A vehicle mounted with a continuous stepless transmission having a continuous stepless transmission and a controlling section for performing speed-changing operation of the continuous stepless transmission, the speed change ratio of the continuous stepless transmission being switchable by a speed change operation section, includes: a shift-mode-switching section which switches the mode of a speed change ratio switching, the speed change ratio switching being performed by the speed change operation section, between a first mode for switching the speed change ratio in stages among a plurality of preset speed change ratios and a second mode for switching the speed change ratio continuously or substantially continuously; in which the controlling section further includes a vehicle speed setting section which sets a target vehicle speed at least based on the speed change operation signal detected by operating the speed change operation section and a mode signal detected by switching the shift-mode-switching section.

There has conventionally been known a working vehicle capable of traveling by a hydrostatic driving mechanism (hereinafter referred to as "HST"), the working vehicle being a vehicle mounted with a continuous stepless transmission including a variable capacity hydraulic pump driven by an engine and a variable capacity hydraulic motor rotated by means of pressured oil received from the variable capacity hydraulic pump, in which the speed of the working vehicle can be steplessly changed by changing the angle of a swash plate of either the variable capacity hydraulic pump or the variable capacity hydraulic motor.
Further, there has been an example of a speed changing device for a bulldozer as a working vehicle, which is, however, not a vehicle mounted with an HST, in which an operation grip of a mono-lever is provided with a speed-stage-switching switch for shifting up or shifting down the speed stage of a transmission. Either a shift-up operation signal or a shift-down operation signal output by the speed-stage-switching switch is input to a controller, and the speed can be changed to a second speed or a third speed by performing the shift-up operation with the speed-stage-switching switch (refer to, for example, Patent Document 1).
The speed changing device of mono-lever type may be applied to a bulldozer mounted with an HST. In other words, the configuration may be the one in which the bulldozer is enabled to travel by an HST, a controller for speed change is provided, and the tilting angle of the swash plate of either the variable capacity hydraulic pump or the variable capacity hydraulic motor is allowed to be continuously changed by operating the speed-stage-switching switch.
With the above configuration, when the speed-stage-switching switch provided on the operation grip of the mono-lever is pushed once, the angle of the swash plate is changed by one stage, which corresponds to a predetermined small angle, and the angle of the swash plate can be substantially continuously changed stage by stage by continuously pushing the speed-stage-switching switch once by once. The operator pushes the speed-stage-switching switch for a few times until the speed change ratio suitable to a desired vehicle speed is reached. Also, the speed change ratio can change fractionally and substantially continuously stage by stage if the speed-stage-switching switch is continuously pushed until the desired vehicle speed is reached, so that the substantially stepless speed change utilizing the features of HST can be achieved.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Publication No. 3,352,041 (Pages 4 to 5 and FIG. 3)

Vehicle mounted with continuous stepless transmission


An inlet guide for facilitating distribution of optical fibers into at least one duct is provided. The inlet guide includes a first portion, a second portion, a first end, a second end, a head, and a main body. The first portion includes a first opposing surface. The second portion includes a second opposing surface and is separable from the first portion. The head is disposed at the first end and comprises an outlet port. The main body is disposed at the second end. The first portion and the second portion cooperate to define a plurality of passageways for the optical fibers. The plurality of passageways extends between the first end and the second end.

Air-assisted fiber installation, or blowing, is a technique for installing an optical fiber in a duct that offers an alternative to the conventional technique of threading a line through the duct, attaching the line to the fiber, and pulling or tugging the fiber through the duct. As the fiber is fed into the duct from a mechanical drive through an inlet guide, a high-pressure, high-volume air flow is introduced into the duct to push the fiber through the duct.
One known implementation of the inlet guide is a hydroscopic needle. However, the needles located at the inlet end are exposed to the mechanical drive and thus easily damaged. Also, the needles are susceptible to becoming filled with dirt, excess material, and/or other foreign substances which can clog the pathway and inhibit proper dispensation of the optical fibers therefrom.
FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate a conventional inlet guide 100 that includes a cylindrical housing 102 having openings 104 at one end to receive fibers (not shown) and guides 106 at the other end for guiding the fibers into associated ducts (not shown). FIG. 1A is a rear perspective view depicting a conventional inlet guide. FIG. 1B is a front perspective view of the conventional inlet guide of FIG. 1A. The inlet guide 100 also has a flange 108 that defines a plurality of screw holes 110. The inlet guide 100 is attached to a housing of a feeding unit (not shown) with four screws (not shown) that are inserted through the screw holes 110. That particular arrangement accommodates between eight to twelve fibers and uses a point-over-point entry configuration which can cause cross-over issues with the fibers entering the inlet guide 100 and can also cause friction thereby damaging the fibers during installation.

Detachable inlet guide for blown optical fiber


A structure of memory card connector that comprises a first slot, a second slot, and a third slot for inserting many kinds of memory card. Moreover, the above memory card connector further comprises an interface circuit coupling with the memory card(s) inserted into the first slot, the second slot, and the third slot. In accordance with the memory card connector, the second slot and the third slot are set above or below the first slot. Further, the rear end of the memory card connector is provided with a memory card detecting terminal, a grounding terminal and a write-protect terminal for showing the connection condition between the memory card connector and the memory card.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a memory card connector, and more particularly to a memory card connector adapted to be connected with various kinds of memory cards.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Different memory cards are made indifferent scales, and need different memory card connectors. For the convenience on using and carrying, memory card connector, a combo socket for many memory cards in different scales, are produced.
In the prior art, a slot is employed in a memory card connector for many different memory cards. In the above-mentioned design, different guiding parts (concave or convex shape) are used to limit the positions of the different memory cards in the slot. Thus, the memory cards are coupled with different terminal sets and connected with an interface circuit. Therefore, the mentioned memory card connector can be applied to different kinds of memory card. Such as the memory card connector disclosed in TW Pat. No. 495110, the above memory card connector can be applied to four kinds of memory cards with a slot. Moreover, the interface circuit of the above memory card connector can be applied by two different memory cards at the same time.
The above memory card connector can be applied to four different memory cards and can be applied to two memory cards at the same time. However, there are more and more different kinds of memory card used today. In summary, in order to satisfy users' necessary, it is desired to develop a memory card connector applied to more kinds of memory card in smaller space and more memory cards can be used in the memory card connector at the same time.


A light for motor vehicles includes a rod-shaped optical waveguide having at least two optical waveguide arms arranged behind one another in their longitudinal direction, and between which at least one light source is arranged whose light can be coupled on a front side of the light into the optical waveguide arms and can be emitted transversely to their longitudinal direction by way of a light exit surface situated opposite a reflecting surface. In a central area between the optical waveguide arms, a row of more than two light sources is aligned in the longitudinal direction of the optical waveguide arrangement. The light of two outer light sources can be coupled into the respective front sides of the adjacent optical waveguide arms, and the light of at least one light source situated in-between the two outer light sources can be emitted directly in the direction of the light exit surface.

