Provided is a profiling float that can minutely and surely control effective buoyancy acting on the float in itself, and usage of the profiling float.

In recent years, it has been necessary to clarify and grasp environmental variation mechanisms, for example, a mechanism of heat transport in ocean, on a global scale in order to cope with environmental problems such as global warming. A high-performance marine monitoring system for that purpose is being pushed forward. In such a high-performance marine monitoring system, it is necessary to monitor vertical structures of, for example, physical parameters such as sea temperatures and chemical parameters such as salinity concentrations from a sea depth of about 2,000 m to a sea level, i.e., changes in various parameters in a direction of the depth of the sea. As an instrument for conducting such monitoring, is used an automatic control profiling float that can automatically control its own buoyancy according to a preset program, thereby permitting lifting movement, lowering movement and maintenance of a position in a vertical direction in the sea.
As a conventional profiling float, is known, for example, a float having a structure illustrated in FIG. 3.
In the example illustrated in FIG. 3, a profiling float 50 is equipped with, as a housing, a float chamber 51 made of, for example, a reinforced resin, which forms an airtight internal space, and is constructed by a buoyancy controlling mechanism 52 for controlling the degree of buoyancy acting on the whole of the profiling float 50, a measuring mechanism 53 for measuring various parameters in the sea, a data transmitting mechanism 54 for radio-transmitting the data obtained by the measuring mechanism 53, a control mechanism 55 for controlling these respective mechanisms and an electric power source device 56 for supplying a power source to these respective mechanisms.
The buoyancy controlling mechanism 52 is equipped with a fluid storage part 521 storing a fluid for control of buoyancy in the interior thereof, which is provided in the interior of the float chamber 51, and an elastically expandable and contractible bag-like bladder 522 provided in such a manner that an acting part thereof is located at the exterior of the float chamber 51. In the buoyancy controlling mechanism 52, the bladder 522 is connected to the fluid storage part 521 through a main passage 523A having a one-way transfer type pump device 524 for transferring the fluid for control of buoyancy, and a return passage leading to the fluid storage part 521 is formed by a branched passage 523B branched from the main passage 523A. This branched passage 523B is provided with a valve mechanism 525 controlling a flow rate of the fluid for control of buoyancy according to the degree of valve opening. Here, the one-way transfer type pump device means an irreversible pump device, which has a function of transferring a fluid only one direction from one to the other in the main passage 523A and cannot transfer the fluid in a reverse direction. The operation of the pump device is stopped, whereby the main passage 523A is in a closed state.
The measuring mechanism 53 is constructed by a sensor 531, for example, a conductivity-temperature-depth profiler (CTD Profiler), which is provided in an exposed state at the exterior of the float chamber 51, and a sensor circuit board 532 for controlling the sensor 531. The data transmitting mechanism 54 is constructed by a radio antenna 541, a part of which is provided in an exposed state at the exterior of the float chamber 51, and a transmission circuit board 542. The sensor circuit board 532 and the transmission circuit board 542 are electrically connected to the control mechanism 55.
A mass to volume ratio of the whole of the profiling float 50 is designed in such a manner that a value of effective buoyancy in the sea becomes negative, and the float sinks in a state that the fluid for control of buoyancy is not filled at all or scarcely filled in the interior of the bladder 522 and the volume thereof is minimum and in a minimum effective buoyancy state that the buoyancy acting on the profiling float 50 is minimum.
In the present description, the term "effective buoyancy" means a value obtained by [Buoyancy acting on the profiling float in water]—[The overall mass of the profiling float]. Accordingly, when the value of the effective buoyancy is negative, the profiling float moves downward in the sea. When the value of the effective buoyancy is positive, the profiling float moves upward in the sea. When the value of the effective buoyancy is zero, the profiling float stays in a vertical direction so as to keep a fixed depth in the sea.
The profiling float 50 having such construction as described above is generally thrown in the sea from, for example, a ship and subjected to observation. After thrown in the sea, regarding, for example, a series of operations that the float moves downward to a predetermined depth, drifts at this depth for a fixed period of time and then gradually moves upward to a sea level as a cycle, the profiling float 50 automatically executes this cycle in a preset period to measure various parameters in this process. For example, measured data obtained during the upward movement in the sea is radio-transmitted to a base station when the profiling float 50 surfaces on the sea level.
More specifically, the profiling float 50 thrown in the sea starts to move downward by closing the main passage 523A by the pump device 524 in a stopped state and closing the branched passage 523B by the valve mechanism 525 in a state that the fluid for control of buoyancy is not present at all or scarcely present in the interior of the bladder 522, thereby creating the above-described minimum effective buoyancy state.
When drive of the pump device 524 is started by a signal according to a proper program preset in the control mechanism 55 in this minimum effective buoyancy state, the fluid for control of buoyancy is supplied from the fluid storage part 521 to the bladder 522 through the main passage 523A, whereby the bladder 522 is elastically expanded according to the amount of the fluid for control of buoyancy supplied to gradually increase the effective buoyancy of the profiling float 50. As a result, the downward movement of the profiling float 50 is gradually slowed.
When the value of the effective buoyancy becomes zero, the drive of the pump device 524 is stopped, and the bladder 522 is kept in a state expanded according to the volume of the fluid for control of buoyancy, which is present in the interior of the bladder, whereby the profiling float 50 becomes a neutral buoyancy state that the effective buoyancy is zero. As a result, the profiling float 50 stays in a vertical direction so as to keep the depth in the sea.
When the fluid for control of buoyancy is continuously filled into the bladder 522 to further expand the bladder 522, the effective buoyancy is gradually increased, and the profiling float 50 starts to move upward in the sea when the value of the effective buoyancy becomes positive.
On the other hand, when the branched passage 523B is then opened by the valve mechanism 525 in the state that the drive of the pump device 524 has been stopped, the fluid for control of buoyancy existing in the bladder 522 is discharged into the fluid storage part 521 through the branched passage 523B by the elastic restoring force of the bladder 522 and external force applied to the bladder 522 from the outside, for example, seawater pressure, whereby the bladder 522 is contracted to reduce the volume thereof so as to lower the effective buoyancy. As a result, the profiling float 50 moves downward again in the sea when the value of the effective buoyancy becomes negative.
In other words, according to such a profiling float 50 as described above, the volume of the fluid for control of buoyancy filled into the interior of the bladder 522 is controlled, whereby the volume of the bladder 522 is controlled, so that changes in the effective buoyancy attending on the changes in the volume of the bladder 522 permit the profiling float to move upward, move downward and stay in the vertical direction in the sea.
In such a profiling float for observation as described above, it is necessary to minutely control the effective buoyancy of the profiling float for controlling a predetermined moving speed and a stay depth with high accuracy. Such control of the effective buoyancy is achieved by minutely controlling the volume of bladder, i.e., the volume of the fluid for control of buoyancy existing in the interior of the bladder, by the pump device 524 and the valve mechanism 525.
In the profiling float 50 having such construction as described above, the same degree of pressure as the seawater pressure applied to the bladder 522 is applied to the valve mechanism 525 through the fluid for control of buoyancy. However, the valve mechanism 525 is difficult from the mechanism thereof to strictly control the degree of opening of the valve under pressure. After all, it is difficult to minutely control the flow rate of the fluid for control of buoyancy discharged from the bladder 522, so that it is difficult to minutely control the amount of the fluid for control of buoyancy within the bladder 522. Accordingly, the profiling float involves a problem that the predetermined effective buoyancy value can be realized with high accuracy, and after all, it is actually very difficult to realize the predetermined moving speed of the profiling float 50 and the operation in the sea such as the staying in the vertical direction at the predetermined depth with high accuracy. In addition, the float involves a problem that since the pressure applied to the valve mechanism 525 is considerably high when the profiling float 50 is located at a deep depth in particular, the above-described problem becomes more marked.
In addition, the valve mechanism 525 involves a problem that the amount of the fluid for control of buoyancy passing through the valve mechanism 525 varies according to, for example, the pressure applied to the fluid for control of buoyancy even when the degree of opening of the valve is kept constant, so that the amount is not fixedly stabilized, and after all, it is difficult to accurately control the flow rate of the fluid for control of buoyancy.
Patent Art. 1: Japanese Patent Application-Laid-Open No. 2002-145177.

Profiling float and usage of the profiling float

Abstract: The profiling float according to the present invention is equipped with a float chamber forming an airtight internal space, a fluid storage part provided in the float chamber and storing a fluid for control of buoyancy, a bladder provided at the exterior of the float chamber, in the interior of which the fluid for control of buoyancy is filled to change a volume thereof, thereby controlling buoyancy acting on the profiling float, a pump mechanism for transferring the fluid for control of buoyancy between the bladder and the fluid storage part, and a driving source for driving the pump mechanism, wherein the pump mechanism is composed of a gear pump.

