A method for evaluating and controlling roasting and degree (level) of roast in food items including but not limited to: coffee, cocoa, beans, nuts, grains and seeds, involves collecting spectra of the gases (including water vapor) emitted during roasting in the mid-infrared region using either mid-infrared source or visible light to include Raman scattering. The changes in the spectra, due to absorption by molecular vibrations in the gases emitted during roasting are evaluated in real time during roasting. These data may be processed in frequency or time domain. The spectra and change in spectra are correlated with a roasting profile to mark the inception of roasting, progress of roasting and maturity/achievement of degree of a roast. The information can be transmitted to the roaster or controller to monitor the roasting progress and can be used to adjust parameters as desired during roasting.

Roasting is a critical step in food processing that significantly influences the quality of the final product. For example, the widespread consumption of coffee did not take a foothold until roasting was introduced, even though it was discovered much earlier in the southern highlands of Ethiopia. Currently, about two billion cups are consumed daily throughout the world. During roasting, the beans change in color, expand and contract, lose weight and moisture, and emit volatile organic compounds. Because these physical changes are correlated with the chemical reactions, artisans employ these physical changes as roasting markers. For instance, the "first crack" is commonly used to mark the beginning of light roast while the "second crack" is commonly associated with the transition from light to dark roast. These in conjunction with changes in visual appearance, such as change in color and luster, are widely used to classify the degree of a roast. These markers, however, are subjective and inherent differences in the beans limit their efficacy. Arabica beans appear more glossy than Robusta beans because of their greater lipid content. The differences in the beans cause also differences in the number of cracks. While an ensemble of beans crack twice as a chorus, some beans crack more than twice and yet other beans do not crack at all. In industrial settings, temperature profiles are heavily used to develop a desired roast. Temperature profile alone, however, cannot ensure the consistency of the desired roast due to variation in the beans and their moisture content.
Employing analytical techniques in conjunction with these common practices can improve the consistency of a roast. Baggenstoss Juerg; Poisson Luigi; Kaegi Ruth; Perren Rainer; Escher Felix. Coffee Roasting and Aroma Formation: Application of Different Time—Temperature Conditions. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2008, 56 (14), 5836-5846 (Baggenstoss et al.) studied the evolution of water content, density and lightness (L) in conjunction with formation of aroma compounds and demonstrated that lightness is a better indicator of roast than time alone. Hashim Laih; Chaveron Henri. Use of methylpyrazine ratios to monitor the coffee roasting. Food Research International. 1995, 28 (6), 619-623 (Hashim and Chaveron) suggest that the alkylpyrazine can be used to monitor degree of roasting. Hashim and Chaveron suggest that the ratio of 2-methylpyrazine to 2,5-dimethylpyrazine or ratio of 2-methylpyrazine to 2,6-dimethylpyrazine can be used as marker for roasting. Similarly, Nehring Ulrich P.; Maier Hans Gerhard. Indirect determination of the degree of roast in coffee. Zeitschrift für Lebensmittel und-forschung. 1992, 195 (1), 39-42 (Nehring and Maier) used capillary gas chromatography to quantify the alanine, leucine, phenylalanine content in roasted beans in order to indirectly calculate the organic roasting loss (ORV) during roasting. In general, darker roasts have lower level of phospholipids, chlorogenic acids, 3-mercapto-3-methylbutyl esters but higher amounts of cafestol and kahweol. Over-roasting, however, degrades the cafestol and kahweol.
Molecular vibrations have been used to monitor Maillard reactions in food and to study coffee specifically. Most of the studies on coffee, however, have focused on quality control to identify defects in beans and discriminate bean cultivar. El-Abassy Rasha M.; Donfack, Patrice; Materny Arnulf. Discrimination between Arabica and Robusta green coffee using visible micro Raman spectroscopy and chemometric analysis. Food Chemistry. 2011, 126 (3), 1443-1448 (El-Abassy et al.) used micro-Raman spectroscopy to discriminate Arabica green beans from Robusta green beans. Briandet Romain; Kemsley E. Katherine; Wilson Reginald H. Discrimination of Arabica and Robusta in Instant Coffee by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Chemometrics. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 1996, 44,170-174 (Briandet et al.) showed diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy and attenuated total reflectance (ATR) can be used to distinguish Arabica from Robusta in instant coffee. Esteban-Díez Isabel; González-Sáiz José Maria; Pizarro Millán C. An evaluation of orthogonal signal correction methods for the characterisation of arabica and robusta coffee varieties by NIRS. Analytica Chimica Acta. 2004, 514 (1), 57-67 (Esteban-Diez, Gonzalez-Saiz and Pizarro) used near infrared (NIR) spectra to distinguish Arabica from Robusta beans. Craig Ana Paula; Franca Adriana S.; Oliveira Leandro Soares; Irudayaraj Joseph; Ileleji Klein. Application of elastic net and infrared spectroscopy in the discrimination between defective and non-defective roasted coffees. Talanta. 2014, 128, 393-400 (Craig et al. 2014) studied vibrational bands from carbohydrates, amino acids, lipids, caffeine and chlorogenic acid in roasted coffee beans using attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy and NIR in order to distinguish defective from non-defective beans. Craig Ana Paula; Franca Adriana S.; Oliveira Leandro Soares; Irudayaraj Joseph; Ileleji Klein. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and near infrared spectroscopy for the quantification of defects in roasted coffees. Talanta. 2015, 134,379-386 (Craig et al. 2015) claim that the models from the NIR measurements are robust in quantitatively discerning adulterated coffee grounds from defective beans. Few infrared (IR) studies have focused on using the technique to identify degree of roast. NIR has been used to correlate ash and lipid content with degree of roast. Similarly, absorbance in the NIR has been correlated with color, weight, density and moisture content to predict roasting degree in Arabica, Robusta and mixtures of Arabica and Robusta beans. Because of scattering, however, interpretation of the NIR spectra is difficult without doing significant data processing. Lyman Donald J.; Benck Robert; Dell Stacy; Merle Scott Murray-Wijelath Jacqueline. FTIR-ATR Analysis of Brewed Coffee: Effect of Roasting Conditions. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2003, 51 (11), 3268-3272 (Lyman et al.) used FTIR-ATR to study the effect of roasting conditions on the flavor-print in brewed coffee and found that the type and concentration of the carbonyl compounds formed during roasting depends on the roasting conditions. A major drawback of these techniques is that the analyses take a long time and the information cannot be provided in real-time during roasting. Alternatively, time of flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS) of the volatile organic compounds (VOC) emitted during roasting of coffee beans has been useful in providing real-time information during roasting.

Spectral analysis of gasses emitted during roasting food


A rubber composition, superior in the processability and rubber properties compared with a rubber composition using a conventional mercaptosilane coupling agent, containing 100 parts by weight of a diene-based rubber, 10 to 160 parts by weight of a reinforcing filler containing silica and 0.1 to 20% by weight, based upon the weight of silica, of a mercaptosilane coupling agent blocked with a compound having a vinyl ether group and a pneumatic tire using the same.

In the past, in the rubber industry, the technique has been adopted of compounding carbon black as a reinforcing filler to reinforce the rubber, but when carbon black is compounded, there were the problems that the heat buildup of the rubber became higher and that, since the raw materials are derived from petroleum, the environmental load became larger. To solve these problems, in recent years, silica has been compounded as a filler (see Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 05-51485). However, it is known that silica deteriorates the mixability because of easy agglomeration of silica particles due to the surface characteristics thereof. Therefore, it is known in the art that a silane coupling agent is combinedly used with silica when mixed with rubber with a good dispersability (see Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 09-111044), but there is still room for improvement. In particular, a conventional silane coupling agent (e.g., mercaptosilane) greatly improves the dispersability of silica in the rubber. The resultant physical properties are also good, but there is the problem that there is a difficulty in the processability. As a technology for blocking the thiol parts of mercaptosilane, there is the technology of blocking with octanoic acid (U.S. Pat. No. 6,608,125). However, this largely decreases the reactivity of the mercapto groups. Although the octanoic acid is not detached at the vulcanization stage and the processing performance is good, this does not largely contribute to the physical properties after the vulcanization. Furthermore, there is the technology that a thiol compound and vinyl ethers are brought into contact to obtain a thiol compound derivative (see Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2003-055353). The inclusion of two or more thiol groups is preferable. When reacting with silica, the bound rubber structure around the silica becomes too hard and the resultant compound becomes unpreferable as a rubber composition for a tire.

Mercaptosilane blocked with vinyl ether group (coupling agent) and rubber composition and pneumatic tire using the same


In one embodiment, a programmable logic device includes a plurality of configuration cells that store configuration data, wherein the programmable logic device is adapted to provide soft error upset (SEU) protection for the configuration cells that are reprogrammable. The programmable logic device may further include or alternatively provide hard coding and/or hard encoding of the configuration cells.

