, a compound semiconductor substrate (semiconductor wafer: also called simply xe2x80x9cwaferxe2x80x9d) such as GaAs or the like on which transistors such as a GaAs-MESFET, an HEMT, an HBT, etc. are formed, is prepared and thereafter the semiconductor wafer is fixed to a support substrate such as a glass substrate with an adhesive layer such as wax, followed by thinning of the semiconductor wafer.
(1) A method of heating and melting the wax to peel the semiconductor wafer from the glass substrate and (2) a method of melting the wax by solvent to separate the semiconductor wafer from the glass substrate have been adopted for the separation of the semiconductor wafer from the glass substrate.
In the former heating method, however, the semiconductor wafer must be separated by applying an external force thereto, and the thinned wafer is often cracked and broken, thus interfering with an improvement in yields.
In the latter solvent-based melting method, since the solvent is hard to sink in the wax, the time required to perfectly separate the semiconductor wafer from the glass substrate is spent and hence productivity is low. In the case of a wafer having a diameter of 3 inches, for example, about one week is required for its separation. Incidentally, there is known a technique (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7(1995)-37768) wherein trenches are defined in the surface of a reinforcing member (support substrate) and bubbles developed in an adhesive for bonding the reinforcing member and a wafer to each other are caused to escape to the outside through the trenches. When the reinforcing member is used for the support substrate, a manufacturing process (e.g., PHS structure manufacturing process) for effecting back processing such as plating on the back of a wafer after the thinning of the wafer to thereby form an electrode layer has the potential of melting out wax from trenches and thereby deteriorating the quality of a plated film.
An object of the present invention is to provide a technology for manufacturing a semiconductor device, which is capable of performing the thinning of a semiconductor wafer and the separation of it from a support substrate with high yields.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a technology for manufacturing a semiconductor device, which is capable of performing the thinning of a semiconductor wafer and the separation of it from a support substrate in a short time.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, which is capable of manufacturing a semiconductor chip having a PHS structure with high yields and in a short time.
The above, other objects, and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the description of the present specification and the accompanying drawings.
A summary of a typical one of the inventions disclosed in the present application will be described in brief as follows:
The present invention includes the steps of:
preparing a support substrate having a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface and having a plurality of holes extending from the first surface to the second surface, a hole-free support substrate having a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface, and a semiconductor wafer which has a main surface and a back opposite to the main surface, and semiconductor elements formed in each individuals of a plurality of semiconductor chip forming areas, and which has, on the main surface, an etching stopper layer comprised of a conductor electrically connected to a predetermined electrode constituting each semiconductor element, and a metal layer provided so as to overlap with a scribing area around each semiconductor chip forming area;
bonding the hole-free support substrate to the second surface of the support substrate having the holes with an adhesive layer melted by heating so as to block the holes;
bonding the main surface of the semiconductor wafer to the first surface of the support substrate having the holes with an adhesive layer melted by solvent;
thinning the back of the semiconductor wafer to a predetermined thickness by grinding and wet-etching;
selectively etching the back of the semiconductor wafer to define first trenches (separation trenches for division into pieces of semiconductor chips) which reach the metal layer formed in the scribing area, and second trenches (via holes) which reach the etching stopper layer;
forming a electrode layer on the whole range of the back of the semiconductor wafer to provide a PHS structure;
melting the adhesive layer by heating and sliding the support substrate having the holes with respect to the hole-free support substrate to thereby separate the support substrate having the holes therefrom;
supplying solvent from the second surface of the support substrate having the holes through the plurality of holes to thereby reduce adhesive power of the adhesive layer for bonding the support substrate and the semiconductor wafer to each other;
peeling a group of the semiconductor chips arranged in plate form, which are mutually connected by the electrode layer and the metal layer formed in the scribing area, from the support substrate having the holes;
bonding a support tape (ultraviolet-ray cured adhesion type resin tape) to the electrode layer forming surface of the semiconductor chip group arranged in plate form; and
cutting the electrode layer and metal layer for connecting the respective semiconductor chips of the semiconductor chip group arranged in plate form to one another to thereby separate the respective semiconductor chips.
According to the present invention, a support substrate having holes or perforated support substrate, and a hole-free support substrate are separated from each other by heating and melting an adhesive layer provided therebetween and sliding the perforated support substrate with respect to the hole-free support substrate. Afterwards, an adhesive layer for bonding a semiconductor wafer and the perforated support substrate to each other is melted by solvent through the use of holes defined in the perforated support substrate. Therefore, the semiconductor wafer can be separated from the perforated support substrate in a time shorter than ever, and hence an improvement in productivity can be achieved.
Since the separation of the semiconductor wafer depends on the melting of the adhesive layer by the solvent, no load is placed on the semiconductor wafer, cracks and breaks become hard to occur, and hence an improvement in yields can be achieved.
Since separation trenches and via holes for bringing the semiconductor wafer into pieces of semiconductor chips are defined by etching after the thinning of the semiconductor wafer, and an electrode layer is formed on the back of the semiconductor wafer, a thinned PHS structure can easily be manufactured.