Independent Administrative Institution, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology


In a logic circuit, a first switching device is connected between a first voltage and an output terminal through which an output signal is output. The switching device is selectively activated and deactivated based on an input signal. A second switching device is connected to a ground voltage and is selectively activated and deactivated based on the input signal. A control circuit outputs a control signal in response to the input signal. The control signal has a first voltage level during a first time period in which a state of the input signal changes, and has a second voltage level during a second time period in which a state of the input signal is constant. The second voltage level is lower than the first voltage level. A field relaxation circuit is connected between the terminal through which the output signal is output.

Description of the Related Art
As gate length decreases, proportions of conventional semiconductor devices that are defective may increase due to hot carrier effects. Hot carrier effects may result from a relatively strong electric field in a drain region. Conventionally, methods for reducing voltage levels, increasing a gate length and/or reducing an impurity density of a drain region may be used to suppress such hot carrier effects. These methods, however, may degrade circuit performance. Alternatively, a field relaxation transistor may be inserted to suppress hot carrier effects.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram illustrating a logic circuit including a conventional field relaxation transistor. Referring to FIG. 1, a signal path 20 represents a path through which an input signal IN may pass until being input to the logic circuit 10. The signal path 20 may be configured in various ways depending on a type of the input signal IN or a semiconductor device in which the logic circuit 10 is employed. The conventional logic circuit 10 may include a PMOS transistor P1 connected between a terminal to which a voltage (e.g., a relatively high voltage) Vpp is applied and an output terminal. The PMOS transistor P1 may have a gate to which the input signal IN may be input through the signal path 20. The conventional logic circuit 10 may further include an NMOS transistor N1 connected to a ground voltage. The NMOS transistor N1 may have a gate to which the input signal IN may be input through the signal path 20. The logic circuit 10 may further include an NMOS transistor N2 connected between the output terminal and the NMOS transistor N1. The NMOS transistor N2 may have a gate to which the voltage Vpp may be applied.
The logic circuit 10 may invert the input signal IN input through the signal path 20 to output an output signal OUT. For example, when the input signal IN has a low logic level, the PMOS transistor P1 may be activated or turned on, and the NMOS transistor N1 may be deactivated or turned off, so that the output signal OUT of the high voltage Vpp level is output. When the input signal IN has a high logic level, the PMOS transistor P1 may be deactivated, and the NMOS transistor N1 may be activated, so that the output signal OUT of the ground voltage level may be output. A drain voltage of the NMOS transistor N1 may be reduced by a threshold voltage of the NMOS transistor N2, thereby reducing hot carrier effects.
The logic circuit of FIG. 1 may insert the NMOS transistor N2 between the PMOS transistor P1 and the NMOS transistor N1 as the field relaxation transistor to reduce the drain voltage of the NMOS transistor N1, thereby reducing hot carrier effects.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of the conventional logic circuit of FIG. 1. In FIG. 2, "A", "B" and "C" denote gates of the PMOS transistor 1 and the NMOS transistors, respectively, "D" denotes a drain region of the NMOS transistor N1, and "STI" denotes a shallow trench isolation for component isolation.
As shown in FIG. 2, the conventional logic circuit may continuously apply the voltage Vpp to the gate B of the NMOS transistor N2. If the input signal IN having a high logic level is applied, a signal of a high logic level is applied to the gate C of the NMOS transistor N1, so that the NMOS transistor N1 is activated and a voltage of the drain region D of the NMOS transistor N1 becomes a ground voltage level. At this time, because the voltage Vpp is applied to the gate B of the NMOS transistor N2, a leakage current 1 may occur due to tunneling, so that the NMOS transistor N2 may deteriorate, causing a circuit malfunction. If the input signal IN having a low logic level is applied, a signal of a low logic level is applied to the gate A of the PMOS transistor P1, so that the PMOS transistor P1 is activated, and the voltage Vpp is applied to the gate B of the NMOS transistor N2, so that the NMOS transistor N2 is activated. Thus, a voltage of the drain region D of the NMOS transistor N1 becomes a voltage level close to the voltage Vpp level. As a result, hot carriers may be generated in the drain region D of the NMOS transistor N1 due to a gate-induced drain leakage (GIDL) or impact ionization. The hot carriers may be accelerated by the voltage Vpp applied to the gate B of the NMOS transistor N2 to induce a gate leakage current 2, so that the NMOS transistor N2 may deteriorate, causing a circuit malfunction.
As described above, in the conventional logic circuit, the voltage Vpp may be continuously applied to the gate B of the NMOS transistor N2, causing deterioration of the NMOS transistor N2 and/or a circuit malfunction.

Logic circuits with electric field relaxation transistors and semiconductor devices having the same


Method and arrangement in connection with a motor fed with a frequency converter provided with an intermediate voltage circuit. The method comprises steps of feeding motor voltage to the motor along a motor cable with a frequency converter for controlling the motor, rectifying the voltage of the motor cable and restricting the magnitude of the voltage of the motor cable at the end of the motor cable on the side of the motor with a clipper circuit coupled in parallel with the motor, using the rectified voltage for rotating one or more cooling fans of the motor.

The invention relates to clipping voltage pulses produced by a frequency converter and particularly to clipping reflection pulses caused by the output voltage pulses of the frequency converter in connection with a motor.
In frequency converters provided with IGBT switches in particular the rates of change of output voltages are so great that the surge voltage fronts they cause, together with output filters restricting the rates of change, cause reflections that are due to the effect of cable and motor wave impedances of different magnitudes. At their worst, these reflections may appear at the motor terminals as voltage peaks of even almost double the magnitude of the intermediate circuit voltage of the frequency converter, and as the peaks proceed in the motor windings, they may cause partial discharges between the winding turns and, gradually, to dielectric breakdown of turn insulations and destruction of windings.
It is known in the prior art to cut some of the energy of such voltage peaks by means of a three-phase diode bridge, for example, for intermediate storage into a high-speed capacitor and to discharge it from there into the environment in the form of heat by means of a resistor. At high motor powers in particular the amount power to be discharged may rise to kilowatts and therefore specific power resistors are needed to perform the task, but the placement and cooling of the resistors may be problematic. Moreover, particularly in industrial motors that run almost uninterruptedly the clipping of peaks may consume considerable amounts of energy, especially since the clipping power is hardly at all dependent on the degree of loading of the motor.
WO 01/39347 discloses a solution in which the effects of excess voltages of a motor are reduced by means of a separate auxiliary wire to transfer energy away from the motor. This energy that is transferred away is compensated by means of a suitable passive connection or fed back in a rectified form to the intermediate circuit of the frequency converter. A problem with this solution arises from significant costs caused by the use of the separate auxiliary wire.
As is known from the prior art, motors fed with frequency converters require, almost without exception, one or more cooling fans, because a fan mounted to the motor shaft is not sufficient to cool the motor at low revolutions. These cooling fans, which are typically provided with an induction motor, are usually fed from the same AC network as the frequency converter. However, if the supply voltage is high, for example 690 volts, relatively low power (≦2.2 kW) fan motors, have often been fed with a lower voltage, for example 400 volts, for reasons of winding durability. This in turn requires the use of heavy, bulky and expensive auxiliary voltage transformers

Method and arrangement in connection with motor fed with frequency converter provided with intermediate voltage circuit


The present invention provides for separation of bacterial species and serotypes using electrophoretic methods.

Among the large number of illnesses caused by bacteria, perhaps the most common is diarrhea. According to the World Health Organization, of the millions of deaths each year worldwide from diarrheal disease, most are caused by contaminated food and water, poor hygiene, or improper sanitation practices. Pathogenic Escherichia coli (E. coli) accounts for the second largest cause of these infections. Even in the United States, where mechanisms and practices are well developed to prevent transmission; there were over thirty thousand hospitalizations and nine hundred deaths involving E. coli between 1982 and 2002. Beyond diarrhea, the common and preeminent virulent O157:H7 serotype can cause severe or even fatal damage to vascular, urinary and nephrology systems. While this provides a specific and poignant example, there are a myriad of other clinically significant pathogenic bacteria along with innumerable benign and beneficial ones. It is of utmost importance to quickly detect and accurately differentiate between serotypes to effect appropriate treatment of patients and minimize spread of dangerous strains.
In response to recent non-O157 outbreaks of toxigenic E. coli, in January 2011 the US congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act, which mandates zero tolerance for a number of pathogenic bacteria, including E. coli serotypes O157, O26, O45, O103, O111, O121 and O145. Producers have been required to hold products for a week or more until cleared; this requirement has had a significant impact on the cost of food production. The CDC has identified improved surveillance of E. coli and development of tools for more rapid detection of emerging diarrheagenic E. coli strains as both challenges and opportunities. Yet these pathogenic strains must be detected within a microbial ecosystem containing huge numbers of Enterobacteriaceae.
There are standard laboratory methods for the detection, isolation and identification of pathogenic E. coli, where human capital is the constraining resource. Correct identification of pathogen-positive samples using serotyping requires extensive training. Conventional microbiological methods require approximately two days to perform primary enrichment, selective enrichment, and plating on different media for isolation of bacterial species and serotypes present in a sample. Additional characterization linking pathogen to contamination source requires serological bio-typing of cellular and flagellar antigens, requiring another 2-3 days. The addition of genotyping provides toxigenicity information based on plasmid toxin genes and requires approximately 3 days; this can be simultaneous with serology but requires resourcing of additional laboratory personnel. Genotyping by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis allows more refined comparison of strains on a global scale, but requires subjective individual judgment of banding patterns by an even more extensively trained certified analyst. In clinical situations, as this labor intensive and time consuming process is performed, the patient is being treated symptomatically or for a non-specific infection and the pathogenic strain continues to spread to other victims. For producers, any decrease in the time to determine E. coli O-side antigen would allow removal of contaminated food product from commerce more quickly, improving morbidity and mortality outcomes of humans and animals.