The invention relates to a light for motor vehicles, particularly an additional brake light, comprising a rod-shaped optical waveguide arrangement. The optical waveguide arrangement includes at least two optical waveguide arms that are arranged behind one another in their longitudinal direction and between which at least one light source is arranged. The light from the light source can be coupled on the front side of the light into the optical waveguide arms and can be emitted transversely to their longitudinal direction by way of a light exit surface situated opposite a reflecting surface.
Lights for motor vehicles having rod-shaped optical waveguide arrangements can be used particularly for additional brake lights that are centrally arranged on the rearward structure or on a rear window. The brake lights are also called third brake lights or high-mounted brake lights, abbreviated HBL.
In the case of known high-mounted brake lights, as disclosed, for example, in German Patent Documents DE 198 04 440 A1 and DE 100 29 542 A1, one punctiform-emitting light source, preferably an LED, is arranged at the ends of a rod-shaped optical waveguide. The light source couples its light on the front side into the optical waveguide. On the circumference of the optical waveguide, a reflecting surface is arranged opposite the light exit surface. The reflecting surface has a plurality of prisms reflecting the incident light, whereby a uniform illumination of the radiating surface is then achieved at the light exit surface. As disclosed in German Patent Document DE 100 29 542 A1, the prism arrangement, in an operative connection with a correspondingly shaped light exit surface, can additionally take over the function of a reflector that reflects light incident on the brake light from the outside.
For achieving a uniform illumination along its entire length and for maintaining the legally required light values and light surfaces, such brake lights require LEDs with a relatively high luminous intensity. Particularly in the case of an internal mounting on the rear window and greater overall lengths (more than 50 cm) of the prism rod, the expenditures rise considerably.
German Patent Document DE 20 2004 016 669 U1 discloses a high-mounted brake light that has two rod-shaped optical waveguides arranged behind one another in the longitudinal direction. Between the waveguides, at least one, preferably two light sources are arranged that couple their light on the front side into the respectively adjacent optical waveguide. An opening for receiving a spraying nozzle of a rear-window washing system is provided between the optical waveguides. In addition, a cooling body is assigned to each optical waveguide that is in a thermal contact with a printed circuit board that carries the light source(s) of the respective optical waveguide.
The cooling bodies, which are provided for the cooling of the printed circuit boards and for the light sources, respectively, and whose construction expenditures and costs are relatively high, are disadvantageous in the case of the known brake light. In addition to the attendant construction expenditures and costs, the two printed circuit boards and two cooling bodies also require additional space and additional weight for the brake light. Furthermore, as a result of the construction, a gap in the brake light emission is created in a center part in the area of the spraying nozzle opening. This may have an unfavorable effect on the visual appearance of the light and is therefore more suitable only for special brake lights where such a recess is defined.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to create a light for motor vehicles having a rod-shaped optical waveguide arrangement, particularly for a use as a high-mounted brake light which, although it has a relatively long length, ensures a uniform illumination and which nevertheless is cost-effective and has a simple and space-saving construction.
This and other objects and advantages are achieved by the motor vehicle light according to the invention, which comprises a row of more than two light sources aligned in a central area between optical waveguide arms in the longitudinal direction of an optical waveguide arrangement that is arranged on an electronic carrier plate. The light of the two outer light sources can be coupled into the respective front sides of the adjacent optical waveguide arms, and the light of at least one light source situated in-between the two outer light sources can be directly emitted in a direction perpendicular to the light exit surface.
Using the arrangement according to the invention, it is advantageously achieved that, when cost-effective light sources and optical waveguides are used, a high-mounted brake light can be obtained which without any problem can extend to over the entire vehicle width and can be used for an external attachment as well as for an internal attachment to the rearward vehicle structure.
A direct emission starts out from the central area in the direction of the light exit surface. Laterally thereof, two optical waveguide arms are arranged that may be correspondingly shorter. For feeding the shorter optical waveguide arms, conventional light sources are sufficient to generate a sufficiently strong and homogenous illumination at the light exit surface, such as in the case of an internal attachment to the rear window. Conventional light sources require no special cooling measures, such as special cooling bodies or high-expenditure electronic controls. For the optical waveguide arms, commercially available optical waveguide bodies comprising prism rods can be used. On one longitudinal side, these have a reflecting surface formed by prism elements where the coupled-in light is reflected multiple times. As a result, a homogenous emission is generated into a preferred direction, i.e., in the direction of the light exit surface. The light exit surface situated opposite the prism surface may be constructed, for example, as a clear smooth surface, as far as the visual appearance is concerned. Natural, colored and/or structured surfaces are also conceivable. A corresponding covering pane may also be disposed in front of the light exit surface.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, an optical element may be disposed in front of the carrier plate in the direction of the light exit surface, such that the direct emission radiates through it. This optical system may be an optical waveguide whose optical characteristics are adapted to the lateral optical waveguide arms. As a result, an emission is achieved in a simple manner that appears particularly uniform over the entire length of the optical waveguide arrangement. The optical waveguide arms may be part of an optical waveguide that is correspondingly cut out or shaped in the central area of the carrier plate. Further additional secondary optical systems are conceivable. However, it is also conceivable that the carrier plate is covered by a covering pane arranged in the plane of the light exit surface or the cover of the optical waveguide arms without an additional optical element. As a result, a direct view of the emitting light sources is made possible in the case of a clear covering pane, which may be desirable for achieving certain visual effects.
Conventional light emitting diodes (LEDs) in the visible wavelength range are particularly suitable for use as light sources. These are cost-effectively available in any desired emission color (wavelength in the visible range), particularly in the red color spectrum, which is relevant to brake lights. In addition, they have a particularly long service life and can easily be bonded and wired as compact components on a printed circuit board, which is particularly suitable as the electronic carrier plate. A component manufactured by flexible printed circuit board technology may be provided as a printed circuit board, such as a base made of a polymer foil with a highly ductile copper deposit. As a result, the optical waveguide arrangement can be easily adapted to a defined geometry when mounted at the installation site.
In a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the outer light sources, i.e., those whose light is coupled into the optical waveguide arms, and the inner light sources i.e., those which emit directly, have different light intensities. By means of a suitable selection of the light intensities, a particularly homogeneous emission of the light can be achieved. In particular, it is possible to compensate losses that may occur during the front-side coupling-in as well as a higher luminance as a result of several directly emitting LEDs in the central emission range, particularly without high-expenditure electronic control devices.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention, the optical waveguide arrangement is constructed in one piece. The electronic carrier plate may be constructed as a plastic insert such as an injection-molded part. As a result of the one-piece optical waveguide, a continuous smooth light exit surface can be used, which is particularly favorable visually. Furthermore, a compact component is obtained, which is especially mounting-friendly.
For the external attachment, a one-piece component is particularly suitable, because high-expenditure sealing can be saved. In a preferred one-piece component, the carrier plate is connected with the optical waveguide arms as an insert using, for example, a plastic injection-molding method. However, a particularly flexible optical waveguide arrangement may be provided in a modular design, where the individual modules (optical waveguide arms, carrier plate) can be mutually connected in a detachable manner by way of snap-in or plug-type connections. Such an arrangement can be cost-effectively adapted to different vehicle models.
The lengths of the optical waveguide arms as well as the central emission range defined by the carrier plate can be arbitrarily varied in order to achieve a desired emission surface or emission length as well as a desired emission characteristic. Here, it is also conceivable that, as provided in a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the optical waveguide arrangement can have three or more optical wave guide arms with carrier plates that are each arranged in-between. The waveguide arms are advantageously wired to one another and each carry a plurality of light sources such that the light of the respectively outer light sources can be coupled into the respectively adjacent faces of the corresponding optical waveguide arms. It thereby becomes possible to further increase the luminous power of the light when using cost-effective LEDs and therefore again expand the application possibilities of the light.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft


A system for delivering air to vehicle engines generally includes at least one air cleaner configurable to receive either conditioned air or unconditioned air and a conduit assembly coupled to the air cleaner for delivering cleaned air from the air cleaner to the vehicle engine.