Method of thinning a semiconductor substrate using a perforated support substrate


The present invention relates to distinguishing different sedentary states of a subject. A sedentary state can refer to standing, sitting and/or lying. An apparatus for determining a sedentary state of a subject is presented that comprises a sensor interface for obtaining a movement signal indicative of a movement of the subject; an extraction unit for extracting a signal feature indicative of postural control oscillations of the subject from the movement signal, wherein the signal feature indicative of postural control oscillations is indicative of center of mass motion oscillations for preventing the subject from falling; and a classifier for classifying a sedentary state of the subject based on the signal feature indicative of postural control oscillations of the subject. Further, a corresponding method, computer program and system are presented.

In the field of healthcare, fitness and leisure activities, the use of activity trackers or activity monitors for monitoring a physical activity of a subject has become more and more popular. Starting from pedometers, which count the number of steps, the technology has evolved towards more sophisticated activity trackers which distinguish between different types of physical activities such as walking, running or cycling. For example, walking and running can be distinguished from being sedentary based on a step frequency. Exemplary systems feature for example a wrist band with a sensor, wherein the wristband is in communication with a smart phone that is running a fitness tracking app.
While existing activity trackers successfully distinguish between different types of activities, such as walking and running, they do not distinguish between different sedentary states, such as standing, sitting and lying. Static sedentary body postures, such as standing, sitting and lying, are hard to distinguish by means of unobtrusive wearable devices such as motion sensors.
However, knowing whether a subject is standing rather than sitting or lying can be very relevant information in many instances. For example, pregnant women are at high risk of lower limbs edema and of developing varicose veins when standing still. In some occupations standing still is a common postural behavior, for example for hairdressers or production workers, which increases the risk for those workers of problems to the lower limbs. There can be a need to distinguish between different sedentary states and in particular to determine whether a person is standing.
As a solution, US 2004/0112151 A1 discloses an activity monitor, which distinguishes between the sedentary states standing and sitting based on an inclination of the thigh. An accelerometer has to be applied in a particular defined orientation to the thigh of the subject, i.e., to the upper leg segment. A single axis accelerometer is used as the sensor. Depending on the amplitude of the output signal of the accelerometer, the sedentary activity is classified as sitting or standing. The classification is thus based on an inclination of the accelerometer axis with respect to the gravity vector. If the subject is standing, the thigh is parallel to the gravity vector. If the subject is sitting, the thigh is substantially perpendicular to the gravity vector. The different orientations result in a different absolute value measured by the accelerometer, which is then used to distinguish between sitting and standing. The device does not distinguish between sitting and lying.
WO 2009/083032 A1, even though being related to the different technical field of early detection of Parkinson related blocking episodes, teaches a further refinement to distinguish between standing, sitting and lying. A first accelerometer is applied to the thigh of the subject and a second accelerometer is applied to a shank of the subject. Hence, a second accelerometer is applied to the lower leg segment. The system can distinguish between standing, sitting and lying based on the accelerometer readings on different axes of the employed two-dimensional accelerometers. When standing quietly, the thigh and shank are parallel to the gravity vector, such that both the accelerometers applied to the thigh and the accelerometer applied to the shank measure a vertical acceleration of 1 g. If the subject is sitting, the shank is parallel to the gravity vector and the thigh is substantially perpendicular to the gravity vector, such that the accelerometer at the shank measures a vertical acceleration of 1 g, whereas the accelerometer at the thigh measures a horizontal acceleration of −1 g. If the subject is lying, the thigh and shank are substantially perpendicular to the gravity vector, such that both the accelerometer at the thigh as well as the accelerometer at the shank measure a horizontal acceleration of −1 g. Hence, the orientation of two accelerometers applied to different segments of the leg is compared and evaluated.
Correspondingly, US 2013/0207889 A1 teaches that sitting or standing and lying down can be distinguished by the orientation of an accelerometer. An acceleration of 1 g on the accelerometer y-axis indicates sitting or standing whereas an acceleration of 0 g indicates that the user is lying down.
US 2013/0184613 A1 teaches to determine different states based on the relative position of body parts with respect to one another. Sensors are placed at different locations of the user's body to detect the individual positions of each body part.
US 2010/0298655 A1 also teaches to evaluate an orientation of a motion-detecting sensor on the patient to determine a posture parameter.
A drawback of these solutions is that one or two accelerometers have to be worn at specific body locations and that the accelerometers have to be mounted in a well-defined orientation.