Arizona Board of Regents on Behalf of Arizona State University


A DSL customer premises equipment modem (DCPE) avoids the requirement of a flash or other static memory for storing an application image or configuration on the modem. The modem instead stores microcode used to boot its chipset and obtain the application image and/or configuration from a remote site, such as the central office (CO). In one possible startup procedure, this microcode initializes the modem's chipset, starts the DSL driver, establishes a data link with the service provider's CO equipment, and downloads the application image and/or the configuration from the CO. Other types of communications devices, such as cellular phones or other portable devices, can perform a similar procedure to obtain an application image from remote source, such as a base station.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to digital subscriber line (DSL) communications, and in particular to DSL customer premises equipment (CPE) modems (DCPEs). The invention also relates to other types of communication devices, including cellular phones and other portable communication devices.
2. Background of the Invention
Upon startup of a DSL customer premises equipment (CPE) modem (DCPE), an application image is loaded and executed by the DCPE and is then used to control the operation of the DCPE. In existing DCPEs, the application image is stored in an onboard flash memory. Disadvantageously, the onboard flash memory used to store the application image is expensive, contributing to and increasing the overall cost of the DCPE. It would thus be beneficial to eliminate the need for these onboard flash memories, or their equivalent, in the manufacture of DCPEs.
DSL modems have used protocols such as BOOTP (as defined in IETF RFC-951) and TFTP (as defined in IETF RFC-783) to download the application image from the central office (CO), but only in the context of upgrading an existing application image that resides in the modem's onboard flash memory. These modems did not eliminate the requirement of having an onboard flash memory, since the modems still needed the application image to start up, initialize, and set up a data link with the CO before the new application image upgrade could be downloaded. Hence, these modems still required a flash memory, or its equivalent, and thus suffered from the drawbacks associated therewith.
Moreover, existing DCPEs are limited in their ability to add features or fix software defects by upgrading their software code. For example, adding features and/or fixing defects in the application image may result in increased application image size. The larger application image may not fit into the original onboard flash that was included when the DCPE was shipped to the customer. Therefore, storing the application image in an onboard flash memory also limits the ability to upgrade the application image itself.
Besides the additional cost and limitation on the application image size, storing the application image for the modems in an onboard flash memory makes it more difficult to push upgrades to the application from the CO. Because DCPEs often include an integrated NAT-firewall-router, the network architecture of the CPE is hidden from the services provider. This may allow the customers to deploy more LAN devices and computers than what is allowed under the customer's plan (e.g., the number of devices paid for under the agreement with the services provider). Accordingly, storing the application image in an onboard flash memory can make it more difficult to push upgrades to the application image and configuration as well as enforce data services plans.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a DCPE that could operate without an application image stored in an onboard flash memory, thus reducing the manufacturing cost of the modem and avoiding the inherent disadvantages involved with storing the application image onboard the DCPE.

Communication device for obtaining an application image or configuration from a service provider


A direct-acting electromagnetic trip device including a housing, and a regulation mechanism, a linkage mechanism, an electromagnetic system and a trip mechanism which are arranged in the housing. The regulation mechanism is connected with the linkage mechanism, the linkage mechanism is connected with one end of an iron core of the electromagnetic system, and the linkage mechanism is connected with the trip mechanism at the same time. The regulation mechanism includes a rotary knob and a regulation rod, wherein the rotary knob is abutted against and engaged with the regulation rod, and the regulation rod is abutted against and engaged with the linkage mechanism. The electromagnetic system further includes an elastic element that pushes the iron core to allow the linkage mechanism to be abutted against the regulation rod and allow the rotary knob to be abutted against the regulation rod.

At present, in a circuit breaker with a regulate able instantaneous operating current, an electromagnetic trip device adopts a rotary regulation mode in which a regulation rod rotates to change the elongation of a tension spring connected thereto to change the reactive force of an electromagnetic suction force and the size of an air gap. This regulation mode needs many components, and usually requires a plurality of springs to be mounted, resulting in difficulty in mounting and complicated assembly process.

Direct-acting electromagnetic trip device


An electronic device according to the present invention includes an infrared ray absorbing section 12, which comes to have an increased temperature when irradiated with an incident infrared ray, and at least one heat sensing section 13, of which a physical property varies with the variation in temperature that has been caused due to the heat generated by the infrared ray absorbing section 12. The relative positions of the heat sensing section 13 and the infrared ray absorbing section 12 can be changed so as to switch their states from a first state, in which the infrared ray absorbing section 12 and the heat sensing section 13 are in contact with each other, into a second state, in which the infrared ray absorbing section 12 and the heat sensing section 13 are out of contact with each other, and vice versa.

