A CT system having an adjustable pre-patient collimator and a partial volume artifact reduction algorithm is described. In one embodiment, a scout scan is performed to collect scout scan data. Utilizing the scout scan data, the algorithm identified the boundaries and radius of a partial volume artifact producing object. The algorithm then determines an average attenuation coefficient and an attenuation index of the object. The object radius, the attenuation coefficient and attenuation index are then graded to identify the object. A collimator aperture index is then determined based upon a variation of the attenuation characteristic along the z axis for the identified object. Utilizing the collimator aperture index, the CT system computer adjusts the collimator aperture for the appropriate size to eliminate, or significantly reduce, partial volume artifacts.

In at least some known CT system configurations, an x-ray source projects a fan-shaped beam which is collimated to lie within an X-Y plane of a Cartesian coordinate system and generally referred to as the "imaging plane". The x-ray beam passes through the object being imaged, such as a patient. The beam, after being attenuated by the object, impinges upon an array of radiation detectors. The intensity of the attenuated beam radiation received at the detector array is dependent upon the attenuation of the x-ray beam by the object. Each detector element of the array produces a separate electrical signal that is a measurement of the beam attenuation at the detector location. The attenuation measurements from all the detectors are acquired separately to produce a transmission profile.
In known third generation CT systems, the x-ray source and the detector array are rotated with a gantry within the imaging plane and around the object to be imaged so that the angle at which the x-ray beam intersects the object constantly changes. A group of x-ray attenuation measurements, i.e., projection data, from the detector array at one gantry angle is referred to as a "view". A "scan" of the object comprises a set of views made at different gantry angles during one revolution of the x-ray source and detector.
In an axial scan, the projection data is processed to construct an image that corresponds to a two dimensional slice taken through the object. One method for reconstructing an image from a set of projection data is referred to in the art as the filtered backprojection technique. This process converts the attenuation measurements from a scan into integers called "CT numbers" or "Hounsfield units", which are used to control the brightness of a corresponding pixel on a cathode ray tube display.
During scanning, the x-ray beam is known to spread along a z-axis to form a "scan plane". For each image slice, the object to be imaged often only partially intrudes on the scan plane. Specifically, the object is only partially subjected to the x-ray beam, thus causing inconsistencies in the projection data. When reconstructing an image for a particular slice, these inconsistencies generate incorrect CT numbers, streaks, and other artifacts in generated images. As the slice thickness is increased, the likelihood of partial intrusion increases. The image errors created by partial intrusion are often referred to as "partial volume artifacts".
To reduce partial volume artifacts, known CT systems rely upon human operators to either identify the partial volume artifacts, or to take preventative measures to avoid the generation of such artifacts. The preventative measures include scanning an area of the object, stopping the scan, altering x-ray source collimators, and continuing the scan. For example, a 10 mm collimator which provides a slice thickness of 10 mm, may be used when scanning a region with few bony structures. However, when scanning a region with multiple bony structures, a 3 mm collimator which provides a slice thickness of 3 mm, may be used. This method is both time consuming and cumbersome. Furthermore, this method is neither practical nor efficient when scanning adjacent differing regions. The operator must, based on past experience, select slices of sufficiently small thickness to ensure constant attenuation characteristics across the slice, i.e., to ensure that the object does not partially intrude on the scan plane. However, thin slices typically require significantly long scanning times and x-ray tube cooling delays. Conversely, thicker slices are preferred for improving x-ray photon flux. As a result, the operator is forced to weigh these alternatives and make the proper choice.
Therefore, it is desirable to eliminate operator involvement in the determination of the optimal slice thickness. It is also desirable to eliminate, or substantially reduce, partial volume artifacts without significantly reducing CT system efficiency.

Smart collimation based on a single scout scan in a computed tomography system


A method of bandwidth management for ensuring a guaranteed bandwidth to each station of a transmission network (18) comprising a plurality of stations (10, 12, 14, 16), forming a logical ring wherein one of the stations is the ring manager and wherein a token frame is circulating along the logical ring from station to station, each station being allowed to transmit data to other stations over the transmission network when it receives the token frame while holding the token during the time the station is transmitting data. A credit of data bytes allowed to be transmitted is allocated to each station upon reception of the token frame when an Utilization Rate based upon the number of data bytes sent by all stations since the preceding reception of the token frame is greater than a predetermined threshold.

On local Area Networks (LANs) of the Ethernet type able to transmit the data at speeds higher than one gigabit/s, an unlimited number of stations can be connected to a shared medium. To control the exchange of data between the stations connected on the shared medium, Ethernet uses a protocol called Carrier Sense, Multiple Access Collision Detect (CSMA/CD). The "Multiple Access" part means that every station is indeed connected to the shared medium forming a single data path. The "Carrier Sense" part means that before transmitting data, a station checks it to see if any other station is already sending something. If the transmission medium appears to be idle then, the station can actually begin to send data. However, two stations can start transmitting at the same time, causing a collision. When this occurs, each interfering station is made able to detect it. Hence, all stations attempt to transmit, back off, and try a retransmission at randomly selected later times thus minimizing the chance of another collision.
Although Ethernet does not set an upper limit to the number of stations that can be connected on a same transmission medium there are, in practice, drastic limitations. Generally speaking, as more users are added to a shared network or, as applications requiring more data are added, performance inevitably deteriorates. This is because all users become competitors in trying to use a common resource: the shared transmission medium. It is generally agreed that, on a moderately loaded 10 Mbps Ethernet network, being shared by 30–50 users, the network can only sustain throughput in the neighborhood of 2.5 Mbps after accounting for packet overhead, inter packet gaps and collisions resulting of the use of the hereabove CSMA/CD protocol. Thus, yet simple, CSMA/CD protocol, suffers drastic limitations in its ability to take advantage of the intrinsic performance of the shared transmission medium i.e., 10 Mbps in this example. Further increasing the number of users (and therefore packet transmissions) creates an even higher collision potential. Since collisions occur when two or more stations attempt to send information at the same time, when these stations realize that a collisions has occurred, they must, to obey standard, all shut off for a random time before attempting another transmission. This tends to add a considerable overhead, severely impacting performance, until the mechanism just collapses when medium is attempted to be too much utilized.
One well-known solution to alleviate this problem is to segment traffic over independent, disjoint, smaller collision domains, but at the expanse of having to put in place extra devices to allow communication between the independent pieces thus created of a LAN. This may be a bridge or a switch. For example, an eight-port high-speed switch can support eight Ethernets, each running at a full 10 Mbps so as to be able to interconnect more users on what appear to them as a single LAN. Such a solution consisting in creating a more expensive and complicated network goes against the original objectives of the Ethernet LAN that wanted to be a very inexpensive solution, simple to administrate for local communications, over a campus or between the employees of a company dispersed over a group of buildings.
A solution to the above problem consists in implementing a passing-token mechanism of Token Ring LAN type so that the physical Ethernet network becomes collision free and therefore can be used at higher rates. In this mechanism, a logical ring is formed between the stations and a token is circulated among these stations along the logical ring. Then, transmitting from any one station of the logical ring is only permitted while holding the token thereby, preventing collisions from happening. But, even though this solution prevents the collisions between stations from happening, it does not prevent a station from monopolizing the bandwidth while the other stations cannot transmit.
Therefore, another solution consists in always forming a logical ring between the stations wherein a token is circulating from station to station. But, a credit of data bytes allowed to be transmitted by each station of the logical ring is allocated to the station, such a credit being increased in proportion to the time spent since the preceding reception of the token and in proportion to a Committed Information Rate (CIR) which is the guaranteed transmission rate that the station can use. Unfortunately, this solution which ensures that each station will never transmit more than the allowed percentage of the bandwidth is somehow limitative. Assuming that the logical ring includes 10 stations and that each of them is configured with a CIR which is 10% of the total bandwidth. If only 2 stations need to transmit at a certain time, the logical ring will be used only 20% of its capacity and still, the 2 stations will have to limit their traffic based on their CIR values.

Method of bandwidth management between the stations of a local area network

International Business Machines Corporation


Provided are an optical element and a concentrating photovoltaic device which are each capable of preventing warpage and deformation of an optical functional pattern formed in a surface thereof due to stress even in an environment with extreme temperature changes. An optical element (4) of a concentrating photovoltaic device (1) concentrating sunlight includes: a glass substrate (5) and a sheet-like molded body (6) which is made of an organic resin and includes a Fresnel lens pattern (6a) in a surface and has the other surface bonded to the glass substrate (5). The sheet-like molded body (6) has a tensile elastic modulus of 1500 MPa or less, a linear expansion coefficient of 7.0×10−5/° C. or less, an average transmittance of 85% or more in a wavelength range from 350 to 1850 nm at a thickness of 400 μm, and a haze value of 1.0% or less.