Combustion air directed into an internal combustion engine is generally directed through air cleaners before being directed into the engine compartment. In most climates, ambient air is a suitable source of combustion air. Therefore, air cleaners are generally manufactured with a perforated cap through which ambient air is received.
At extreme temperatures (for example, in extremely hot or cold climates), however, ambient air can be damaging to an internal combustion engine if used as combustion air. In addition, the ambient air source can become impeded or clogged by outside environmental conditions, such as snow, ice, and/or heavy dust conditions.
Therefore, there exists a need for switching the source of combustion air from ambient air to a conditioned air source, for example, warmed air delivered from the vehicle underhood area.

Systems and methods for delivering air to vehicle engines


An infant car seat base assembly has a base section with a top side, a bottom side, an upright base panel on a first end, and first and second openings vertically spaced apart on the upright base panel. A foot is attached to the first end and is slidable along the upright base panel in a direction generally normal to a plane of the bottom side between a first position and a second position. The foot has a foot body and a resilient, flexible leg extending up from the foot body. The flexible leg is exposed on an exterior of the base section and has a back side facing the upright base panel. The foot has a guide leg extending up from the foot body adjacent the flexible leg and positioned behind the upright base panel. A tab protrudes from the back side of the flexible leg and is sized to selectively seat in each of the first and second openings. The flexible leg biases the tab toward the upright base panel to seat in a selected one of the first and second openings when aligned therewith. The flexible leg can be bent outward away from the upright base panel to permit sliding the foot to one of the first or second positions.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present invention is generally directed to infant car seats, and more particularly to an infant car seat base assembly that has a height adjustable foot.
2. Description of Related Art
Infant car seats are known in the art and used to securely and more safely transport infants in moving vehicles. Many infant car seat products have a base that is positioned on the vehicle seat and an infant car seat that is removably attachable to the base. It is desirable for both safety and comfort of the seat occupant to have the infant car seat properly oriented or inclined during use.
It is known in the art for these types of infant car seats to adjust the height of the base at one end. For earlier known products, the incline or recline of the infant car seat could be adjusted by placing a rolled up blanket, towel, or some other article under one end of the car seat base on top of the vehicle seat and then maneuvering the article until the desired attitude or incline of the base was achieved. This practice was inconvenient and awkward and could sometimes result in the infant car seat not being properly inclined for optimum comfort and/or safety.
More recently, a number of infant car seats have been produced that incorporate an on-board adjustment mechanism. The mechanism can typically be manipulated to adjust the car seat base incline or elevation relative to the vehicle seat on which it is installed. The typical adjustment mechanism for such a car seat and base employs some type of column or leg at a front portion of the base (front corresponding to the foot end of the infant car seat). The height of the column or leg relative to the car seat base can be selectively adjusted to change the tilt angle of the base relative to the vehicle seat on which it is installed.
Most of these types of adjustable mechanisms include multiple components and/or require two hands to adjust the mechanism height relative to the base. In one example, GRACO's "Step 1" infant car seat has a base that employs a three-part screw mechanism. A user must rotate an actuator in one direction or the other in order to raise or lower the mechanism height relative to the base. The GRACO "Step 1" mechanism requires only one hand to adjust the height, but the mechanism has multiple parts, which must each be manufactured and assembled in addition to the base. Thus, the cost and complexity of this solution can be relatively high.
In another example, GRACO's "SnugRide" infant car seat has a base that employs a one-piece adjustable mechanism. The "SnugRide" base has a one-piece plastic foot one the inside of the base with a part that projects out from the base bottom and that can be positionally adjusted relative to the base. The plastic foot has a pair of hooked tabs that project out from the base through openings on the base. These tabs hold the foot in a selected height position. In order to adjust the height of the foot, a user must use two hands to push both of the tabs in at the same time and then force the foot up or down to the selected height position. This procedure can be relatively difficult to do, and particularly when the base is installed on a vehicle seat. The user may need one hand to push both tabs in at the same time and the other hand to move the foot. Sometimes the user needs two hands just to push in the tabs, making it difficult to then also move the foot, as the tabs are resiliently biased to extend out through the openings. Also, if the base is pressed against a vehicle's seat back during use, the tabs can be inadvertently pushed inward and the foot can potentially and inadvertently be dislodged from a selected position, altering the base incline. Thus, though this solution employs a one-piece mechanism, two hands are required to manipulate the mechanism and the mechanism can inadvertently move during use.


Provided are a wireless transmission device, a wireless reception device, and a bandwidth allocation method for, when non-contiguous bands allocation is performed, improving the frequency resource use efficiency of a system and thereby improving the system performance. RIV decoding unit (106) decodes start RBG# and end RBG# that are indicated by each RIV output from scheduling information decoding unit (104). Allocation boundary setting unit (107) previously adds a predetermined offset to the boundary of each RIV so that the boundaries of the allocations of respective RIVs are different from each other. Based on the start RBG# and end RBG# output from RIV decoding unit (106) and the boundaries of the allocations of respective RIVs output from allocation boundary setting unit (107), transmission bandwidth determination unit (108) determines, as allocated bandwidths, the bandwidths that are indicated by a plurality of RIVs and are not overlapped with each other.