An infrared sensor for detecting an electromagnetic wave (or an infrared ray) with a wavelength of 3 μm to 10 μm has been used as a heat sensing sensor in crime prevention, measuring, remote sensing and various other fields of applications. An infrared image sensor, in which such sensors are arranged as a two-dimensional array, can obtain an even greater amount of information as a thermal image, and has been used extensively in those fields of applications.
Infrared sensors are roughly classified into quantum sensors and thermal sensors. A quantum sensor is a sensor that is made of compound semiconductors and that operates by utilizing the band-to-band transition. Such a quantum sensor has higher sensitivity and higher response speed than a thermal sensor but operates at relatively low temperatures, thus requiring a cooling mechanism to maintain such low temperatures. That is why it is difficult to reduce the size or manufacturing cost of such a quantum sensor and it is not easy to apply it to cars, crime prevention tools and various other consumer electronic products.
On the other hand, a thermal sensor has lower sensitivity than a quantum sensor but needs no cooling mechanism to maintain low temperatures. For that reason, it is relatively easy to reduce the size and price of such a sensor, and therefore, it has been used extensively in various consumer electronic products. The thermal sensors include thermopile types, bolometer types and pyroelectric types.
A thermopile type includes a portion in which a lot of thermocouples are connected in series together as a thermal sensing portion. A bolometer type includes a resistor that is made of a material, of which the electrical resistance has significant temperature dependence. By detecting a variation in the amount of current flowing through that resistor, the bolometer type sensor can measure the temperature. Meanwhile, a pyroelectric type detects charge to be produced on the surface of a tourmaline crystal, for example, as the temperature varies, thereby sensing the temperature variation.
A thermal sensor of any of these types has a heat insulation structure to prevent the heat from escaping from its infrared sensing portion, thereby maintaining the sensitivity of the sensor reasonably high. An exemplary heat insulation structure for such an infrared sensor is disclosed in Patent Document No. 1, for example.
Hereinafter, the structure of a thermal infrared sensor as disclosed in Patent Document No. 1 will be described with reference to FIG. 8, in which FIG. 8(a) is a plan view illustrating main portions of this infrared sensor and FIG. 8(b) is a cross-sectional view of the sensor as viewed on the plane 8b-8b.
The infrared sensor shown in FIG. 8 includes a substrate 240 of silicon, for example, and a photosensitive section 241 that is supported on the substrate 240. The photosensitive section 241 includes a bolometer 242, of which the electrical resistance has temperature dependence, and an interconnect 243 for measuring the electrical resistance of the bolometer 242. And the photosensitive section 241 functions as a heat sensing section for the infrared sensor. The interconnect 243 may be made of a metal such as aluminum.
On the upper surface of the substrate 240 that is opposed to the bolometer 242, a recess has been cut so as to leave a gap between the photosensitive section 241 and the substrate 240. Such a recess may be formed by selectively removing a predetermined region of the substrate 240 by either a wet etching process or a dry etching process.
The photosensitive section 241 contacts with the substrate 240 at contact portions 245. Both ends 244 of the interconnect 243 run over the contact portions 245 and are connected to a read circuit (not shown).
Hereinafter, it will be described how the infrared sensor shown in FIG. 8 operates.
When the photosensitive section 241 absorbs an infrared ray, the temperature at the bolometer 242 rises. As a result of the rise in temperature, the resistance of the bolometer 242 changes. In such a state, current is supplied to the bolometer 242 through the interconnect 243 and a variation in voltage, caused by the change of resistance, is detected. And based on the magnitude of this voltage variation, the energy of the infrared ray that has been incident on the photosensitive section 241 can be calculated.
The photosensitive section 241 preferably has a structure that can prevent the thermal energy, produced upon the exposure to the infrared ray, from escaping to the outside. In the example illustrated in FIG. 8, the area of contact between the body of the photosensitive section 241 and the substrate 240 is minimized to increase the heat insulation property. Also, the portions including both ends 244 of the interconnect 243 are elongated portions extending from the body of the photosensitive section 241 to reduce the conduction of the heat to the substrate 240. Thus, according to the method of Patent Document No. 1, by shaping the connecting portions between the photosensitive section 241 and the substrate 240 as elongate as possible, the heat insulation property between the photosensitive section 241 and the substrate 240 is improved. As a result, the magnitude of the variation in the temperature of the photosensitive section responsive to an incident infrared ray increases, thus increasing the amplitude of the signal to detect the infrared ray.
Another heat insulation structure for an infrared sensor is disclosed in Patent Document No. 2.
Hereinafter, the structure of the thermal infrared sensor disclosed in Patent Document No. 2 will be described with reference to FIG. 9.
The infrared sensor shown in FIG. 9 includes a lower substrate 110, an upper substrate (photosensitive section) 120, posts 210, lower electrodes 220, a reflective layer 230, and signal legs 200. A bolometer (not shown) is provided for the upper substrate 120.
When the upper substrate 120 absorbs an infrared ray, its bolometer comes to have an increased temperature and a varied resistance value. At this point in time, current is supplied to the bolometer 82 by way of the signal legs 200 with a metallic layer, thereby sensing a variation in voltage that has been caused due to the variation in resistance. And based on the magnitude of this voltage variation, the energy of the infrared ray that has been incident on the upper substrate 120 can be calculated.
The posts 210 are made of an insulator and perform the function of supporting the upper substrate 120 on the lower substrate 110. A cavity or a gap is left between the lower and upper substrates 110 and 120, thereby thermally insulating them from each other. The lower electrodes 220 produce electrostatic force with respect to the signal legs 200, thereby changing the positions of the signal legs 200. In this manner, the signal legs 200 and the upper substrate 120 can alternately have an in-contact state and an out-of-contact state.
When the signal legs 200 and the upper substrate 120 are out of contact with each other, the upper and lower substrates 120 and 110 are connected together with just the posts 210 that are made of an insulator. As a result, the heat insulation property between the upper and lower substrates 120 and 110 improves. Consequently, the rise in the temperature of the upper substrate 120 responsive to the incident infrared ray can be increased. By bringing the signal legs 200 and the upper substrate 120 into contact with each other after they have been out of contact with each other for a certain period of time, current is supplied to the bolometer and the quantity of the infrared radiation that has been incident on the upper substrate 120 is detected.
In such an infrared sensor, the magnitude of variation in the temperature of the photosensitive section responsive to the incident infrared ray increases, and therefore, the magnitude of variation in the resistance of the bolometer (i.e., the level of the signal to detect the infrared ray) can be increased, too.
As can be seen, an infrared sensor is required to have an increased magnitude of variation in temperature in response to an incident infrared ray, and eventually exhibit higher infrared sensitivity, by improving its heat insulation property.                Patent Document No. 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-106896        Patent Document No. 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-181308        Patent Document No. 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-11795


A cooling apparatus and method of fabrication are provided for facilitating removal of heat from a heat-generating electronic device. The method of fabrication includes: obtaining a solder material; disposing the solder material on a surface to be cooled; and reflowing and shaping the solder material disposed on the surface to be cooled to configure the solder material as a base with a plurality of fins extending therefrom. In addition to being in situ-configured on the surface to be cooled, the base is simultaneously metallurgically bonded to the surface to be cooled. The solder material, configured as the base with a plurality of fins extending therefrom, is a single, monolithic structure thermally attached to the surface to be cooled via the metallurgical bonding thereof to the surface to be cooled.

As is known, operating electronic devices produce heat. This heat should be removed from the devices in order to maintain device junction temperatures within desirable limits, with failure to remove the heat resulting in increased device temperatures, potentially leading to thermal runaway conditions. Several trends in the electronics industry have combined to increase the importance of thermal management, including heat removal for electronic devices, including technologies where thermal management has traditionally been less of a concern, such as CMOS. In particular, the need for faster and more densely packed circuits has had a direct impact on the importance of thermal management. First, power dissipation, and therefore heat production, increases as device operating frequencies increase. Second, increased operating frequencies may be possible at lower device junction temperatures. Further, as more and more devices are packed onto a single chip, heat flux (Watts/cm2) increases, resulting in the need to remove more power from a given size chip or module. These trends have combined to create applications where it is no longer desirable to remove heat from modern devices solely by traditional air cooling methods, such as by using air cooled heat sinks with heat pipes or vapor chambers. Such air cooling techniques are inherently limited in their ability to extract heat from an electronic device with high power density.
The need to cool current and future high heat load, high heat flux electronic devices therefore mandates the development of aggressive thermal management techniques, such as using liquid cooling. Various types of liquid coolants provide different cooling capabilities. In particular, fluids such as refrigerants or other dielectric liquids (e.g., fluorocarbon liquid) exhibit lower thermal conductivity and specific heat properties, when compared to liquids such as water or other aqueous fluids. Dielectric liquids have an advantage, however, in that they may be placed in direct physical contact with electronic devices and interconnects without adverse affects such as corrosion or electrical short circuits. Other cooling liquids, such as water or other aqueous fluids, exhibit superior thermal conductivity and specific heat compared to dielectric fluids. Water-based coolants, however, must be kept from physical contact with electronic devices and interconnects, since corrosion and electrical short circuit problems are likely to result from such contact. Various methods have been disclosed in the art for using water-based coolants, while providing physical separation between the coolants and the electronic device(s). With liquid-based cooling apparatuses, however, it is still necessary to attach the cooling apparatus to the electronic device. This attachment results in a thermal interface resistance between the cooling apparatus and the electronic device. Thus, in addition to typical liquid cooling issues regarding sealing, clogging due to particulate contamination, thermal conductivity of the cooling apparatus, effectiveness of the interface to the electronic device as well as the thermal expansion match between the cooling apparatus and the electronic device and manufacturability, need to be addressed. The invention disclosed herein presents a high-performance liquid cooling apparatus and method of fabrication that addresses the above-noted considerations for liquid-cooling-based apparatuses.

Cooling apparatus and method of fabrication thereof with a cold plate formed in situ on a surface to be cooled

International Business Machines Corporation


An apparatus includes a non-volatile memory and a controller. The non-volatile memory includes a plurality of R-blocks. The controller is coupled to the non-volatile memory. The controller is configured to (i) write data using the R-blocks as a unit of allocation and (ii) perform recycling operations selectively on either an entire one of the R-blocks or a portion less than all of one of the R-blocks.

In a solid-state drive (SSD) device, valid data on the media is moved to another location on the media by a process referred to as recycling. Recycling is typically done as part of either garbage collection or wear leveling. Garbage collection is performed to reclaim space taken up by stale data. Wear leveling is performed to ensure some non-volatile memory (NVM) blocks do not wear out faster than other NVM blocks due to excessive program and erase cycles. In a system where data is written in R-blocks (a combination of NVM blocks providing cross-die redundancy for higher-level error correction), the conventional recycling process recycles each R-block in its entirety.
It would be desirable to have a method and/or apparatus for implementing partial R-block recycling.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The present disclosure provides a process for obtaining extracted crude oil (ECO) which is substantially free of naphthenic acids, calcium and other impurities from low asphaltic crude oils or their residue fractions by preferential extraction of saturates using at least one solvent.

