An electrical connector assembly (1) mounted on a printed circuit board (4) includes at least two electrical connectors (2) located on one side of the printed circuit board (4) and a back plate arrangement (3) located on the other side of the printed circuit board (4) opposite to the electrical connectors (2). The back plate arrangement (3) secures the electrical connectors (2) onto the printed circuit board (4), and includes at least two back plates (30) and at least one connecting bridge (31) interconnecting the at lest two back plates (30).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector assembly and a back plate arrangement used in the assembly, and more particularly to an electrical connector assembly including at least two electrical connectors and a back plate arrangement employed to retain the electrical connectors.
2. Description of Prior Art
A central processing unit (CPU) in a computer is generally mounted onto a printed circuit board (PCB) via an electrical connector so as to obtain electrical communication therebetween. To more stably retain the electrical connector, a back plate is usually utilized to be mounted onto one side of the PCB opposite to the electrical connector and fasteners such as screws are then used to bolt down the electrical connector with the PCB and the back plate. To meet the trend of high performance of a computer, two or more CPUs are adopted to work in same computer, and correspondingly, two or more electrical connectors are needed. However, separate back plates which respectively retain one connector, are spaced from each other and is likely to apply an uneven force to the PCB and may further cause deformation of the PCB.
As above descried disadvantage of a conventional back plate arrangement, a new type of back plate is developed, which is formed as an integral one capable of retaining two or more connectors. This type of back plate will not damage the PCB because of its larger surface. However, since the dimension between the threaded holes on the back plate for different connectors is predetermined and not changeable, the distance between two neighboring connectors is limited. Namely, if the connector arrangement, especially the dimension between the connectors is changed, the original back plate should be also replaced by a new one. Therefore the cost thereof is increased.
Thus, there is a need to provide a new electrical connector assembly and a relative back plate arrangement that overcome the above-mentioned problems.

Electrical connector assembly and back plate arrangement thereof


A method in a network node comprises: detecting a Quality of Service (QoS) Violated Event in respect of a particular QoS flow of a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session; and sending a corresponding QoS violated event report to any one or more of: a Session Management Function (SMF) of the network; a Policy Control Function (PCF) of the network; an Application Function (AF) of the network; and a third party service provider.

Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) applications, such as industrial automation control and automated driving vehicles, for example, require ultra reliable packet delivery. The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has developed in Release 15 a new Quality of Service (QoS) model, which includes a delay critical Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) QoS resource type. A new QoS parameter, which may be referred to as Maximum Data Burst Volume, has been added for delay critical GBR. QoS flows.
The packets of delay critical GBR QoS flows may belong to applications that are very sensitive to packet delays. For these applications, the violation of QoS requirements, such as packet delay beyond a particular value, may lead to serious issues in the applications in the User Equipment (UE) side. In order to address issues raised by customer owned UEs, the network operator may need to refer to records (such as audit trails) of network events.
The current 5G QoS model has a "Notification Control" parameter configured by the Policy Control Function (PCF) for a (Radio) Access Network ((R)AN) node to send a notification to the Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) when the Guaranteed Flow Bit Rate (GFBR) can not be supported. This notification does not help to report events in which the QoS parameters of delay critical GBR QoS flows are violated.
This background information is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An apparatus detects a motion vector using image data to be encoded, and a plurality of reference image data. The apparatus conducts a motion vector search for first reference image data using a large block obtained by dividing the image data to be encoded, and divides the large block into a smaller block size at the position of a smallest matching error. The apparatus determines a block size used in a motion vector search for another reference data based on matching errors in the small blocks.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motion vector detection apparatus, motion vector detection method, image encoding apparatus, image encoding method, and computer program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, digitization of multimedia-related information has been advancing rapidly, and demand for higher video image quality is increasing accordingly. As a practical example, there is currently an ongoing transition of broadcast media from conventional standard definition (SD) at 720×480 pixels to high definition (HD) at 1920×1080 pixels. However, the demand for higher image quality leads to a concomitant increase in digital data size and creates a need for compression encoding and decoding techniques exceeding the conventional capabilities.
To meet such demands, standardization of a compression encoding scheme using inter-frame prediction that exploits correlation among images has been implemented by the ITU-T SG16 and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11.
As compression encoding schemes for moving images, standards such as MPEG-1, 2, and 4 and H.264 are available. In the compression encoding processing for a moving image, an original image (image) included in a moving image is divided into predetermined regions called blocks, and motion-compensated prediction and DCT transformation processing are applied to divided blocks as units.
In the case of motion-compensated prediction, the size of a block used as a unit of compression encoding processing is 16 pixels (horizontal)×16 lines (vertical) (such block is called a macroblock) in the MPEG1 and MPEG2 schemes. Upon applying frame prediction to one macroblock, one motion vector including two components in the horizontal and vertical directions is assigned. Upon applying field prediction, two motion vectors each including two components in the horizontal and vertical directions are assigned.
Upon applying motion-compensated prediction using macroblocks as units like in MPEG1 and MPEG2, motion vector assignment processing adopts a macroblock 601 as a processing unit, as shown in FIG. 6A. Then, all pixels in this macroblock 601 are represented by only one motion vector 602. A motion image is processed based on respective horizontal and vertical motion amounts of this motion vector 602.
The MPEG4 scheme comprises a mode (to be referred to as 8×8 mode hereinafter) that applies motion compensation to blocks (small blocks) 603 each having 8 pixels (horizontal)×8 lines (vertical) as units, as shown in FIG. 6B, in addition to motion-compensated prediction for respective macroblocks. Using this 8×8 mode, when a macroblock 604 of 16 pixels (horizontal) and 16 lines (vertical) includes a plurality of motions, motion vectors closely resembling an actual motion can be obtained as compared to the case of one motion vector assigned to the macroblock 604.
For example, upon examining a case in which a background (tower and sun) remains stationary, and a vehicle is moving to the left, as shown in FIG. 7A, the vehicle and background part have different motions. In such images, when a single macroblock 701 includes a part of the vehicle and background together, as shown in FIG. 7B, the motion prediction efficiency can be improved by assigning a motion vector 702 to the vehicle and a motion vector 703 to the background. Upon dividing into small blocks, since one macroblock includes four small blocks, the number of motion vectors is 1 per small block, and 4 per macroblock.
H.264/MPEG-4 PART10 (AVC) (to be simply referred to as H.264 hereinafter) is an encoding scheme that realizes high-efficiency encoding in the present circumstances. The encoding and decoding specifications of H.264 are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-167720.
Among the various techniques introduced by H.264, FIG. 2A depicts one which prepares a plurality of different pixel block partitions used in predictive encoding in order to detect a motion amount in a smaller pixel unit, and reduces the code size by selecting a partition with minimum prediction error. Such a partition is called a macroblock partition.
The macroblock partition will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 2A. H.264 defines 16×16 pixels as a size used in MPEG2 to be a macroblock type 201 having a maximum block size. Based on this, a macroblock partition to be used in predictive encoding can be selected from a total of four different macroblock partitions including partitions 202 to 204 shown in FIG. 2A. Note that selecting a macroblock partition involves selecting a macroblock size to be used in predictive encoding from 16×16 pixels, 16×8 pixels, 8×16 pixels, and 8×8 pixels.
Furthermore, the macroblock partition 204 with the size of 8×8 pixels shown in FIG. 2A can be divided into smaller sub-macroblocks. In this case, the macroblock 20 can be divided into one of four different types of sub-macroblock partitions using sub-macroblocks having a block size of 4×4 pixels at minimum, as denoted by 205 to 208 in FIG. 2A. In this case, selecting a sub-macroblock partition involves selecting a sub-macroblock size to be used in predictive encoding from 8×8 pixels, 8×4 pixels, 4×8 pixels, and 4×4 pixels.
That is, a macroblock partition to be used in predictive encoding is selected from a total of 19 different types. Of these types, three types are the number of macroblock partitions 201 to 203 in FIG. 2A which cannot be divided into sub-macroblock partitions. The remaining 16 types are the product of the number of macroblocks (=4) which can be divided into the sub-macroblock partitions in the macroblocks 204 in FIG. 2A and the number of sub-macroblock partitions (=4) 205 to 208 in FIG. 2A.
In this way, by applying motion-compensated prediction by dividing each macroblock into smaller sub-macroblocks, motion vectors that fit actual motions can be flexibly expressed. However, since additional information such as vector information and the like is required for each divided sub-macroblock, dividing into sub-macroblocks is not always efficient for encoding. Therefore, it is necessary to encode by selecting combinations of sub-macroblocks with optimal sizes from blocks with various sizes.
In H.264, an intra-frame (intra) prediction mode is available, and the pixel values of a macroblock can be predicted from image information in a frame. This mode can perform prediction using blocks divided into a macroblock having a size of 16 pixels (horizontal)×16 lines (vertical) (block 211) and blocks each having a size of 4 pixels (horizontal)×4 lines (vertical) (blocks 212).
Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 5, H.264 can select reference frames with high encoding efficiency from a plurality of reference frames RF1 to RF5 for respective macroblocks in a frame to be encoded (CF), and can designate frames to be used for respective blocks. Hence, even macroblocks in the identical frame CF to be encoded may select different reference frames. In this manner, H.264 sets a plurality of search layers for motion vector detection using a plurality of reference frames.
As a result, motion information is searched for using a smaller image unit, thus improving the motion information precision.
However, MPEG2 has only one type of macroblock, while H.264 has 19 types of partitions. Therefore, intensive arithmetic operations are required to evaluate motion vectors for all blocks included in each partition and to select a combination of optimal block sizes from sub-macroblocks with varying sizes. For this reason, encoding apparatuses are required to have a larger hardware scale and must perform processing using high-speed clocks, which frustrates reductions in apparatus size and power consumption. Since H.264 can perform motion vector detection using a plurality of search layers (a plurality of reference frames), intensive arithmetic operations are required if all the partitions are to be evaluated for respective search layers.
In the case of mobile devices such as video camcorders and the like, an increase in arithmetic load leads to an increase in the amount of battery consumption necessary to drive the device, which results in a shorter recording time periods.