Uses of natural energies have attracted attention in recent years. One of such uses is photovoltaic that converts solar energy into electric power through solar cells. As a photovoltaic device, there is well known a concentrating photovoltaic device having a configuration in which plural solar cell elements are arranged in a same plane, and condenser lenses (optical elements) configured to concentrate sunlight to the respective solar cell elements are arranged in front of the solar cell elements in order to increase the power generation efficiency (photoelectric conversion efficiency) for providing larger electric power (see Patent Literature 1, for example).
The concentrating photovoltaic device has a configuration in which each solar cell element receives sunlight concentrated by a condenser lens. Accordingly, the expensive solar cell elements can be reduced in size, and the photovoltaic device can be reduced in cost as a whole. The concentrating photovoltaic devices are therefore becoming widespread as power supply applications in areas which get many hours of sunshine and are vast enough for the photovoltaic devices to be installed even if the light collecting surface thereof is enlarged.

Optical element and concentrating photovoltaic device


A logarithmic analog-to-digital converter system is disclosed. The system includes a transconductor for receiving an input signal and for producing a transconductor output signal at a transconductor output, a logarithmic circuit unit that is coupled to an input of the transconductor, a comparator amplifier for receiving the transconductor output signal and for producing a comparator amplifier output signal at a comparator amplifier output, and an integrating capacitor coupled to the transconductor output signal.

The invention generally relates to systems and methods for providing logarithmic analog-to-digital conversion, and relates in particular to circuits for providing logarithmic analog-to-digital conversion for auditory enhancement.
Cochlear implants (or bionic ears) have been implanted in tens of thousands of people worldwide. Cochlear implants use a surgically implanted array of electrodes to stimulate the auditory nerve, which restores a measure of hearing to the deaf. The cochlear implant functions as a surrogate middle and inner ear, performing the same chain of signal transduction from sound waves to electrical impulses as in the biological cochlea. FIG. 1 shows the signal-processing chain of a typical cochlear implant that includes a preamplifier 10 that receives an input signal via a microphone 12. The preamplifier 10 provides an amplifier output signal to a plurality of band pass filters 14a–14c. The outputs of the band pass filters 14a–14c are provided to a plurality of envelope detectors 16a–16c respectively, and the outputs of the envelope detectors 16a–16c are provided to a plurality of logarithmic map units 18a–18c respectively. The outputs of the logarithmic map units 18a–18c are provided to a plurality of electrodes 20a–20c respectively as shown. During operation, each band pass filter 14a–14c passes a different band (e.g., low, mid, high). The envelope detectors are used to identify envelope information, and the logarithmic map units are used to provide logarithmic compression of the signal, which is conventionally employed just prior to nervous stimulation. Such compression is useful because theory and experiments suggest that acoustic amplitudes are log-compressed into electrical amplitudes by the cochlea. In other words, there is believed to be a linear relationship between sound intensity in dB sound pressure level (SPL) and electrical stimulation intensity in μA. A circuit that performs logarithmic compression, therefore, is useful in cochlear implant processors.
Logarithmic compression is also inherent to cepstral speech recognition, since a logarithmic function allows the excitation signal in speech to be subtracted from the effect of filtering by the vocal tract. Many speech-recognition front-ends are therefore designed to produce output bits that represent log-spectral magnitudes of a microphone input signal. A logarithmic A/D logarithmically compresses the current input from an envelope detector into a digital output code. Consequently, a low-power logarithmic A/D is very useful in portable speech-recognition front-ends and bionic ears.
Conventional cochlear implants and speech-recognition front-ends typically employ an analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion, followed by a digital signal processor (DSP) to perform the necessary signal processing. A DSP, however, is costly in power when compared with analog processing schemes.
There is a need for a logarithmic A/D system that provides significant power savings for fully-implanted cochlear implants or speech-recognition-front-ends. There is further a need for a logarithmic A/D (logmap) that exploits sub-threshold CMOS technology to compute a logarithm in a fraction of the power of DSP implementations.

Micropower logarithmic analog to digital conversion system and method with offset and temperature compensation


A method of fixing reflowable elements on electrical contacts. The method includes providing a strip having a number of electrical contacts, each contact including a contact body and a tail portion extending away from the contact body. The tail portions of the contacts are then disposed adjacent an elongate reflowable member. The elongate reflowable member is pushed onto the tail portions of the plurality of contacts. Subsequently, the elongate reflowable member is cut into a plurality of separate reflowable elements, each reflowable element corresponding to one of the tail portions. The electrical contacts with the reflowable element attached thereto are separated from the strip.

Electrical connectors are frequently attached to a substrate, such as a printed circuit board (PCB), using a Ball Grid Array (BGA) type of electrical connection. The BGA includes a plurality of solder balls that are used to connect electrical contacts of the connector to the PCB. A typical BGA connector is connected to an array of electrical contact pads or traces disposed about the surface of the substrate. The solder balls are attached to the contact pads by first applying a resin flux to the electrical contact pads, positioning the solder balls onto the electrical contact pads, and running the connector through a reflow furnace. During the reflow process the solder balls are held in position by the flux and wetted onto the electrical contact pads. In addition to holding the solder balls in position, the flux promotes the wetting of the solder balls to the contact pads and chemically cleans the contact pad surfaces.
However, the small solder balls in a BGA connection produce only a short connection height between the electrical contacts of the connector and the contact pads of the substrate. These short connections are subject to high mechanical stress if any movement occurs between the connector and the substrate. As a result, the connection between the connector and the substrate is vulnerable to failing as a result of the solder connection breaking due to stress.
One approach to apply solder balls on the contacts involves reflowing solder, placing the liquid solder on the contact, and allowing the solder to cool to form a ball disposed on the contact. However, this is a very complex and time consuming process. The requirement to heat and cool the solder as it is applied to the contacts can be time consuming.