A soft error upset (SEU) refers generally to a change of state or a transient induced in one or more signal values in a semiconductor device (e.g., when struck by an ionizing particle, such as a neutron or an alpha particle). For example, a programmable logic device (PLD), such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or a complex PLD (CPLD), are configured by data stored in configuration memory cells (e.g., SRAM cells), which are susceptible to SEUs that change the originally programmed data state (e.g., programmed a "1" but SEU changes value to "0"). One or more SEUs within the PLD may be particularly noticeable because the data stored in the configuration memory cells determines the PLD's functionality.
One conventional approach, for example, to the PLD's SEU vulnerability includes replacing the SRAM-based configuration cells with non-volatile memory cells (e.g., EEPROM zero power memory cells). However, non-volatile memory cells generally require more silicon area and are often more expensive to implement. Another approach employs mask changes to hardwire the SRAM configuration cells to their desired value (e.g., "0" or "1") based on a given design and application or to convert the design to an application specific integrated circuit. A drawback of this approach is that the hardwired SRAM configuration cells or ASIC can no longer be reprogrammed, which is a fundamental benefit of a PLD. Furthermore, testing often becomes difficult because the test procedures typically rely on the PLD's programmability for full testability by the manufacturer. As a result, there is a need for improved techniques directed, for example, to SEU issues associated with PLDs or other programmable memory devices.

Soft error upset hardened integrated circuit systems and methods


A method, computer program, and computer system is provided for multi-instance Network-Based Media Processing (NBMP) function execution. A function call corresponding to an NBMP request is received. A function is retrieved from among a function group having a function descriptor, the retrieved function corresponding to the received function call. One or more instances of the retrieved function are executed.

The Network-based Media Processing (NBMP) standard was developed to address fragmentation and offer a unified way to perform media processing on top of any cloud platform and on any IP network. NBMP uses Functions and Function Groups. Function Groups are listed as Functions in the repository, and using the connection map descriptor, each Function Group describes the Functions it uses and how they are connected in its workflow. Since not all inputs and outputs, and also configurations of a Function may be used in a Function Group, these restrictions are described as part of the Function Descriptor. For each Function Group of which a Function is a member, the restrictions may be described separately as part of the Function Descriptor.

Efficient and extensive function groups with multi-instance function support for cloud based processing


A system, method and program product for authenticating a device. An authentication service is provided having: a data management system for periodically collecting and storing signature data from each of a set of registered devices, wherein the signature data includes a plurality of data points, and wherein at least one of the data points includes a device usage characteristic; a system for obtaining a temporal signature state (TSS) vector of a device in response to a transaction request from the device, wherein the TSS vector includes values for a selected subset of the data points forming the signature data; and an authenticator for comparing the TSS vector of the device with stored signature data in order to authenticate the device.

Authorizing user access to services (e.g., banking, work servers, email, etc.) remains an ongoing challenge for both the user and the service. Users have to remember and carry numerous tokens (e.g., usernames, passwords, etc.) for authentication to innumerable services needed in daily life. The tokens can be easily lost or stolen or copied and can be used without awareness of the user. Additionally, tokens such as passwords can be forgotten or compromised.
One authentication technique involves requiring the user to possess a unique physical token. Most smart devices, such as cell phones, tablets, laptops, desktop computers, etc., satisfy this feature. For instance, most such devices have unique MAC (media access control) addresses utilized by the network adapter. Accordingly, when a user wants to conduct a transaction, the service can compare the MAC address of user with a registered MAC address to verify the user. If the MAC address of the device does not match the registered MAC address of the user, the transaction can be terminated. Unfortunately, it is relatively easy to intercept network packets and relabel them, thus spoofing MAC addresses. In this way a hacker can initiate a fraudulent transaction from what looks to be properly registered device. Accordingly, while the concept of device authentication provides some promise for authenticating users engaging with services, it remains a relatively insecure approach.

Device authentication using synchronized activity signature comparison

International Business Machines Corporation


In a method of fabricating a flash memory device, a semiconductor substrate includes a tunnel insulating layer and a charge storage layer formed in an active region and a trench formed in an isolation region. A first insulating layer is formed to fill a part of the trench. A second insulating layer is formed on the first insulating layer so that the trench is filled. The first and second insulating layers are removed such that the first and second insulating layers remain on sidewalls of the charge storage layer and on a part of the trench. A third insulating layer is formed on the first and second insulating layers so that a space defined by the charge storage layer is filled. The third insulating layer is removed so that a height of the third insulating layer is lowered.

The present invention relates, in general, to flash memory devices and, more particularly, to a method of fabricating a flash memory device, which improves variation in Effective Field Height (EFH).
As memory devices become smaller in size, the surface area of a dielectric layer surrounding a floating gate changes. The surface area changes in relation to the degree that an isolation layer is recessed. The isolation layer is recessed to control the EFH of the isolation layer when the floating gate is formed by a Shallow Trench Isolation (STI) process during fabrication of the flash memory device that is 60 nm or less.
The EFH of the isolation layer varies widely because several processes are performed during fabrication that influence properties of the device. Example processes include a Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) process for forming the isolation layer, a wet cleaning process for removing a hard mask layer, and a wet cleaning process for recessing the top surface of the isolation layer.
Variation in the surface area of the dielectric layer surrounding the floating gate causes variation in the coupling ratio between the floating gate and the control gate. Thus, fatal problems in device operation and performance often result. Example problems include variation in programming speed and interference due to increased capacitance, and a shift in the threshold voltage (Vt) due to cycling.
The EFH of the isolation layer is regulated to prevent damage to the low voltage region of the peri region during formation process of a gate. However, if the EFHs of the isolation layers in the cell region and the peri region are set to the same value, a loading phenomenon occurs due to a difference in the pattern size during an etch process for forming a STI profile of the low voltage region and the gate. Thus, damage occurs due to a difference in the amount in which the isolation layer is recessed. The damage occurs during the etch process when forming the gate.
During the STI etch process of the peri region, an etch target of a tunnel insulating layer depends on the thickness of a gate insulating layer formed in a high voltage region of the peri region, in which the thickness of the insulating layer is the largest. In the low voltage region where the thickness of the tunnel insulating layer is relatively small, the tunnel insulating layer is etched during the etch process of the tunnel insulating layer, and a semiconductor substrate is over-etched. Thus, top corners of a trench become sloped.
The slope profile at the top corners of the trench projects outwardly from the side of the floating gate. Thus, the top surface of the isolation layer is partially removed during the etch process for forming the gate. Consequently, damage occurs due to the removed isolation layer.

Method of manufacturing a flash memory device


A mechanism is described for facilitating and employing a modular processing cell framework according to one embodiment. A method of embodiments may include accepting one or more semiconductor devices in one or more media at a modular processing cell framework (“framework”) including a plurality of test cells, moving the one or more semiconductor devices from the one or more media to one or more test cells for testing; and testing the one or more semiconductor devices.

Semiconductor tests have traditionally been implemented by docking Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) (also referred to as "testers") to material handling equipment. Typically, testers provide electrical stimulation and response capture, while the handling equipment places the units or devices being tested into contactors and provides thermal conditioning. However, these conventional solutions are known for ganging the devices being tested in parallel and introducing a number of compromises. For example, devices being tested are densely packed together and the tooling to electrically connect them is difficult to design, while connections are often limited to less than the numbers desired, etc. Another severe limitation of conventional systems is that the socketing cycle has to wait until the last device under test ("DUT") completes testing. This means that devices that finish testing earlier have to wait idle in the contactor, which significantly reduces the overall utilization of the test equipment.

Mechanism for facilitating modular processing cell framework and application for asynchronous parallel singulated semiconductor device handling and testing


Catalysts and processes for a selective conversion of hydrocarbons. The catalyst comprises: a first component selected from the group consisting of Group VIII noble metals and mixtures thereof, a modifier selected from the group consisting of alkali metals or alkaline-earth metals and mixtures thereof, and a third component selected from the group consisting of tin, germanium, lead, indium, gallium, thallium and mixtures thereof; and a support forming a catalyst particle comprising a plurality of pores. The catalyst has a modifier profile index in a range of 1 to 1.4 across the catalyst particle.

The dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons is an important commercial hydrocarbon conversion process because of the existing and growing demand for dehydrogenated hydrocarbons for the manufacture of various chemical products such as detergents, high octane gasolines, oxygenated gasoline blending components, pharmaceutical products, plastics, synthetic rubbers, and other products which are well known to those skilled in the art. A process for the conversion of paraffins to olefins involves passing a paraffin stream over a highly selective catalyst where the paraffin is dehydrogenated to the corresponding olefin. The dehydrogenation reaction is achieved under operating conditions selected to minimize the loss of feedstock. The typical process involves the use of a reactor (e.g., radial flow, fixed bed, fluidized bed, and the like) where a paraffin feedstock is contacted with a dehydrogenation catalyst under reaction conditions. One example of this process is the dehydrogenation of isobutane to produce isobutylene which can be polymerized to provide tackifying agents for adhesives, viscosity-index additives for motor oils, and impact-resistant and antioxidant additives for plastics. There is also a growing demand for isobutylene for the production of oxygen-containing gasoline blending components which are being mandated by the government in order to reduce air pollution from automotive emissions.
Those skilled in the art of hydrocarbon conversion processing are well versed in the production of olefins by means of catalytic dehydrogenation of paraffinic hydrocarbons. In addition, many patents have issued which teach and discuss the dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons in general. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,430,517 (Imai et al), U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,288 (Imai et al), and U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,340 (Voskoboynikov et al.) discuss a dehydrogenation process and catalyst for use therein. However, there remains an ongoing and continuous need for new catalytic material for selective hydrocarbon conversion processes, especially those that improve on one or more characteristics of the known catalytic compositions.