The upstream channel of 3GPP LTE (3rd Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution) employs contiguous band transmission in which a data signal of each terminal is allocated to contiguous frequency band to reduce CM/PAPR (Cubic Metric/Peak to Average Power Ratio). Each terminal transmits data according to frequency allocation resource information notified from a base station. The frequency allocation resource information means two pieces of information that include a start RB (Resource Block) number and an end RB number where the term "RB" indicates a frequency allocation unit formed of twelve subcarriers.
In an LTE network, the base station notifies the terminals of the frequency allocation resource information using information referred to herein as RIV (Resource Indication Value). RIV indicates the allocation resource information with a tree structure as shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 shows the RIV tree structure that indicates contiguous band allocation within RB#0 to RB#5. When the base station designates RIV=6, for example, the allocation resource information for the terminal includes RB#0 and RB#1 that are the base of the tree. Similarly, when the base station designates RIV=14, allocation resource information for the terminal includes RB#2 to RB#4 that are the base of the tree. RB#0 to RB#5 located at the base of the tree correspond to RIVs=0 to 5, respectively.
Assuming that RIVs=0 to 5 at the base of the tree are the first step, RIVs=6 to 10, RIVs=12 to 15, RIVs=18 to 20, RIVs=17 to 16, and RIV=11 correspond to the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth steps, respectively. Utilization of the first to sixth RIVs enables the contiguous band with twenty-one patterns to be indicated out of RB#0 to RB#5 located at the base of the tree.
It is studied that the upstream channel of LIE-Advanced as an evolved form of LTE employs non-contiguous band transmission in addition to the contiguous band transmission to improve sector throughput performance (see Non-Patent Literature 1).
The non-contiguous band transmission is a transmission method of allocating data signals and reference signals to non-contiguous bands that are distributed over a wide band. The non-contiguous band transmission can allocate the data signals and the reference signals to discrete frequency bands as shown in FIG. 2. Thus, the non-contiguous band transmission can increase the degree of freedom of frequency band allocation of the data signal and the reference signal at each terminal to have a larger frequency scheduling effect compared to the contiguous band transmission.
A conventional method of sending the non-contiguous band allocation resource information from the base station to the terminals is to notify any terminal of the non-contiguous band allocation by sending a plurality of RIVs (contiguous band allocation information) to the terminal (see Non-Patent Literature 2).
As shown in FIG. 3, NPL 2 discloses that RBG numbers (RBG#) are assigned by allocation granularity (4 RB in FIG. 3) referred to herein as RBG (Resource Block Group) and the scheduled terminal is notified of RIV indicating a start RBG# and an end RBG#. The base station notifies the terminal of two RIVs (RIV#1 and RIV #2) as shown in FIG. 3, thereby enabling allocation of two clusters (each being a contiguous band block), i.e., non-contiguous bands to the terminal. Thus, specifying RBG by taking advantage of RIVs themselves used in conventional LTE enables non-contiguous band allocation to be easily introduced into LTE-Advanced.
An RBG size is determined according to a system bandwidth as shown in FIG. 4. For the system bandwidth of 20 MHz, for example, the RBG size will be 4 RB as shown in FIG. 3. The number of signaling bits of the allocation resource information is thus reduced by increasing RBG size according to the magnitude of the system bandwidth.

Wireless transmission device, wireless reception device, and bandwidth allocation method for setting a band where other bands indicated by continuous band allocation information do not overlap

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION OF AMERICA


A coping bit capable of being easily modified to cut profiles having tenons of varying lengths is provided. The coping bit includes an axially extending primary drive shaft and a first cutting member fixed on the primary drive shaft. An axially extending secondary drive shaft having an upper and a lower portion is removably mounted on the primary drive shaft for rotation therewith, and a second cutting member is mounted on the secondary drive shaft in spaced relation to the first cutting member when the secondary drive shaft is mounted to the primary drive shaft.

In operations in which two workpieces are joined together, a well known method of joining the two workpieces is to form mating profiles in each of the workpieces, i.e., a tenon and a recess, which are sized to fit together as a mating pair. This joining technique is often used in the manufacture and assembly of workpieces such as doors, in general, and panel doors, in particular, such as those used in cabinetry and decorative doors. In door making, it is preferred to form tenons in the support rails of the door in an extended length. Such extended length tenons provide increased support for the support joints of the door, therefore creating a more sturdy door. A door assembled using support rails that have conventional length tenons tends to sag and is considered to be less sturdy and of inferior quality.
As is well known in the art, when it is desired to cut a profile with a recess or a corresponding tenon into the edge of a workpiece, a pair of rotating bits, such as a molding bit and a coping bit, are provided, each of which typically include two cutter elements fixed onto a drive shaft. A profile has an aesthetically pleasing shaped surface and functional aspects such as a tenon or a recess and is formed into the end of a workpiece. The edge of the workpiece to be formed is moved laterally into contact with the rotating bits. If a recess is to be formed into the workpiece, typically a molding bit that includes two cutter members having a thickness corresponding to the desired thickness of the recess, is used. Similarly, if a tenon is to be formed into the workpiece, typically a coping bit that includes two cutter members fixed thereon at a spacing corresponding to the thickness of the tenon to be formed is used so that the edge of the workpiece is cut away by the cutter elements above and below the portion that becomes the tenon.
With molding and coping bits, it is possible to form recesses and tenons, respectively, of varying thicknesses. Spacer members of varying sizes may be removably mounted between the cutting members to create the desired thickness.
However, with the above-described pair of rotating bits, it is not possible to form tenons of an extended length because the centrally located drive shaft of the coping bit is an obstruction that limits the distance that the edge of a workpiece may extend across the surface of the cutters. Thus, a tenon formed using a coping bit with two cutters is limited in length.
It is also known to use a coping bit having a single cutter member mounted onto a drive shaft to form a tenon or a recess in a workpiece, respectively. When a rotating bit of this type is used, two separate cutting operations must be used to form the profile having a tenon in the workpiece because the rotating bit only has a single cutter member. A single cutter coping bit may be used when forming an extended tenon because there is no central bearing or other obstruction on the cutter member thereby leaving a flat unobstructed planar surface for the edge of the workpiece to extend across while one side of the tenon is being cut. It is possible to form profiles of varying thickness using a single cutter rotating bit because each side of the profile is formed in a separate cutting operation.
However, when using a coping bit having a single cutter, which requires two separate cutting operations to form a tenon, often alignment problems arise, especially when tenons are cut into many workpieces. For example, when assembling a door, tenons are cut along rails that form the top, bottom and intermediate frames of the door. With a coping bit having a single cutter, a single cut is made along the end of the workpiece to cut one face of the tenon needed and then a second cut is made along the other side of the workpiece to cut the other face of the same tenon needed on the end of the workpiece. If at any time during either one of these cutting operations, the workpiece moves slightly or the craftsman applies a slightly different pressure to the workpiece being cut, the tenon will not be evenly cut and alignment problems, i.e., problems with the tenons and recesses of the workpieces fitting together, will arise when trying to assemble the workpieces of the panel door. In addition, any variations in thickness of the workpiece being cut introduce a problem when using a coping bit having a single cutter because the sides of the workpiece are used as a reference when cutting with a coping bit of this type. As such, any variation in workpiece thickness will cause the craftsman to cut the tenon unevenly and will create an alignment problem when trying to fit the cut tenon into a matching recess. The risk of creating alignment problems is present for every workpiece cut with a coping bit have a single cutter.
Further, it is often the situation that a person using a pair of rotating bits will want to form recesses, conventional length tenons and extended length tenons all in the same project. For example, when making a door, it is usually necessary to form recesses, conventional length tenons and extended length tenons to assemble a sturdy, secure door. However, as described hereinabove, the pair of rotating bits with two cutters is unable to form extended tenons into a workpiece and the pair of rotating bits with a single cutter is difficult to use without experiencing alignment problems when attempting to assemble the finished product, as described in greater detail above.


A substrate for power decoupling and a method of forming a substrate for power decoupling. The substrate comprises one or more decoupling capacitors; and one or more interconnections to the decoupling capacitors. At least one of the interconnections comprises a lossy material.