A heat treatment apparatus for applying a predetermined heat treatment to a substrate includes: for example, a dielectric low oxygen controlled cure unit (DLC unit) for forming an interlayer insulating film on a semiconductor wafer W; a hot plate for supporting the wafer W a predetermined distance apart from the surface thereof; a chamber for housing the wafer W; a gas collecting port formed in that portion of the hot plate which corresponds to the lower side of the wafer W when the wafer W is disposed on the hot plate; and an oxygen sensor for measuring the oxygen concentration in the gas collected from the gas collecting port. Since the oxygen concentration can be measured during the heat treatment to the wafer W, the characteristics of the interlayer insulating film formed can be maintained constant.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat treatment apparatus and method for forming a film such as an interlayer insulating film on a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the manufacturing process of a semiconductor device, a dielectric film such as an interlayer insulating film is formed by using an spin on dielectric (SOD) system. In the SOD system, a film is spin-coated on a semiconductor wafer by, for example, a sol-gel method, a silk method, a speed film method or a Fox method, followed by applying a chemical treatment, or a heat treatment to the coated film so as to form a desired film.
Where the interlayer insulating film is formed by the silk method, the speed film method or the FOX method, a semiconductor wafer maintained at a predetermined temperature is coated with a coating solution so as to form a coated film, followed by applying a heating treatment to the wafer and subsequently cooling again the wafer to a predetermined temperature. Further, a curing treatment, in which a heating treatment and a cooling treatment are applied under an atmosphere having a low oxygen concentration, is applied to the coated film so as to cure the coated film, thereby obtaining an interlayer insulating film.
If the oxygen concentration is increased during the curing treatment under the state that the wafer temperature is elevated, a disadvantage arises that the dielectric constant of the formed interlayer insulating film is increased. In order to solve the problem, the curing treatment is performed in practice by allowing an inert gas such as a nitrogen gas to flow into the chamber in which the wafer is disposed.
However, the curing treatment is not performed nowadays under the state that the oxygen concentration within the chamber is measured during the curing treatment for confirming whether or not the curing treatment is being performed under an atmosphere having an oxygen concentration not higher than a predetermined level. When the oxygen concentration during the curing treatment is higher than the predetermined level, disadvantages arise that the dielectric constant of the formed interlayer insulating film is increased, and that the formed interlayer insulating films are rendered nonuniform in the film quality every wafer.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a heat treatment apparatus and a heat treatment method that permit confirming whether or not the heat treatment such as the curing treatment is being carried out under an atmosphere having an oxygen concentration not higher than a predetermined level. Further, a second object of the present invention is to provide a heat treatment apparatus that permits controlling the fluctuation in the oxygen concentration in performing the heat treatment.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a heat treatment apparatus for applying a predetermined heat treatment to a substrate having a coated film formed thereon, comprising a hot plate on which the substrate is disposed; a chamber for housing the substrate disposed on said hot plate; and oxygen concentration measuring means for measuring the oxygen concentration within said chamber; wherein the oxygen concentration can be measured by said oxygen concentration measuring means while a heat treatment is being applied to said substrate.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a heat treatment apparatus for applying a predetermined heat treatment to a substrate having a coated film formed thereon, comprising a hot plate capable of supporting a substrate a predetermined distance apart from the surface thereof; a chamber for housing the substrate supported by said hot plate; a gas collecting port for collecting the gas within the chamber, said gas collecting port being formed in said hot plate in a position facing the lower surface of the substrate when the substrate is disposed on the hot plate; and oxygen concentration measuring means for measuring the oxygen concentration in the gas collected from said gas collecting port; wherein the oxygen concentration can be measured by said oxygen gas measuring means while a heat treatment is being applied to the substrate.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a heat treatment apparatus, which includes a heating process chamber and a cooling process chamber, for applying a predetermined heat treatment to a substrate having a coated film formed thereon, said heating process chamber comprising a hot plate capable of supporting a substrate a predetermined distance apart from the surface thereof; a chamber for housing the substrate supported by said hot plate; gas supply means for supplying an inert gas into said chamber; exhaust means for exhausting said chamber from an upper portion of the chamber; a first gas collecting port for collecting the gas from within said heating process chamber or from within the chamber, said first gas collecting port being formed in the hot plate in a position facing the lower surface of the substrate when the substrate is disposed on the hot plate; and first oxygen concentration measuring means for measuring the oxygen concentration in the gas collected from said first gas collecting port; and said cooling process chamber comprising a cooling plate capable of supporting the substrate a predetermined distance apart from the surface thereof; a second gas collecting port for collecting the gas from within said cooling process chamber, said second gas collecting port being formed in said cooling plate in a position facing the lower surface of the substrate when the substrate is disposed on said cooling plate; and second oxygen concentration measuring means for measuring the oxygen concentration in the gas collected from said second gas collecting port; wherein the oxygen concentration can be measured by said first oxygen concentration measuring means and said second oxygen concentration measuring means while a heat treatment is being applied to the substrate.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a heat treatment method for applying a predetermined heat treatment to a substrate having a coated film formed thereon, comprising a first step of disposing a substrate on a thermal processing plate; a second step of collecting a predetermined gas from below the substrate disposed on said thermal processing plate for measuring the oxygen concentration of said predetermined gas; and a third step of holding said substrate for a predetermined time while measuring said oxygen concentration.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a heat treatment method for applying a predetermined heat treatment to a substrate having a coated film formed thereon, comprising a first step of holding a substrate in a predetermined position above a thermal processing plate and supplying an inert gas toward said substrate; a second step of collecting for measuring the oxygen concentration in a predetermined gas said predetermined gas from a position on the upper surface of said thermal processing plate and below the lower surface of said substrate when the substrate is disposed on said thermal processing plate; a third step of disposing the substrate close to said thermal processing plate and holding the substrate for a predetermined time while measuring said oxygen concentration; and a fourth step of taking out the substrate held for the predetermined time on the thermal processing plate so as to stop the measurement of the oxygen concentration.
According to the heat treatment apparatus and method of the present invention, it is possible to apply a heat treatment while measuring the oxygen concentration in forming, for example, an interlayer insulating film, thereby preventing the quality of the interlayer insulating film from being changed by the oxidation caused by the fluctuation in the oxygen concentration, thereby maintaining constant the quality of the interlayer insulating film. It should also be noted that the substrate to which the heat treatment was not applied under a predetermined oxygen concentration is not transferred into the succeeding process steps so as to prevent a useless treatment from being applied to the particular substrate, thereby improving the productivity. Further, when an abnormality occurs in the oxygen concentration during the heat treatment, it is possible to interrupt the processing so as to prevent a processing error. Further, when it has become impossible to maintain a predetermined oxygen concentration in the processing atmosphere or when a periodic maintenance is executed, it is possible to confirm easily after completion of, for example, the maintenance operation whether or not the oxygen concentration within the chamber is lower than a predetermined level. It follows that the maintenance operation can be performed satisfactorily so as to improve the reliability of the heat treatment apparatus.
Further, according to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a heat treatment apparatus for applying a predetermined heat treatment to a substrate having a coated film formed thereon, comprising: a heat treatment chamber including a thermal processing plate capable of supporting a substrate a predetermined distance apart from the surface thereof and including a chamber for housing the substrate supported by said thermal processing plate; and an exhaust mechanism for exhausting said heating process chamber from a corner portion on the bottom side.
In the heat treatment apparatus of the particular structure, the heating process chamber is exhausted from a corner portion on the bottom side so as to discharge the gas that tends to be accumulated in the corner portion of the heating process chamber. Therefore, it is possible to maintain uniform the atmosphere within the heating process chamber so as to maintain constant the quality of the substrate.


A light guide plate 13 has a number of back surface-side unit optical structures 131 arranged in a back surface 13d along a light guide direction. Each back surface-side unit optical structure 131 is tapered in a direction away from a light exit surface 13c, and has a first inclined surface 132 lying on the light entrance surface side, a second inclined surface (133) lying opposite the first inclined surface and which totally reflects at least part of incident light, and a top surface region 134 lying between the first inclined surface 132 and the second inclined surface 133, and located farthest from the light exit surface 13c. The top surface regions 134 each include a plurality of surfaces 134a to 134d which are parallel to the light exit surface 13c and have different heights “h” in the direction away from the light exit surface 13c.

A transmission-type display device is known which illuminates a transmissive display, such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panel, from the back by means of a surface source device (backlight) to display images.
Surface source devices are roughly classified into direct-light type devices which have a light source disposed right behind an optical member such as an optical sheet, and edge-light type devices which have a light source disposed lateral to an optical member. With a light source disposed lateral to an optical member such as a light guide plate, edge-light type surface source devices have the advantage that they can be designed to be thin as compared to direct-light type surface source devices, and have been widely used in recent years.
In an edge-light type surface source device, a light source is generally disposed in a position facing a light entrance surface which is a side surface of a light guide plate. Light emitted by the light source enters the light guide plate through the light entrance surface, and travels in the light guide plate from the light entrance surface toward the opposite surface in a direction (light guide direction) perpendicular to the light entrance surface while repeating reflection from a light exit surface and the opposite back surface.
The traveling direction of the light is changed e.g. by a diffusion pattern or prism shape, provided in the back surface of the light guide plate, so that the light will gradually exit the light guide plate at various positions on the light exit surface along the light guide direction and travel toward an LCD panel (see, for example, JP 09-43433A1).

Light guide plate, surface source device and transmission-type display device


A tube or tubeless tire, which can be punctured and still allow a vehicle to continue running, includes a plurality of spherical members formed of foamed rubber or foamed urethane. The spherical members are contained inside an air chamber of the tire and occupy 50% to 80% of the volume of the air chamber of an inflated tire.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tube tire and a tubeless tire, both capable of operating even when punctured.
2. Description of the Background Art
A conventional tire structure for resisting puncture is known from Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 5-201213, for example. In this conventional tire structure, a sectionally crescent-shaped cushion formed of a rubber composition is interposed between a tread portion and a tube of a tire. If the tread portion of the tire is pierced by a nail or similar object, the tube inside of the cushion is afforded some protection from the tip of the nail or object.
In the above conventional tire structure, however, the occurrence of a puncture to the tube cannot be completely avoided. Furthermore, during normal running of a vehicle, the cushion repeatedly receives a load and becomes compressed. After extended use, the cushion suffers a reduction in volume and an increase in hardness, thus reducing its puncture resistant performance.


A leaky waveguide antenna array that receives and/or transmits electromagnetic signals includes a plurality of radiation waveguides disposed in parallel to each other on a surface plane to form the antenna array. A feed waveguide is located below the surface plane and provides an electromagnetic signal to the plurality of radiation waveguides and/or receives a plurality of electromagnetic signals from the plurality of radiation waveguides and provides a composite electromagnetic signal at an output of the feed waveguide. Each of the plurality of radiation waveguides has a waveguide axis and includes a plurality of apertures arranged in a direction of the waveguide axis. The feed waveguide includes a first section of waveguide having a first end connected to an input/output port. The first section of waveguide has a height substantially the same as the height of each of the plurality of radiation waveguides and the first section of waveguide has a second end coupled to a first junction point. The first junction point transitions from the first section of waveguide to a second section of waveguide and a third section of waveguide that each have a height that is substantially half of the height of the first section of waveguide. The second section of waveguide transitions with an upward sloping ramp to the substantially half height of the first section of waveguide. The third section of waveguide transitions with a downward sloping ramp to the substantially half height of the first section of waveguide. The third section of waveguide is substantially a mirror image of the second section of waveguide. The feed waveguide also includes a septum connected to vertical walls of the first, second and third sections of waveguide which aids in the transition from the height of the first section of the waveguide to the height of the second section and the third section of waveguide. Each of the second section of waveguide and the third section of waveguide are coupled to a corresponding first signal port and second signal port of the feed waveguide. Each of the first signal port and the second signal port are coupled to a corresponding one of the plurality of radiation waveguides.