Dehydrogenation catalyst with optimum modifier profile index


A tray assembly is provided for use with a seat having a seat back, a seat bottom, and arms. The tray assembly includes a tray and a latch coupled to the tray. The tray has an upper surface, first and second edges, and walls coupled to the edges and lower surface to define a cavity therebetween. A rib extends from at least one of the walls of the tray and the latch includes a slot for receiving the rib therein. In addition, the latch is configured to move between a latched position in which the latch is adapted to engage the arms of the seat and a release position in which the latch is adapted to disengage the arms of the seat.

The present invention relates to tray assemblies for juvenile chairs, and particularly to adjustable tray assemblies that include a quick-release mechanism. More particularly, the present invention relates to an adjustable tray assembly that is manually releasable from a juvenile chair using either one or two hands.
Trays are traditionally used with juvenile chairs to provide a platform on which a caregiver can place items for a child such as food, toys, and so forth. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,807,928 to Cone and 5,527,090 to Cone. Caregivers, many times, must remove a tray from a juvenile chair while holding or watching a fussy infant or toddler. This is often difficult if two hands must be used to operate a chair-release mechanism provided under the tray.
According to the present invention, a tray assembly is provided for use with a seat having a seat back, a seat bottom, and arms. The tray assembly includes a tray and first and second latches adapted for engagement with the arms of the seat. Each latch is movable relative to the tray between a latched position in which the latch is adapted to engage the arms of the seat and an unlatched position in which the first latch is adapted to disengage the arms of the seat. The tray is formed to an upper surface, a lower surface, and walls extending from the lower surface and forming a cavity for receiving each latch therein. A rib is formed to extend from on or more of the walls and each latch is formed to include a slot for receiving the rib therein.
In preferred embodiments, each latch includes a mounting portion, a release handle coupled to the mounting portion, and teeth extending from the mounting portion adapted to be received within slots formed in an exterior surface of each arm of the seat. Each mounting portion includes a pin to mount the respective latch to the walls of the tray for pivoting movement relative to the tray. The tray assembly additionally includes springs extending from a floor portion of each latch and the lower surface of the tray to normally bias each latch toward the latched position so that the teeth extend into slots formed in the arms of the seat. Each tooth includes a tapered bottom surface for guiding the teeth into the slots of the arms of the seat as the tray is being inserted upon the seat.
Features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of preferred embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.


A garment is disclosed having multiple wearing options. The garment includes a waistband that defines inner openings and outer openings in the front of the waistband assembly on opposing sides of the front centerline of the garment providing access to the drawstring channel from the inner side and the outer side of the waist assembly, respectively. The drawstring optionally passes through the pair of inner openings or the outer openings to tie in the front of the garment. In this manner, the waist assembly that provides multiple wearing options, including with the drawstring exposed, with the drawstring hidden, and waistband flipped with drawstring and indicia exposed.

The fit of a garment around the waist of the wearer is an important design consideration. This is particularly true for garments used in sports. A proper fit can contribute to an athlete's performance, whereas an improper fit can hamper performance. Moreover, it is a growing trend to wear garments in unique, non-traditional ways as a means for individual expression, such as positioning a garment's waistband comparatively low on the body.
Current approaches for a secure waist fit provide a single configuration for securing the garment around the waist, which can be uncomfortable and limiting individual expression. Thus, the wearer must often time sacrifice a secure waist fit for comfort and better looking fit or sacrifices the comfort and look for a secure waist fit, particularly when the garment is worn in a non-traditional manner.
It should be appreciated that there remains a need for a garment that addresses these concerns. The present invention fulfills this need and others


A fairing assembly includes an outer wall, a first side wall, a second side wall, and a saddle. The first side wall and the second side wall extend from opposing sides of the outer wall. Together the first side wall, the second side wall, and the outer wall form a cavity within the fairing assembly. The saddle is positioned within the cavity and extends between the first side wall and the second side wall. The saddle has a first rib adapted to connect to the first side wall and a second rib adapted to connect to the second side wall. The first rib and the second rib connect together at a central hub.

The present invention relates to gas turbine engines, and more particularly to fairing assemblies for a fan section of gas turbine engines.
Gas turbine engines, such as turbofan engines for an aircraft, include a fan section, a compression section, a combustion section, and a turbine section. A primary flow path for working medium flow gases extends axially through the sections of the engine. A secondary flow path (bypass) for flow gases extends parallel to and radially outward of the primary flow path and passes through the fan section.
The fan section includes a rotor assembly and a stator assembly. The rotor assembly of the fan includes a fan hub and a plurality of outwardly extending airfoils. Each airfoil includes a blade portion, a root portion, and a fairing assembly. The blade portion of the airfoil extends through the flow path and interacts with the gases passing therethrough to transfer energy between the rotor assembly and the gases. The fairing assembly typically extends circumferentially from the rotor blade to an adjacent rotor blade and is disposed radially between the blade portion and the root portion. The stator assembly includes a fan case, which circumscribes the rotor assembly in close proximity to the tips of the blades.
During operation, the fan draws the gases (air) into the engine. The fan (driven by the turbine) raises the pressure of this air, thus producing useful thrust. Improvements in fan performance depend in many cases on reducing fluid flow leakage at various points in the fan. One of these places is between adjacent fan blades at the inner radial portions thereof near the fan hub. Typically, fairing assemblies are utilized to seal this gap and to form the inner fan air flow path between the fan blades. Indeed, the gap must be sealed to prevent leakage recirculation from the blade trailing edge forward and up through the gap into the fan flow path.
Traditionally, fairing assemblies were created from stock along with the fan blade. Rubber flap seals were then used to seal the gaps between adjacent fairing assemblies. However, as fan blades are typically constructed of alloys, machining the fairing assembly from stock is expensive and time consuming. Thus, alternative fairing assembly designs have been developed. These alternatives typically use a fairing assembly that is separate from the blade and hub. This alternative design is constructed of composite materials that require complex tooling designs and/or complicated molding processes.


An optical fiber protective unit includes: a reticulated tube having openings that are reticulately formed, the reticulated tube being configured to accommodate a plurality of optical fibers inserted through the reticulated tube; a tubular member disposed inside the reticulated tube, the tubular member being configured to accommodate the plurality of optical fibers through the tubular member; and a cylindrical member attached to an end part of the reticulated tube. The cylindrical member has an inner diameter that is larger than an outer diameter of the tubular member.

Patent Literatures 1 to 4 describe an optical fiber unit formed by wrapping a bundling member around a bundle of a plurality of optical fibers. Patent Literatures 3 and 4 describe a method for manufacturing an optical fiber unit by wrapping a bundling member around a bundle of a plurality of optical fibers.
Further, Patent Literatures 5 to 7 describe various tubes. Patent Literature 5 describes a protective tube that protects an optical fiber by covering an outer periphery of the optical fiber. Patent Literature 6 describes that a plastic line or a metal line is braided and formed into a cylindrical net capable of extension and contraction to protect wiring. Patent Literature 7 describes a net tube having a diameter enlarged when the net tube shrinks, and that the net tube protects an electric wire.

Optical fiber protective unit and method for protecting optical fiber


The present invention provides an interconnect that can be employed in an integrated circuit. The interconnect includes a metal line located over a substrate, a dielectric layer located over the metal line, and an interconnect located in the dielectric layer, including a landed portion located over the metal line and an unlanded portion located along at least a portion of a lateral edge of the metal line. The unlanded portion is at least partially filled with a polymer, and the landed portion is substantially filled with a conductive material. A method for manufacturing the interconnect is also provided.