Image encoding apparatus and method for allowing motion vector detection


A method and apparatus for screening samples to determine which samples include a target material. Generally, the samples are pre-screened to determine which of the samples have a piezoelectric resonance when irradiated with an electric field, to thereby indicate the presence of the target material. The samples that have the piezoelectric resonance are then further screened by a different process to confirm the presence of the target material. For example, samples that have the piezoelectric resonance are further screened for a specific nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR), a specific nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) or a specific visual characteristic, to confirm the presence of the target material in the sample. The apparatus and method can be used, for example, to search luggage at ports of entry for the presence of cocaine hydrochloride or heroin hydrochloride.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for determining which samples of a plurality of samples include one or more of a class of target materials. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus which pre-screens the samples to determine which samples produce a piezoelectric resonance signal indicating the potential presence of the target material. For each sample producing the piezoelectric resonance signal, an additional detection process, such nuclear quadrupole resonance, nuclear magnetic resonance, x-ray, canine, or manual inspection can be used to confirm the presence of the target material.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are many situations where it is desirable to detect the presence of a target material (that is, a specific substance). For example, with the unfortunate increase in drug trafficking and terrorist use of high explosives in aircraft and buildings, detection systems are often used to detect sub-kilogram quantities of narcotics and explosives against a background of more benign materials. For example, such a detection system currently is being used in airports on an experimental basis to detect narcotics or explosives hidden in luggage.
Nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) is a known technique for detecting a target material. Generally, radio frequency (RF) radiation at a particular frequency will induce a detectable precession in nuclei in specific substances, but not in other substances. Nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) takes advantage of this phenomenon to detect one of these specific substances as a target material.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a conventional NQR apparatus. Referring now to FIG. 1, a transmitter 20 and a receiver 22 are connected to a probe 24 through a transmit/receive (T/R) switch 26. Probe 24 includes a coil (not illustrated) forming part of a resonant circuit (not illustrated). To detect the presence of a target material, T/R switch 26 connects transmitter 20 to probe 24 while disconnecting receiver 22 from probe 24. Then, transmitter 20 generates a pulse and supplies the pulse to probe 24. Generally, the pulse is formed by a signal having a frequency corresponding to the resonance signal of the nuclei of the target material which is intended to be detected. Probe 24 receives the pulse, which causes the coil in probe 24 to store (RF) energy. If a sample (not illustrated) is appropriately placed near the coil, the stored RF energy will cause a corresponding electromagnetic field to irradiate the sample. If the sample includes the target material, the electromagnetic field may induce a nuclear quadrupole resonance signal in the target material.
After the sample is irradiated with the electromagnetic field, T/R switch 26 connects receiver 22 to probe 24 while disconnecting transmitter 20 from probe 24. The coil in probe 24 then detects the nuclear quadrupole resonance signal from the target material, and probe 24 produces a corresponding output signal. The output signal of probe 24 is received and analyzed by receiver 22, to confirm the presence of the target material in the sample.
NQR detection systems for the detection of explosives and narcotics are disclosed in U.S. patent titled "DETECTION OF EXPLOSIVE AND NARCOTICS BY LOW POWER LARGE SAMPLE VOLUME NUCLEAR QUADRUPOLE RESONANCE (NQR)", U.S. Pat. No. 5,233,300; U.S. patent titled "REMOVING THE EFFECTS OF ACOUSTIC RINGING AND REDUCING TEMPERATURE EFFECTS IN THE DETECTION OF EXPLOSIVES BY NQR", U.S. Pat. No. 5,365,171; U.S. patent titled "DETECTION OF EXPLOSIVES BY NUCLEAR QUADRUPOLE RESONANCE", U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,592, and "A MEANS FOR DETECTING EXPLOSIVES AND NARCOTICS BY STOCHASTIC NUCLEAR QUADRUPOLE RESONANCE (NQR)" U.S. Pat. No. 5,608,321 which are incorporated herein by reference.
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is an additional, known technique for detecting a target material. In NMR, a sample is placed in a static (or constant) magnetic field, and irradiated with rf magnetic field as in NQR. If the sample includes the target material, the rf field, under the right conditions, will cause a nuclear magnetic resonance signal to be induced in the target material. The nuclear magnetic resonance signal is then detected, to indicate the presence of the target material in the sample. For example, an NMR detection system is disclosed in U.S. patent titled "SYSTEM FOR DETECTING NUCLEAR MAGNETIC RESONANCE SIGNALS FROM SMALL SAMPLES", U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,615, which is incorporated herein by reference.
Therefore, FIG. 1 can also be used to describe a conventional NMR apparatus, with the addition of a magnet (not shown). Referring now to FIG. 1, to induce a magnetic resonance signal in a sample, T/R switch 26 connects transmitter 20 to probe 24 while disconnecting receiver 22 from probe 24. Then, transmitter 20 generates a pulse and supplies the pulse to probe 24 in the static magnetic field. Probe 24 receives the pulse, and produces a corresponding rf magnetic field. A sample (not illustrated) is then placed near probe 24 to be irradiated with the rf magnetic field. If the sample includes the target material, the rf magnetic field may induce a nuclear magnetic resonance signal in the target material.
After the sample is irradiated with the magnetic field, T/R switch 26 connects receiver 22 to probe 24 while disconnecting transmitter 20 from probe 24. Probe 24 then detects the nuclear magnetic resonance signal induced in the target material, and probe 24 produces a corresponding output signal. The output signal of probe 24 is received and analyzed by receiver 22, to confirm the presence of the target material in the sample. Multiple repetitions (scans) are also possible. Therefore, NMR is similar to NQR in that a resonance signal is induced in the target material, and the resonance signal is then detected. Unfortunately, such apparatuses are expensive and the weak NQR/NMR signals may provide slow detection of a target material.

Method and apparatus for detecting a target material in a sample by pre-screening the sample for piezoelectric resonance

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


A head protector comprising an outer hard shell and an absorbing liner inside of the outer shell wherein the liner comprises a main liner member and an inner subsidiary liner member whose density is lower than that of the main liner member and with an inner recess in the inner surface of the main liner member and wherein the inner subsidiary liner member is fitted into the inner recess.