Various embodiments of antennas for reception of satellite broadcasted signals designed for mounting on vehicles have been studied and proposed. Since such an antenna is to be mounted, for example, on a roof or the like of an automotive vehicle running on a road where the height of the cars are legally restricted or, for example, on an aircraft where height is also an issue with respect to, for example, any drag associated with such an antenna that may result in decreased fuel efficiency, an important feature of such an antenna is to minimize a height of the antenna and an antenna mounting area. In addition, where the antenna is to receive at all possible times the satellite broadcasted signal and thus where the antenna at all times must be pointed in a direction of the satellite which will vary with time as the vehicle moves, it is important to have a tracking mechanism for controlling an azimuth and elevation angle of the antenna. However, the tracking mechanism can constitute a considerable part of the whole antenna manufacturing costs, complexity and height or mounting area of the antenna. Thus, it is important to minimize the space, complexity and requirements of the tracking mechanism and the antenna.
Disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,579,019 (hereinafter the "'019 patent") is a slotted leaky waveguide array antenna for reception of satellite broadcast electromagnetic waves that may be mounted on a roof of an automobile. In particular, the '019 patent discloses a slotted leaky waveguide array antenna that enables reception of a direct broadcast satellite signal even with movement of the automobile, by providing an elevation beam width of about .+-.5.degree. in the elevation direction which is disclosed to be wide enough so that no tracking system need be used to move the antenna in the elevation direction. Thus the tracking mechanism and antenna of the '019 patent has an economy of scale in that the antenna need only be rotated throughout 360.degree. of the azimuth angle. The antenna of the '019 patent includes a plurality of waveguides disposed in parallel, wherein each waveguide has a plurality of slots disposed along the waveguide axis and having varying offset, length, and intersection angle values determined by a methodology. In addition, the reference discloses that the waveguide antenna array includes a feed waveguide for distributing electromagnetic waves to each of the plurality of waveguides which is disposed in a same plane as the array antenna and includes a first section extending along an end of each of the plurality of waveguides and a second section extending from a center of the antenna to a center of the first section which is perpendicular to the first section to thereby form a T-junction feed waveguide. The feed waveguide allows the antenna to be rotated in the horizontal or azimuth plane at a rotary center of the antenna without subjecting a converter that is coupled to an output of the antenna to any rotation. An asserted advantage of the '019 patent is that the converter can be kept in a stationary position thereby reducing the stress on the converter and prolonging the life of the converter.
Another issue with the various slotted waveguide antennas that have been proposed are the costs, the ease of manufacture, and the weight of the various waveguide antennas. For example, a conventional slotted waveguide antenna may be manufactured combining metal plates with a proper precision suitable for a desired frequency range to form a plurality of waveguides, and then securing the waveguides to each other in a transverse direction in an array-like manner. Subsequently, or in conjunction, depending upon the position of a feed waveguide, the feed waveguide may then be secured to the waveguide array. However, such a manufacturing process may not be suitable for mass production and therefore such a slotted waveguide antenna array may not be provided inexpensively using such a method. Moreover, such an embodiment of the slotted waveguide antenna may require reinforcement to avoid movement of the waveguides within the waveguide array. Further, such an embodiment of a waveguide may be typically made out of a metallic material with a high specific gravity which is, for example, for aluminum approximately 2.7 and yields a heavy slotted waveguide antenna array. Thus, conventional slotted waveguide antenna arrays are typically bulky, heavy and not suitable for efficient and cost effective mass production.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,916,458 discloses an embodiment of a slotted waveguide antenna that is intended to be manufactured easily, inexpensively and that includes a plurality of radiating waveguides each having at least one radiating slot. The antenna also includes a feed waveguide disposed at one end of each of the plurality of waveguides for feeding the plurality of radiating waveguides and a plurality of apertures between the feed waveguide and the radiating waveguides. The plurality of waveguides and the feed waveguide arc formed in a single plane by a dielectric plate that is sandwiched between conductive layers to form broad walls of the plurality of waveguides and the feed waveguide. In addition, either plated through-holes having a gap between each of the plated through-holes that is smaller than a wavelength of a signal propagating in the waveguides, or conductive pins having a similar gap therebetween and that are metalized on both sides, are inserted between the conductive layers and used to form the walls of the plurality of waveguides and the walls of the feed waveguide. In addition, the '458 patent discloses that outer peripheral walls of the plurality of waveguides and the feed waveguide can be provided by covering the dielectric plate material with a conductive material to form the outer peripheral walls. The slotted waveguide antenna of the '458 patent is asserted to be easy and inexpensive to manufacture and produce.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved leaky waveguide array antenna.

Low-height, low-cost, high-gain antenna and system for mobile platforms


The invention relates to a method for making bags preferably provided with side folds or other flat workpieces, which have a slip extending beyond their boundary. In accordance with the invention partly prefabricated bags are laterally supplied to a conveyor belt driven in a timed manner, and are seized there by grippers and fixed. By means of a glue applicator a glue strip is applied to the bag in its bottom region during the timed feeding movement of the conveyor belt. Finally, in a slip application station a slip is supplied each laterally to the conveyor belt and is placed onto the glue surface. The invention furthermore relates to an apparatus for carrying out the aforementioned method.

Such bags are known in principle from the European Patent Application 347 522. The packaging bags of tubular film cut into lengths, which have already been described there, are open at one end for filling purposes. In the vicinity of the open end a possibly removable slip or a film tag is disposed, which is connected with a flat side of the bag in the vicinity of the open end of the bag. The slip or tag has two stacking holes for stacking the bag on stacking pins of a stacking station.

Method for making bags and an apparatus for carrying out this method


Disclosed is an oxide film formation method that includes supplying an ozone gas having an ozone concentration of 20 to 100 vol %, an unsaturated hydrocarbon gas and a raw material gas to a workpiece (7) placed in a pressure-reduced treatment furnace (5), whereby an oxide film is formed on a surface of the workpiece (7) by a chemical vapor deposition process. An example of the unsaturated hydrocarbon gas is an ethylene gas. An example of the raw material gas is a TEOS gas. The flow rate of the ozone gas is preferably set equal to or more than twice the total flow rate of the unsaturated hydrocarbon gas and the raw material gas. By this oxide film formation method, the oxide film is formed on the workpiece (7) at a high deposition rate even under low-temperature conditions of 200° C. or lower.

As to organic materials for use in packaging applications, electronic components, flexible devices and the like, it is common to form inorganic films on the organic materials for the purpose of surface protection and functionality addition. Further, studies are made on the flexibilization of various electronic devices where it is required to e.g. form the electronic devices on organic films.
As film forming technologies, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and physical vapor deposition (PVD) are known. These film forming technologies have been used for the formation of various insulating films, conductive films etc. in the manufacturing processes of fine electronic devices such as semiconductor device, sensor and FPD (flat panel display). In general, the chemical vapor deposition is superior in terms of the film deposition rate and covering property.
In a chemical vapor deposition process, a film is formed on a workpiece by reacting a raw material gas including a film constituent element-containing compound (such as, for example, silane (that is a generic name for hydrogen silicate), TEOS (tetraethyl orthosillicate), TMA (trimethyl aluminum), tungsten fluoride (WF6) etc.) with the addition of a reactive gas and depositing the resulting reaction product on the workpiece. This chemical vapor deposition process is performed under high-temperature conditions of several hundreds ° C. or higher in order to promote the reaction between the gases and to improve the quality of the film on the workpiece. In other words, the chemical vapor disposition process is difficult to perform under low-temperature conditions. The temperature of the chemical vapor deposition process often exceeds the heat resistant temperatures of organic materials.
As an example of the application of a high-concentration ozone gas to the chemical vapor deposition, there is known a technique of forming a SiO2 film on a substrate by the use of a high-concentration ozone gas and a TEOS gas under high-temperature conditions of several hundreds ° C. or higher (see e.g. Patent Document 1).
In order to form a film with good quality by a chemical vapor deposition process under low-temperature conditions, it is necessary to introduce a reactive species which has a high chemical reactivity even under low-temperature conditions. For example, there are known: a technique in which a coating film deposited on a workpiece is oxidized at a temperature of 100° C. or lower (see e.g. Patent Document 2); and a technique in which an ashing reaction for removal of organic substances is conducted at room temperature (see e.g. Patent Documents 3 and 4). Each of these techniques realizes the process at a temperature of 200° C. or lower by the action of a reactive species generated from the reaction of high-concentration ozone with unsaturated hydrocarbon.
In the conventional chemical vapor deposition techniques, however, the reaction rate is low at temperatures of 200° C. or lower, and the thus-formed oxide film is not only low in quality but also low in deposition rate. Hence, the conventional chemical vapor deposition techniques face the problem that it is impossible to form good oxide films on workpieces at temperatures of 200° C. or lower and thereby difficult to produce devices with good characteristics.


A circuit includes a fuse cell, a sense circuit and an output control circuit. The fuse cell includes an electrical fuse. The sense circuit is electrically coupled to the fuse cell and configured for generating a sense signal indicative of a programmed condition of the electrical fuse, at an output of the sense circuit. The output control circuit is electrically coupled to the output of the sense circuit, and the output control circuit is configured for latching the sense signal indicative of the electrical fuse having been programmed, during a read operation of the fuse cell.

In integrated circuits (ICs), electrical fuses are designed to be programmed (or blown) when the electrical fuses are used. An IC occasionally includes a number of electrical fuses, and a sense circuit is implemented in the IC to detect a sensing current flowing through a selected electrical fuse and outputs a corresponding output signal (e.g., a read signal).
However, there is parasitic capacitance in circuits of the sense amplifier. As a result, when the sense amplifier generates the output signal during an operation, the output signal is unstable, e.g., oscillates, due to the parasitic capacitance, resulting in an incorrect output signal.

Generating stabilized output signals during fuse read operations

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.