High TAN (Total Acid Number) crudes are difficult to process due to the inherent corrosion problems associated with them. Furthermore, the high naphthenic acid content in these crudes causes serious problems in desalter which leads to tight emulsion formation, more rag layer generation and incomplete separation of crude oil from wash water. This not only creates problem for processing of such crudes in downstream units but poses serious challenge for effluent treatment plant also.
Crude containing high calcium are also very difficult to process due to increase in current drawn in desalter electrostatic grid, fouling of crude preheat trains and downstream units. Calcium deposits in shell and tube of heat exchangers drastically reduce their efficiency. Calcium acts as poison to hydrotreating and FCC (fluid catalytic cracking) catalysts. Higher calcium content in vacuum residue can cause reduction of run length in delayed coker furnaces. Further, highly paraffinic crudes have problem of high pour point, higher viscosity and poor asphaltene stability. Some of the crude oils have combination of high paraffinicity, high TAN and high calcium, hence are extremely difficult to process.
High acid crude (HAC) processing has drawn considerable attention of refiners as processing of these crudes can improve the refinery profit margins if the desalter and corrosion problems associated with them are taken care of. Various methods are disclosed in the prior art to overcome the problems/difficulties associated with HAC processing. Mainly, there are two approaches to tackle the corrosion problem in high acid crude processing. First is to make the metal surface resistant to naphthenic acid corrosion either by selecting a superior metallurgy or by use of corrosion inhibitor. The second approach is to neutralize/convert the corrosive naphthenic acids in to non-corrosive products/salts. As per the first approach, several patent documents (U.S. Pat. No. 5,182,013, U.S. Pat. No. 5,252,254, U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,609, U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,994 and WO2010/119417) in the prior art explain the use of corrosion inhibitors to reduce the naphthenic acid corrosion during processing of HAC oils. However, use of corrosion inhibitor does not address other problems associated with high naphthenic acid crude processing like poor desalter performance, higher rag layer generation and the like. To tackle the corrosion issue by the second approach, prior art discloses several methods for conversion of corrosive naphthenic acids into non-corrosive products. WO/2010/121343A1 discloses the use of microorganisms (biocatalysts), or catalysts derived from these organisms (enzymes) to improve the quality of crude oil. WO/2010/118498 discloses a process for decreasing the acidity of an acidic crude oil which involves contacting an acidic crude oil with a mixture nitrogen containing compounds and in the presence of lipase enzyme.
Further, WO/2010/117403 discloses a method for thermal cracking of organic acid containing hydrocarbon feed for removal of naphthenic acids. U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,751 discloses reduction of TAN by thermal treatment. US patent application No. 20100234247 discloses a method for removal of naphthenic acid and asphaltenes using an aqueous gel. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,795,532 and 2,770,580 discloses use of sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide to neutralize the naphthenic acid. U.S. Pat. No. 5,961,821 explains neutralization of high acid crudes with ethoxylated amine. U.S. Pat. No. 6,679,987 teaches use of calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide for neutralization of high acid crudes. Neutralization of naphthenic acid with base increases its hydrophilicity and thus increases the emulsion forming tendency. Consequently, demulsifier is to be used for breaking of tight emulsion if neutralization method is employed for high naphthenic acid crude processing. U.S. Pat. No. 6,599,949 teaches use of demulsifier for better separation of crude and wash water in desalter.
The prior art patent documents do not however teach a process which allows processing of high acid crude oils wherein the naphthenic acids are removed from the crude oil without any chemical treatment and/or high temperature operation. Further, processing of crudes oils having high calcium content poses serious operation problems like high current drawn in desalter grid, fouling and scaling of exchangers, coking in furnaces, poisoning of catalysts and the like. To overcome these problems, various calcium removal agents are employed to reduce the calcium content in high calcium containing crudes before desalting and distillation. Most of these calcium removing agents are organic acids. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,778,589 and 5,078,858 teach the use of citric acid as calcium removing agent. U.S. Pat. No. 6,905,593 discloses the use of acetic acid as calcium removal agent. U.S. Pat. No. 5,660,717 discloses the uses of functionalized polyacrylic acid for removal of calcium from crude oils. U.S. Pat. No. 7,497,943 discloses the use of a-hydroxy carboxylic acid for removal of calcium from crude oils. These calcium removing agents if not removed completely from the crude oil during desalting lead to high corrosion as they are acidic compounds. Furthermore, the removal efficiency decreases with increase in calcium content of the crude oil. Twice the stoichiometric amount of organic acid is needed for each calcium cation. At higher calcium concentration, the calcium salt of removing agent become less soluble in the aqueous phase and hence their carry over with the crude oil increases.
Solvent deasphalting is a well known technique for reduction of asphaltene in atmospheric residues and vacuum residues of crude oils containing significant amount of asphaltenes. Removal of asphaltenes leads to reduction in CCR, sulfur, Nitrogen, Ni and V content as most of these impurities in crude oil are associated with asphaltenes. A wide range of deasphalting techniques are covered in the prior art documents wherein the process conditions such as extraction temperature (WO 2009/085131 A1), solvent type (U.S. Pat. No. 1,948,296), solvent to oil ratio (U.S. Pat. No. 4,290,880), use of additive with the deasphalting solvent (U.S. Pat. No. 2,587,643, U.S. Pat. No. 2,882,219, U.S. Pat. No. 3,278,415, U.S. Pat. No. 3,331,394), two step extraction (U.S. Pat. No. 2,002,004, U.S. Pat. No. 2,101,308, U.S. Pat. No. 3,074,882), type of mixing (WO 2010/044987 A2), type of contactor (US 2010/0089797 A1), contact time (US2003/0121828 A1) have been discussed in details. There are several prior art patent documents wherein the improvement in deasphalted oil (DAO) in terms of reduction in metal viz. Ni & V (U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,838, U.S. Pat. No. 4,290,880, U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,456), CCR (WO 2009/058263 A1), Sulfur (US 2009/0301931 A1), Nitrogen (US20100252483) have been disclosed. Very few patents disclose deasphalting of whole crudes. U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,946 discloses a deasphalting process of whole crude oil comprising asphaltene content of 24.1 wt % (C5 asphaltene) and 13.6 wt % (C7 asphaltene). The deasphalting process as disclosed in aforementioned US patent also include a method step of treating hydrocarbonaceous feed stream with a solvent at a temperature between 100-220° C. and at a pressure of in the range of 4-5 MPa. The process as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,946 does not disclose reduction of naphthenic acid and/or calcium from the hydrocarbon charge.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,421 discloses deasphalting of whole crude However, the crude oils used in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,421 contains very high asphaltene content (>14 wt %) and is heavy in nature having API<20. All the examples in prior art teach the solvent deasphalting of crude oils or their residues having significant amount of asphaltenes. All the prior art related to deasphalting teach that most of the impurities like metal, sulfur and nitrogen are generally associated with the asphaltene fractions. Therefore, removal of asphaltenes will remove these impurities and improve the quality of DAO. Aforesaid patent does not disclose reduction of impurities like naphthenic acids and calcium from low asphaltic crude oils (Ashpaltene content <5 wt %).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,501 teaches a method for simultaneous removal of naphthenic acid and sulfur from whole crude oil, wherein the asphaltene content in the whole crude oil is 2% heptane insolubles. However, U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,501 is silent on removing calcium and naphthenic acid simultaneously.
US20100163457 discloses removal of calcium from calcium naphthenate. However, US20100163457 is silent on removal of naphthenic acid and other impurities such as vanadium, nickel, sulfur, nitrogen and Conradson Carbon Residues (CCR).
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method to reduce the two very important impurities i.e. naphthenic acids and calcium along with other impurities (Ni, V, S, N and CCR) of whole crude oils having very low asphaltenes.

Solvent extraction process for removal of naphthenic acids and calcium from low asphaltic crude oil


An organic light emitting device having a high efficiency and durability is provided. The organic light emitting device includes an anode, a cathode and a layer formed of an organic compound interposed between the anode and the cathode, and contains at least one kind of the fluorene compound represented by the following general formula (I) or (II):

An organic light emitting device is a device in which a thin film including a fluorescent organic compound or a phosphorescent organic compound is interposed between an anode and a cathode. Further, electrons and holes are injected from the respective electrodes to generate exciton, whereby the organic light emitting device emits light when the exciton return to a ground state.
Recently, an organic light emitting device using a fluorene compound as a light emitting material has been extensively studied. For example, a fluorene compound disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-273863 and a trimer of 9,9-dimethyl-fluorene disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-55275 are included. Further, according to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-273863 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-55275, it is described that a light emitting device using a fluorene compound has a high efficiency, and the utility of a compound containing a fluorene skeleton in a molecule is being recognized. However, there are no fluorene compounds that satisfy both a high efficiency and high durability for practical use, so there is a demand for a light emitting material based on a fluorene skeleton that leads to further higher luminance and longer life of a device.

Fluorene compound, organic light emitting device and display device using the fluorene compound

Abstract: wherein R1 to R4 each represent an alkyl group, a fluorinated alkyl group, a substituted or unsubstituted aralkyl group, or a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group; and Ar1 to Ar8 represent a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group or a substituted or unsubstituted polycondensed aromatic group.


Prolonged and severe tissue hypoxia results in tissue necrosis in pedicled flaps. We demonstrate the potential of near-infrared spectroscopy for predicting viability of compromised tissue portions. This approach clearly identifies tissue regions with low oxygen supply, and also the severity of this challenge, in a rapid and non-invasive manner, with a high degree of reproducibility. Early, nonsubjective detection of poor tissue oxygenation following surgery increases the likelihood that intervention aimed at saving the tissue will be successful.