Well-known is a safety helmet, such as jet-type one, semi-jet-type one or full-face-type one, which includes a head protector (hereinafter described in this text only as "head covering"), which is used to protect the head of a man with a helmet on, such as a rider on a motor-bicycle ("rider" is hereinafter used to mean "a rider or other user"). The conventional jet-type, semi-jet-type, or full-face-type helmet has generally a head covering and a pair of right and left chin straps, which are secured on the inside of the head covering, and typically constituted as follows.
The head covering has a cut (in the case of the jet-type or semi-jet-type helmet) or an opening (in the case of the full-face-type helmet), which is formed in the front of a part between the forehead and the chin (that is, the face). The jet-type or the semi-jet-type helmet further has a visor, which is secured to the head covering adjacent to the upper edge of the recess. The full-face-type helmet further has a shield plate, which is secured to the head covering so as to be movable between a lower position, where it closes the opening, and a upper position, where it opens the opening. The shield plate can be used for the jet-type helmet and the semi-jet-type helmet, for example in lieu of the visor. In that event, the shield plate can open and close the recess.
The head covering comprises an outer shell, which forms the outer peripheral wall of the head covering; a rim member; and a backing member, which is brought into contact with the inner surface of the outer shell and fixed by adhesive or so. The rim member is fixed to the rim of the outer shell by adhesive so that all the rim of the outer shell (in the case of the full-face-type helmet, all the rim of the opening is also included) is put between the rim member. The backing member includes a backing member for the head, which is to face the sinciput, the vertex, the temples and the occiput. The backing member of the jet-type or the semi-jet-type helmet further includes two backing members for the two ears, each of which is to face the ears, or the backing member for the head is integral with backing members for the ears. The backing member of the full-face-type helmet further includes a backing member for the chin, which is to face to the chin.
The backing member for the head comprises an impact-on-the-head absorbing liner and an air permeable back cover. The back cover for the head is secured to the impact absorbing liner by an adhesive or a tape so that the back cover for the head covers the inner surface of the impact absorbing liner (sometimes, an area to face the vertex of the rider or the like's head is partially excluded), the side surface (that is, a narrow surface lying between the inner surface and the outer surface), and the periphery of the outer surface which extends from the side surface. The impact absorbing liner is made of foamed synthetic resin, such as polystylene, polypropylene or polyethylene. The backing member for the jaw also has substantially the same structure as that of the backing member for the head except for having such a shape as to correspond to the rider's jaw. If necessary, a pair of right and left block-like inner pads is attached to a part of the inner surface of the impact-on-the-jaw absorbing liner (for example, two areas that face the rider's cheeks). Thus, this block-like inner pad is positioned between the impact-on-the-jaw absorbing liner and the back cover for the jaw. The backing member for each ear also has substantially the same structure as that of the backing member for the head or jaw except for having such a shape as to correspond to the rider's ear.
When impact is exerted on a part of the outer shell of the conventional safety helmet typically constituted as above, the impact is widely dispersed throughout the outer shell and the impact energy is absorbed by the deformed outer shell. Further, the impact absorbing liner functions in absorbing the impact energy propagated from the outer shell by means of its deformation, absorbing the impact energy by means of its thickness reduction (that is, compressive deformation), and lowering the maximum acceleration due to the impact by means of delaying the propagation of this impact energy exerted on the rider's head. In this text, the "maximum acceleration" means the maximum value of the acceleration through an impact absorbing test for the helmet.
Up to nowadays, the above impact absorbing test has been made to ascertain the protective characteristic of the safety helmet. In this impact absorbing test, a metallic head model imitating the head of a man with a helmet on is used, in which an accelerometer is incorporated. A standard on the maximum acceleration measured with the accelerometer has been adopted in each country. Further, an index of HIC (Head Injury Criteria) has been proposed on the basis of correlation between the mean acceleration value of a certain duration and the duration of the appearances of values continuously over this mean acceleration value, and the brain damage. HIC is given by: ##EQU1## where a(t) is the change of acceleration value with time during the impact absorbing test, and t.sub.1, t.sub.2 are the time, each maximizing the HIC value.
The HIC value has been considered to have good correlation with the level of the injuries suffered in an accident. According to Mr. P. D. Hope of Transport and Road Research Laboratory established in England, in an accident on the motor-bicycle, when the HIC value is 1,000, the probability of mortality is 8.5%; when the HIC value is 2,000, the probability of mortality is 31%; and the HIC value is 4,000, the probability of mortality is 65%. Therefore, it is necessary to lower the HIC value in order to lower the level of the injuries.
As described above, it is necessary to lower the maximum acceleration value and the HIC value due to the impact, if it is desired to improve the protective characteristic of the safety helmet. Such being the case, in order to lower the maximum acceleration value and the HIC value, the thickness of the impact absorbing liner has been increased so far.
However, only to increase the thickness of the impact absorbing liner is insufficient for the reduction of the maximum acceleration value and, particularly, difficult for the reduction of the HIC value. The HIC value includes the duration of the appearances of values continuously over a specific acceleration value, so that even if the maximum acceleration value is a little lowered due to a cushion characteristic of the impact absorbing liner, it is impossible to shorten the duration of the appearances of values continuously over the specific acceleration value. Thus, it is impossible to reduce the HIC value.

Safety helmet and a head protector therefor


The invention relates to a method and equipment for the continuous sintering of mineral material in a sintering furnace (S). In the method, a material bed (2) is formed on a conveyor base (1), the material bed (2) is conveyed by the conveyor base (1) through the process zones (I-VII) of the sintering furnace that have different temperatures, the zones including at least one drying zone (I), at least one cooling zone (VII), and at least one other process zone (II, III, IV, V, VI) between the said drying zone and cooling zone, and gas is conducted through the conveyor base and the material bed (2), when the material bed travels through the process zones (I-VII), and gas is circulated in a circulation gas duct (3) from the last cooling zone (VII) to the drying zone (I). Part of the gas flow that is conducted to the drying zone (I) in the circulation gas duct (3) is removed as an exhaust gas flow (B) by the exhaust gas blower (5) of an exhaust gas duct (4). The volume flow of the exhaust gas flow (B) is regulated by regulating the blowing power of the blower (5) to control the temperature of the gas flow travelling through the material bed in the drying zone.

In the continuous sintering of mineral material, a layer of material is formed on a conveyor base in a sintering furnace, the layer being called herein a material bed. The material bed is conveyed by the conveyor base through the process zones of the sintering furnace, which have different temperatures. During the conveyance, gas is conducted through the conveyor base and the material bed when the material bed travels through the process zones.
From a last cooling zone, gas is recycled in a circulation gas duct to a drying zone that constitutes the first process zone. In the drying, the energy of the gas is used for heating the material bed and evaporating water. The gas cools and moistens, when it conveys heat to the evaporation. Exhaust gas conveys moisture away from the material bed. Because of the water transport, it is essential for the balance of the entire furnace that the gas flow through the bed remains constant.
The balance of materials and energy of the well-known sintering furnace is fairly complex due to three separate gas circulation processes from the cooling zones back to the drying, heating, and sintering zones. The process control is based on fixing the process parameters in the entire process, starting from raw material etc., to maintain the balance. The principle of controlling the sintering furnace is not to adjust individual zones at fixed points only, but to balance the temperatures in individual zones to acceptable ranges, so that the profile in the furnace remains in balance.
In prior art solutions, in practice, the drying temperature in the drying zone is controlled by regulating the volume flow of the gas flow that is conducted through the material bed, so that part of the hot gas flow of the circulation gas duct is conducted as a by-pass flow past the material bed and into an exhaust air blower. The regulation is carried out by a control valve that is arranged in the bypass gas duct, which when open, increases the flow and decreases the temperature, and when closed, decreases the flow and increases the temperature in the drying zone.
One problem with the existing system is that, in particular, if and when the change in the position of the control valve is great, it also influences the gas flow through the material bed in the drying zone and, thus, the process itself and the balance of the furnace.
An original and effective principle is to adjust the control valve manually because of the long response times of the control and because of the problem mentioned above. In practice, users have changed the adjustment of the control valve to be automatic, against the instructions. A problem with the automatic use is that it causes variations in the quality of the process and the product. If and when the control valve tries to keep the drying zone temperature at one standard value, the control valve easily fluctuates from side to side. At the same time, it also influences the gas flow through the material bed.

Method for the continuous sintering of mineral material and sintering equipment


A liquid crystal cell structure is provided. The liquid crystal cell structure includes: two polarizers; and a liquid crystal diffractive light modulating cell placed between the two polarizers. The cell includes: two transparent substrates treated by photoalignment; and a ferroelectric liquid crystal layer disposed between the two transparent substrates with current conducting layers, the ferroelectric liquid crystal layer comprising ferroelectric liquid crystals. The two transparent substrates treated by photoalignment are configured to provide multiple alignment domains in the ferroelectric liquid crystals with a planar surface orientation. Adjacent domains of the multiple alignment domains are oriented at an angle with respect to each other.

LC photonic devices have found widespread commercial applications in a variety of fields ranging from spatial light modulators to photonic LC fibers because of their excellent tunability of refractive index with electric and magnetic fields. Switchable gratings are a type of LC photonic device that is useful for applications such as displays, beam steering, tunable filters, and telecommunication components.
A number of LC-based architectures have been proposed for switchable optical gratings. One class of liquid crystal gratings involves phase separation of a mixture of a liquid crystal and another material, typically a polymer, and exploits the refractive index difference between the background matrix and liquid crystal dopant. A second class of such gratings involves conventional patterned electrodes. Another approach to make switchable gratings is to use different alignment in adjacent grating portions. This approach includes two different alignment domains constructing the grating structure. These two different alignment domains could be the combination of a planar alignment domain and a homeotropic alignment domain, the combination of a planar alignment domain and a twist alignment domain, the combination of two planar alignment domains, etc.
Manufacturing cost and diffraction efficiency are critical issues with respect to switchable gratings. The existing LC-based architectures discussed above, particularly in the case of holographic polymer dispersed LCs gratings, have serious drawbacks, including expensive fabrication process, slow response time (about 2˜100 ms), scattering losses, and high driving voltages (>100 V).

Fast switchable and high diffraction efficiency grating ferroelectric liquid crystal cell

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology


A method and apparatus for determining mass throughput of material to be conveyed through an essentially closed conveying system. In addition to a mass measuring device for determining the throughput of a flow of a conveying fluid carrying the material to be conveyed, there is provided a second measuring device for determining the mass of conveying fluid supplied to the conveying system. Subtracting the values measured results in a very accurate indication of the mass of material momentarily conveyed, without error caused by the conveying fluid.

The German Patent Application Publication No. 25 44 976 discloses an apparatus for determining the mass throughput of pourable material, as lime dust or fine ore. The measurement is based on the effective inertia force, i.e. Coriolis force, caused by moving mass particles hitting a rotating reference body, as a measuring wheel comprising a rotating disk bearing radially extending guiding blades thereon, the pourable material being hurled off essentially vertical in respect of the axis of rotation. Changes in the driving torque are used as measurement value for determining the mass throughput which at constant angular speed of the measuring wheel is directly proportional to the measured torque. For detecting torque changes the known apparatus uses the power consumption of the driving motor.
Similar apparatuses are known from the German Patent Application Publications No. 33 46 145 and No. 39 40 576, where instead of measuring the power consumption of the driving motor the latter is supported pivotally or rotationally, respectively, and the reaction torque is directed to a laterally arranged load cell. In operation of the known apparatuses it is assumed for pneumatically conveyed pourable material that the mass of the heavy phase of a mass flow is very large, as compared with the mass of the gas, usually air or a conveying gas, contained in the mass flow, such that the gas quantity may be disregarded when determining the mass based on changes in torque. In the above mentioned German Patent Application Publication No. 33 46 145 it is mentioned that for compensating the latter should be fed back and the same air quantity should be used all the time in order to minimize measuring errors. Furthermore, it is suggested to provide a cellular wheel sluice in order to prevent acceleration of an uncontrolled air flow by the measuring wheel.
Similar means have been suggested in the description of a similar mass throughput measuring apparatus in Kochsiek: Handbuch des Wagens, pp. 378 to 380, Verlag Vieweg, 1988. Again, it is indicated that undesired air flows through the mass throughput measuring apparatus should be avoided by an appropriate design, i.e. by incorporating cellular sluices, supply worms, or the like. However, this is not possible for pneumatic conveying systems.