As semiconductor device dimensions have continued to shrink, it has become increasingly difficult to construct high yields of defect-free devices because of a number of challenges that have arisen in manufacturing these smaller devices. One such challenge is the production of interconnects. Due to the substantial decrease in device size, it has become progressively more difficult to maintain proper alignment of interconnect openings with targeted metal lines. Often, the pattern through which the interconnect opening is formed slightly misaligns with the underlying metal line. When conventional over-etch processes are conducted to insure that the dielectric layer is completely etched through to the metal line, the misaligned portion of the pattern will cause the etch to remove dielectric material along a lateral edge of the metal line. Thus, while a substantial portion of the opening lands on the intended metal line a small portion of the opening extends along a side edge of the metal line.
The misalignment of these interconnect openings is exacerbated by the fact that, as device sizes have continued to shrink, device aspect ratios and device densities have continued to increase. This causes an additional problem when forming the dielectric layer over such device topographies. Frequently, when dielectric materials are deposited, the high aspect ratios of the devices and their close proximity to each other prevents the dielectric material from uniformly depositing between the devices. As a result, voids can form adjacent the metal lines, and when the over-etch process is conducted, the etch can extend the opening to intersect with the void and extend across to another adjacent metal line, thereby creating a short when the opening is filled with metal.
Previous efforts to reduce short circuits due to via misalignment are not entirely satisfactory. Some efforts involve applying deposition processes, or using insulating materials with better void filling properties. Although some insulators are better void fillers than others, most insulating materials develop voids as design rules shrink. Moreover, the edge of the wafer is more susceptible to incomplete void filling than the center regardless of the deposition process used. In addition, an insulating material with little or no voids can have a higher capacitance than a void-containing insulating material. The use of an insulating material with a higher capacitance, in turn, will result in slower operating speeds for the semiconductor device.
Other ameliorative efforts have focused on decreasing the extent of misalignment between the via and the metal line. A certain degree of misalignment is inevitable, however, as design rule dimensions decrease to the resolution limits of photolithography. Misalignments can be corrected to some extent by reworking the semiconductor wafer. But reworking decreases the throughput of semiconductor device production, thereby increasing production costs. Furthermore, reworking can detrimentally alter the properties of the semiconductor wafer. For example, the chemical and plasma cleaning processes that are conducted to strip away photoresist can roughen the surface or alter the optical properties of the wafer, thereby detrimentally affecting the success of subsequent photolithographic processes.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a process for manufacturing interconnects in a semiconductor device that does not exhibit the limitations of the prior art.

Device and method to eliminate shorting induced by via to metal misalignment


A request to activate a license file is received by a licensing system. The license file comprises a number of licenses. A license may be any type of license. The license file is assigned a license file identifier. A license extension is assigned to the license file identifier. A request to acquire a portion (or all) of the number of licenses of the license file is received from an entity. The portion (or all) of the number of licenses of the license file is assigned to the entity based on the license extension. The entity can then use the licenses as necessary.

Some licensing systems are designed to have a separate licensing manager for each communication system. If a common licensing manager is used, a communication system can consume all the available licenses. This results in other communication systems not being able to use the same licensing manager.
Having separate licensing managers for each communication system is not a problem if there is only a single communication system. However, in environments where there are multiple/distributed communication systems, having multiple license managers can become cumbersome for administrators. In large systems, the administrator may have a large number of separate licensing managers to administer. What is needed is a centralized system that overcomes the problems associated with the current implementations.


An improved basketball comprising an interior spherical bladder formed principally of synthetic butyl rubber with a thickness of about 0.82 millimeters; an intermediate layer of monofilament strands formed of nylon and wound around the bladder to a thickness of between about 0.3 and 0.7 millimeters; an exterior carcass of molded natural rubber formed of two hemispheres with exteriorly projecting ribs or channels; and a plurality of polyurethane inserts formed with matted fibers of nylon or a polyester with a diameter of about 1 micron adhered to the exterior surface of carcass between the channels, the inserts having a thickness of about 1.8 millimeters.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a basketball with a polyurethane cover and, more particularly, to an improved basketball with an interior balloon-like spherical bladder, an intermediate layer formed of spiral wound strands, an exterior shell formed of two hemispherically shaped carcass members with exterior channels, and polyurethane inserts adhered to the exterior member between the channels.
2. Description of the Background Art
Significant advances have been made in connection with basketballs to improve their overall playability by providing high rebound capabilities, improved wear characteristics and superior feel during handling. The basketballs with the greatest combinations of such desirable properties are those covered with exterior panels of high quality leather. Such leather basketballs are traditionally used during indoor play by the National Basketball Association and other professional leagues as well as the NCAA, high schools, etc. Inferior play is provided where the inserts are fabricated of high quality synthetic materials or where cheaper natural materials are utilized. Significantly inferior basketballs, as for out door and recreational use, are made of a variety of other techniques.
Types of cover materials in descending order of playing characteristics are grain leathers, split leather, polyurethane and then polyvinyl chloride. All known synthetic covers, however, have lower rebound characteristics compared to real leather although some of the higher grade synthetics are nearly to the quality of lower grade leathers. None, however, have the overall improved rebound capabilities or wearability or feel of leather.
As evidenced by a large of number of prior art patents to basketballs and their methods of fabrication, efforts are continuing to improve the characteristics of basketballs while maintaining reasonable costs. Note for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,119,618 to Molitor; 4,093,219 to Piraud; 4,333,648 to Aoyama and 4,462,590 to Mitchell.
The patent to Molitor relates to a basketball of the type adapted to be gripped and bounced in play and has an inner carcass provided with fibrous reinforcements and a cover therearound. The improvement comprises a cellular sponge layer disposed between the inner carcass and the cover for facilitating depression of the cover.
The patent to Piraud relates to balls for sports which consist of an external wear layer surrounding a bladder which also forms the body of the ball. The exterior layer is made from a powdered or liquid elastomeric resin comprising a polycondensation product of at least one compound of the group consisting of the dicarboxylic acids and esters of the dicarboxylic acids having a molecular weight of less than 300 with a polyalkylene-oxyglycol whose molecular weight is between 400 and 6000, and at least one diol having a molecular weight of less than 250. The external layer, suitably of rubber or leather, is secured directly to the bladder/body by a polyurethane-base adhesive or the like.
The patent to Aoyama relates to an improved inflatable type ball comprising a rubber tube used as a ball substrate which is introduced with gas under pressure. A reinforcing winding layer is formed by simultaneously winding the combination of a nylon thread and either an elastic rubber of urethane elastomer thread around the outer periphery of the rubber tube. A surface cover layer is made of a natural or synthetic leather stock which covers the reinforcing winding layer therewith through an adhesive with or without interposing and intermediate rubber layer formed by molding and vulcanization on the peripheral surface of the reinforcing winding layer.
Lastly, the patent to Mitchell relates to a padded game ball comprising an inner bladder assembly and an outer carcass enclosing the bladder assembly. The carcass comprises an outer cover of relatively tough durable material, padding on the inside of the cover, and a liner on the inside of the padding. The inner bladder assembly comprises an inflatable bladder of an elastic substantially air-impervious material. A sheath is provided around the bladder for restraining expansion of the bladder when it is inflated thereby to reduce the outward pressure of the carcass and thus increase the dimensional stability of the ball.
None of the known basketballs or background patents discloses a basketball constructed as disclosed herein with an improved polyurethane cover. In addition no prior effort suggests that the combination of component elements arranged and configured as disclosed herein. In addition, no prior synthetic basketball provides the superior characteristics of the present invention.
The present invention achieves its intended purposes, objects and advantages over the prior art through a new, useful and unobvious combination of component elements, through the use of a minimum number of functioning parts, at a reasonable cost to manufacture, and through the utilization of only readily available an conventional materials.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved basketball comprising an interior spherical bladder formed principally of synthetic butyl rubber with a thickness of about 0.82 millimeters; an intermediate layer of monofilament strands formed of a polymeric material such as Nylon, preferably Nylon 66 or Nylon/Polyester mixes and wound around the bladder to a thickness of between about 0.3 and 0.7 millimeters; an exterior carcass of molded natural rubber formed of two hemispheres with exteriorly projecting channels; and a plurality of polyurethane inserts formed with matted fibers of a polymeric material preferably Nylon or a polyester with a diameter of about 1 micron adhered to the exterior surface of carcass between the channels, the inserts having a thickness of about 1.8 millimeters.
It is another object of the present invention to improve the rebounding characteristics of synthetic basketballs.
It is another object of the present invention to improve the wear characteristics of synthetic basketballs.
It is a further object of the present invention to improve the feel or handling characteristics of synthetic basketballs.
Lastly, it is an object of the present invention to maximize the beneficial properties of basketballs while utilizing a less expensive cover of polyurethane rather than the finer grades of leather.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects of the present invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and application of the intended invention. Many other beneficial results could be obtained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


A method of manufacture of an integrated circuit packaging system includes: forming a first lead, having a first body and a first tip, and a paddle, having a protrusion at a side of the paddle, with the first body adjacent to the protrusion; forming a second lead having a second body and a second tip adjacent to the paddle; attaching a device, having a device active side, to the paddle and adjacent to the protrusion; mounting a component, having a component active side, to the device with the component active side facing the device active side and between the second body and the first tip; connecting the component and the second body; and forming an encapsulation covering the device, and partially covering the paddle, the component, the first lead, and the second lead.

Semiconductor package structures continue to become thinner and ever more miniaturized. This results in increased component density in semiconductor packages and decreased sizes of the IC products in which the packages are used. These developmental trends are in response to continually increasing demands on electronic apparatus designers and manufacturers for ever-reduced sizes, thicknesses, and costs, along with continuously improving performance.
These increasing demands for miniaturization are particularly noteworthy, for example, in portable information and communication devices such as cellular phones, hands-free cellular phone headsets, personal data assistants ("PDA's"), camcorders, notebook computers, and so forth. All of these devices continue to be made smaller and thinner to improve their portability. Accordingly, large-scale IC ("LSI") packages that are incorporated into these devices are required to be made smaller and thinner. The package configurations that house and protect LSI require them to be made smaller and thinner as well.
As the integrated circuit technology advances, more circuit cells can be fabricated in a similar die area so that substantially increased functionality can be accomplished on a given integrated circuit die. The added functionality and increase in the number of circuits generally involves a larger amount of power dissipation. The heat is transmitted from one integrated circuit to the other and there is no significant dissipation path other than through the solder ball to the motherboard. The increased heat in the package can significantly reduce the life of the integrated circuits in the package.
Thus, a need still remains for an integrated circuit packaging system providing integration and thermal efficiency. In view of the ever-increasing commercial competitive pressures, along with growing consumer expectations and the diminishing opportunities for meaningful product differentiation in the marketplace, it is critical that answers be found for these problems. Additionally, the need to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and performance, and meet competitive pressures adds an even greater urgency to the critical necessity for finding answers to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.