In design optimization and implementation of discrete capacitors for power decoupling in electronic appliances and systems, series resistance to a discrete or embedded decoupling capacitor is typically provided by using an annular ring of resistive material printed or formed around the capture pad of vias connected to the discrete decoupling capacitor. The decoupling capacitor is thus connected through a series resistor to the power planes. This design has a number of drawbacks, including:                The gap between the vias interconnecting the decoupling capacitor is determined by the diameter of the annular ring, thereby increasing via pitch for the decoupling capacitor interconnection.        The gap between the vias interconnecting the decoupling capacitor is determined by the diameter of the annular ring, limiting the via coupling effect and thereby actually increasing the effective inductance of the decoupling capacitor interconnection and degrading the power decoupling performance.        The series resistance between the decoupling capacitor and power planes is provided through a lateral interconnection that inhibits direct interconnection between active devices and decoupling capacitor, resulting in additional loop inductance between the decoupling capacitor and active device, and also degrading signal routability.        The series resistance employed using resistive materials on the power planes affects the effective resistance at dc or low frequency for high current path, degrading electrical performance, especially for high power devices        The series resistance employed using resistive materials on the power planes also introduces additional thermal resistance due to intrinsic thermal properties of resistive materials. Power planes are inherently lateral thermal conducting paths that provide heat dissipation from active devices.
A need therefore exists for a decoupling capacitor interconnection design and method that addresses one or more of the above mentioned drawbacks.

Agency for Science, Technology & Research


A single dose pack and methods for producing and using the same are provided. In one embodiment, a multi-chamber single dose pack includes a container composed of a water-soluble film. Further, the container includes two or more separate chambers. The multi-chamber single dose pack further includes a buffering agent encapsulated within at least a first chamber of the two or more separate chambers and a wash composition encapsulated within at least a second chamber of the two or more separate chambers. The wash composition includes a detergent surfactant, water present in an amount of up to about 80 weight percent, based on the total weight of the wash composition, a water activity-reducing salt, carbohydrate, or non-aqueous solvent, and an organic or inorganic acid-based preservative. The wash composition has a water activity of about 0.1 to about 0.9. Further, the wash composition has a pH of about 3.5 to about 5.5.

Detergent packaged in single dose packs is available for a variety of washing activities, such as clothes laundering and dish washing. The single dose pack provides a pre-measured quantity of detergent that is easy to carry and convenient to use. The single dose pack minimizes over-dosage of detergent and has proven popular with consumers.
Many single dose packs include a wash composition that is encapsulated within a film, where the wash composition includes detergent, solvents, and other components useful for cleaning. Water is one solvent often utilized in single dose packs. Consumers are accustomed to a standard size of single dose pack, so changes in the wash composition that reduce the total volume may be compensated for by increasing the solvent loading to maintain a more constant single dose pack size.
Moreover, including greater amounts of solvents, such as water and organic solvents, in the wash composition increases the overall size, rigidity, and stability of the single dose pack. The increased size and rigidity results in a single dose pack that is more aesthetically pleasing to handle. Furthermore, increased size and rigidity produces a single dose pack that looks more "full" to consumers, where the single dose pack does not deform or collapse as much during storage.
However, increases in the solvent loading typically result in degradation of the film over time. The film is typically soluble in water, so increases in the water loading have an increased propensity to degrade the film.
With the aforementioned aim of increasing the water content of single dose packs, it is hypothesized that the increased water content may make the packs sensitive to microbiological activity. Microbiological activity in the wash composition has the potential to degrade the wash composition. Additionally, microbiological activity in the wash composition may be undesirably introduced in to the clothes laundering or dishwashing machinery.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a single dose pack with increased solvent loading where the film remains structurally sound for extended periods, and methods of producing such single dose packs. Additionally, it is desirable to provide such single dose packs and methods that inhibit microbiological activity. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.

Detergent single dose packs and methods of producing the same


A semiconductor memory device comprises a power control circuit for outputting a power voltage in a read operation period and a write operation period, and an internal circuit operating by the power voltage supplied thereto.

In general, a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) interrupts a power voltage supplied to an internal circuit to reduce unnecessary current consumption when it enters into a deep power down mode or a power down mode.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional semiconductor memory device.
Referring to FIG. 1, a semiconductor memory device comprises a control signal generating unit 1 and a PMOS transistor P1.
The control signal generating unit 1 receives a deep power down mode signal DPD and a power down mode signal PWD, and generates a control signal CON, and the PMOS transistor P1 controls the supply of a power voltage VDD in response to the control signal CON. Here, the deep power down mode signal DPD and the power down mode signal PWD are high active signals. Therefore, since the control signal CON is enabled to a high level when a DRAM enters into a deep power down mode or a power down mode, the PMOS transistor P1 is turned off and the power voltage VDD is interrupted.
As described above, the conventional semiconductor memory device interrupts the power voltage supplied to an internal circuit 2 to reduce the current consumption when the DRAM enters into the deep power down mode or the power down mode.
However, in states other than the deep power down mode or the power down mode, unnecessary current consumption can occur since the power voltage VDD is still supplied. In particular, in a case of a mobile DRAM requiring much less current consumption compared to a main memory or a graphic memory, there is a need to reduce the current consumption even in an idle state, in which all banks of the DRAM are precharged, other than the deep power down mode and the power down mode.