Apparatus and method for determining a sedentary state of a subject


A thermostat management system facilitates an automatic pairing of a thermostat with a thermostat communication account. The thermostat management system receives a public network address associated with a computer device on a private network accessing the thermostat management account. The system retrieves the thermostat metadata including a public network address associated with a registration of the thermostat with the thermostat management system. The public network address registered with the thermostat metadata is provided by a router on the private network and therefore should match the public network address used by computer devices on the private network. The thermostat management account is paired with the thermostat if the thermostat has the same public network address as the computer device accessing the thermostat management account. Pairing the thermostat management account to the thermostat allows the thermostat management account to communicate with the thermostat over the public network through the thermostat management system.

Substantial effort and attention continues toward the development of newer and more sustainable energy supplies. The conservation of energy by increased energy efficiency remains crucial to the world's energy future. According to an October 2010 report from the U.S. Department of Energy, heating and cooling account for 56% of the energy use in a typical U.S. home, making it the largest energy expense for most homes. Along with improvements in the physical plant associated with home heating and cooling (e.g., improved insulation, higher efficiency furnaces), substantial increases in energy efficiency can be achieved by better control and regulation of home heating and cooling equipment. By activating heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment for judiciously selected time intervals and carefully chosen operating levels, substantial energy can be saved while at the same time keeping the living space suitably comfortable for its occupants.
It would be beneficial, at both a societal level and on a per-home basis, for a large number of homes to have their existing older thermostats replaced by newer, microprocessor controlled "intelligent" thermostats having more advanced HVAC control capabilities that can save energy while also keeping the occupants comfortable. To do this, these thermostats will need more information from the occupants as well as the environments where the thermostats are located. Preferably, these thermostats will also be capable of connection to computer networks, including both local area networks (or other "private" networks) and wide area networks such as the Internet (or other "public" networks), in order to obtain current and forecasted outside weather data, cooperate in so-called demand-response programs (e.g., automatic conformance with power alerts that may be issued by utility companies during periods of extreme weather), enable users to have remote access and/or control thereof through their network-connected device (e.g., smartphone, tablet computer, PC-based web browser), and other advanced functionalities that may require network connectivity.
Among other requirements, the successful implementation of intelligent network-connected thermostats into widespread, practical everyday use in a large number of homes and business requires the deployment of computers, networks, software systems and other network infrastructure capable of providing the necessary provisioning, data management, and support. Data communications methods between the intelligent thermostats and centrally provided management servers (which can also be termed "cloud-based" management servers), needs to be responsive, robust, and scalable. At the same time, the hardware and methodologies employed need to be compatible with, and workable in view of, a large installed base of conventional routers and network services that are already in homes and business, such that widespread adoption of the network-connected intelligent thermostats be commercially feasible.
One further issue that needs to be addressed in promoting the adoption of intelligent network-connected thermostats relates to the level of sophistication and effort required to install, configure, and manage such thermostats. As the benefits of these intelligent thermostats are realized, a broad range of individuals and businesses will inevitably be interested in their adoption. People calculating the reduced costs and energy savings might be ready to purchase such a device yet may hesitate when it comes to installation, configuration, and management. Some may wonder whether they will be able to follow the instructions provided in the installation and user manual provided with the thermostat. Adding a network connection to the thermostat device can further complicate matters if the users are not adept in computers and networking.
To overcome these and other associated issues, it is important that the intelligent thermostat is easily installed, configured, and managed. Complex installation instructions with numerous steps should be avoided as they might be confusing to a large number of users and prevent the intelligent thermostat from being installed or set up correctly. Installation problems may also arise if the installation requires a user to enter numerous codes and network addresses on the intelligent thermostat and/or other pieces of equipment. Instead, the intelligent thermostat installation and configuration should be achievable even by a user with limited experience and knowledge in "tech".
One further issue that needs to be addressed in promoting the adoption of intelligent network-connected thermostats relates to the human-machine interface the will be experienced by the user when interacting with such thermostats. It would be desirable to provide intelligent network-connected thermostat and an associated cloud-based provisioning, management, and control system therefor that not only saves energy, but that also provides a user-friendly, intuitive, pleasant, and appealing experience for the user. In addition to providing such positive and compelling experiences directly at the user interface of the physical thermostat itself (i.e., the "walk-up" user interface), it would be desirable to provide such positive and compelling user experiences when the user is interacting remotely with their network-connected thermostat over a computer network using their computer web browser, smartphone, tablet computer, or other remote access device.
It is to be appreciated that although exemplary embodiments are presented herein for the particular context of HVAC system control, there are a wide variety of other resource usage contexts for which the embodiments are readily applicable including, but not limited to, water usage, air usage, the usage of other natural resources, and the usage of other (i.e., non-HVAC-related) forms of energy, as would be apparent to the skilled artisan in view of the present disclosure. Therefore, such application of the embodiments in such other resource usage contexts is not outside the scope of the present teachings.