Integrated circuit packaging system with stacked device and method of manufacturing thereof


An exemplary prism sheet includes a transparent main body. The main body includes a first surface and a second surface. The first surface is opposite to the second surface. A plurality of micro-depressions are defined in the first surface. A plurality of elongated arc-shaped protrusions are formed on the second surface. Each micro-depression is defined by four connecting sidewalls. A transverse width of each sidewall of each micro-depression progressively decreases with increasing distance from the second surface. A backlight module using the present prism sheet is also provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to prism sheets, particularly, to a prism used in a backlight module.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In a liquid crystal display device (LCD device), liquid crystal is a substance that does not itself illuminate light. Instead, the liquid crystal relies on light received from a light source to display information. In the case of a typical liquid crystal display device, a backlight module powered by electricity supplies the needed light.
FIG. 6 represents a typical direct type backlight module 100. The backlight module 100 includes a housing 11, a plurality of lamps 12 disposed above a base of the housing 11, and a light diffusion plate 13 and a prism sheet 10 stacked on top of the housing 11 in that order. Inner walls of the housing 11 are configured for reflecting light upwards. The light diffusion plate 13 includes a plurality of dispersion particles (not shown) therein. The dispersion particles are configured for scattering light, thus enhancing the uniformity of light exiting the light diffusion plate 13.
Referring to FIG. 7 together with FIG. 6, the prism sheet 10 includes a base layer 101 and a prism layer 102 formed on the base layer 101. The prism layer 102 contains a plurality of parallel prism lenses 103 having a triangular cross section. The prism lenses 103 are configured for collimating light to a certain extent. Typically, a method of manufacturing the prism sheet 10 includes the following steps: first, a melted ultraviolet (UV)-cured transparent resin is coated on the base layer 101 to form V-shaped lenses, then the melted UV-cured transparent resin is solidified to form the prism lenses 103.
In use, light from the lamps 12 enters the light diffusion plate 13 and becomes scattered. The scattered light leaves the light diffusion plate 13 and enters the prism sheet 10. The scattered light then travels through the prism sheet 10 before being refracted out at the prism lenses 103 of the prism layer 102. Thus, the refracted light leaving the prism sheet 10 is concentrated at the prism layer 102 and increases the brightness (illumination) of the prism sheet 10. The refracted light then propagates into an LCD panel (not shown) disposed above the prism sheet 10.
When the light is scattered in the light diffusion plate 13, scattered light enters the prism sheet at different angles of incidence. Referring to FIG. 8, when scattered light enters the prism sheet 10 at different angles of incidence, the scattered light generally travels through the prism sheet 10 along three light paths. In the first light path (such as a1, a2) the light enters the prism sheet at small angles of incidence and refracts out of the prism lenses with the refracted path closer to the normal to the surface of the base layer. In the second light path (such as a3, a4) the light enters the prism sheet 10 at angles of incidence larger than the first light path and refracts out of the prism lenses 103 with the refracted path being closer to the normal to the surface of the prism lenses 103. Both the first light path and the second light path contribute to the brightness of the LED and the light utilization efficiency of the backlight module 100. However, in the case of the third light path (such as a5, a6), the light enters the prism sheets at angles greater than the second light path, such that when the refracted light in the third light path leaves the prism sheet 10 at the prism lenses 103 the refracted light impinges on the surface of adjacent prism lens 103 and reenters the prism sheet 10. Thus, light traveling along the third light path will eventually reenter the prism sheet 10 and may exit the prism sheet 10 on the same side the light entered. This third light path does not contribute to the light utilization efficiency of the backlight module 100. Further, the third light path may interfere with or inhibit other incident light resulting in decreasing brightness of the backlight module 100.
What is needed, therefore, is a new prism sheet and a backlight module using the prism sheet that can overcome the above-mentioned shortcomings.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Prism sheet and backlight module using the same


The present invention provides a method, system and storage medium for load dispatch optimization for residential microgrid. The method includes collecting environmental data and time data of residential microgrid in preset future time period; obtaining power load data of residential microgrid in future time period by inputting environmental data and time data into pre-trained load forecasting model; obtaining photovoltaic output power data of residential microgrid in future time period by inputting environmental data and time data into pre-trained photovoltaic output power forecasting model; determining objective function and corresponding constraint condition of residential microgrid in future time period, where optimization objective of objective function is to minimize total cost of residential microgrid; obtaining load dispatch scheme of residential microgrid in future time period by solving objective function with particle swarm algorithm. The invention can provide load dispatch scheme suitable for current microgrid and reduce operating cost of residential microgrid.

With the rapid growth of the population and the rapid development of the economy, residential electricity consumption has increased significantly. In order to balance the supply and demand of electricity, reduce carbon emissions and costs, the development of residential microgrid and smart grid has received more and more attention. The residential microgrid is generally composed of residential load, solar energy, energy storage units and electric vehicles, where the intermittent and volatility of solar energy has a certain impact on the operation of the microgrid. At the same time, the number of smart terminals in residential buildings is increasing, and residential power load has strong volatility and randomness, which will affect the balance of supply and demand of electricity. Therefore, reliable power load forecasting and photovoltaic output power forecasting are of great significance, which contributes to the balance of power supply and demand of residential microgrid, improves the integration of renewable energy and provides a basis for load dispatch optimization of microgrid.
Power load forecasting can be mainly divided into short-term load forecasting (for example, one day), medium-term load forecasting (for example, one month), and long-term load forecasting (for example, one year). The short-term load forecasting is beneficial to maintaining the dynamic balance of supply and demand of electricity, promoting the implementation of demand response strategies and optimizing the dispatch of residential microgrid load. However, due to the randomness and volatility of residential electricity, the accuracy of the existing short-term load forecasting method is low. The photovoltaic output power forecasting method is roughly similar to the load forecasting method, but there are also problems such as low forecasting accuracy.
Because the accuracy of power load forecasting and photovoltaic output power forecasting is low, the load dispatch scheme of residential microgrid is not suitable for the current residential microgrid, which makes the operating cost of the residential microgrid relatively high.

Method, system and storage medium for load dispatch optimization for residential microgrid


The present invention provides a self-contained converter plant for use in a modular power supply system. A modular power supply system includes a chassis having power unit bays each configured to receive a power unit module therein, a power distribution bus, a communications bus and a controller. In one embodiment, the self-contained converter plant comprises a housing having a power input connector configured to engage an electrical power interface on the power distribution bus and a converter communications connector configured to engage a communications interface on the communications bus. The converter plant further comprises a converter, and a power distribution device, all contained in the housing. The power distribution panel is electrically coupled to the converter.

Modular power supplies and power conversion systems have been available for many years. In most domestic applications, commercial ac electrical power, e.g., 120v/208v/240v, may be fed to multiple rectifiers wired in parallel. The output of the rectifiers is generally a dc voltage, often 24v dc, that is fed to a dc output bus. The parallelism of the rectifiers permits the failure of one rectifier without causing a total system failure. Some applications for modular power supplies, e.g., a cellular telephone power system, may require a second (e.g., 48v dc) or even third voltage for other functions. However, these special applications are limited to a small fraction of the installations in the cellular telephone market. Several conventional approaches to satisfying this need have been made in order to present a single product that addresses applications that require converters, as well as those applications that do not.
In some cases, a shelf has been dedicated to converters. However, this is very expensive in terms of wasted structure and space, as the remainder of the shelf not used for converters is not useable for rectifiers and represents a non-useful sunk cost. Another approach has been to dedicate one or more bays on multipurpose shelves of the system chassis to converters. This approach rigidly defines a specific combination of rectifiers and converters and is inflexible in application. This approach works well only if the specific combination of rectifiers and converters exactly match the application. Of course, if system requirements grow or even change, this approach is not flexible enough to readily compensate for the additional system requirements.
In other cases, a chassis may have multipurpose shelves with bays configured for either rectifiers or converters by installing all wiring and connectors for both Rectifiers and converters at each bay. Again, the additional cost of dually configuring the bays is undesirable. In still another approach, an adapter is made available that is selectively installed in one or more bays of the chassis and is configured to accept one or more converters. In this case, the cost of the converter and adapter is only incurred when a converter is required for a specific application. This approach is especially useful when the secondary or tertiary power required is relatively low as compared to the primary power, which is usually the case in practical applications. However, this system typically requires dedicated wiring between the converters and the system overall controller.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a self-contained power converter module that includes control and distribution circuitry and can be quickly inserted into or removed from a modular power supply system without extensive configuration or a separate chassis.