Power control circuit and semiconductor memory device using the same


Method for manufacturing a semiconductor optical device includes forming an epitaxial structure containing at least an active layer which can emit light, of a III-V group semiconductor material; forming an insulating layer over the epitaxial structure, which prevents the V group element from escaping from the epitaxial structure during heat treatment; heat treating the epitaxial structure at at least 800 degrees C.; and removing the insulating layer, thereby enhancing the reliability of the device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor optical device and method for manufacturing the same, which can be used for optical information processing and optical communication and the like, suitably for a pumping light source for a fiber amplifier.
2. Description of the Related Art
A light source for optical information processing and optical communication is required to have high power output and high reliability, particularly in case of a pumping light source for a fiber amplifier which can be used for an optical repeater in a submarine optical cable, a semiconductor optical device is required to have a long lifetime and high reliability.
As the pumping light source for a fiber amplifier, the semiconductor optical device having an emission wavelength of 0.98 μm or 1.02 μm is generally selected and a strained quantum well structure is adopted for an active layer thereof. For example, there is a distortion of about 1% between an InGaAs quantum well layer and a GaAs guide layer.
For main degradation causes of the semiconductor optical device, end face degradation due to optical absorption on an optical exit face and internal degradation due to dislocation in a crystal or distortion between epitaxial growth layers are known.
To counter the end face degradation, a window structure in which the band gap energy of the optical exit face is larger than that of the active layer can be adopted to prevent the optical absorption or an appropriate coating on the end face can be designed.
To counter the internal degradation, a substrate having a low dislocation density can be used or an active layer with a strain-compensated structure can be adopted.
The related prior arts are listed as follows:
[Document 1]
G. Beister et al., "Monomode emission at 350 mW and high reliability with InGaAs/AlGaAs (λ=1020 nm) ridge waveguide laser diodes", ELECTRONICS LETTERS, 16 Apr. 1998, Vol. 34, No. 8, pp. 778-779
[Document 2]
Toshiaki Fukunaga et al., "Reliable operation of strain-compensated 1.06 μm InGaAs/InGaAsP/GaAs single quantum well lasers", Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 69(2), 8 Jul. 1996, pp. 248-250
In FIG. 2 of the above-mentioned document 1, the result of a reliability examination of the semiconductor optical device of 1.02 μm wavelength band is illustrated using graphs. The examination conditions are atmosphere at 40 degree-C., a constant output of 300 mW and a measurement size of ten. The horizontal axis shows an aging time by 1,000 hours, and the vertical axis shows a driving current (mA).
These graphs show initial degradation for three of ten samples in which the driving current rapidly increases in an initial stage. For the remaining seven samples, the driving current gradually increases with time progress and a degradation rate is calculated by linear approximation with 1.5×10−5 to 8.6×10−5 (/h), resulting in 1.5% to 8.6% of increase in current at 1,000 hours.
In FIG. 6 of the above-mentioned document 2, the result of a reliability examination of the semiconductor optical device of 1.06 μm wavelength band is illustrated using graphs. The examination conditions are atmosphere at 25 degree-C., a constant output of 250 mW and a measurement size of both ten of SC-SQW (strain-compensated single quantum well) lasers and ten of SL-SQW (superlattice single quantum well) lasers. The horizontal axis shows an aging time by 1,000 hours, and the vertical axis shows a driving current (mA).
These graphs show that all of the SL-SQW lasers are degraded before 1,000 hours, on the other hand, all of the SC-SQW lasers are not remarkably degraded because the driving current does not increase even at 1,000 hours.

Method of manufacturing semiconductor optical device


A wearable device assembly has a housing supporting a controller, display and indicator system thereon. The controller has at least one sensor wherein activity of a user wearing the device is detected. The controller selectively illuminates the indicator system to indicate a level of activity of the user.

Exercise and fitness have become increasingly popular and the benefits from such activities are well known. Various types of technology have been incorporated into fitness and other athletic activities. For example, a wide variety of portable electronic devices are available for use in fitness activity such as MP3 or other audio players, radios, portable televisions, DVD players, or other video playing devices, watches, GPS systems, pedometers, mobile telephones, pagers, beepers, etc. Many fitness enthusiasts or athletes use one or more of these devices when exercising or training to keep them entertained, record and provide performance data or to keep them in contact with others, etc.
Advances in technology have also provided more sophisticated athletic performance monitoring systems. Athletic performance monitoring systems enable easy and convenient monitoring of many physical or physiological characteristics associated with exercise and fitness activity, or other athletic performances including, for example, speed and distance data, altitude data, GPS data, heart rate, pulse rate, blood pressure data, body temperature, steps taken etc. This data can be provided to a user through a portable electronic device carried by the user. For example, one athletic performance monitoring system may incorporate an audio player wherein data can be incorporated for display or further communication on the audio player. Other systems may have a device having its own display or the ability to display information on a separate mobile device such as a smartphone. While athletic performance monitoring systems according to the prior art provide a number of advantageous features, they nevertheless have certain limitations. For example, some users prefer not to use a portable audio player or prefer to obtain and display performance data separately from an audio player. Other athletic performance monitoring systems have limited ability to further upload data to a personal computer or other location for further review and consideration, or such data transfer is cumbersome for the user. Still other systems can only monitor a single type of athletic activity and cannot record the accumulation of various types of activity during a day or predetermined time period. Other systems also do not offer sufficient and creative feedback regarding the activity recorded and monitored. The present invention seeks to overcome certain of these limitations and other drawbacks of the prior art, and to provide new features not heretofore available.
A full discussion of the features and advantages of the present invention is referred to in the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Wearable device assembly having athletic functionality


The present invention provides a circuit and method using a floating PMOS transistor connected in series between the transistors of an input invertor. The floating PMOS transistor may be used to control the amount of current through the transistors. The gate of the floating PMOS transistor may be connected through a reference line to a duplicate of the input inverter stage. The duplicate stage is generally located in a reference block and fed with a stabilized reference voltage. Each couple (formed by the buffers input stage and the duplicate stage) functions as a differential comparator, which checks the input voltage against the reference voltage and rejects the power supply voltage variations which are perceived as a common-mode noise signal. The supply current is fixed by the reference voltage which reduces power consumption at high input voltages and high supply voltages.

Input buffers often use a CMOS inverter optimized for TTL input levels. A nominal supply voltage is used at the input stage of the input buffer. As a result, the trip points strongly depend on the supply voltage, which causes increased propagation delays at low and high supply voltages. The current consumed by the previous approach, when operating at high supply voltages and high input levels, is higher than desirable for modern integrated circuit (IC) applications.
Input buffers are often designed to accommodate both TTL and CMOS input levels and to switch as fast as possible for a wide range of input rise/fall times. The input stage of such input buffers has a CMOS inverter with the PMOS pull up transistor of the inverter operating in the linear-saturated region throughout the standard TTL (i.e., 0-3 volt) input range. As the input supply voltage Vcc increases, the pull up current also increases, which results in a shift up of the trip point and consequently of the switching input level. As a result, longer propagation delays on the input rising edge and shorter propagation delay on the trailing edge are seen as the input supply voltage Vcc increases. Since the longest of these delays is taken as overall propagation delay, the result is a speed drop at both low and high input supply voltages Vcc.

Input buffer with stabilized trip points


A mains rectifier circuit for power supply units, in particular for switched-mode power supplies, having a full-wave rectifier (D1 . . . D4) which is connected to the mains voltage and having a smoothing capacitor (CL) which is connected downstream of said full-wave rectifier (D1 . . . D4), the smoothing capacitor being charged at a clock frequency, which is considerably higher than the mains frequency, via the series circuit formed by a boost inductance (LB) and a diode (DS), in the case of which series circuit the junction point between the boost inductance and the diode is connected to earth via a controlled switch (SB), the smoothing capacitor (CL) and the load (SNT) are connected to the full-wave rectifier (D1 . . . D4), an auxiliary rectifier (D1', D2') is provided, from which the series circuit formed by the boost inductance and the diode leads to the smoothing capacitor, and the switch is controlled via a drive circuit (AB) such that additional charging current is supplied to the smoothing capacitor, via the boost inductance, in time periods around the zero crossings of the rectified half-cycles.

Power supply units, in particular switched-mode power supplies for connection to an AC mains, in the simplest case have a rectifier downstream of which an electrolytic capacitor is connected. The charging current profile of the capacitor leads to severe harmonics on the mains and loads said mains with a high apparent power. The mass use of power supply units within the last twenty years has for these reasons already led to serious problems in the power supply grids.
A brief presentation of these problems and various solution proposals, which are intended to lead to a balanced mains load, can be found in the article "Comparison of Standards and Power Supply Design Options for Limiting Harmonic Distortion in Power Systems", by Key and Lai, in "IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications" Vol. 20, No. 4, July/August 1993, pages 688 to 695. One of the circuits which are illustrated there and are also used in practice has a so-called "boost converter". A virtually sinusoidal input current profile can even be achieved using said boost converter, by means of a complex controller. As is noted in the article, however, the relatively high costs and relatively poor reliability, which is governed by additional components, preclude widespread introduction to the market.