Methods, systems, and related architectures for managing network connected thermostats


A motor control device for controlling a motor which drives a control target, includes: a speed feedback control unit which generates a pre-correction torque command for controlling such that an actual speed of the control target follows a speed command which is input; an inverse model calculation unit which calculates a coefficient of an inverse model with a transfer function inversed from a transfer function of the control target by using the speed command and the pre-correction torque command; a torque correction value generating unit which generates a torque correction value by using the speed command and the coefficient of the inverse model; and a torque command generating unit which generates a torque command for the motor which drives the control target by using the pre-correction torque command and torque correction value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motor control device for controlling a motor which is used as a driving source of a machine such as a robot, machine tool, or industrial machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
A motor control device for controlling a motor which is used as a driving source of a machine such as a robot, machine tool, or industrial machine is provided with a feedback control in order that a control target such as a rotary driven motor alone, or a machine cooperating with a motor as a driving source (including attachments such as a workpiece on which the machine acts in some cases) (hereinafter, simply referred to as "control target") is operated in accordance with a command. Examples of the feedback control include a speed feedback control in which a speed of a control target follows a speed command and a position feedback control in which a position of a control target follows a position command.
It is known that a feed-forward control is provided in addition to a feedback control for attaining higher responsiveness to a command. Examples of the feed-forward control for a command include a speed feed-forward control which is added to a speed feedback control in order to increase the responsiveness to a speed command and a position feed-forward control which is added to a position feedback control in order to increase the responsiveness to a position command.
FIG. 9 is block diagram illustrating a conventional general motor control device with a feedback control and feed-forward control. Hereinafter, components indicated by the same reference number are components having the same function. A case in which a motor control device 100 controls the operation of a control target 200 will be described.
As mentioned above, examples of the control target 200 include a motor alone, and a motor and a machine cooperating with the motor as a driving source (including attachments such as a workpiece on which the machine acts in some cases). For example, it is assumed that a motor torque constant of the control target 200 is set to Kt, a motor inertia to J, and a friction coefficient to C. The differential operator is represented by s. A transfer function of the control target 200 is represented by "Kt/(Js+C)".
A controller 101 carries out a speed feedback control in which an actual speed of the control target 200 follows a speed command. An error between a speed fed back from the control target 200 and the speed command is input to the controller 101, and the controller 101 outputs a torque command. The controller 101 is realized by a PI control or a PID control. For example, when the controller 101 is realized by a PI control as illustrated in FIG. 9, setting the integral gain to K1 and the proportional gain to K2, the transfer function of the controller 101 is represented by "K1/s+K2".
The transfer function of a speed feed-forward (VFF) control block 104 is set to "(Js+C)/Kt" which is an inverse function of the transfer function of the control target 200 "Kt/(Js+C)" in order to realize a highly responsive control to a speed command. Here, when the controller 101, speed feed-forward control block 104 and control target 200 are considered as one system (hereinafter, referred to as "speed control system"), an input of the speed control system can be regarded as a "speed command" and an output of the speed control system can be regarded as an "actual speed of the control target 200" fed back from the control target 200. When the transfer function of the speed feed-forward control block 104 is designed to be the inverse function (inverse model in the case of nonlinear) of the transfer function of the control target 200, the transfer function of the speed control system is "1", thereby realizing a high responsiveness to a speed command.
In an example illustrated in FIG. 9, a position gain of a position gain block 102 of a position feedback control in which the position of the control target 200 follows a position command is set to Kp. The error between a position obtained by integrating the speed of the control target 200 in an integration block 103 and the position command is multiplied by a position gain Kp to be used as a part of the above-mentioned speed command. The transfer function of the integration block 103 is represented by "1/s".