An exemplary semiconductor device includes an input/output (I/O) circuit configured to combine data corresponding to a write command received via data terminals with a first subset of corrected read data retrieved from a memory cell array to provide write data. The exemplary semiconductor device further includes a write driver circuit configured to mask a write operation of a first bit of the write data that corresponds to a bit of the first subset of the read data and to perform a write operation for a second bit of the write data that corresponds to the data received via the data terminals.

High data reliability, high speed of memory access, low power, and reduced chip size are features that are demanded from semiconductor memory. In some applications, semiconductor memory devices may be designed to operate in more than one mode to accommodate different applications, such as different data bus widths. However, introducing configurability may increase complexity in design, power consumption, or latency. For example, execution of a write operation within a semiconductor memory device for a first bus width may be different than execution of a write operation for a second bus width within the semiconductor memory device. It may be preferable to mitigate some of the effects of the increased complexity resulting from implementing configurability options.

Apparatuses and methods to mask write operations for a mode of operation using ECC circuitry


A cartridge chip for use with an imaging cartridge installed in an imaging device, the cartridge chip including a memory element storing imaging cartridge data, and a controller for controlling the operation of the cartridge chip and determining if the imaging device is a first type of imaging device or a second type of imaging device, the controller for operating the cartridge chip in a first mode of operation if the imaging device is the first type of imaging device, the controller for operating the cartridge chip in a second mode of operation if the imaging device is the second type of imaging device.

The present invention generally relates to manufacturing or remanufacturing repairing replaceable imaging components, and more particularly to techniques for providing universal cartridge chip including a memory element adapted for use in multiple types of imaging cartridges.
In the imaging industry, there is a growing market for the remanufacture and refurbishing of various types of replaceable imaging cartridges such as toner cartridges, drum cartridges, inkjet cartridges, and the like. Imaging cartridges, once spent, are unusable for their originally intended purpose. Without a refurbishing process, they would simply be discarded, even though the cartridge itself may still have potential life. As a result, techniques have been developed specifically to address this issue. These processes may entail, for example, the disassembly of the various structures of the cartridge, replacing toner or ink, cleaning, adjusting or replacing any worn components and reassembling the cartridge.
Some imaging cartridges may include a cartridge chip having a memory device which is used to store data related to the cartridge or the imaging device. An imaging device may include laser printers, copiers, inkjet printers, facsimile machines and the like, for example. The imaging device, such as the printer, reads the data stored in the cartridge memory device to determine certain printing parameters and communicates information to the user. For example, the memory may store the model number of the imaging cartridge so that the printer may recognize the imaging cartridge as one which is compatible with that particular imaging device. Additionally, by way of example, the cartridge memory may store the number of pages that can be expected to be printed from the imaging cartridge during a life cycle of the imaging cartridge and other useful data. The imaging device may also write certain data to the memory device, such as an indication of the amount of toner remaining in the cartridge. Other data stored in the memory device may relate to the usage history of the toner cartridge.
Typically, each type of imaging cartridge, such as a toner cartridge, requires a different type of cartridge chip. While necessary to the proper operation of the imaging device, the differences between certain types of chip cartridges may be subtle or slight. With the ever increasing number of types and models of imaging devices and imaging cartridges being sold, remanufacturers must stock an increasing number of types of cartridge chips, with each type of cartridge chip usable with only a single type of imaging cartridge. It would be advantageous to provide systems and methods for a universal cartridge chip which operates with more than one type or model of imaging cartridge, and thus in more than one type or model of printer. Additionally, it would be advantageous to provide systems and methods for a universal cartridge chip which allows one type of imaging cartridge to be used in multiple types of imaging devices. Furthermore, it would be advantageous to provide systems and methods for a universal cartridge chip that allows remanufacturers of imaging cartridges to reduce the number of types of cartridge chips stored in their inventory.

Systems and methods for universal imaging components


The present invention provides nucleic acid constructs, expression systems, and methods relating to the regulation of gene expression. The invention may be applied to regulate the expression of any coding sequence of interest, including those coding for viral components necessary for the packaging of viral particles.

Recombinant nucleic acid technology has proven to be a powerful tool for the expression of the products encoded by nucleic acids of interest. This has resulted in the ability to produce polypeptides and nucleic acids for both research and commercial applications.
Some encoded products, however, are toxic to the cellular or host environment in which their expression occurs, either because the product is inherently toxic or because the levels at which expression occurs is so high as to result in toxicity. One means of dealing with this difficulty has been to use transient expression systems wherein the encoded product is expressed and recovered before toxicity results in reduced levels of product. Alternatively, the encoded product is placed under a tightly controlled regulation system such that the product may be expressed and then expression terminated before toxicity rises to lethal levels. One example of a tightly controlled regulatory system is seen with the use of a tetracycline regulated operator/promoter in combination with a tet repressor (see for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,750,396).
The expression of a toxic product is of particular importance in situations where the product must be continually expressed because it is a component of a larger product being produced, or metabolic activity being conducted, by the cell. One example of such a situation is in the case of a viral packaging cell line, which expresses products necessary for the assembly and packaging of viral particles. If any one of the necessary viral gene products is toxic to the cell, the need to control its expression becomes critical if a stable (as opposed to transient) packaging cell line is to be used. One example of a necessary toxic viral gene is in the case of the G protein from vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), which is desirable for the production of pseudotyped viral particles.
An example using the tet operator and repressor to regulate the expression of VSV-G is described by Henriette et al. (J. Virol. 73(1):576-584, 1999), where the tet repressor (as a chimeric fusion product with a domain of VP-16 and referred to as tTA) is under the control of a cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter and VSV-G is under the control of a tet operator. Expression of the chimeric repressor in the absence of tetracycline results in no expression of VSV-G. The presence of tetracycline prevents association between tTA and the tet responsive elements (TRE) found in the operator to allow the expression of VSV-G. This system is referred to as "tet-on" where the presence of tetracycline results in the expression of the gene of interest (i.e. VSV-G).
There is also an alternative "tet-off" system where tTA is a chimeric transactivator. It cannot bind to the TRE of a tet operator in the presence of tetracycline. But in the absence of tetracycline, tTA binds to the operator and strongly activates the promoter to express a coding sequence of interest.
Klages et al. (Molec. Therap. 2(2):170, 2000) teach the use of a similar two nucleic acid system to control VSV-G expression. The first nucleic acid expresses tTA which then controls a TRE containing tet operator that controls VSV-G expression. The same tTA protein also regulates expression of the rev protein which in turn regulates the expression of the gag and pol regions (necessary for viral packaging) by controlling the splicing of the gag/pol messenger RNA via a rev responsive element (RRE).
Another example of the use of the rev protein to control gene expression was described by Yu et al. (J. Virol. 70(7):4530-4537, 1996). They used the expression of tTA to regulate the expression of both HIV-1 rev and envelope proteins which were simultaneously under the regulation of a single TRE containing tet operator. The rev protein then in turn regulates expression of the viral envelope protein, via an RRE, as well as the expression of the gag/pol messenger RNA via another RRE. While transcription of the gag/pol coding sequences was regulated by another promoter, its expression was directly regulated by the rev protein and thus indirectly regulated by tTA.

Regulated nucleic acid expression system


A method for producing liquid nitrogen using a residual gas stream derived from a flue gas of a power plant is provided. The residual gas stream is purified in a front-end purification unit to remove freezable components and then the purified stream is compressed. Following compression, the stream can be divided into a first portion and a second portion, wherein the first portion is cooled and sent to a distillation column, wherein oxygen and argon are separated, thereby leaving an essentially pure gaseous nitrogen stream. The gaseous nitrogen stream can then be liquefied using refrigeration provided by expanding the second portion of the purified stream. In a preferred embodiment, the second portion is expanded in two turbines, and the gaseous nitrogen is compressed in a cold nitrogen booster, which is powered by one of the two turbines. In an additional embodiment, after warming, the expanded second portion of the purified stream can be used to regenerate the front-end purification unit.

Power plants based on steam production typically produce a flue gas having large amounts of carbon dioxide. For environmental reasons, the carbon dioxide within the flue gas is captured. One such current carbon dioxide capture method includes the use of a low-temperature membrane system in which the carbon dioxide is collected on the permeate side as a low pressure stream, while the remaining retentate stream, which can contain more than 90% nitrogen, is at a pressure similar to the feed pressure (e.g., 15 bara). In methods known heretofore, a portion of this high-pressure retentate stream can be letdown across a turbine in order to generate refrigeration for the carbon dioxide capture. The remaining portion of the high-pressure retentate stream is available to be utilized for other purposes, such as let down in a combined cycle turbine to generate power, with the stream ultimately being vented to the atmosphere.
FIG. 1 provides a schematic of a system as described above. As shown in FIG. 1, flue gas 2 is withdrawn from a power plant and sent to a pretreatment unit. From there, the treated gas stream is compressed in a compressor, with the heat of compression being removed using boiler feed water (BFW). The compressed stream 4 is then dried in dryer before being cooled in heat exchanger. After cooling the stream is separated in a cold membrane, wherein the majority of the carbon dioxide permeates through the membrane and is then compressed, liquefied, and then heated again before being collected as CO2 product stream 6.
The retentate 8, which contains more than 90% nitrogen and more than 1% argon, remains at high pressure (about 15 bara), wherein a portion of it is used to provide refrigeration for the heat exchanger by expanding in cold expansion. The remaining portion 10 can be used for other purposes, for example, expanding in a turbine to provide additional power.
Therefore, there exists a need for a method of more efficiently utilizing all of the available streams.