A power convertor has a casing and a power conversion circuit arranged in an internal chamber of the casing. The casing has a first wall member as a specific side wall. A plurality of connector opening parts are formed in the first wall member. At least two of the plurality of connector opening parts formed in the first wall member are arranged at different positions facing a different direction from each other.

There are known power converters which convert electric power of an electric power source to a drive electric power to be supplied to a drive motor mounted on a motor vehicle. The power converter is arranged on a transaxle arranged at a front compartment of the motor vehicle.
The power converter is covered with a casing. The casing has a bottom wall, side walls and a ceiling wall. The bottom wall is arranged at a bottom side of the power converter. The side walls stand on the bottom wall. The ceiling wall is arranged at the upper side of the side walls to close the power converter and to form a box shape. Various types of connectors have a plurality of opening parts formed in one side wall in the overall side walls. Through the plurality of opening parts of the connectors, the power converter is electrically connected to the drive motor, and the power converter is also electrically connected to a controller.
However, the power converter previously described has the plurality of opening parts formed in one side wall which are open in a vehicle-width direction. This reduces an overall area of the side wall in the vehicle-width direction. That is, this structure often reduces an overall strength of the casing of the power converter.


In a process for the manufacture of a semiconductor integrated circuit device having an inlaid interconnect structure by embedding a conductor film in a recess, such as a trench or hole, formed in an organic insulating film which constitutes an interlevel dielectric film and includes an organosiloxane as a main component, the recess, such as a trench or hole, is formed by subjecting the organic insulating film to plasma dry etching in a CF-based gas/N2/Ar gas in order to suppress the formation of an abnormal shape on the bottom of the recess, upon formation of a photoresist film over the organic insulating film, followed by formation of the recess therein with the photoresist film as an etching mask.

In line with improvements in the degree of element integration or in the reduction in the size of a semiconductor chip in a semiconductor integrated circuit device, miniaturization and multilevel fabrication of interconnects constituting the semiconductor integrated circuit device have been carried out. Particularly, in a logic type semiconductor integrated circuit device having a multilevel interconnect structure, wiring delay is one of the factors which strongly influence the signal delay of the whole semiconductor integrated circuit device. The velocity of a signal which passes through an interconnect strongly depends on the wiring resistance and wiring capacitance, so that a reduction in each of the wiring resistance and the wiring capacitance is important for obtaining an improvement in the wiring delay.
In order to reduce the wiring resistance, a damascene process using a copper-based material (copper or copper alloy) as a wiring material has been employed. In the damascene process, an inlaid interconnect is formed by forming an interconnect-forming trench in an insulating film, adhering an interconnect-forming conductor film both on the insulating film and inside of the interconnect-forming trench, and then removing the unnecessary portion of the conductor film by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) or the like to leave the conductor film only inside of the trench. This method makes it possible to fabricate an interconnect from a copper-based material which cannot be miniaturized easily by etching.
A dual-damascene process, which is an application of the above-described damascene process, is a method of forming, in an insulating film, an interconnect-forming trench and a hole, such as a contact hole or a through-hole, which extends from the bottom of the trench toward the underlying connecting portion, adhering an interconnect-forming conductor film on the insulating film and inside of the interconnect-forming trench and hole, and removing the unnecessary portion of the conductor film by CMP or the like to leave the conductor film only in the trench and hole, thereby forming an inlaid interconnect in the interconnect-forming trench and a plug in the hole.
An example of such a dual-damascene process is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 9(1997)-306988, wherein an insulating film, which has an opening portion formed for the perforation of a hole and serves as an etching stopper, is disposed between a first interlevel dielectric film and a second interlevel dielectric film laid thereover, and upon formation of a trench in the second interlevel dielectric film by using a photoresist film, the first interlevel dielectric film exposed from the opening portion of the insulating film is perforated with the insulating film as an etching stopper. Another example is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 10(1998)-209273, wherein a trench is formed in an interlevel dielectric film, followed by perforation of a hole extending downwards from the bottom of the trench.
In order to reduce the wiring capacitance, the technique employing as an insulating film, as described above, an organic SOG (Spin On Glass) film, having a methyl group incorporated in a silicon oxide film, can be employed. Owing to a low dielectric constant, this organic SOG film permits lowering of the total dielectric constant of the interconnects of a semiconductor integrated circuit device. A technique using an insulating film having a low dielectric constant as an interlevel dielectric film is described, for example, on pages 74 to 76, "Monthly Semiconductor World, November issue", published on Oct. 20, 1998 by Press Journal Co., Ltd. This publication discloses various inorganic or organic interlevel dielectric films to be used as an interlevel dielectric film for metallization employing a damascene or dual-damascene process.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 9(1997)-293780 discloses a semiconductor integrated circuit devise technique using an organic SOG film as an interlevel dielectric film of the ordinary interconnect structure.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 11(1999)-67909 discloses a problem of isotropic etching, in the plane direction, of the side surfaces of a trench or hole upon formation of a trench or hole in an organic low-dielectric-constant film by etching; and a technique is proposed, as a solution of the problem, of employing a foaming gas upon over-etching treatment.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8(1996)-316209 discloses a problem of lowering of the etching rate or deterioration of a processed shape upon etching treatment of an organic polymeric insulating film, which is due to carbon deposits formed on the bottom surface or side surface of a trench or hole made in the organic polymeric insulating film as a result of plasma etching treatment using a CF-based or CHF-based gas similar to that used for etching treatment of a silicon oxide film; and techniques are proposed, as solutions therefor, for conducting plasma etching treatment using an oxygen-based gas upon etching of the organic polymeric insulating film or for conducting plasma etching treatment under the conditions of a lowered C/F ratio in the plasma.
In the above-described damascene or dual-damascene process, an insulating film serving as an etching stopper is formed under the interlevel dielectric film upon formation of an interconnect-forming trench or a hole in the interlevel dielectric film in order to avoid damage to the underlying film by excessive perforation or a deterioration in the processing size accuracy. In the technique for constituting an interlevel dielectric film from silicon oxide or the like, a silicon nitride film is employed as an insulating film serving as an etching stopper. The silicon nitride film has, however, a high dielectric constant (about 7) so that it is necessary to form it as thin as possible from the viewpoint of lowering the total dielectric constant of the interconnects. Upon formation of a trench or hole in an interlevel dielectric film made of silicon oxide or the like, therefore, a technique is employed wherein a CxFy-based gas and oxygen gas are used, thereby carrying out etching under conditions permitting a high etching selectivity to the interlevel dielectric film relative to the insulating film serving as an etching stopper.
The present inventors, however, have found that the formation of a trench or hole by highly-selective etching treatment using, as an etching gas, a CxFy-based gas and O2 gas, is inevitably accompanied by the problem that a trench (sub-trench) relatively deeper than the depth at the bottom center of the trench or hole is formed at the outer periphery of the bottom of the trench or hole. Use of an etching gas having low selectivity to avoid such a problem, however, requires an increase in the thickness of the insulating film serving as an etching stopper, resulting in the problem of an increase in the total dielectric constant of the interconnects of a semiconductor integrated circuit device.
An object of the present invention is, therefore, to provide a technique which is capable of suppressing, upon formation of a recess in an insulating film including an organosiloxane as a main component by etching, the formation of an abnormal shape at the bottom of the recess.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a technique which is capable of suppressing, upon formation of a recess in an insulating film including an organosiloxane as a main component by etching, the formation of an abnormal shape at the bottom of the recess while maintaining a high etching selectivity to the insulating film relative to the etching stopper film.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a technique which is capable of forming a minute recess in an insulating film including an organosiloxane as a main component.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a technique which is capable of reducing the total dielectric constant of the interconnects of a semiconductor integrated circuit device.
The above-described and the other objects and novel features of the present invention will be apparent from the description herein and the accompanying drawings.