In surgery, the ability to determine whether or not a tissue will survive is of paramount importance. This is particularly true in plastic surgery where efforts to develop a reliable method to predict skin flap viability are on-going. It is therefore not surprising that efforts to develop a reliable method to predict tissue viability go back to the very beginnings of plastic surgery. Clinical assessment, based on observations of color, temperature and capillary perfusion have always been, and remain, the basis of good management. However, the clinical signs which arise as a consequence of poor blood perfusion along the flap become evident only after several hours of compromised perfusion. Prolonged and severe deprivation of oxygen and other nutrients to the tissues results in irreversible tissue damage leading to necrosis and loss of tissue. Early, nonsubjective detection of poor tissue oxygenation following surgery increases the likelihood that intervention aimed at saving the tissue will be successful. As a consequence, a variety of methods have evolved over the years to augment clinical judgement. Broadly speaking, these methods fall into two categories: those that are based on an assessment of blood flow within tissues and those that examine the cellular metabolism within tissues.
Early studies depended on the use of pharmacological agents to assess blood flow (Hynes, 1948, Br J Plast Surg 1:159-171; Conway et al, 1951, Surg Gynecol Obstet 93:185-189). It was soon realized that the use of pharmacologic agents gave inconsistent results which were difficult to interpret.
Later, vital dye studies and the use of radioisotopes added to our knowledge (Dingwall and Lord, 1943, Bull Johns Hopkins Hosp 73:129-134; Kety, 1949, Am Heart J 38:321-328). Also, fluorescein dye or other labelled tracer measurements of blood flow were necessarily invasive procedures and the invasiveness of the procedure coupled with prolonged washout times limited the frequency with which these methods could be applied to the site of interest.
More recently, Doppler evaluation of blood flow (Swartz et al, 1988, Plast Reconst Surg 81:149-161), assessment of oxygen transport (Hjortdal et al, 1990, Scand J Plast Reconstr Surg Hand Surg 24:27-30) and sophisticated monitoring of tissue temperature (Kaufman et al, 1987, Ann Plast Surg 19:34-41) held promise. Laser Doppler velocimetry had the advantage of being a non-invasive method. However, it only measured the blood flow within a small volume of tissue, and microvascular heterogeneity rendered the method prone to errors: motion of the probe during measurement and poor probe placement reproducibility both led to poor reproducibility. In addition, the recognition of arteriovenous shunting, where blood flow bypasses the capillary bed resulting in non-nutrient flow, reduced the value of a strictly blood flow-based investigation. Blood flow methods primarily address the issue of oxygen delivery, but provide little information on cellular utilization.
Finally, the most recent advances examine the metabolic status of tissues using magnetic resonance imaging (Cheung et al, 1994, Magn Reson Med 32:572-578) and infrared spectroscopy (Irwin et al, 1995, Br J Plast Surg 48:14-22). Magnetic resonance spectroscopy can provide information on the metabolic status of skin flaps at a cellular level (Cheung, 1994), but the extended measurement times, high costs, and limited portability render the method clinically impractical.
Regarding infrared spectroscopy, U.S. Pat. No. 3,638,640 to Shaw, for example, teaches disposing radiation sources and detectors about the ear of a patient and measuring the intensity of radiation passing therethrough. The logarithms of the detector responses are then combined linearly to yield an indication of oxygen saturation in the blood based on the ratio of concentration of oxyhemoglobin to total hemoglobin in the patient's ear. Clearly, this device is limited in that it provides information only on the oxygenation level of the blood.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,223,680 and 4,281,645, both to Jöbsis, teach a method and an apparatus for continuous in vivo monitoring of metabolism in a body organ using near infrared spectroscopy. Specifically, oxygen sufficiency in an organ is measured based on the absorbance characteristics of cytochrome a, a3. However, this apparatus is arranged to measure changes and trends in metabolism and not tissue viability.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,306 to Green teaches a method for measuring burn depth comprising administering a fluorescent compound to the skin burn and exciting the fluorescent compound with infrared light. The amount of fluorescence detected at the skin burn compared to the adjacent unburned skin provides an indication as to the depth of the burn. However, as with fluorescein dye and other vital dyes discussed above, this method is invasive and may harm the compromised tissue or the surrounding tissue. Furthermore, the device is used to determine the depth of the burn in the tissue, not the viability of the tissue.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,497,770 to Morcos teaches an apparatus for measuring dynamic oxidative metabolism in compromised myocardium. Specifically, Morcos teaches injecting one or more metabolic substrates in a region of the compromised myocardium and collecting near infrared spectra overtime using a probe inserted into the region of interest. The collected data is then used to determine whether a metabolic pathway cascade or a transmembrane ionic potential are intact, which is in turn used to provide an indication as to the viability of the cells. Clearly, this method is too invasive for use with damaged tissue, as it requires both the insertion of a probe below the surface of the tissue and injection of one or more metabolic substrates into the tissue.
Irwin (Irwin, 1995) teaches a method and a device for continuously monitoring concentration changes in oxyhemoglobin, deoxyhemoglobin and total hemoglobin. However, the method is limited in that the device must be mounted onto the surface of the tissue being examined and, as a result, is prone to interference if the probe is removed and subsequently replaced on the suspect tissue. Furthermore, as noted above, the method and the device are designed to measure trends meaning that hemoglobin levels must be continuously monitored in order for useful data to be collected.
It is therefore not surprising that a recent survey amongst microsurgeons showed a lack of uniformity in the use of monitoring devices to assess viability of transplanted tissue (Neligan, 1993, Microsurgery 14:162-164).
The ideal test to predict skin viability should be quick and simple to perform, accurate and reproducible, inexpensive, non-invasive, cause little or no patient discomfort and should not alter the basic physiology of the tissue.

Method of assessing tissue viability using near-infrared spectroscopy


Interchangeable luggage perimeters are disclosed. Example interchangeable luggage perimeters may comprise an interchangeable base element adapted to securely and releasably couple with exchangeable components such as exchangeable foot pads, exchangeable wheels, or exchangeable handles. The interchangeable base element may be interchangeable by having a configuration supporting repositioning of the interchangeable base element at multiple different edges of a luggage piece, e.g., any of at least two or four edges of a luggage piece.

Today's typical luggage piece may generally include a rigid rectangular frame with a tough fabric or other sturdy material surrounding the frame. Luggage piece dimensions may be, e.g. 15 centimeters (cm) to 1.5 meters (m) along any edge. One side face of a luggage piece may include a door, which may open and close and may be secured shut by a zipper, snaps, clips, or other releasable fasteners. In some examples, two wheels may be positioned at one edge, and a handle may extend from an opposite edge, allowing a luggage piece to be wheeled from place to place. In other examples a luggage piece may have one or more handles to carry the luggage piece, and no wheels. A wide variety of additional features may be included in today's luggage as will be appreciated.
Luggage is preferably designed with sufficient durability to withstand the stress of loading and unloading the luggage from vehicles such as cars and airplanes, as well as carrying or otherwise moving the luggage from place to place including, e.g., up and down stairs. However, making luggage which is lightweight while also sufficiently durable is a challenge, and today's luggage often wears out or sustains damage. Therefore ongoing improvements in luggage design and durability are needed.


An apparatus and method provides optical multiple wavelength signals using a single, broadband optical source such, for example, as an LED, to generate many independent optical wavelength channels. An optical transmitter includes a wavelength channel defining assembly which resolves the broad spectrum pulses output by the source into discrete wavelength bands constituting respective pulses (i.e., wavelength channels) and which inserts a delay between the bands to define a sequence of individually addressable channels.. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, spectral splicing is achieved by a multiple channel filter, and insertion of the respective delays is achieved by individual fiber sections, each section having a length selected to introduce a particular delay, coupled to the output ports of the router. The inserted delays can be conveniently selected to separate adjacent wavelength channels and thereby minimize the likelihood of crosstalk. Pulses of the thus-resolved channels arrive at different times to a multiplexer which may be configured, for example, as a passive WDM multiplexer or as a star combiner. The resulting sequence of addressable wavelength channels may be supplied to one or more high-speed, broadband modulators, with each modulator being operable to modulate some or all of the channels.