Method and apparatus for measuring the mass throughput of a flow of material according to the coriolis principle


According to various embodiments, an electronic device includes: a housing; a display exposed through a part of the housing and located within the housing; a fingerprint sensor located at a portion of the housing and coupled with the display; a processor electrically coupled with the display and the fingerprint sensor; and at least one memory electrically coupled with the processor, wherein the memory stores fingerprint data for confirmation and stores instructions to be executed by the processor and the instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to receive the fingerprint data of a user using the fingerprint sensor, to analyze the received fingerprint data to determine whether at least a part of the fingerprint data is a result of at least a part of the finger at least partially covered with an external material, and to at least partially compare a part of the stored fingerprint data for confirmation with the analyzed fingerprint data.

An electronic device may have a communication function and have various functions besides the communication function. The electronic device stores location information of a user, a game that a user enjoys, web surfing that a user often visits, photograph shooting, an important memo, and financial transactions information in addition to data such as contacts, a call history, and a message. Further, the electronic device may use the stored information to perform various communication functions. Accordingly, the electronic device may perform various functions by its own multiple function but stores privacy information, etc., and therefore may be vulnerable to exposure of privacy, personal information leak, security, etc.
Therefore, the current electronic devices may have various security functions for protection of personal information and may have a fingerprint verifying function among security functions. The fingerprint verifying function may improve the security of the electronic device using a fingerprint that is biometric information of a user. The fingerprint of the user is unique information, and therefore is little likely to be the same as that of other persons. As a result, the fingerprint verifying function may have more excellent security performance than other security means (for example, password authentication, pattern authentication).
The electronic device supports only the fingerprint verifying function, but the accuracy in the fingerprint verification rate thereof may be reduced. For example, when a fingerprint sensor is stained with foreign substances, the fingerprint verification rate of the electronic device may be remarkably reduced.

Method and electronic device for verifying fingerprint


A drive connection between a spindle and a mowing blade wherein the roots of the extending teeth of the interlocking member define an inner diameter substantially equal to the threaded stud utilized to hold the blade on the spindle.

Rotary engine driven lawn mowers have been in existence for many years. Typically, there is an engine driven spindle with a mower blade interconnected to the lower end thereof. The spindles may be used singularly or in multiples, directly driven or indirectly driven as by a belt. Historically, the mower blade is interconnected to the bottom of the spindle by a removable bolt, thus allowing the blade to be removable and replaceable upon selective manipulation of the bolt. Due to the necessity of passing increased torque between the spindle and the blade, and especially due to the need to pass bidirectional torque due to blade brakes and otherwise, there is now more and more frequency a complex interconnection between the blade and the spindle. This has caused manufacturers to provide for some sort of radial solid interconnection between the spindle and the blade in order to pass this torque. Examples of this are shown in the Myszka U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,216 and the Sheldon U.S. Pat. No. 5,284,006. These interconnections are functional in increasing the torque which is capable of being transferred to and from the spindle and the blade. The interconnections are, however, occasionally inconvenient to make due to the necessity of radially and laterally aligning the toothed opening in the blade with the corresponding shape in the spindle to mount the blade on the spindle.


A high-voltage sensing device providing full galvanic isolation between a high-voltage domain and a low-voltage domain, wherein the circuit topology of the device resembles that of a Wheatstone bridge, the Wheatstone bridge employing at least one voltage-controlled semiconductor resistor, wherein the circuit also comprises a reference source connected directly to the Wheatstone bridge and the device comprises a number of shielding structures to electrically isolate the high-voltage domain from the low-voltage domain.

Presently, measuring a high DC voltage with a low-voltage domain integrated circuit is usually done with a resistive division. An example of such a circuit is shown in FIG. 1, where the circuit comprises a pair of resistors 101 and 102 to divide the high voltage VHV. The circuit converts an input high voltage VHV into a low voltage V, thereby translating the input from a high-voltage domain 103 into a low-voltage domain 104. In the case where high AC voltages need to be measured, capacitive division can be used which provides some galvanic isolation. Galvanic isolation is a principle of isolating functional sections of electrical systems to prevent current flow. Such a circuit is shown in FIG. 2, and comprises a pair of capacitors 201 and 202 and a diode 203 for rectification. Again, the circuit converts an input high AC voltage VHV into a low voltage V.
Both of the above prior art circuits illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 draw some power drawn from the source to be measured, which introduces a measurement error depending on the quality of the source, thereby potentially deteriorating the result of the measurement. Furthermore, it may be desirable to draw minimal or no power from the source for other reasons, such as energy efficiency, or to improve the lifespan of the source.
One technique for achieving galvanic isolation when measuring high voltages with a low-voltage domain integrated circuit is to perform the measurement acquisition directly in the high-voltage domain and transmit the result by means of an opto-coupler to the low-voltage domain integrated circuit, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,982,427. However, the present inventors have appreciated certain problems associated with this technique in that it introduces additional complexity and overheads since active circuits are required in the high-voltage domain.
Certain embodiments of the present invention aim to provide an alternative technique which avoids these problems.

Semiconductor circuits, devices and methods


There is disclosed a multicast transmission system in which an efficient and highly reliable multicast transmission can be performed. In the multicast transmission system for performing multicast transmission to a plurality of terminal stations from a base station, when an error is detected in the terminal station, the terminal station utilizes some of sub-carriers constituting an OFDM symbol to generate and transmit a NAK signal to the base station. A level judgment section 25 in the base station resends a packet to each terminal station when a reception signal level exceeds a threshold. Since the number M of sub-carriers able to be utilized to generate the NAK signal and the number L of sub-carriers necessary for generating the NAK signal are determined base on the number of terminal stations, packet communication quality, and the like, an erroneous detection probability and detection miss probability of the NAK signal can both be lowered.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data transmission method in radio multicast communication. Particularly, the present invention relates to a radio multicast communication in which when an error is detected in a multicast-transmitted packet, a negative acknowledgment (hereinafter referred to as NAK) is returned as a response to a base station to thereby perform a request for resending.
2. Related Background Art
When performing multicast communication in a radio communication system, there is an advantage that all terminal stations able to communicate with a base station can transmit/receive information and the information can be transmitted to all the terminal stations at one transmission. However, on the other hand, when performing a request for resending because of an error generated in a transmission line, if a plurality of terminal stations simultaneously perform requests for resending, there is a problem that the requests collide against one another on a radio circuit and resending request (NAK) information is not correctly transmitted.
The problem about signal collision caused when the plurality of terminal stations utilize the same circuit is well known as a multi-access problem, and various solution methods have been proposed.
For example, a transmission right control system of issuing signal transmission rights for transmission acknowledgment (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 46161/1999), a system of transmitting a NAK signal provided with a packet number not normally received by random access when an error is generated in a reception signal (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 210031/1998), and a system of transmitting a burst signal as the NAK signal to a time position corresponding to the packet number when the error of the reception signal is detected (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 53089/1993) are known.
In the first transmission right control system, transmission/reception of information for adjusting a returning timing of a resending request signal is necessary, and there is a problem that control is complicated. Moreover, in a mobile communication system in which the terminal station moves, since the terminal station as a multicast communication target changes, the control is further complicated.
In the second random access system, the resending request signal of the multicast communication is frequently generated in a plurality of terminal stations at the same time, a probability of occurrence of collision of the NAK signals is high and an efficiency is deteriorated. To reduce the collision, a back off time needs to be taken before the transmission of the NAK signal. However, when the number of multicast address terminal stations increases, the back off time needs to be increased, and efficiency deterioration attributed to the back off time cannot be ignored.
In the third burst signal system, similarly as the random access system, the probability of occurrence of collision is high. However, to detect a signal energy in the time position, even when the NAK signals from a plurality of terminal stations collide with one another, some signal energy is detected, and it can therefore be recognized that the corresponding packet is erroneously received by at least one terminal station. In this system, however, a signal energy detection precision raises a problem. For example, when two signals subjected to PSK modulation are received by a multipath with a phase deviating by 180 degrees, the signal energy becomes zero, and the base station as the multicast transmission station cannot detect that an error is generated in a reception station for receiving the packet.
Moreover, in the present system, since an erroneous packet is specified by the time position for transmitting the burst signal, with a detection miss (although the burst signal is received, it is judged that there is no burst signal) resending of the erroneous packet is not performed. In order to reduce the detection miss, when a threshold for detection is lowered, erroneous detection (although no burst signal is received, it is erroneously judged that there is a burst signal) is easily caused by influence of disturbances such as an undesirable noise, and unnecessary resending is performed.
That is, various solution methods of multiple access have been proposed, but there are problems such as a complicated control and an insufficient effect.
Incidentally, because of completion of IEEE 802.11 radio LAN standards in 1997, and advancement in price reduction of radio LAN, a large number of radio LAN products have been placed on the market.
At present, aiming at a higher speed of the radio LAN, in IEEE 802.11 committee, specifications of the radio LAN using a radio frequency of 5 GHz band are studied, and it is determined that an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system strong against multipath interference is used as a transmission system.
On the other hand, in a current IEEE802.11 resending control method, when performing unicast transmission for transmitting information to one specific terminal station, if the transmitted packet is correctly received, the terminal station returns an acknowledgment signal (hereinafter referred to as the ACK signal) after a time interval called a short interframe space (SIFS).
However, for the multicast communication including the multicast transmission, no acknowledgment is made in the specifications. Specifically, since the resending control in a radio link is not applied, reliability of information transmission is low in the multicast transmission, and further there is a problem that the data transmission efficiency is lowered by the resending control of an upper layer.