Self-contained converter plant for modular power supply systems


A thermal transfer sheet including: a substrate, a thermal transfer layer provided on one side of the substrate, and a heat-resistant slip layer, containing particles, provided on the other side of the substrate, the shot-type abrasion loss of the particles contained in the heat-resistant slip layer being 15 to 100 mg. A thermal transfer sheet including: a substrate, a heat-transferable colorant layer provided on one side of the substrate; and a heat-resistant slip layer, containing an inorganic filler, provided on the other side of the substrate, the inorganic filler comprising a main component and an impurity, the hardness of the main component and the hardness of the impurity having the relationship: main component<impurity, the ratio of the highest diffraction line intensity Y of the impurity to the highest diffraction line intensity X of the main component in the X-ray diffraction of the inorganic filler being 0.03.ltoreq.Y/X.ltoreq.0.20.

The present invention relates to a thermal transfer sheet for use in a thermal recording system and more particularly to a thermal transfer sheet which avoids abrasion of a thermal head, collection of sheet debris on a thermal head, and sticking.
A dye sublimation thermal transfer sheet comprising a substrate film bearing, on one side thereof, a dye layer containing a heat-transferable dye and a hot-melt thermal transfer sheet having a hot-melt ink layer containing a wax which can be melt-transferred upon heating have hitherto been used as thermal transfer sheets for use in thermal printers, facsimiles and the like.
For the above conventional thermal transfer sheets, paper, such as an about 10 to 20 .mu.m-thick capacitor paper or paraffin paper, or a plastic film, such as an about 3 to 10 .mu.m-thick polyester or cellophane, is used as a substrate film, a dye layer formed of a dispersion or a solution of a dye in a binder resin or a hot-melt ink layer using a wax with a black pigment, such as carbon black, milled thereinto is provided on the substrate film, and, if necessary, a heat-resistant slip layer is provided on the back side of the substrate film for improving the slip property.
Predetermined sites of the thermal transfer sheet are heated and pressed according to image information from the back side of the substrate film by means of a thermal head or the like to transfer a dye in a site corresponding to a print portion of the dye layer onto an image-receiving sheet, thereby conducting printing.
In the case of the conventional thermal transfer sheet, however, in the course of printing of several thousand sheets, the coating of the heat-resistant slip layer or a filler contained in the coating is scraped off by the thermal head. Further, the coating of the heat-resistant slip layer is, in some cases, heat-fused to the thermal head to cause the collection of sheet debris on the head or the abrasion of a protective film of the thermal head. These unfavorable phenomena often lead to troubles such as uneven density.
In order to prevent the abrasion of a thermal head, EP-A 577051 proposes the use of soft particles, for example, particles having a Mohs hardness of not more than 3. When particles of natural minerals are used, however, the hardness often varies depending upon the kind and content of impurities even though the natural minerals are identical to each other with respect to the main component. Specifically, even though the main component has a Mohs hardness of not more than 3, the presence of a crystal having a Mohs hardness of not less than 3 as an impurity makes it impossible for particles of such a natural mineral to prevent the abrasion of a thermal head, suggesting that mere attention to the Mohs hardness alone never provides a solution to the problem of abrasion of the thermal head.
Further, when such soft particles are used, the particles are collapsed by heat or pressure applied during printing, causing the heat-resistant slip layer to be heat-fused to the thermal head. This often results in the collection of sheet debris on the thermal head or sticking.
If particles contained in the heat-resistant slip layer are protruded from the surface of the heat-resistant slip layer, the particles can scrape off the sheet debris, if any, to prevent the collection of the sheet debris on the thermal head. As described above, however, when soft particles which are less likely to abrade the thermal head are used, the particles are collapsed by heat or pressure applied during printing, making it impossible to scrape off the sheet debris on the head.


An apparatus and method for spray painting of an article where the paint is heated to reduce the viscosity prior to being fed to a paint spray device such as an electrostatic paint spray device. A heat exchange unit is provided between each of a plurality paint supply sources and a paint spray device of a paint spray station, the heat exchange unit located closely adjacent to a respective paint spray device such that only paint being supplied to a paint spray device is heated by a respective heat exchange unit. The heat exchange unit preferably uses a hot dielectric oil for indirect heat exchange with the paint, and preferably a volume of heated paint between a heat exchange unit and a respective paint spray device is only about 15 percent or less of the volume of paint in the heat exchange unit, while the volume of heated paint is about one to three times the volume per minute of flow through the heat exchanger.

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for spray painting of an article, such as an automobile body, with a paint having a high viscosity, where the paint is heated to reduce the viscosity and enable ready spray application by an electrostatic spray device.
The spray painting of an article, such as an automobile body, is often carried out by use of electrostatic spray devices and uses a variety of paint compositions. Generally, such paint compositions have high viscosities and the viscosity must be lowered for use in electrostatic spraying by either dilution with a solvent or diluent or heated to a temperature at which the viscosity is low enough for application. Both such procedures provide further problems. The use of solvents or diluents provides unwanted volatile components that must be contained and disposed of, or recovered, adding to the cost of the paint system, and also can cause problems in the application of the paint to a surface, such as runs, drips, sags, solvent popping or trapping, or the like. The heating of the paint composition, while reducing the amount of unwanted additional components such as solvents or diluents, and reducing the viscosity of the composition, can lead to problems where the paint composition is unstable if exposed to heat for any extended period of time, and if spraying is interrupted, the heated paint composition may begin to react or form a gel.
An example of a prior art paint system for an automotive plant where heating is used to reduce the viscosity of the paint composition is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,541 which shows the use of a plate type heat exchanger for each circulation loop, with the heat exchanger connected in parallel in a single water circulation loop. Another prior art paint temperature control system using a heat exchanger is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,880,228. In the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,880,228, a heat exchanger zone is used with means for continuously circulating a heat exchange fluid into and through the heat exchanger zone and means are also provided for directing a relatively small stream of paint into heat exchange relationship with the fluid, such as hot oil, in the heat exchange zone, the mass velocity of the paint stream being substantially smaller than the mass velocity of the hot fluid. The paint is thus heated only once as it passes to a painting apparatus from the heat exchanger, but the paint is constantly circulated at ambient temperature to and from a paint reservoir.

Apparatus and method for spray painting of an article


An arrangement (10) comprising a first conductive antenna element (20), comprising at least one first slot (30; 31, 32, 33, 34; 35, 36) arranged in the first conductive antenna element (20), and a second conductive antenna element (80), comprising at least one second slot (90; 91, 92, 93, 94; 31; 32, 33, 34) arranged in the second conductive antenna element (80), is disclosed. At least one second slot (90; 91, 92) arranged in the second conductive antenna element (80) is coupled with at least one first slot (30; 35, 36) arranged in the first conductive antenna element (20) by means of at least one conductor (111, 112; 113, 114, 115, 116).

Multiband broadband antenna systems are antenna systems which may provide wireless signals in multiple radio frequency bands. Such antenna systems may for example be used in wireless communication systems, such as, for example, a system based on GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, LTE, and/or WiMax. Such antenna systems may include a plurality of antenna elements. The antenna elements may be comprised in or constitute an antenna or antenna unit and may for example be in the form of discs or plates, or disc-like or plate-like structures, which antenna elements may be arranged to provide a desired or required radiated—and received—antenna signal beamwidth and azimuth scan angle. A relatively high bandwidth of such an antenna or antenna unit may be desired or required in different applications.