The transmission capacity of optical communications systems is presently limited by the optical source modulation bandwidth and dispersive and nonlinear propagation effects. Although a span of optical fiber has a very broad optical bandwidth (10-20 THz), the system data rates transmitted over such spans are presently limited to about 2.5 Gbits/sec in single-channel communications systems. Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) generally increases optical system capacity by simultaneously transmitting data on several optical carrier signals at different wavelengths. The total system capacity is increased by a factor equal to the number of different wavelength channels. Other advantages of WDM are realized in point-to-multipoint communications systems such as in fiber-to-the-home. In this case, improved power splitting budget, security, upgradability, service flexibility and lower component speed requirements compared to time-division-multiplex (TDM) point-to-point links make WDM attractive.
WDM systems which have heretofore been proposed generally include a separate optical modulation source for each optical channel or individual transmission wavelength. For example, an array of laser diodes may be used--with each laser diode being tuned to a different frequency and modulated individually. The laser frequencies are combined as, for example, by an optical coupler and are then launched into one end of an optical fiber. At the other end of the fiber, the wavelength channels are separated from one another and directed to corresponding receivers.
Due to a number of technical problems, presently proposed WDM systems are not regarded as being commercially viable for mass market applications like fiber distribution to the home. One such problem is the small number of channels currently accommodated. Specifically, while a WDM system would be considered cost-effective if a large number of channels (32-64 or even 128) were made available, present multi-channel laser diodes are very difficult to fabricate with acceptable yield even with as few as 8 channels. In addition, passive WDM splitters currently available have a large temperature variation of their passband channels, thereby requiring a continuous tunability in the multichannel sources that has not yet been achieved.
Therefore, although WDM offers an elegant solution to increasing the capacity and transparency of optical networks, WDM for fiber distribution networks as currently envisioned is not deemed to be cost-competitive with simple point-to-point schemes (one fiber per customer), and more cost-effective schemes are needed. For fiber-to-the home optical communications systems, low-cost methods of delivering optical signals into and out from the home is a challenging problem. Although time-domain multiplexing (TDM) of data streams would be another method of increasing transmission capacity, it is not desirable to build a specific network with expensive high frequency electronic components that are difficult to upgrade in the future. For example, in order to deliver 50 Mbits/sec data rates into a single house, a 32 channel system would require transmitters, routers, amplifiers, receivers and modulators with 1.5 Gbits/sec capacity and above. It is not desirable to place such expensive and state-of-the-art components into every home. In addition, it is desirable to have as much of the system in the field and in the home transparent and passive, i.e. line-rate independent and not requiring any electrical powering. In addition to the low data rate systems as required for local access (50-155 MHz), high data rate systems (622 MHz-2.5 Gbits/sec) can also benefit from WDM. In such a case, similar problems are caused by the difficulty in obtaining a multifrequency source with adequate channel tuning, stability and modulation bandwidth.
As is apparent from the above, there is a continuing need for an efficient and cost-effective WDM system that is capable of transmitting a large number of spectral channels.

Optical communication system employing spectrally sliced optical source


Various methods and arrangements are provided for transmitting adaptive multimedia content over networks that provide differential services. By way of example, one method includes compressing video objects, generating at least one corresponding elementary stream containing the compressed video objects, classifying information within each elementary stream based on importance, and assembling the classified information into packets associated with different classes of network packets. In classifying the information within each elementary stream based on importance, different priority levels can be assigned to shape, motion, and texture information. Methods and arrangements are also provided for use with multimedia content information that includes audio information, image information, textual information, and the like.

Just as the speed of computers and networks have increased dramatically over the past few years, so too have the number and variety of networked multimedia applications proliferated rapidly. Unfortunately, conventional Internet Protocol (IP) networks usually only offer a so-called best effort (BE) service to communicating devices. This BE service does not make any service quality commitments. However, most multimedia applications are delay/loss sensitive. As such, these multimedia applications/devices would benefit from what is commonly known as Quality of Service (QoS) support/guarantees from the interconnecting network(s).
Consequently, the current Internet is becoming increasingly inadequate to support the service demand from such multimedia applications/devices, such as, for example, multimedia streaming applications/devices.
To support QoS in the Internet, the governing Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which is the main standards organization for the Internet, has defined two architectures that are expected to be implemented in the future, namely an Integrated Services or Intserv, and a Differentiated Services or DiffServ.
The integrated services model basically provides per-flow QoS guarantees. Here, a Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) was suggested for resource admission control and resource allocation. However, it is very complicated for conventional backbone routers in the network(s) to maintain the current states of thousands or more communication flows (e.g., streaming media packets).
On the other hand, the differentiated services model gives a class-based solution to support a relative QoS. Essentially, in differentiated services, packets can be divided into different QoS classes and forwarded at different priorities. The QoS class of each packet is specified in IPv4 by the Type of Service (TOS) byte or in IPv6 by a Traffic Class (TC) byte. Being highly scalable and relatively simple, the differentiated services model may come to dominate the backbone of the next generation(s) of the Internet.
Scalable coding (e.g., temporary, special and/or quality scalability) for different kinds of media has become one of the more important trends as of recent in the multimedia compression area, both in industry and academia. Many scalable coding methods have been suggested, such as, for example, layered coding, fine granularity scalability, embedded coding, and wavelet coding, to name a few. Scalable coding methods are very useful for multimedia transmission due to the network bandwidth fluctuation.
As the technology of the Internet and other like networks continues to grow there is a need for improved methods and arrangements that can effectively take advantage of the planned services and/or other coding schemes to provide an improved multimedia communication environment.

Generalized differentiation methods and arrangements for adaptive multimedia communications


A method of etching openings in a dielectric layer of a semiconductor device by utilizing a novel etchant gas system of sulfur hexafluoride/chlorine such that sloped sidewalls can be formed in the openings having a desired taper of between about 20.degree. and about 85.degree. for achieving improved step coverage and profile control of the TFT fabrication process.

Recently, a thin film transistor (TFT) formed on the surface of an insulating substrate, such as glass or the like, has been widely used as a switching device in a matrix configuration to control a liquid crystal display device. The liquid crystal display device is used widely in televisions and computer monitors. In a liquid crystal display device, two glass plates are joined with a layer of a liquid crystal material sandwiched thereinbetween. The glass plates have conductive films coated on their surfaces where at least one of the substrates is transparent. The substrates are connected to a power source to change the orientation of the liquid crystal material so that various areas of the liquid crystal display cell can be accessed by proper patterning of the conductive film. The thin film transistors are used to separately address areas of the liquid crystal cells at very fast rates. As the requirements for the resolution of liquid crystal monitors increase, it becomes desirable to separately address a plurality of areas of the liquid crystal cell, called pixels. In a modern display panel, more than 1,000,000 pixels are normally present. The same number of thin film transistors must be formed on the glass plates so that each pixel can be separately addressed and latched into one of two stable states.
One of the major types of thin film transistor devices used today is a back channel etched (BCE) thin film transistor. A BCE type thin film transistor is fabricated by first forming a gate conductor on an upper surface of an insulating substrate, a gate dielectric layer of silicon nitride or silicon oxide is then deposited over the gate conductor. A substantially hydrogenated intrinsic amorphous silicon is then deposited over a hydrogen plasma treated silicon nitride layer. A layer of N+ doped amorphous silicon is subsequently deposited over the amorphous silicon layer. Thereafter, a layer of source/drain metalization is deposited over the N+ doped silicon layer and subsequently patterned to form respective source and drain electrodes. Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process is commonly used for depositing materials in the fabrication of TFTs.
In a fabrication process for TFTs, numerous dielectric material layers are deposited. The dielectric materials employed include silicon nitride, silicon oxide, and any other suitable dielectric materials. The dielectric materials are used to insulate in, for example, a gate dielectric layer or a passivation layer. When electrical contacts must be made through a dielectric layer, the layer is etched by first applying a photomask to the layer to pattern openings for the contacts. The contact openings are then etched by a suitable etchant gas and filled in a subsequent metal deposition process. In a conventional-TFT fabrication process, a step coverage problem is frequently encountered in the etching and the subsequent metal deposition processes.
For example, a silicon nitride layer are conventionally etched using SF.sub.6 /O.sub.2 chemistry as shown in FIGS. 1A through 1C. The etch rate of a silicon nitride film using SF.sub.6 /O.sub.2 gas at 20 m-torr and 50 m-torr are shown in FIG. 1A. It is seen that at a chamber pressure of 20 m-torr, an etch rate of approximately 200 nm/min is obtained. At a higher chamber pressure of 50 m-torr, an etch rate of approximately 300 nm/min is obtained. An enlarged cross-sectional view of a semiconductor device 10 etched at 20 m-torr is shown in FIG. 1B. A vertical sidewall in the silicon nitride opening is obtained by the SF.sub.6 /O.sub.2 gas etching. An enlarged cross-sectional view of an attached semiconductor device 20 using the same etchant gas at 50 m-torr is shown in FIG. 1C. A vertical sidewall 22 in the silicon nitride layer is obtained showing a small undercut 24.
The etching of silicon nitride using SF.sub.6 /O.sub.2 presents a profile control problem which leads to poor step coverage in the subsequent metal deposition process. The step coverage problem occurs when sharp corners in the opening created by the vertical sidewalls are not covered by the subsequently deposited metal. As a result, voids at the corners are formed. The voids increase the resistance of the metal conductor and decrease the efficiency of the device. Therefore, the formation of vertical sidewalls in nitride openings should be avoided.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method of etching a dielectric layer in a semiconductor device that overcomes the drawbacks and shortcomings associated with the prior art.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for etching a dielectric layer in a semiconductor device that improves profile control.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of etching holes or trenches in a dielectric layer of a semiconductor device and then filling the holes or trenches without step coverage.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method of etching openings of holes or trenches in a dielectric layer of a semiconductor device without forming vertical sidewalls in the etched openings.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method of etching openings in a dielectric layer of a semiconductor device using an etchant gas mixture of SF.sub.6 /Cl.sub.2.
It is further object of the present invention to provide a method of etching openings in a dielectric layer of a semiconductor device producing sloped sidewalls in the openings.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of etching openings in a dielectric layer of a semiconductor device producing sloped sidewalls having a taper between about 20.degree. and about 85.degree. in the openings.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of etching openings in a dielectric layer of a semiconductor device producing sloped sidewalls in the openings such that void formations in a subsequent deposition process are avoided.