Radio communication system, radio communication method, radio base station, and radio terminal station


A protection nut for screwing on a stud in which a button slides, includes an approximately bell-shaped elastic membrane mounted to one face of the nut and fitted around or covering the button and an annular seal-ring mounted to the opposite face of the nut, the membrane and the seal-ring forming only one part and being connected together through at least one through-hole of the nut.

FIG. 1 shows two half-section views of a conventional protection nut for a circuit breaker trigger button, two mounting modes being shown in the half-section views. A nut 10, fixing the circuit breaker to a plate 11, is screwed on a stud 12 forming part of the body of the not represented circuit breaker. A cylindrical trigger button 14 slides in stud 12. To ensure the tightness between the two faces of plate 11, a seal-ring 16 is pressed between the bottom face of nut 10 and the plate. Additionally a bell shaped elastic membrane 20 is fixed to the upper part of nut 10 and comprises a central orifice which is elastically fitted around button 14.
In the left section view of FIG. 1, membrane 20 is set in the nut. As shown a thin part 10-1 of nut 10 is bent and pinches the base of membrane 20. In the right section view, membrane 20 is hooked on nut 10. As shown, the base of membrane 20 is elastically maintained around an exterior shoulder 10-2 of the nut.
Such protection nuts are not practical to mount because there are initially three independent parts (nut 10, seal-ring 16 and membrane 20) to mount together. The mounting operations can be so long that they can cost approximately 2/3 of the price of the circuit breaker. Additionally, the three independent parts of the protection nut are generally not provided by the same suppliers, which causes tedious stock managing.


A computer system for Fast Fourier Transform provided with a vector functional unit with a process to store rotation factors. The input elements are multiplied in Fast Fourier Transform into an array. When the number of the rotation factors with the same value is not less than the maximum number of vector elements for the vector functional unit, the rotation factor with the same value is stored only once each time the vector elements amounts to the maximum number.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Fast Fourier Transform on a computer system provided with a vector functional unit, and in particular relates to a Fast Fourier Transform system with reduced storing area for rotation factors used in Fast Fourier Transform.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fast Fourier Transform processing on a computer system provided with a vector functional unit requires that a procedure consisting of input element rearrangement, vector addition, vector subtraction and rotation factor multiplication to be performed for three stages. In a conventional system, rotation factors to be vector loaded and used in each of the three stages are stored as they are in a rotation factor storing array as shown in FIG. 5.
Specifically, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6, rotation factors are read from the rotation factor storing array W as in FIG. 5 for every stage through vector loading.
When the rotation factors for all stages are stored in the storing array W as in FIG. 5, the area to store them needs to have a size as follows: EQU S=N/2.times.log N
where S is the size of the rotation factor storing area, N is the number of elements for Fast Fourier Transform, and log is a logarithm to the base two.
The size S of the storing area is generally larger than the size of input elements; when the number of elements for Fast Fourier Transform increases, the area to store the rotation factors becomes quite large. Besides, vector loading/storing must be performed the number of times represented by powers of 2 for rotation factor generation, which requires much time.
Thus, in a conventional Fast Fourier Transform system using a vector functional unit, rotation factors to be vector loaded and used for every stage of Fast Fourier Transform processing are stored as they are, which results in a large storing area. This causes a drawback of insufficient main storage memory capacity when there are many elements to be processed.

Computer system with vector functional unit for fast fourier transform


A powertrain, and a control method therefor, are provided, wherein ignition of a combustible charge in a combustion chamber of a controlled auto-ignition internal combustion engine equipped with in-cylinder fuel-injection and a spark ignition device is controlled. The method comprises generating a spark-discharge plasma channel between the electrodes of the spark ignition device, and igniting the combustible charge. The spark-discharge plasma channel is moved toward and entrained by the combustible charge, effective to advance phasing of controlled auto-ignition combustion.

One method of controlling combustion in a conventional internal combustion engine is with spark-ignition leading to flame propagation, referred to homogeneous-charge spark-ignition (SI). It is well known in conventional homogeneous-charge spark-ignition (SI) engines that cyclic variability of the ignition process is strongly affected by in-cylinder charge motion during spark discharge. For example, it has been demonstrated that better ignition characteristics resulted by convecting an early flame-kernel away from each spark electrode to minimize spark energy loss. In particular, in-cylinder charge motion, e.g., swirl and tumble components, in conjunction with combustion chamber design have been used to manipulate a spark-discharge plasma channel away from the spark-plug electrodes. This action improves ignitability of both stoichiometric and dilute air/fuel mixtures in both homogeneous-charge and stratified-charge spark-ignition gasoline engines.
The importance of using spark-ignition for combustion phasing control in direct-injection controlled auto-ignition combustion engines has also been demonstrated. Use of spark-ignition to control combustion phasing in a direct-injection gasoline auto-ignition combustion engine operating at light load and idle, and to enable cold start using a conventional compression ratio has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,971,365 B1, entitled AUTO-IGNITION GASOLINE ENGINE COMBUSTION CHAMBER AND METHOD, issued to Najt, et al., on Dec. 6, 2005. Use of fuel injection and spark-ignition strategies to extend the mid-load operation limit of a gasoline direct-injection controlled auto-ignition combustion engine has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,994,072 B2, entitled METHOD FOR MID LOAD OPERATION OF AUTO-IGNITION COMBUSTION, issued to Kuo, et al., on Feb. 7, 2006. There are many geometrically constrained design limitations for optimal engine operation which affect the ability of the spark-discharge plasma channel to be located at an ignitable region of the fuel-air mixture; these included relative position between the spark plug, the fuel injector, combustion-chamber geometry, and piston-bowl geometry.
There is a need for a powertrain control system, comprising either a homogeneous- or stratified-charge, controlled auto-ignition internal combustion engine, wherein ignition of a combustible charge in a combustion chamber is controlled.

Combustion control method for a direct-injection controlled auto-ignition combustion engine


Disclosed is a phone holder, comprising a vertical wall, a base, and a clamping slot in the vertical wall for positioning a phone. A bottom surface of the clamping slot has an inclined surface in contact with the edge of the phone, such that the phone automatically slides to a clamping and positioning position when placed in the clamping slot, thus making it very convenient to place or access the phone. In addition, when the phone slides to the clamping and positioning position in the clamping slot, three contact points can be formed with an internal surface of the clamping slot, and the three contact points can form a three-point clamping and positioning effect for the phone, such that the phone can still be stably fixed in the holder in the case where the phone holder is shaking.

The development of electronic technology and network communication technology enables smart phones to be popularized in daily life. Most of the smart phones now available on the market have thin bodies and large-panel glass touch screens, and are used in various occasions due to their convenient operations and high intelligence. For example, when a driver uses a smart phone on a vehicle, he is in a potential safety hazard if holding the phone with a single hand, therefore, a phone holder for fixing a smart phone becomes a favorite accessory for many drivers.
Patent document (201320882917.X) published a vehicle-mounted phone holder which can be adjusted electrically. A left and a right side of a fixed part of a phone are provided with a fixture which can be adjusted according to the size of a phone. The phone holder provided with a fixture is complicated in structure and troublesome in operations, and the fixture device has some damage to the phone structure. Patent document (201521098300.4) published a phone holder device and a vehicle-mounted phone holder system, wherein a narrow-mouthed clamping slot on the holder and a cambered surface on the bottom part of the clamping slot coordinate to fix a phone. This structure seriously squeezes phone screen, and access of the phone is complicated. Therefore, it is the pursuit of designers to provide a vehicle-mounted phone holder which is reliable in fixation, convenient to access and harmless to a phone.


A metal wire may be provided inside a hanger portion extending with an annular shape and which is integrally formed with an outer casing. An electric power tool may be prevented from falling, etc. due to deformation or breakage of the hanger portion by being reinforced by the wire.