This invention utilizes the small cell size of the NAND storage cell structure in an analog storage and playback device. This is achieved, in part, by using a special, zero current storage cell, in which in the read mode, the cell loading current is waveshaped to attain an optimal dynamic range and to avoid the resistive effects of series parasitic resistances of other transistors in the source node or drain node, and to avoid the transistor conductance variations of all the transistors in the read path. The loading current is waveshaped to reduce possible overshoot and settling effects to achieve the fine output voltage resolution in an optimal sensing time. Details of the method and alternate embodiments are disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of integrated circuit design, specifically to analog signal recording and playback utilizing non-volatile memory integrated circuits.
2. Prior Art
For analog signal recording and playback utilizing nonvolatile memory integrated circuits, as described in the patent numbered U.S. Pat. No. 5,220,531 by Trevor Blyth and Richard Simko, EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory) memory cells are used. These cells are comprised of a floating gate device having a source, a drain, a gate and a floating gate wherein the threshold of the device as measured between the gate and the source of the device is determined (controlled) by the charge on the floating gate. These cells are erased using Fowler-Nordheim tunneling by applying a high voltage, e.g. 21 V on the gate, zero volts on the source, and zero volts on the drain. The high voltage on the gate capacitively couples to the floating gate, which creates a high electric field through the tunnel oxide between the floating gate and the drain. This electric field causes electrons to tunnel to the floating gate, which effectively raises the Vt (threshold voltage) to about 6 V. Next the cell is programmed using the same Fowler-Nordheim tunneling mechanism by applying a high voltage on the drain, e.g. 9 to 19 volts, zero volts on the gate, and 6 V on the source. The high voltage on the drain causes a high electric field through the tunnel oxide between the floating gate and the drain in the reverse direction. This causes electrons to tunnel from the floating gate to the drain, causing the threshold voltage to be lower (depleted), e.g. -1 V to +3 V, depending on the voltage level on the drain and the pulse width.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,220,531, the program "pulse" is divided into a series of coarse pulses and a series of fine pulses to store an analog signal in the non-volatile memory cell. After each programming pulse, the content of the cell is read using a read cycle and compared with the analog signal to be stored, with the coarse pulses terminating when the desired programmed level is approached, and the fine pulses terminating when the desired programmed level is reached. The coarse write/read/compare series followed by the fine write/read/compare series provides superior analog signal resolution in the stored signal.
In the above patent, the dynamic range of the cell is about 3 V, with an analog resolution of about 12 millivolts, giving an effective resolution equivalent to a digital storage of 8 bits (each cell has a resolution of 12/3000, or about 1 part in 250). Each coarse pulse or fine pulse is divided into a ramp up time portion and a flat time portion equally of the high voltage, and a sample and compare enable time portion. The compare time portion is used to read back the voltage stored in the memory cell after each incremental coarse or fine programming pulse to see if it reaches a desired value. The sample time portion is used to sample the next sample of input signal and hold it. The sample and compare time portion is the quiet time, i.e. the high voltage source such as the charge pump is disabled for noise reasons. The step voltage between successive coarse levels is approximately 220 millivolts and the step voltage between successive fine levels is approximately 22 millivolts, which is equivalent to a resolution of 12 mV in the stored voltage in the memory cell. The large step voltage for the coarse levels is required to cover the full range of the cell programming threshold window plus an additional voltage margin, which ranges from approximately 9 to 19 volts on the drain of the memory cell, corresponding to about 0-3 v of the memory cell threshold voltage, approximately the analog dynamic range of the memory cell. The number of coarse pulses available is chosen to be 45, which translates into 45.times.220 mV=10 volts full range. The large coarse step is used to achieve the short writing time. The fine ramp full range is chosen to be about 2 V. 90 fine pulses are available, giving a writing resolution of about 22 mV. Thus the number of column sample and hold/high voltage drivers is defined by the sampling rate together with the cell programming time. For example, for sampling rate of 8 Khz (typical audio signal), and a cell programming time of 12.5 ms with the above coarse and fine pulses, the number of column sample and hold/high voltage drivers are 12.5 ms/125 .mu.s=100. This also means the cell writing is happening for 100 columns at the same time.
In the read mode, the storage cell is configured as a source follower with a constant load current from the drain to ground. The gate and the source of the memory cell are connected together, the drain of the memory cell is connected to a constant bias current, the gate of the select transistor is connected to an intermediate voltage, e.g. 10 V, to eliminate the gate voltage drop effect and the resistive effect from the small size of the select gate. A regulated power supply, e.g. 4 V, is connected to the gate/source of the memory cell to avoid the variation of the gate/source voltage on the cell readout voltage. The voltage at the drain is the memory cell readout voltage. Thus the cell is connected as a source follower with the drain and source interchanged. This results in a linear relationship between the threshold of the cell and the cell readout voltage. The storage cell is thus operated in the saturation region since the gate and source are effectively tied together.
In this read configuration, severe disadvantages are encountered when used in a configuration wherein there are series parasitic resistive effects on the source node or the drain node, or there are large variations in the transistor conductances such as are caused by mobility or threshold voltage variations over temperature, process variations or power supply variations. The series parasitic resistive effects, for example, come from the source diffusion resistance of the memory cells, or from other series transistors as in a string memory cell structure such as in a NAND flash memory cell. The source line is typically strapped, e.g., for every 32 cells, by metal or select transistors to reduce resistance from the source line diffusion. Even so, the resistance from the source line diffusion is still very significant, especially for multilevel storage wherein each discrete storage level is to be discernible on readout from each other discrete level. Furthermore, the more effective the strap in reducing these effects, the more strap area is used, resulting in a larger die size.
The NAND memory cell consists of a string of, for example, 8 memory cells in series, and 2 select transistors to select the memory string, one select transistor contact being shared with another memory cell string. Since in effect there is only one-half a bitline contact and one-half a common source line for the 8 memory cells, the per-cell area of the NAND configuration is much smaller. However the series parasitic resistances and transistor conductance variations of this configuration cause voltage drops along the source or drain nodes which lower the dynamic range of the memory cell. More severe in the NAND structure, if considered for analog storage, is the fact that this voltage drop causes the output voltage of one particular cell in a string to be different in the read-back mode of the read/compare/write programming sequence than in the actual read mode for output or playback purposes, since the threshold voltages of other memory cells in the same string are frequently to be further modified depending on the signal inputs. Thus, a first cell in a string can appear to be properly programmed, but one or more other cells in the string require further programming by further programming pulses, so that these cells will have a different resistance when the contents of the first cell are to be later read out during playback from the resistance that existed when the first cell was determined to be properly programmed.

Method and apparatus for reading analog values stored in floating gate NAND structures


A quality control device which improves the quality of voice packet communication. The quality control device used for voice packet communications for transmitting voice packets through a quality non-asurance type network includes a buffer memory for temporarily storing voice packets received through the network and forming a queue of the received voice packets, a queue operating device for operating the queue in accordance with an operation control signal to be supplied, a sequence examining device for examining vocal properties of a sequence of voice information contained in a plurality of voice packets that constitute the queue stored in the buffer memory, and an operation control device for changing the operation control signal in accordance with an examination result of the sequence examining means.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a quality control device for voice packet communications that uses a packet network of, for example, the Internet.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, techniques are been proposed for transmitting a voice signal in real time through a packet network of, for example, the Internet, and devices therefor are being introduced for actual use.
However, the Internet was originally developed for data communications that do not require real time transmission, and the packet transmission on the Internet is not guaranteed qualitatively. Therefore, there is the possibility that phenomena, such as packet-lacking (packet loss), delay, and jitter, that deteriorate a decoded voice will occur on the Internet.
Therefore, if the Internet is used for a communications function, such as telephone communications, that require real-time responsiveness, a buffer device is needed to prevent transmission intermittence.
Let us assume that this buffer device stores voice packets (note that these voice packets include encoded voice data compressed according to an irreversible compressing/encoding method in many cases), which have been received from a network, for example, the Internet, in the order of reception, and reads them in the order of storage. In this case, the reading is always and repeatedly carried out at intervals of a fixed decoding unit time that is required by a decoding circuit that decodes (decompresses) the encoded voice data.
Therefore, in a case where this buffer device is used, if the arrival of a voice packet at a receiver is delayed for more than the fixed time because of, for example, the influence of jitter, the voice packet is not stored onto the buffer device, and only the reading continues, and, as a result, voice packets to be read out will be exhausted.
Since there is a need to keep voice packets being supplied to the decoding circuit at the intervals of the decoding unit time even when such exhaustion occurs, a technique for inserting a complementary packet that contains predetermined voice data (in many cases, this is voice data that generates a slight noise near voice-absence as a decoded voice) is generally used in this case.
However, when the complementary packet is inserted, a packet whose arrival has been delayed by the above-mentioned jitter is sent later. Therefore, disadvantageously, the number of packets in the buffer device gradually increases, and a transmission delay is lengthened with the lapse of time.
If the transmission delay becomes long, the response to the contents of speech, for example, in a bidirectional conversational voice will be unnaturally delayed, and the quality of communication will fall.
A possible countermeasure against this is to at first delete (discard) the voice packet that has been stored in the buffer device (i.e., voice packet that occupies the top position) when the number of stored voice packets exceeds a predetermined number.
Another possible countermeasure is that a position where the complementary packet is inserted is fixed at this top position when the arrival of a voice packet is delayed for more than a fixed time, and voice packets to be read out are exhausted.
However, if the complementary packet is inserted or the voice packet is deleted at only about the top position in this way, an advantage of being able to simplify the processing can be obtained, but, only the state of the top position (i.e., state of the voice packet that has been read out prior to that) can be monitored. Therefore, as a result, the possibility that such deletion and insertion will be successively carried out for a specific position on a series of voice packets increases.
If deleted, effective voice data needed when decoded will be lost, and, if inserted, unnecessary voice data will be mixed when decoded. Therefore, these are operations that deteriorate the quality of decoded voice output, and, if the deletion or insertion is successively carried out from or onto the series of voice packets, the possibility that the degree of deterioration will become significant is high.

Quality control device for voice packet communications


A single pass ROS system provides a plurality of latent images which may subsequently be developed in different colors. The ROS units are initially aligned so that each color image is precisely registered at the same relative position along the exposed area of a photoreceptor belt. The alignment is accomplished by forming a pair of opposed alignment apertures in the surface of the belt and detecting coincidence or lack of coincidence of signals generated by the beginning and end of each scan line. The correction is enabled by rotating the output window in the ROS system, a transmissive optical component with no optical power, subsequent to the ROS, to create the required rotation of the projected scan line. Once the initial X and Y-axis alignments are complete, subsequent alignment is maintained through subsequent passes by checking the positions of the previously identified pixels as they advance past additional lead edge apertures formed in the process direction along the belt surface.