Tapered dielectric etch in semiconductor devices


A multi-layer article includes a fluoropolymer layer and a substrate which are joined permanently through a multi-step cross-linking technique.

There are existing methods to bond fluoroelastomers to substrate materials such as EPDM and Nitrile. However these methods have not proven successful in applications where the material is subject to significant stress, such as bending, perforating, doming, and stretching. In the waste water aeration market, for example, membranes are perforated and continuously stretched and flexed. The method of connecting multiple layers must be a strong and permanent one to survive this kind of application.
It is well known that monopolymeric rubber membranes made non fluoroelastomers lack desirable chemical and physical properties of fluoroelastomers such as temperature resistance, mechanical and physical functions, and chemical resistance.
Likewise fluoroelastomers are limited in elongation, flexibility, strength, modulus, hardness and other physical properties.
Therefore the ideal combination adopts the desirable characteristics of both fluoroelastomers and non fluoroelastomers.
One specific example of an application for this technology is in the diffused aeration business, where perforated rubber membranes, submerged in either chemical or municipal waste water, are flexed continuously in order to produce a multitude of fine bubbles. The fine bubbles transfer oxygen efficiently from gas to liquid phase. Such membranes traditionally have been subject to attack by wastewater contents which are relatively common, such as fats, oils, greases, aromatic hydrocarbons, calcium carbonate deposits on the water side of the membrane, and ozone or oxygen attack on the air side of the membrane. Through the use of a multiple layered membrane it is possible to maintain the well established physical properties of today's EPDM membranes while adding a protective fluoroelastomer shield at an economical cost.

Multiple layered membrane with fluorine containing polymer layer


A machine tool includes a clamping mechanism for clamping/unclamping rotation of a rotary table. A load is measured when an unclamping command is output and then the rotary table is rotated after a set time set in the timer passes, and the set time of the timer is changed in response to a magnitude of the measured load. In this way, it is possible to prevent the clamping mechanism from being damaged due to a subsequent command given before unclamping ends, and extend a life span of a component.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machine tool such as a machining center, which includes a rotary table, and more particularly, to a machine tool having a function of automatically and optimally setting an unclamp timer in a clamping mechanism of a rotary table.
2. Description of the Related Art
A rotary table such as an index table has been widely used in a machine tool such as a machining center. In particular, in various types of dividing mechanisms (for example, a dividing mechanism using a servo motor of a turret tool post) for performing a dividing operation of a workpiece in the machine tool, a clamping mechanism has been used such that a location is fixed after a turning and dividing operation. In the clamping mechanism, not only a motor or control but also the clamping mechanism is an important factor to perform a highly reliable dividing operation. When another turning and dividing operation is performed again after performing a turning and dividing operation in the clamping mechanism, a turning operation is performed after the clamping mechanism is unclamped.
In general, the clamping mechanism in the rotary table is operated by air pressure or oil pressure. In the clamping mechanism, a subsequent command needs to be given after unclamping is completely performed. For this reason, there is a need to verify whether unclamping is completely performed or not. Whether unclamping is completed or not has been verified using a dedicated sensor, or an unclamping operation has been determined to be completed when a certain period of time passes after a command to perform unclamping is given.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-17830 discloses a technology related to a detector that detects a deterioration state of a clamp spring in a mechanism for fixing and releasing a tool by an urging force of the clamp spring with respect to a main spindle in a machine tool.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-7735 discloses a technology related to unclamping verification means for determining that a fixing member is in an unclamped state by detecting a position in a turning direction of a turning member by position detection means in a clamping mechanism of a machine tool.
When a conventional dedicated sensor for verification of unclamping is provided, or when an unclamping operation is verified using some kind of a sensor of the technologies disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2010-17830 and 2007-7735, mentioned above, the unclamping operation may be reliably performed. However, there is a difficulty in adjusting a sensor, and a separate sensor needs to be provided, and thus there is concern about cost increase.
In a case in which an unclamping operation is determined to be completed when a certain period of time passes after a command to perform unclamping is given, a period of time from when a command to perform unclamping is given from a numerical controller or the like until unclamping is mechanically performed is presumed, and unclamping is regarded to be completed when the period of time passes. Then, a period of time (predetermined time) from when a command to perform unclamping is given until unclamping is completed is set in a timer, and the timer is configured to receive a subsequent command after waiting for the afore-mentioned predetermined time from the instant when the command to perform unclamping is given.
FIG. 4 illustrates timing charts showing an unclamping operation.
In FIG. 4, (a) illustrates an unclamping command which is turned ON at a time t1 and turned OFF at a time t3. A period of time from time t1 to time t3 is set by an unclamp timer. In addition, (c) illustrates that an interlock is configured to be locked between time t1 and time t3 during which the unclamp timer operates. (b) illustrates that a state of a mechanical clamp is changed from a clamped state to an unclamped state by receiving the unclamping command turned ON at time t1, and the change to the unclamped state is completed at a time t2.
Herein, a setting time (from time t1 to time t3) of the unclamp timer is set to be longer than an actual unclamping time (from time t1 to time t2) such that unclamping ends. For this reason, even when unclamping ends (at time t2) after the unclamping time passes, the interlock is in the locked state and thus another command may not be executed while the unclamp timer operates (that is, from time t1 to time t2). For this reason, a subsequent command is executed after the unclamp timer ends (that is, after time t3).
On the contrary, it may take a long time after the unclamping command is received until unclamping mechanically ends due to degradation over time of a component or degradation of grease in a piston part of a clamping mechanism when quality of air is poor or when the clamping mechanism operates by air pressure. In this instance, when it takes an excessively long time until unclamping ends, if original setting of the unclamp timer is unchanged, there is concern that a subsequent command is executed before the mechanical unclamping is completed. In addition, after the unclamping command is given, a rotation operation command is likely to be received. Thus, when a subsequent rotation operation command is started before an actual unclamping operation is completed, there is concern that the clamping mechanism is damaged and thus reliability of the clamping mechanism is degraded.


A semiconductor device includes an address translation device configured to identify a plurality of address translation tables which is used for address translation having a plurality of stages; and an adder configured to identify a stage in the address translation when executing the address translation, wherein the address translation device configured to perform cache control for information of a first address translation table used in a last stage of the address translation when the stage is the final stage.

There are some cases where address translation is performed in a plurality of stages in translating a virtual address into a physical address.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating address translation in multiple stages.
In the example illustrated in FIG. 1, to run Guest OS on Hypervisor, the Guest OS translates a virtual address (VA) into an intermediate physical address (IPA) in Stage1, and the Hypervisor translates the intermediate physical address into a physical address (PA) in Stage2.
In each stage of translation, an address translation table may be configured at a plurality of levels.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a plurality of levels of address translation tables.
FIG. 2 illustrates a configuration example of three levels of translation tables. Table entry 601 (Table1) at Level1 and Table entry 602 (Table2) at Level2 store base addresses of the next Level translation tables. A value obtained by adding an offset of the virtual address or the intermediate physical address to be translated to the base address by an adder 604 is an address of the entry used in the translation at each level. Furthermore, the intermediate physical address or the physical address of the translation result is a value obtained by adding an address and an offset stored in Page1 entry 603 at Level3 by the adder 604.
An address translation device acquires Table/Page entries 601 to 603 at the respective levels from a main storage device and performs translation. The address translation device calculates the address of the entry 601 at the first level from the VA and IPA to be translated and the base address, and obtains the entry from the main storage device. When the acquired entry is Table, the address translation device calculates the next-level address and acquires the entry from the main storage device. Furthermore, when the acquired entry is Page, the address translation device returns the translated address. Distinction between Table and Page may be made by flags stored in the entries.
The address translation device caches Table and Page internally in order to perform translation processing at high speed. In particular, in a plurality of levels of address translation, Tables (Table1 and Table2) are cached. For example, even if Page1 is not cached in a translation look-aside buffer (TLB), Page1 is acquired by one main memory fetch based on Table2 if Table2 is cached. Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2019-212167, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-233615, and the like are disclosed as related art.

Caching of address translation table in last stage of multi-stage page table walk