The present disclosure relates to an electric power tool having a hanger portion to which a suspending member, such as, for example, a carabiner or a rope, can be attached.
Japanese Patent No. 4327115 discloses an electric power tool having an annular hanger part located at a jacket portion. A suspending member, such as a carabiner or a rope, may be inserted in a through hole (opening) formed in the annular hanger portion. An electric power tool may be suspended when this suspending member is hooked to a hook or a like provided at a handrail or scaffolding.
The hanger portion is subjected to a load corresponding to the weight of the electric power tool when it is suspended. If the hanger portion is deformed or cracked, the hanger portion could be further damaged due to the load applied while being suspended. As a result, the electric power tool may fall. However, if a large hanger portion is provided so as to be more resistant to the load, it may contact the user's arm or a work surface or the like, thereby deteriorating the usage comfort. In order to prevent the hanger portion from being deformed or damaged, it is desired to enhance its strength or toughness while maintaining a shape which does not disturb operation.
An object of the present disclosure is to provide an electric power tool having a hanger portion to which a suspending member, such as, for example, a carabiner or a rope that may be hooked to a handrail or a scaffolding, can be attached, and to prevent the hanger portion from being deformed or damaged.


A micromachined z-axis rate gyroscope with multidirectional drive-mode has an increased drive-mode bandwidth for relaxing mode-matching requirement in which the drive and sense modes are completely decoupled. By utilizing multiple drive-mode oscillators with incrementally spaced resonance frequencies, wide-bandwidth response is achieved in the drive-mode, leading to reduced sensitivity to structural and thermal parameter fluctuations. Quadrature error and zero-rate-output are also minimized, due to the enhanced decoupling of multi-directional linear drive-mode and the torsional sense-mode. Bulk-micromachined prototypes have been fabricated in a one-mask SOI-based process, and is experimentally characterized.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of micromachined z-axis rate gyroscopes and in particular to gyroscopes with a multidirectional drive-modes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With their dramatically reduced cost, size, and weight, MEMS gyroscopes potentially have a wide application spectrum in the aerospace industry, military, automotive industry and consumer electronics market. The applications are diverse, including high performance navigation and guidance systems, automotive safety systems like yaw and tilt control, roll-over protection and next generation airbag and antilock brake systems. A wide range of consumer electronics applications include image stabilization in video cameras, virtual reality products, pointing devices, and game industry. Miniaturization of gyroscopes also enable higher-end applications like micro-satellites, microrobotics, and even implantable devices to cure vestibular disorders.
Almost all existing micromachined rate gyroscopes operate on the vibratory principle of a single proof mass suspended above the substrate. The proof mass is supported by anchored flexures, which-serve as the flexible suspension between the proof mass and the substrate, making the mass free to oscillate in two orthogonal directions. FIG. 2a is a diagram of a prior art gyroscope showing the drive direction (x-Axis) and the sense direction (y-Axis). The overall dynamical system is simply a two degrees-of-freedom (2-DOF) mass-spring-damper system, where the drive direction is excited by the electrostatic drive forces, and the sense direction is excited by the rotation-induced Coriolis force.
Decomposing the motion into the two principle oscillation directions, the drive direction x and the sense direction y, the simplified equations of motion becomem{umlaut over (x)}+cx{dot over (x)}+kxx=Fd mÿ+cy{dot over (y)}+kyy=−2mΩz{dot over (x)}.  (1)where Fd is the drive-mode control force that provides constant-amplitude drive mode oscillations. The final term, 2mΩz dx/dt, in the equation is the rotation-induced Coriolis force, which causes dynamic coupling between the oscillation axes, and is used for angular rate measurement.
In most of the reported micromachined vibratory rate gyroscopes, the proof mass is driven into resonance in the drive direction by an external sinusoidal force, which are generally the electrostatic forces applied by comb-drive structures. When the gyroscope is subjected to an angular rotation, the Coriolis force is induced in the y-direction. If the drive and sense resonant frequencies are matched, the Coriolis force excites the system into resonance in the sense direction, as well. The resulting oscillation amplitude in the sense direction is proportional to the Coriolis force and, thus, to the angular velocity to be measured.
To achieve the maximum possible gain, the conventional gyroscopes are generally designed to operate at or near the peak of their resonance curve. This is typically achieved by designing and electrostatically tuning the drive and sense resonant frequencies to match. Alternatively, the sense-mode is designed to be slightly shifted from the drive-mode to improve robustness and thermal stability, while sacrificing gain. The drive and sense mode matching (or near-matching) requirement in vibratory gyroscopes renders the system response very sensitive to variations in system parameters, e.g. due to fabrication imperfections and fluctuations in operating conditions, which shift the drive or sense resonant frequencies. For the devices packaged in vacuum to enhance the sensitivity, the bandwidth of the resonance peaks is extremely narrow; leading to much tighter mode matching requirements. Extensive research has focused on design of symmetric drive and sense-mode suspensions for mode-matching and minimizing temperature dependence.
However, especially for lightly-damped devices, the mode-matching requirement is well beyond fabrication tolerances; and none of the symmetric designs can provide the required degree of mode-matching without feedback control. Furthermore, as the modes are matched more closely, the mechanical interference between the modes becomes more significant, resulting in operation instability and drift.
In order to suppress coupled oscillation and drift and to minimize the resulting zero-rate drift, various devices have been reported employing independent suspension systems for the drive and sense modes. The approach of decoupling drive and sense modes led to the first integrated commercial MEMS gyroscopes produced by Analog Devices. We have previously reported gyroscope systems that offer improved robustness by expanding the degree-of-freedom of the dynamical system with the expense of sacrificing response gain. We also reported increased-DOF gyroscope systems with decoupled modes to minimize quadrature error.
However, the scarce capabilities of photolithography and micro-fabrication processes, and the resulting inherent imperfections in the mechanical structure significantly limits the performance, stability, and robustness of MEMS gyroscopes. Thus, fabrication and commercialization of high-performance and reliable MEMS gyroscopes that require picometer-scale displacement measurements of a vibratory mass have proven to be extremely challenging.
The limitations of the photolithography-based micromachining technologies defines the upper-bound on the performance and robustness of micromachined gyroscopes. The mode-matching problem and the quadrature error due to the resulting fabrication imperfections are the two major challenges in MEMS gyroscope design.

Distributed-mass micromachined gyroscopes operated with drive-mode bandwidth enhancement

The Regents of the University of California


Exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide a method of growing a nitride semiconductor layer including growing a gallium nitride-based defect dispersion suppressing layer on a gallium nitride substrate including non-defect regions and a defect region disposed between the non-defect regions, and growing a gallium nitride semiconductor layer on the defect dispersion suppressing layer.

1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a method of growing a nitride semiconductor layer, a nitride semiconductor device, and a method of fabricating the same, and, more particularly, to a method of growing a nitride semiconductor layer on a growth substrate prepared using a tiling technique and a nitride semiconductor device and method of fabricating the same using the nitride semiconductor layer.
2. Discussion of the Background
Nitride semiconductors such as gallium nitride semiconductors may have a wide energy band gap and may be of a direct transition type. Nitride semiconductors may be used in fabrication of semiconductor devices, such as light emitting devices having a relatively short wavelength emission range, for example, ultraviolet, blue, and green light emitting devices, electronic devices, and the like.
A nitride semiconductor layer may be grown on a heterogeneous substrate such as a sapphire substrate due to difficulty in preparation of a homogeneous substrate. However, the nitride semiconductor layer grown on the heterogeneous substrate may have a high-density of crystal defects such as thread dislocations, and thus not be suited for fabricating a device capable of being operated under high current density.
Thus, techniques for preparing a nitride semiconductor layer using a homogeneous substrate, such as a gallium nitride substrate, as a growth substrate have been developed in recent years. For example, a bulk gallium nitride single crystal may be grown on a sapphire substrate via hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) and sliced to prepare a gallium nitride growth substrate.
For mass production of semiconductor devices by growing a semiconductor layer on a substrate, it may be necessary for a growth substrate to have a relatively large size. Currently, a substrate used to fabricate optical devices such as light emitting diodes may have a size of 2 inches or more.
A c-plane gallium nitride substrate may be obtained as a large substrate having a size of about 2 inches by slicing a bulk single crystal. However, it may be difficult to form semi-polar substrates or non-polar substrates, such as m-plane or a-plane gallium nitride substrates, to a size of 2 inches or more using the above method due to a limit on a growth plane or growth thickness. For this reason, studies based on non-polar or semi-polar gallium nitride substrates are mostly limited to growth of a nitride crystal using the non-polar or semi-polar substrate having a size of less than 1 inch, for example, having a maximum width of several millimeters or less.
To provide a large-area growth substrate, a technique has been developed in which a plurality of seed substrates each having a desired crystal growth plane is arranged thereon and nitride semiconductor layers are then grown on the seed substrates, followed by slicing the grown nitride semiconductor layers.
However, due to use of the plural seed substrates, a nitride crystal grown on a boundary line between the seed substrates may include a high density of crystal defects. In addition, a gallium nitride substrate prepared using the seed substrates may show a relatively large difference in off-angle depending upon a location due to a difference in crystal orientation between the seed substrates. Even though the off-angle and arrangement of the seed substrates may be controlled, it may be difficult to completely remove off-angle distribution on the gallium nitride substrate. Thus, a portion of the nitride crystal corresponding to a boundary region between the seed substrates may act as a defect source upon growth of the nitride semiconductor layer on the gallium nitride substrate.
Moreover, a defect generated in the semiconductor layer may be transferred in a vertical direction, and also spread over a significantly wide area. As a result, it may be difficult to secure a semiconductor layer region capable of providing a semiconductor device exhibiting good properties, thereby decreasing productivity and yield.