When the speed control system whose transfer function is "1", the position gain 102, the integral gain block 103 whose transfer function is "1/s", and a position feed-forward (PFF) block 105 are considered as one system (hereinafter, referred to as a "position control system"), an input of the position control system can be regarded as a "position command", and the output of the position control system can be regarded as "the actual position of the control target 200" fed back from the control target 200. As mentioned above, since the transfer function of the speed control system comprising the controller 101, the speed feed-forward control block 104 and the control target 200 is "1", when the transfer function of the position feed-forward control block 105 is designed to an inverse function "s" of the transfer function "1/s" of the integral gain block 103, the transfer function of the position control system is also "1", thereby realizing a high responsiveness to the position control system.
When the transfer function of the speed control system can be set to "1" as mentioned above, the design of the position feed-forward control block 105 is facilitated since the transfer function of the position feed-forward control block 105 can be designed to be the inverse function "s" of the transfer function "1/s" of the integral gain block 103. The design of the speed feed-forward control block 104 and the position feed-forward control block 105 of the motor control device 100 thus needs detail information on a variety of constants of the control target 200.
In general, it may be difficult to grasp a variety of constants such as inertia and friction of a control target in a machine such as a robot, machine tool, or industrial machine. For example, as for an attachment which is attached to a machine in a robot or an industrial machine, or as for an object to be processed in a machine tool, when the size or the weight thereof fluctuates, the inertia or friction thereof fluctuates. A parameter such as a parameter for the friction of a machine changes also due to secular change. The parameter such as a parameter for a friction fluctuates also depending on the position of a driven body driven by a motor. Further, inertia also fluctuates depending on the position of a driven body.
As mentioned above, a method is conventionally known in which a parameter of feed-forward control is determined by using adaptive control in order to realize a high responsiveness even when a variety of constants of a control target are unknown or uncertain.
For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. H3-242703 discloses a method in which in an electric motor which drives a robot arm, a parameter of a position feed-forward control is adaptively determined by using a steepest descent method algorithm so that the position error becomes small in order to realize high command responsiveness even when inertia largely fluctuates since the inertia largely fluctuates in accordance with the movement of the arm.
As another example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-171165 discloses a method in which an optimum torque command is output corresponding to a control target including a load which fluctuates depending on a rotation angle by adaptively identifying a torque offset due to the effect of inertia and a gravity with respect to a control target and by carrying out feed-forward control by correcting a torque command using the torque offset.
As mentioned above, when the transfer function of a speed feed-forward control of a motor control device is designed to be the inverse model of a control target, a high responsiveness to a speed command can be realized. When the transfer function of the speed feed-forward control can be optimally designed, a position feed-forward control having a high responsiveness can be relatively easily designed. It is therefore very important to accurately grasp detailed information about a variety of constants of a control target when a speed feed-forward control is designed.
However, when a feed-forward control of a motor control device is designed, in cases in which a variety of constants of a control target are not accurately grasped for some reasons, the completed feed-forward control is not necessarily said to be an optimal one and it is not necessarily said that a high responsiveness to a command is realized.
In particular, in cases in which a control target which a motor control device drives is one whose inertia and friction fluctuate, it is very difficult to obtain detailed information about a variety of constants of a control target and it is also difficult to increase the responsiveness to a command of the motor control device.
For example, in the inventions disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. H3-242703 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-171165, although a parameter relating to inertia of a control target is determined using adaptive control to carry out a feed-forward control, a parameter relating to a friction of the control target is not considered. The inventions described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. H3-242703 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-171165 thus have a problem that, although a control target whose inertia fluctuates can be dealt with, an optimum feed-forward control cannot be carried out for a control target whose friction fluctuates.

Motor control device provided with feedforward control