Cryogenic liquefier by integration with power plant

L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme pour l'Etude et l'Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude


A skating vehicle has a frame with a blade or rollers mounted thereon and a boot for mounting a detachable shoe in a locked position thereon. The boot includes a rigid wall which encircles the sole of the shoe cradled within, and a rearward projection in the toe portion which enters a slot in the shoe sole when the shoe is inserted and moved forward, locking the shoe in the boot. A rear semirigid cuff is lined with a padding whose lower edge is proximate with and communicates with the upper edge of the shoe during skating. The cuff is closed with an adjustable latch which comprises the single device required to mount and dismount the shoe. The multi-use shoe includes a semirigid outer heel attached to the sole extremity and a semirigid outer tongue overlying the shoe upper. A strap attachment has one portion attached to the medial side of the upper and communicating with the outer heel to encircle the shoe heel, and a second portion passing from the rear portion of the sole on the medial side over the upper beneath the outer tongue. The free ends of the strap portions are adjustably attached to mount the shoe on the wearer's foot such as with hook and loop attachment material. The cuff collapses downwardly to reduce the skate size for portability.

The present invention relates to skates and more particularly to skates with detachable shoes.
Skates designed for attachment to conventional shoes are shown in the prior art. As an example, U.S. Pat. No. 25,295 of Wheeler discloses an ice skate having an extendable heelpiece for permitting the insertion of a shoe into a webbed structure with adjustable straps.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,835,446 of Tracy shows an in-line roller skate with a toe strap and an ankle strap to hold a shoe on the flat footplate.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,228,707 of Davis et al. shows a roller skate having a bifurcated pliable, e.g. leather member with an elastic insert. The member overlies the shoe from toe to ankle, is attached at the front and rear of the skate and has an adjustable strap for tightening the pliable member about the shoe.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,829,111 of Nicholls describes an in-line roller skate having plastic foot straps and a heel enclosure, each of which is laced over the shoe.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,963,252 of Carlson discloses an in-line roller skate having a stiff non-rotatable laceable heel enclosure and a laced plastic foot covering. The heel enclosure and foot covering are slidable for accommodating different shoe sizes and to ease mounting of the shoe therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,993,318 of Rothmayer and U.S. Pat. No. 2,168,820 of Edstrom disclose skates having a buckled toe strap and a non-pivotable heel member having several straps which are buckled over the inserted shoe.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,072,317 of Pommerening shows an in-line roller skate in which the ankle bracing support includes a strap about the lower ankle and a pivotable cradle which extends above the ankle to be strapped to the wearer's leg. A laced strap extends over the shoe behind the toe portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,929 of Gray shows an in-line skate in which a shoe is mounted and held on a pair of support plates by a toe strap and a middle foot strap, both attached by self-adhering means. A leg case encloses the lower leg, i.e. ankle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,352 of Vullierme discloses a roller skate with a toe plate and a heel plate which are telescopically extendable relative to each other. An enclosure on the toe plate substantially covers the foot up to the ankle, and the heel plate has a heel retainer with an adjustably buckled strap which passes over the user's foot and over a tongue on the toe enclosure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,491 of Wheelwright discloses a three wheeled skate in which a shoe is attached to the skate. A toe shroud covers the toe of the shoe and presses downward thereon. In addition, the shoe heel fits in a slidable heel cup and a pivotable ankle brace is strapped about the user's ankle above the shoe.
Each of the above indicated prior art disclosures requires a relatively stiff shoe with relatively inflexible sole, in order to operate with sufficient long-term comfort. The soft padded sport shoes which have recently gained extreme popularity are not readily accommodated by the prior skates because (a) retaining forces are concentrated on small areas of the user's foot, causing discomfort, or (b) the shoe is free to twist and bend within the shoe retainer, leading to less control in operation and an accompanying loss of safety. In addition, mounting of the shoe in the skate requires multiple operations to achieve the desired alignment and tension on the shoe, if such is possible. None of the above listed prior art skates has met with significant commercial success.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,075 discloses wheeled skate-skis in which a pair of wraparound bindings are draped around the skater's sport shoes and attached to the skate with "Velcro" fasteners. However, it is known in the art that the retaining strength of such fasteners is insufficient to accommodate the high forces often generated in skating movements, particularly when the forces are exerted in a direction coinciding with the direction of movement which separates the "Velcro" components.
PCT Publication No. WO 89/03712 of Murga discloses a skate for use with a sport shoe. The shoe is retained on the skate base by a toe strap and a heel enclosure. Extending upwardly from the heel enclosure and spaced from the shoe is a pivotable leg support which is attached about the user's leg. The skating forces are concentrated in a narrow band over the skater's foot and in a band on the leg, rather than being more widely distributed over the surface of the foot.
The need remains in the art for a commuter skate having a detachable shoe, the combination of which is stable, comfortable and safe, and wherein the shoe per se comprises a useful and aesthetically pleasing sport shoe. There is a further need for such a combination in which the shoe and skate are joined and separated by the use of a simply operated buckle. There is a still further need for such a sport shoe which is easily attached to the wearer's foot with minimal effort yet is firmly retained on the foot. In addition, the need exists for a skate-shoe combination wherein the toe of the shoe is held rigidly in the skate.
The need further exists for a comfortable and safe commuter skate which collapses to a reduced size for e.g. carrying in a portable pack or storage in a locker.


A mixing and application capsule for producing a dental preparation is described. The mixing and application capsule can have a capsule body with a mixing space for receiving a mixture component and for mixing the dental preparation from the mixture component and a fluid and with an outlet orifice for expelling the dental preparation, a cavity for receiving the fluid, a piston body that is movable in the capsule body, and delimits the mixing space in the capsule body and has a channel for conveying the fluid from the cavity into the mixing space. The piston body includes wholly or partly of two or a plurality of dissimilar materials, comprising at least one soft component and at least one hard component.

Mixing and application capsules are generally used for mixing two or a plurality of components, preferably a solid component and a fluid component, for example in order to produce a dental preparation, which is applied from the mixing and application capsule into a region within the oral cavity of a patient. In this way, for example glass ionomer cement is produced by mixing a powder component with a liquid component.
From the prior art, various devices and techniques are known that are devoted to accommodation of the solid component and of the fluid component within the mixing and application capsule, in order to achieve equally satisfactory mixing behavior and application behavior.
The liquid is for example accommodated in a film bag, which is opened by bursting. The film bag is then expressed, to force the liquid out of it and supply it to the pulverant component. This method has the drawback that during expressing, in particular with a bag that is very long relative to its diameter, the film forms folds, in which an indefinite residue of liquid remains. The result is that the dental preparation paste is mixed with insufficient liquid, so that it does not have the desired properties. Therefore either the size of the film bag and therefore the amount of liquid are restricted or else the dosage is inaccurate. The diameter of the film bag cannot as a rule be varied at will, as the capsule would need a correspondingly larger diameter. A capsule of large diameter is, however, disadvantageous during application in a patient's oral cavity. Moreover, the tongs used for expressing the mixing and application capsule are usually designed for small capsule diameters.
In one variant, a film bag is arranged laterally on or at the capsule body. Such a bag can therefore have a much larger diameter and amount of liquid. However, there is the disadvantage that a separate activating tool is required, for opening the film bag and bringing its contents in the capsule in contact with the powder (i.e. to activate the capsule). Also, proportionally more liquid is left behind in a bag with large diameter.
Another example of accommodation of a liquid in a mixing and application capsule for producing a dental preparation is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,386,872 B1. A first and a second piston are arranged inside the capsule body, and a liquid is arranged in the space between them. The first piston delimits the mixing space inside the piston body, in which the pulverant component is arranged. The piston wall between mixing chamber and liquid space has a predetermined break point. If the second piston is pushed towards the mixing chamber, a projection on the second piston breaks through the predetermined break point of the wall of the first piston, so that the liquid flows into the mixing chamber, where it mixes with the pulverant component. After activation, for example by pressing the capsule by hand on a table top, the capsule must be clamped in a mixer, which mixes the powder and liquid by shaking, to form a paste.
Then the capsule is clamped in expressing tongs, with the aid of which both pistons are moved forward further. The paste is expelled through the cannula and for example fills a cavity of a tooth being treated.
The arrangement according to U.S. Pat. No. 6,386,872 B1 has the disadvantage that diffusion losses of the liquid occur and therefore the mixing and application capsule is not suitable for storage for a prolonged period. The seal between the first and second piston is a rubbing seal. If the seal is selected to be easy-running, so that a manual displacement of the second piston relative to the first piston is possible, there is inadequate sealing and the liquid can evaporate between the first and second piston. If the seal is selected to be so tight that evaporation of the liquid through the seal is avoided almost completely, the second piston can only be displaced relative to the first piston by applying a large force, which requires special tools and is no longer possible manually. Moreover, there is a similar problem of evaporation of the liquid for the seal between the first piston and the capsule body. The pulverant component in the mixing space is hygroscopic and therefore tends to take up moisture that penetrates through the seal between the first piston and the capsule body. This also impairs the long-term storage capability of the mixing and application capsule. In addition, the thin-walled region with the predetermined break point of the wall of the first piston can easily be penetrated by the liquid. The pulverant component can thus take up moisture from the liquid not only via the seal between first piston and capsule body, but also through the region with the predetermined break point of the wall of the first piston.
A mixing and application capsule that tackles and solves the problems of the rest of the prior art is known from DE 10 2009 016 862. The device known from DE 10 2009 016 862 is based on the double piston principle, wherein a first piston body is a double piston, and between the first piston body and the second piston body, a cavity is formed whose contents are forced out of the cavity through a channel when pressure is applied on the first piston body. If for example a fluid component is stored in the cavity and there is another mixture component, for example a powder component, in a mixing space connected to the cavity by the channel, motion of the double piston leads to mixing of the two components in the mixing space.
The manner of operation of the device known from DE 10 2009 016 862 is already satisfactory. However, in our own investigations of mixing and application capsules of the type known from DE 10 2009 016 862, in extreme test conditions sometimes the problem arose that small amounts of the mixture component from the mixing space get into the channel and pass through it towards the cavity. This has the effect that, in the extreme test conditions, occasionally with application of pressure and the concomitant forcing of the fluid component out of the cavity, mixing of the fluid component with the mixture component occurs in the mixing space even before the fluid component passes through the channel. This can theoretically lead to clogging of the channel, or—if the mixture component has set in other zones—to blocking of the movement of the first and/or second piston body, so that complete mixing of the two components and at worst also the complete expulsion of the dental preparation are made more difficult or are prevented.
Another problem that might sometimes arise with the known mixing and application capsule is that sometimes at the end of the phase of application of pressure and therefore at the end of expulsion of the dental preparation from the mixing space, liquid still flows out of the mixing and application capsule. This effect arises because to expel the paste, a relatively large force is applied, which is much higher than that required for activating the capsule, and thus for expelling the liquid. If activation is not carried out sufficiently completely, a small residue of liquid remains, which is then only discharged as a result of the large force during the application of pressure, i.e. during the operation of application.