Method of growing nitride semiconductor layer, nitride semiconductor device, and method of fabricating the same


This invention relates to an improved process for producing a clear solution of vinylpyrrolidone (VP) and vinyl acetate (VA) monomers which comprises, in an anhydrous system,. (a) reacting a C.sub.2 to C.sub.3 alcoholic solution containing said VA monomer and between about 60 and about 80 wt. % portion of total VP monomer in the presence of between about 0.05 and about 0.3 wt. % of a free radical initiator selected from the group consisting of tertamylperoxy pivalate and 2,2-azobis(2-methylbutyronitrile) or a mixture thereof for a period of from about 5 to about 10 hours, at a temperature between about 60.degree. and about 110.degree. C.;. (b) gradually adding the remaining VP monomer in C.sub.2 to C.sub.3 alcohol solution at reaction temperature after the addition of the VA monomer is complete;. (c) raising the temperature of the resulting reaction mixture to between about 110.degree. and about 150.degree. C.;. (d) continuing the polymerization reaction at said higher temperature in the presence of from about 0.11 to about 0.6 wt. %, based on total monomers, of 2,5-dimethyl-2,5-bis(tert-butylperoxy) hexane and. (e) cooling the resulting reaction mixture and recovering a homogeneous VP/VA copolymer C.sub.2 to C.sub.3 alcohol solution containing less than 100 ppm of residual vinylpyrrolidone monomer or vinyl acetate residual monomer.

Vinylpyrrolidone (VP)/vinyl acetate (VA) copolymers, which can be supplied in the form of a powder or solutions, are much in demand for use in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic or related arts which require little or no toxicity. These copolymers are also useful as adhesives and abrasion resistant coatings having a glossy, colorless appearance and wherein the degree of water solubility can be varied with the concentration of VP monomer and the homogeneous distribution of VP in the copolymeric product.
Several methods of copolymerization have been employed to satisfy the many uses of this copolymer which, theoretically, can contain from 20 to 80% VP concentration. one process is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,667,473 which is carried out using benzene solvent in the presence of hydrogen peroxide or azobis(isobutyramide) free radical initiator. This process encounters several difficulties involving the handling of the initiator which is highly insoluble. Furthermore, both initiator and solvent are toxic so that extreme care is required for product purification. Replacement of azobis(isobutyramide), referred to herein as AIBN, with non-toxic t-butylperoxy pivalate and benzene with aqueous isopropanol has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,554,311. However, this process involves a large initial charge of monomers to the reactor prior to contact with initiator; and since VP monomer is significantly more reactive than VA, initial stages of the polymerization produce chains rich in VP and, only in the later polymerization stages, is the VP/VA copolymeric portion of the heterogeneous product formed, resulting in a water insoluble product. Homogeneity in the copolymeric structure, i.e. the copolymer having a uniform distribution of VP and VA monomer units in its macromolecular chain structure, is highly desirable from the standpoint of water solubility.
British Pat. No. 1,323,028 describes a homogeneous VP/VA copolymer prepared by an intricate process employing a continuous phase in which VP is soluble and a disperse phase in which VA is suspended. Copolymerization takes place exclusively in the disperse phase while the continuous phase functions as a VP reservoir. Although successful in producing a homogeneous product, this process, using AIBN initiator is extremely limited in the choice of solvents for the disperse phase, e.g. benzene, toluene and for the continuous phase, e.g. acids or polyols, and is further complicated by the need for the removal of both solvent and substantial portions of VP monomer in the continuous phase for recovery of product. Additionally, this process employing the VA reservoir, fails to maximize the reactive efficiency of the VA monomer.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to overcome the above problems and to produce a substantially homogeneous VP/VA copolymer over a broad range of VP concentrations and polymeric K values of between about 10 to about 100.
Another object is to provide a process for the preparation of a substantially homogeneous VP/VA copolymers by a simplified and economical process which is readily adaptable to commercial use.
Still another object is to provide a copolymerization process for inline control of VP concentration in the VP/VA copolymeric macromolecular product.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description and disclosure.

Process for the preparation of vinylpyrrolidone/vinyl acetate copolymers


A medical instrument introduction device for introducing a medical instrument into a living body provided with; a rigid main body provided with a lumen, a first fixing portion disposed on the main body to fix the main body on the first septate of the living body, and a second fixing portion disposed on a distal end side of the main body with respect to the first fixing portion and to fix the main body on a second septate which is different from the first septate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical instrument introduction device employed when a medical instrument is inserted into a body cavity and a method of introducing the medical instrument.
2. Description of Related Art
Cholecystectomy and other various procedures using laparoscopy and the like are examples of minimally invasive therapies which have been carried out conventionally. In this type of laparoscopic procedure, a plurality of openings are made in the abdominal wall and various instruments are inserted through these openings.
In recent years, designs have been proposed to carry out these procedures by inserting a flexible endoscope into the patient via a natural orifice, e.g., mouth, naris, anus, etc., with the goal of reducing the burden on the patient by decreasing the number of openings made in the abdominal wall. The medical treatment endoscope disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0167680 may be cited as an example of a medical treatment endoscope employed in this type of procedure. This medical treatment endoscope has a flexible, soft inserted portion, and a pair of arms which are provided to the distal end of the inserted portion and have bending portions for performing bending actions. In addition, a plurality of channels are provided running through the inserted portion. A member is provided to the operating portion of the medical treatment endoscope for performing forward, backward, left and right bending manipulation of the arms. The user inserts the inserted portion of an instrument into the channel, attaches the operating portion of the instrument to the operating portion of the medical treatment endoscope, projects the distal end of the instrument out from the arm, and manipulates the operating portion to the front, back, left or right. As a result, the distal end of the instrument can be made to approach the target tissue from different directions in order to carry out the procedure.
Further, as a procedure which develops from the above-described procedure, a procedure has been proposed which is, first, inserting an endoscope into an abdominal cavity, and advancing a distal end of the endoscope into a thoracic cavity, a bladder and the like, and a treatment is performed therein. In this case, as for a body section used for approaching an abdominal cavity, an umbilical part where the scar of an incision is not going to be obvious is a suitable candidate. Thereafter, a procedure is required to incise walls of the thoracic cavity and the bladder with a treatment tool inserted into the abdominal cavity, then an endoscope is inserted into the abdominal cavity in order to pass through the perforation.
However, manipulation to pass the endoscope through the thoracic cavity and the like, is basically performed within the abdominal cavity. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to repeat inserting and retracting the endoscope through the perforation of the thoracic cavity compared with the operation through the perforation of the abdominal cavity. Furthermore, when the endoscope is advanced into the thoracic cavity by passing the endoscope through a perforation on the umbilical part, the space required for the insertion is large. In this case, it is not easy to maintain a position and direction of a distal end of a treatment tool which is used for the treatment, in particular when a flexible endoscope is used.

Medical instrument introduction device and method of introducing medical device


Instruments and methods for selectively coupling to an object are provided, for example surgical instruments that can form a rigid connection with an object and also be disassembled for cleaning, sterilization, etc. One embodiment includes an elongate shaft with a longitudinal groove, a first partial circumferential groove that intersects with a distal end of the longitudinal groove, and a second at least partial circumferential groove formed distal to the first partial circumferential groove. The instrument also includes a sleeve disposed over the elongate shaft that includes a protrusion extending from an internal wall that is received within the longitudinal groove to constrain movement of the sleeve relative to the elongate shaft. The sleeve further includes a lock that interfaces with the second at least partial circumferential groove when the protrusion is disposed in the first partial circumferential groove to further selectively constrain axial and rotational movement of the sleeve.

Various surgical procedures can require one or more instruments that selectively couple to another object for use during a procedure. For example, in minimally invasive procedures various elongate instruments can be coupled to other objects, such as various implants, anchors, etc., and utilized to pass the objects to a surgical site and manipulate them from a remote location. In some cases, such instruments can be required to impart significant forces to an object coupled thereto, e.g., significant axial forces of tension or compression, as well as rotational forces in certain cases. Further, certain instruments can include multiple components that can be selectively moved relative to one another, such as components that rotate relative to one another to selectively lock to an object, etc.
Still further, surgical instruments used in an operating room environment can be subject to cleaning requirements that necessitate a design that enables disassembly for sterilization, etc. The need for utilizing components that can be disassembled can be in conflict with requirements for the instruments to achieve desired selective coupling with an object, such as forming a rigid connection with an implant to impart the above-mentioned forces, etc.
One example of this tension can be found when assembling modular receiver heads to bone screw shanks intraoperatively, though a variety of other examples also exist. Modular bone anchors can be desirable in surgical operations because a surgeon or other user can implant a screw shank without any spinal fixation element (e.g., rod) receiving head being attached thereto, which can afford the surgeon a better view of the implantation site and allow for use of lower profile instrumentation. Once the screw shank is implanted, the modular receiver head can be coupled thereto using an inserter instrument. The instrument can require a selective rigid connection to the modular receiver head such that the instrument can be utilized to impart significant forces during implantation and positioning of the bone anchor. A competing concern, however, is that the inserter instrument also be easily cleaned/sterilized, which often means providing for disassembly of the instrument into various parts. This can involve instrument components that can rotate relative to one another and lock in one or more positions but be separable when desired. Prior instruments configured for such use often fail to provide sufficiently rigid connection to an object due to play and tolerancing in the various interfaces between components of the instruments.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved instruments and methods that provide selective coupling to an object, such as a selectively rigid connection therebetween, while allowing for disassembly of instrument components for cleaning and sterilization.