The present invention relates to registration of plural image exposures formed on a photoreceptor by a plurality of Raster Output Scanning (ROS) systems and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for registering the image exposures in the process direction of the photoreceptor to form registered color images in a single pass.
This invention relates generally to a raster output scanning system for producing a high intensity imaging beam which scans across a rotating polygon to a movable photoconductive member to record electrostatic latent images thereon, and, more particularly, to an apparatus for providing registration of the beam in the process direction movement of the photoconductive member.
In recent years, laser printers have been increasingly utilized to produce output copies from input video data representing original image information. The printer typically uses a Raster Output Scanner (ROS) to expose the charged portions of the photoconductive member to record an electrostatic latent image thereon. Generally, a ROS has a laser for generating a collimated beam of monochromatic radiation. This laser beam is modulated in conformance with the image information. The modulated beam is transmitted through a lens onto a scanning element, typically a rotating polygon having mirrored facets.
The light beam is reflected from a facet and thereafter focused to a "spot" on the photosensitive member. The rotation of the polygon causes the spot to scan across the photoconductive member in a fast scan (i.e. line scan) direction. Meanwhile, the photoconductive member is advanced relatively more slowly than the rate of the fast scan in a slow scan (process) direction which is orthogonal to the fast scan direction. In this way, the beam scans the recording medium in a raster scanning pattern. The light beam is intensity-modulated in accordance with an input image serial data stream at a rate such that individual picture elements ("pixels") of the image represented by the data stream are exposed on the photosensitive medium to form a latent image, which is then transferred to an appropriate image receiving medium such as paper. Laser printers may operate in either a single pass or a multiple pass system.
In a single pass, process color system, three ROS stations are positioned adjacent to a photoreceptor surface and selectively energized to create successive image exposures, one for each of the three basic colors. A fourth ROS station may be added if black images are to be created as well. In a multiple pass system, each image area on the photoreceptor surface must make at least three passes relative to the transverse scan line formed by the modulated laser beam generated by a ROS system. With either system, each image must be registered to within a 0.1 mm circle or within a tolerance of .+-.0.05 mm. Each color image must be registered in both the photoreceptor process direction (slow scan or skew registration) and in direction perpendicular to the process registration (referred to as fast scan or transverse registration).
The present invention is directed towards a method and apparatus for registering the color images in the process direction only by controlling registration errors at the lead edge of the images.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art, single pass, ROS color printing system 8 having four ROS systems, 10, 12, 14, and 16. The system 8 includes a photoreceptor belt 18, driven in the process direction, indicated by the arrow 19. The length of the belt 18 is designed to accept an integral number of spaced image areas I.sub.1 -I.sub.n represented by dashed line rectangles in FIG. 1. Upstream of each image area is a charging station (not shown) which places a predetermined electrical charge on the surface of belt 18. As each of the image areas I.sub.1 -I.sub.n reaches a transverse line of scan, represented by lines 20a-20d, the area is progressively exposed on closely spaced transverse raster lines 22, shown with exaggerated longitudinal spacing on the image area I.sub.4 in FIG. 1. Each image area I.sub.1 -I.sub.n is exposed successively by ROS systems 10, 12, 14, 16. Downstream from each exposure station, a development station (not shown) develops the latent image formed in the preceding image area. A fully developed color image is then transferred to an output sheet. Details of charge and development xerographic stations in a multiple exposure single pass system are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,059, commonly assigned as the present application and hereby incorporated by reference. The charge, development, and transfer stations are conventional in the art.
Each ROS system contains its own conventional scanning components, of which only two, the laser light source and the rotating polygon, are shown. The particular system 10 has a gas, or preferably, laser diode 10a, whose output is modulated by signals from control circuit 30 and optically processed to impinge on the facets of rotating polygon 10b. Each facet reflects the modulated incident laser beam as a scan line, which is focused at the photoreceptor surface. Control circuit 30 contains the circuit and logic modules which respond to input video data signals and other control and timing signals to operate the photoreceptor drive synchronously with the image exposure and to control the rotation of the polygon 10b by a motor (not shown). The other ROS systems 12, 14, 16, have their own associated laser diodes 12a, 14a, 16a, and polygons 12b, 14b, 16b, respectively. In the system of FIG. 1, transverse alignment of each successive image exposure is obtained, for example, by providing horseshoe shaped sensors 36a, 36b, 36c, 36d, which cooperate with optical targets T1, T2, T3, T4, respectively, formed in the belt surface. Other sensor systems could be used. Further details regarding transverse alignment registration are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,208,796, commonly assigned as the present application and hereby incorporated by reference. However, for this prior art system, a process alignment must also be accomplished to ensure complete registration of the multiple image exposures.
Printing systems utilizing a ROS to form images on a photoreceptor surface are well known in the art. Conventionally, as seen in prior art FIG. 1, the ROS includes a diode or gas laser for generating a coherent beam of radiation; a modulator for modulating the laser output in accordance with an input video signal; and a multifaceted polygon scanner for scanning the modulated laser beam output line by line, across the surface of the photoreceptor to form the latent image. Also included in the ROS are various optical components to collimate, expand, focus and align the modulated scanning beams. These optical components are fixedly mounted within a housing frame, which is positioned within a printer machine frame, so that the modulated and shaped scanning beams emerging from an output window in the housing are directed in a scan line which is perpendicular to the photoreceptor surface. The lines will be formed in parallel across the surface of the photoreceptor belt.
Referring to FIG. 1, if the images I.sub.2, I.sub.3, I.sub.4 are to be perfectly registered with image I.sub.1, the leading edges should be parallel to each other. Each ROS system must be individually aligned to correct for the initial misregistration.
One solution to error while providing slow scan registration is to rotate an optical component of the ROS, as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,208,796, commonly assigned as the present application and hereby incorporated by reference.
One of the later optical components, such as one of the f.THETA. lens or the wobble correction mirror of the ROS is rotated to create the required rotation of the projected scan line. However, the lenses and mirrors of the ROS have optical power in at least one direction, usually both directions. Some optical elements, such as toroids, have optical power that vary with position of the beam on the surface of the element. Furthermore, a ROS is a precision optical system. With the obvious exception of the rotating polygon mirror, the optical components of the ROS should ideally be stationary and fixed. And these optical components are in the focal plane of the ROS.

Method and apparatus for image registration in a single pass ROS printer using a rotatable output window with no optical power


The invention concerns a device for spraying water in a feedwater tank of a thermal power plant. Because the spraying device comprises a catalyst for the conversion of the gases contained in the water, the gases released from the water during the spray degasification can be removed easily, reliably and completely. Thus, the degree of efficiency of the thermal circuit of the power plant and the lifespan of the components arranged in the circuit are increased.

It is known that thermal power plants have a water-steam circuit (thermal circuit) in which a feedwater tank is arranged among other things. The feedwater tank is used for storing and reconditioning the water that is circulating in the thermal circuit. The degasification of the water is particularly important during the reconditioning process.
In all thermal power plants a most complete degasification possible of the feedwater is indispensable for reliable and safe operation and also for achieving the highest efficiency of the plant. The gases to be removed include particularly the gases that are not condensable at the temperature prevailing in the feedwater tank such as for example oxygen and carbon dioxide. Furthermore, especially in a nuclear power plant of the boiling-water reactor type, hydrogen and oxygen, also called photolysis gases, are formed by the effect of the radioactive radiation on the feedwater that is circulating through the reactor pressure vessel.
The oxidizing properties of the oxygen lead to corrosion and thus damages to all the components of the thermal circuit. These damages drastically reduce the lifespan of the components. Moreover, the hydrogen gas that results from photolysis presents an enormous safety risk, because it is highly flammable and forms particularly with the existing oxygen gas a highly explosive mixture, the so-called detonating gas. However in order to ensure a safe operation of the boiling-water reactor, the resulting photolysis gas must be removed as completely as possible from the feedwater.
One alternative for removing hydrogen and oxygen from the water contained in a primary circuit of a nuclear power plant is the conversion of both the gases by means of catalytically active surfaces according to the patent application DE 3614267 A1.
In another process of the so-called spray degasification, the water containing the gases is sprayed above the feedwater present in the feedwater tank in the form of the finest water droplets and brought in contact with hot steam, the so-called extraction steam. The heat exchange of the extraction steam with the sprayed colder water causes the gas dissolved in it to be released and removed from the thermal circuit by a suitable suction device. The spring-loaded water spray valve known from DE 10001297 can be used for spraying the water in the feedwater tank.
However the suction of the gases released by the spray degasification presents some fundamental problems. It has been seen in practice that the spray shield formed by the spraying of the water forms a relatively dense cover that interferes with the suction of the gases by the suction device arranged in the feedwater tank. An insufficient suction of the radiolysis gases leads to the afore-mentioned disadvantages and risks in the operation of the thermal circuit.
Also the even distribution of the water to be degasified by the spraying device and the even distribution of the extraction steam in the feedwater tank is considerably difficult due to the incomplete suction of the radiolysis gases. Thus the optimal efficiency of the spray degasification and ultimately of the entire thermal circuit cannot be achieved.