Mixing and application capsule for producing a dental preparation


An electrostatic sprayer for spraying a liquid includes a nozzle formed from a nozzle body that has an inlet for receiving a liquid and a liquid tip having an outlet for ejection of the liquid to form a liquid spray. The nozzle also includes an electrode disposed around the outlet of the liquid tip for charging the liquid. The electrode is captive in a removable cap that is that is detachably secured, e.g., via threaded connection, to the sprayer, so that the cap is removable for servicing, cleaning or replacement of nozzle components such as the liquid tip. The nozzle includes a calibratable stop mechanism for controlling a position of the electrode with respect to the outlet of the liquid tip when the cap is installed. The stop mechanism may be provided by a locking ring around a barrel of the sprayer that stops rotation of the cap.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrostatic liquid spray systems, and in particular a nozzle for an electrostatic liquid spray system having a removable and re-settable electrode cap.
2. Background of the Invention
An electrostatic spraying process charges either powder or liquid particulate to improve spray delivery and deposition. Advantages of the electrostatic charging are uniform spray cloud dispersion as well as improved uniformity and mass transfer efficiency in coating of target surfaces. In practice, many types of target surfaces are coated by electrostatic sprays; varying from agricultural crops to automobiles, appliances, furniture and many other manufactured goods. Unique opportunities for electrostatic spraying are still emerging. For example, recently developed applications involve coating of surfaces with sanitizing agents for odor control and the prevention of illness caused by virus and bacteria in areas of high human concentration such as hotels, hospitals, restaurants, schools, day care services, military installations and cruise ships.
In transport from an electrostatic nozzle, unipolar charged particles of relatively low mass maintain separation due to mutual repulsion and are driven along electric field lines to deposit uniformly. Sufficiently charged particulate clouds create strong space charge fields that propel particles near the edge of the spray cloud towards the target. The electrostatic forces due to this space charge are beneficially supplemented by image charge forces that aid the deposition process once individual particulates approach very close to the target substrate. These image charge forces are important to allow very small particles to overcome air boundary layer effects and deposit on the surface. A high ratio of particulate charge-to-mass is important to the process. Very small, highly charged particulates of high numerical density create beneficial space charge and image force fields, maximizing the electrostatic effects and minimizing the influence of gravity.
Choice of the optimal electrostatic charging method to employ for a particular application often depends on the type of spray compound and the target. For example, dry powder sprays to be delivered and deposited onto planar grounded surfaces may be suited for corona or triboelectric types of charging systems. Air assistance can be added to improve charged powder deposition for more complex three dimensional targets. Conductive liquids held in small containers and atomized by hydraulic or gas pressure may be suitably charged by direct contact of the liquid with high voltage probes. Insulating liquids and conductive liquids of relatively high resistivity can be atomized and charged reliably by electrohydrodynamic (EHD) methods as are known in the art. Conductive liquids, such as water based sprays of agricultural or sanitization chemicals, may present leakage current challenges in corona charging systems, EHD nozzles or high voltage contact systems, and may be more suited for charging by non-contact induction methods such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,698,635 to Sickles, U.S. Pat. No. 4,004,733 to Law, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,554 to Cooper and Law.
However, use of induction charging methods in the room, equipment and furniture sanitizing applications above typically requires field serviceability and robustness of the design to both servicing a well as providing continuous and extended use of the system. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an electrostatic sprayer system that has a design robust enough for field servicing and provides the ability to operate continuously for extended periods of time, with low electrical power requirement.

Electrostatic liquid spray nozzle having a removable and re-settable electrode cap


A rotating machine comprises a stator that is excited to vibrate to generate progressive surface waves at a frequency within a resonance frequency range of a predetermined rank. The rotor is designed so that the vibrations in the stator generate vibrations of the same frequency and of lower magnitude. A vibration sensor is mounted on the rotor to provide a signal. The difference in frequency between the excitation frequency of the stator and the vibration frequency detected on the rotor corresponds to the rotation speed of the rotor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to surface acoustic wave machines.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Surface acoustic wave motors have been described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,374 of T. Sashida. The operation principle of such a motor is illustrated in the attached FIG. 1 that reproduces FIG. 1 of the Sashida patent. A progressive surface wave of the Rayleigh wave type generated at the surface of a fixed elastic body 1 causes ripples at the surface of this body. If a movable part 2 is urged against the body 1, the part 2 is driven by the displacement of apices A-A' of these ripples. Apices A-A' follow an elliptic path Q and their transversal displacement speed is associated with the oscillation frequency and with the amplitude of their displacement. In practice, the excitation frequency of the surface waves should be close to a resonance frequency of the body at the surface of which these waves are to be provided. This frequency can be modified only within a small range if it is desired to maintain a non negligible amplitude (for example approximately 10 micrometers) of the displacements of the apices perpendicularly to the surface in which these ripples are generated. A small difference in frequency with respect to the resonance frequency generates a high amplitude variation. Thus the relation between the displacement speed of apices A and A' along the direction of the arrow N and the excitation frequency is a complex non-linear relation.
The surface acoustic wave motor of U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,374 has the advantages of having a relative good efficiency, a small size and a light weight for a determined torque, and of a holding torque when stopped (i.e., in the absence of a signal, the moving part 2 is urged against the fixed part 1 thereby causing a non-negligible friction force between the two parts).
However, a drawback of this motor lies in that its speed can only be controlled by the provision of a sensor and feedback loop system. The same system is necessary when the position of the machine is to be controlled. The use of such sensors and feedback loops makes the motor and of a high cost, which inhibits the advantages of this motor.
To solve this problem, Satoshi Segawa (NEC Res. & Develop., Vol. 33, No. 1, January 1992) proposed to integrate a displacement sensor in the motor itself.
FIG. 2 of the present application reproduces FIG. 1 of the above cited article which concerns an implementation of a motor in which the stator and the rotor are constituted by annular facing parts 11 and 12 urged one against the other by a spring 13. An excitation system constituted by a piezoelectric ceramic 14 is fixed to the rear surface of stator 11 to generate surface acoustic waves therein. A lining 15 and a detecting piezoelectric ceramic ring 16 are successively disposed between the stator ring 11 and the rotor ring 12.
S. Segawa teaches that the compressions that are caused by the surface acoustic waves of the stator and are transmitted by the annular lining 15 to the detecting ring 16 allow the detection of phase shifts between the rotor and the stator, thereby indicating the angular position of the rotor with respect to the stator.
This device has the drawback of being relatively complex because it requires the use of a detector constituted by a specific piezoelectric ring whose various parts should be suitably wired together. Moreover, since this detector cannot be directly applied against the stator, an additional lining must be provided. These various additional parts increase the rotor's inertia and therefore in particular its response time. In addition, the phase detection systems require the use of complex and accurate electronic circuits and, preferably, digital systems as proposed by S. Segawa.