Surgical instruments and methods for selectively coupling to an object


There is provided a system and method to direct processing of orders to improve processing resource usage. QOS statistics relative to wait times and/or processing times or other measures of busyness may be maintained relative to physical office or branch locations where customers attend to have orders processed. QOS measures may be defined relative to these statistical measures of busyness that predict future busyness at respective locations. The QOS measures may be provided to a customer, such as in association with an order ahead application, to recommend to the customer to attend at a location that is less busy thereby distributing processing requests (orders) to less busy locations and better utilize resources.

Many businesses have order processing interfaces (a computer interface) at physical locations, such as a local office, distributed about a geographic area. Some businesses may have dozens or hundreds of locations in a major center such as a city. An order processing interface may be operated by an employee of the business to facilitate processing an order for a customer or may be operated by the customer themselves. Often the order processing interface communicates with one or more remotely located processing systems. In one example, the order processing interface may be provided by an employee's computer in a location.
Many customers may present at a location about the same time to initiate orders via one or more computing devices at the location such that the location becomes busy, requiring customers to wait in a queue. Yet, resources nearby at another location may be idle or lightly used providing excess and underused capacity.

System and method to direct processing of orders to improve processing resource usage


This patent relates to a mobile terminal and a method of controlling an operation of the same. The method of controlling an operation of a mobile terminal includes displaying a file list and scroll arrows for scrolling the file list on a touch screen. When the scroll arrow is touched and entered, the file list is scrolled at a scroll speed previously set in response to a time when the scroll arrow is touched and entered. A vibration signal to identify at least one of a scroll speed and a current scrolling position of the file list is provided. Accordingly, when a file list is scrolled, a scroll speed or a current scrolling position can be easily identified by a tactile sense.

1. Field
The present invention relates to a portable device, and in more particular, a mobile terminal.
2. Background
A mobile terminal is a portable device equipped with one or more of functions for performing voice and video communications while being carried with, inputting and outputting information, storing data and so on. In line with the diversity of the functions, the mobile terminal has become equipped with complicated functions, such as capturing of photos or motion images, the play of music files or motion image files, gaming, reception of broadcasting, and wireless Internet, and therefore has been implemented in the form of a comprehensive multimedia player.
In order to implement the complicated functions, a variety of attempts have been made to mobile terminals, implemented in the multimedia player form, in terms of hardware or software. For example, one of the attempts can include a user interface environment in which a user can search or select functions easily and conveniently. Further, as the mobile terminal has been considered as one of personal belongings for expressing a user's personality, there is a need for a change in the designs of various forms.
The above references are incorporated by reference herein where appropriate for appropriate teachings of additional or alternative details, features and/or technical background.

Mobile terminal and method of controlling operation of the same


A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag includes a photodetector which is receptive to a predefined wavelength and a control circuit which is receptive to a flash pattern of a light source. The RFID tag responds to a predefined command from RFID base station only if the photodetector included in the tag was activated by a light signal having an appropriate wavelength and flash pattern. During or after the photodetector circuit is activated, an operator of a pulsed light source then interrogates a single RFID tag with an unknown identification by using a pulsed light source to illuminate the particular tag. Only the tag illuminated by the pulsed light source responds to the reader.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology uses electromagnetic energy as a medium through which to send information. Typically, RFID tags are devices which are affixed to various articles so that these articles may be easily tracked during movement from one point to another or identified during a sale transaction. Therefore, one may tag things such as assets, animals, and people so that they be identified or tracked automatically via a reader which is frequently connected to a host computer that may contain additional data tied to an object's identification number associated with the RFID tag. Furthermore, the RFID tag generally contains programmed information about an object to which it is attached. Through the use of such information, RFID technology may be used to identify objects automatically and without manual scanning operations as is required in most bar code systems.
An RFID tag typically includes a receiver and some type of transmitter, an antenna, and memory. Through the use of these components, RFID tags are enabled to receive, store, and transmit article-identifying data with a remote base station. RFID tags have been implemented using a variety of methodologies to allow a user to perform any number of desired identification finctions. For example, RFID tags may be read-only or read-write. Additionally, passive RFID tags may be implemented without batteries and draw their power from the radio frequency (RF) energy transmitted from the reader. As well, RFID tags may be low or high frequency depending on a user's desires.
While the variety of RFID tags described above work well for most situations, it is difficult to determine which RFID tag is being accessed by the base station when a large number of RFID tags are consolidated in a small area. Therefore, a need exists for an identification method which quickly and efficiently identifies individual items in a large group which is within a range of the base station.

Light selectable radio frequency identification tag and method therefor

International Business Machines Corporation


A radio controller entity is in communication with a centralized control plane entity of a disaggregated base station, or with a monolithic base station, the disaggregated base station or monolithic base station serving wireless user equipment in a wireless network. The radio controller entity obtains from the centralized control plane entity or from the monolithic base station, a context associated with one or more user equipment served by the disaggregated base station or the monolithic base station. The radio controller entity determines a policy to be set. The policy defines a set of one or more rules, each rule including a condition and an action. The rule may include that the base station should query the radio controller for an instruction as to which action(s) to apply. The radio controller entity provides the policy to the centralized control plane entity or to the monolithic base station.

A centralized (disaggregated) Radio Access Network (RAN) architecture involves the split of the Base Station (BS) into a Central Unit (CU) and one or several Distributed Units (DUs). Standardization of the interface between the CU and the DU allows for implementation of the components of these two types by different vendors, which is widely considered the way to reduce RAN cost of ownership. Further disaggregation of the RAN base station may include separation of the entity that makes intelligent decisions, from the rest of the base station or, in case of disaggregated RAN, the CU-CP, which is the Control Plane part of the CU. In this disclosure, the entity that makes such intelligent decisions is called "radio controller"

Procedures for interaction between the radio controller and the subordinated base station


A system for screening telephone calls that include a caller identification information signals has a caller identification processor connected to a telephone line for generating caller identification information signals to a computer that retrieves an image associated with the caller from a database and displays the image on a television. A time delay also can be stored in the database to delay the display of the image by a predetermined amount. A user can change both the image and the time delay. The image can be alphanumeric and/or pictorial and can include audio information.

The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for identifying telephone caller numbers and, in particular, to an system for screening incoming telephone calls on a television screen.
Presently, the owner of a telephone is subject to unwanted telephone calls from telephone telemarketing persons, charities, stockbrokers, credit card solicitors, and political campaign solicitors, for example. These calls are annoying, tend to be placed at meal times and may also include calls from bill collecting agencies, pranksters and scam artists.
Since it is impossible to effectively eliminate unwanted telephone calls, much wasted time is spent because most persons have been taught manners which tend to make it extremely difficult to hang up immediately in respect of unsolicited calls. Accordingly, this problem has been the topic of much consideration. Legislation has even been proposed to limit the use of automatic telephone call solicitation.
Currently, many telephone companies offer a caller identification service wherein a small display unit is connected to the subscriber's telephone line to display the telephone numbers of incoming calls. However, the display unit typically is located adjacent one telephone set and users must be very near such a device to see the caller-id information.


A power conversion apparatus is provided. The power conversion apparatus receives an AC input power by an input side and includes a capacitor, an AC-to-DC conversion unit and a discharge unit. The capacitor is connected with the input side. The AC-to-DC conversion unit is coupled to the input side, and configured to convert the AC input power after receiving the AC input power to generate a DC output power. The discharge unit is coupled to the capacitor and has at least two switch elements. The discharge unit enables the at least two switch elements when supply of the AC input power is interrupted, such that one of a first discharge path and a second discharge path formed by the at least two switch elements is taken to discharge or drain the energy stored in the capacitor.

Technical Field
The invention relates to a power conversion technique, and particularly relates to a power conversion apparatus capable of opportunely discharging/draining electric energy stored in an X capacitor when supply of an alternating current input power is interrupted and a control chip thereof.
Related Art
Power conversion apparatuses are capable of converting an alternating current (AC) input power provided by a power company into a direct current (DC) output power. Therefore, the power conversion apparatuses are widely used/applied in electronic apparatuses such as computers, office automation equipment, industrial control equipment and communication equipment, etc.
Generally, an input stage of a conventional power conversion apparatus is equipped with an electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter to filter/suppress an EMI in the received AC input power. However, when supply of the AC input power received by the power conversion apparatus is interrupted, electric energy remained in an X-capacitor of the EMI filter probably results in a risk of electric shock when none discharge path exists. Therefore, based on security consideration, international safety standards have particular specifications: when the AC input power received by the power conversion apparatus is interrupted, the electric energy remained in the X-capacitor of the EMI filter equipped to the input stage of the power conversion apparatus has to drop to a safe voltage range within 1 second.
Therefore, a bleeder resistor is generally used to connect in parallel to two ends of the X-capacitor, and serves as a discharge path of the X-capacitor when supply of the AC input power received by the power conversion apparatus is interrupted. However, usage of the bleeder resistor inevitably causes a certain degree of power loss. Therefore, a power saving performance of the power conversion apparatus in a standby state is seriously influenced, which is not complied with an energy saving concept advocated by Energy star or other energy saving associations (such as CSA, DoE, EuP, etc.), or cannot satisfy a new standby power specification.

Power conversion apparatus and control chip thereof