A barium calcium titanate of the present invention has a remarkable effect that a fine barium calcium titanate powder having excellent dispersibility, reduced impurities and high crystallinity and being solid-dissolved at an arbitrary ratio, and a production process thereof are provided.

The barium titanate takes a perovskite-type structure where barium and Ti occupy the A site and the B site, respectively, and titanium is slightly deviated from the center. By virtue of this structure, the barium titanate expresses ferroelectricity and in turn excellent electric properties such as dielectricity, piezoelectiricity and pyroelectricity and therefore, is being widely used as various electronic materials.
Also, the barium calcium titanate is widely used as a barium titanate-based electronic material resulting from replacing a part of barium by calcium and in particular, the barium calcium titanate is attracting attention as a ceramic capacitor material in which the temperature dependency and reliability of dielectric property of the barium titanate are improved.
Examples of the usage thereof include, by making use of high dielectricity of this material, various capacitor materials (including multilayer ceramic capacitor), dielectric filter, dielectric antenna, dielectric resonator, dielectric duplexer, capacitor and phase shifter, and also include stacked piezoelectric actuator utilizing piezoelectricity. As for the method of using the barium titanate in an electronic material, there is a method of mixing a barium titanate powder with a solvent to form a slurry or a paste, and shaping it into a thin film or a porcelain by molding, sintering, sheeting or the like.
In recent years, it is demanded to develop a barium calcium titanate having a small particle diameter, a narrow particle size distribution, excellent dispersibility, high crystallinity and high purity and being capable of coping with down-sized, lightweight and high-performance electronic parts.
For example, in order to obtain a downsized, lightweight and high-capacitance multilayer ceramic capacitor, the particle diameter of the barium calcium titanate must be made small, thereby decreasing the distance between layers stacked and increasing the number of layers stacked. In general, when the particle diameter of the barium calcium titanate becomes small, the c/a ratio decreases and the crystal comes close to a cubic crystal, but if the c/a ratio decreases, this leads to decrease in the ferroelectricity and on use as a dielectric material, decrease in the electrostatic capacitance. To solve this problem, a barium calcium titanate exhibiting a high c/a ratio despite a small particle is demanded. In order to exhibit a high c/a ratio, the barium calcium titanate must be highly crystalline.
Also, if the barium calcium titanate powder undergoes aggregation at the time of mixing the powder with a solvent to form a slurry or a paste, the sintering density decreases and in turn the electric properties such as breakdown voltage and migration deteriorate. Furthermore, impurities contained in the barium calcium titanate have adverse effect on the electric properties.
Accordingly, in order to cope with downsized, lightweight and high-performance electronic parts, development of a barium calcium titanate having a small particle diameter, a narrow particle size distribution, excellent dispersibility and high purity is necessary.
Conventionally, the barium titanate has been produced by the following process.
As for the production process of a high-purity high-crystalline particulate barium titanate, a flux process is known. However, in this process, not only the production cost is very high but also the particle formation can be effected only by grinding and therefore, the particles have a broad particle size distribution and poor dispersibility. Accordingly, this process is unsuitable for the electronic materials using a particle material.
As for the process of producing a barium titanate for electronic materials, there is generally known, for example, a solid-phase process of mixing powders of an oxide and a carbonate used as raw materials in a ball mill or the like and reacting the mixture at a high temperature of about 800° C. or more to produce a barium titanate; an oxalate process of preparing an oxalic acid composite salt and thermally decomposing the composite salt to obtain a titanium-containing composite oxide particle; a hydrothermal synthesis process of reacting raw materials in an aqueous solvent at high temperature and high pressure to obtain a precursor; and an alkoxide process of using a metal alkoxide as a raw material and hydrolyzing it to obtain a precursor.
Also, with respect to the production process of a barium titanate, for example, a process of reacting a hydrolysate of a titanium compound with a water-soluble barium salt in a strong alkali (Patent Document 1), and a process of reacting a titanium oxide sol with a barium compound in a strong alkali aqueous solution (Patent Document 2) are generally known, and studies are being aggressively made to improve these synthesis methods.
The solid-phase process has a problem that despite low production cost, the produced particulate barium titanate has a large particle diameter. If this particle is ground, the particle diameter may be decreased but the particle size distribution is broadened and the shaping density may not be enhanced. Furthermore, distortion may be generated in the crystal structure due to the effect of grinding and a barium titanate powder suitable for down-sized high-performance electronic parts may not be obtained.
In the oxalate process, a smaller particle than that produced by the solid-phase process is obtained, but a carbonate group derived from the oxalic acid remains as an impurity. Furthermore, a large amount of a hydroxyl group attributable to water taken into the inside remains and this deteriorates the electric properties. In this way, the oxalate process is disadvantageous in that a barium titanate powder with excellent electric properties cannot be obtained.
The hydrothermal synthesis process has a problem that although a fine particulate barium titanate is obtained, a hydroxyl group attributable to water taken into the inside remains to cause many defects and a particulate barium titanate with excellent electric properties can be hardly obtained. Also, this process is performed under high-temperature high-pressure conditions and therefore, exclusive equipment is necessary and the cost rises.
In the alkoxide process, a barium titanate finer than that produced by the hydrothermal synthesis process is obtained, but a hydroxyl group attributable to water taken into the inside remains to cause many defects and a titanium-containing composite oxide with excellent electric properties can be hardly obtained.
Patent Document 1: JP-B-3-39014 (the term "JP-B" as used herein means an "examined Japanese patent publication")
Patent Document 2: International Patent Publication WO00/35811, pamphlet
Patent Document 3: International Patent Publication WO03/004416, pamphlet
Patent Document 4: JP-A-2002-60219 (the term "JP-A" as used herein ++-means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application")
Patent Document 5: JP-A-2003-48774

Barium calcium titanate, production process thereof and capacitor

Abstract: The barium calcium titanate represented by the compositional formula: (Ba(1-X)CaX)YTiO3 (wherein 0<X<0.2 and 0.98≦Y≦1.02), which contains 3 mol % or less (including 0 mol %) of an orthorhombic perovskite compound and in which the specific surface area D is from 1 to 100 m2/g.


A transmission module is provided that includes a transmitter, a loopback receiver, and a QEC controller. The QEC controller identifies quadrature imbalance in the transmitter based at least one a comparison of the data signals at the output of the loopback receiver with data signals at the input of the transmitter. Based on the comparison, the QEC controller can adjust one or more characteristics of the transmitter to correct quadrature errors in the transmitter.

1. Field
Embodiments of the disclosure relate to electronic devices, and more particularly, in one or more embodiments, to wireless transmitters
2. Description of the Related Technology
Transmitters for wireless infrastructure (e.g., cellular base stations) have traditionally been implemented using super-heterodyne or complex intermediate frequency (IF) architectures. Implementing a wireless transmitter (TX) using a direct conversion architecture instead of a super-heterodyne architecture can reduce overall system cost and size through integration and the use of fewer components. However, several issues can arise with the use of direct conversion wireless transmitters.
Direct conversion transmitters (TX) include 7an in-phase (I) and quadrature phase (Q) baseband path, each driving a mixer also driven by a local oscillator (LO) signal having a frequency about equal to the desired radio frequency (RF) center frequency. The I-path mixer LO signal and Q-path mixer LO signal are 90 degrees out of phase (sine and cosine), and the mixer outputs are summed at RF. Any mismatch in the amplitude of the I or Q path (amplitude error), or any deviation of the phase difference of the two paths from 90 degrees (phase error) is referred to collectively as quadrature error or a quadrature imbalance. Quadrature errors can result in an undesired sideband (USB), in which a desired signal at some frequency offset from the carrier will have an undesired image at the negative of that offset frequency. This image is considered an undesired emission, and acceptable levels of undesired emissions are determined by various wireless standards.
In some instances, for multi-carrier (MC) base station applications, a direct conversion TX is required to have very low undesired sideband levels (e.g., less than −75 dBm/Hz), which can be achieved through a calibration process called quadrature error correction (QEC).
Some QEC processes observe the transmit signal alone (blind algorithms) and assume zero correlation between the I and Q TX signals when the undesired sideband has been eliminated. Such blind QEC algorithms are based on the assumption that transmitted signals satisfy a statistical properness condition. For example, a transmitted complex baseband signal x(n), indexed by integer n, can be said to be proper when Equation 1 is satisfied:E[x(n)x(n+d)]=0,∀d,  (1)where y(n) is the observed complex baseband signal and d is an integer time-advance or time-lag. For the case when d=0, the expression in Equation 1 can also be referred to as a circular symmetry condition. For signals that would otherwise satisfy Equation 1 prior to transmission, an analog I/Q imbalance can destroy this condition.
However, digital pre-distortion (DPD), which is used in base stations to improve power amplifier (PA) efficiency, can create correlation between the I and Q TX signals. Thus, for blind QEC processes, the DPD-related correlation can be falsely detected as a quadrature error, and limit the minimum achievable undesired sideband.
To further complicate QEC, quadrature errors in the transmitter can vary with baseband frequency due to baseband filter mismatch, DAC clock skew, etc. In addition, placing the transmitter offline to complete the calibration process is undesirable as it can lead to dropped calls and other undesirable side effects.

Wideband quadrature error detection and correction