Method of manufacture of semiconductor integrated circuit


A two-class analysis system for summarizing features and determining features appropriate to use in training a classifier related to a data mining operation. Exemplary embodiments describe how to select features which will be suited to training a classifier used for a two-class text classification problem. Bi-Normal Separation methods are defined wherein there is a measure of inverse cumulative distribution function of a standard probability distribution and representative of a difference between occurrences of the feature between said each class. In addition to training a classifier, the system provides a means of summarizing differences between classes.

1. Field of Technology
The invention relates generally to machine learning and two-class classification systems.
Glossary
The following definitions are provided merely to help readers generally to understand commonly used terms in machine learning, statistics, and data mining. The definitions are not designed to be completely general but instead are aimed at the most common case. No limitation on the scope of the invention (see claims section, infra) is intended, nor should any be implied.
"Classification" shall mean mapping (e.g., via "feature" extraction, statistical modeling, model selection, parameter estimation, non-para-method modeling, or the like) from unlabeled records (typically represented by "features" vectors) to discrete classes; "classifiers" have a form or model (e.g., a decision tree) plus an induction learning procedure, and an interpretation procedure; some classifiers also provide scores probability estimates which can be related to a predetermined factor, such as a threshold value, to yield a discrete class decision; Support Vector Machines, Naïve Bayes, logistic regression, C4.5 decision trees, and the like, are examples of known classifiers.
"Data set" shall mean a schema and a set of "records" matching the schema (no ordering of "records" is assumed; a set of values of interest, "category" or "class."; often a schema of discrete "positives" and "negatives," as in medical tests.
"F-measure" shall mean the harmonic mean of "Precision" and "Recall, which may be represented by a relationship: 2PR/P+R, where "P" is Precision and "R" is Recall.
"Feature value" is an attribute and its value for a given record; "feature vector" shall mean a list of feature values describing a "record;" also sometimes referred to as an "example," a "case," or a "tuple."
"Induction algorithm" or "Inducer" shall mean an algorithm that takes as input specific feature vectors labeled with their class assignments and produces a model that generalizes beyond the data set; most induction algorithms generate a "model" that can then be used as classifiers, regressors, patterns for human consumption, and input to subsequent stages of "knowledge discovery" and "data mining."
"Record" shall mean each single object from which a model will be learned or on which a model will be used; generally described by "feature vectors;" also sometimes referred to as an "example," or "case."
"Knowledge discovery" shall mean the non-trivial process of identifying valid, novel, potentially useful, and ultimately understandable patterns in data.
"Machine learning" (a sub-field of artificial intelligence) is the field of scientific study that concentrates on "induction algorithms" and other algorithms that can be said to learn; generally, it shall mean the application of "induction algorithms," which is one step in the "knowledge discovery" process.
"Model" shall mean a structure and corresponding interpretation that summarizes or partially summarizes a data set for description or prediction.
"Precision" is the percentage of items classified as positive that are actually positive.
"Recall" is the percentage of actual positives that are classified as positive (see also, "tpr," infra).
2. General Background
Machine learning encompasses a vast array of tasks and goals. Document categorization, news filtering, document routing, personalization, and the like constitute an area of endeavor where machine learning can greatly improve computer usage. As one example, when searching the Word Wide Web (hereinafter "Web"), a user may develop a personalization profile, a positive class-of-interest for selecting news articles-of-interest from the millions of news articles available at any given moment in time. Machine learning for text classification is the cornerstone of document categorization, news filtering, document routing and personalization.
The potential is great for machine learning to categorize, route, filter and search for relevant text information. Good feature selection may improve classification accuracy or, equivalently, reduce the amount of training data needed to obtain a desired level of performance, and conserve computation, storage and network resources needed for training and all future use of the classifier. For example, to build and populate a Web portal or news directory, a data mining practitioner would identify a modest number of training examples for each relevant category, and then an induction algorithm can learn the pattern and identify additional matches to populate the portal or directory. In such text-based domains, effective feature selection is essential to make the learning task tractable and more accurate. However, problem sizes continue to scale up with the explosive growth of the Internet. The goals are accuracy, F-measure, precision, and recall, each of which may be appropriate in different situations.
In text classification, a data mining practitioner typically uses a "bag-of-words model:" a sample model is shown in FIG. 3 (Prior Art), in tabular format which, in practice, may have many more rows and columns (represented in the table as " . . . "). Each position in the input feature vector corresponds to a given word, e.g., the occurrence of the word "free" may be a useful feature in classifying junk e-mail, also colloquially referred to as "spam." The number of potential words often exceeds the number of training documents by an order of magnitude. Feature selection is necessary to make the problem tractable for a classifier. Well-chosen features can improve substantially the classification accuracy, or equivalently, reduce the amount of training data needed to obtain a desired level of performance. Eliminating insignificant features improves scalability, conserving computation, storage and network resources for the training phase and for every future use of the classifier. Conversely, poor feature selection limits performance since no degree of clever induction can make up for a lack of predictive signal in the input features sent to the classifier. To partially compensate for poor feature selection heuristics, a larger number of features can be selected, but this harms scalability and performance.
It has been found that selecting features separately for each class, versus all together, extends the reach of induction algorithms to greater problem sizes having greater levels of class skew. High class skew, where there are, for example many more negatives than positives, presents a particular challenge to induction algorithms, which are hard pressed to beat the high accuracy achieved by simply classifying everything as a negative majority class. High class skew in the class distribution makes it much more important to supply the induction algorithm with well-chosen features. In text classification problems, there is typically a substantial skew which worsens as the problem size scales upwardly. Returning to an earlier example, in selecting news articles that best match one's personalization profile, the positive class of interest contains many fewer articles on the Web than the negative class background, especially if the background class is e.g., "all new articles posted on the Web." For multi-class problems, the skew increases with the number of classes. It would seem that the future presents classification tasks with ever increasing skews.
Prior art methods for feature selection—i.e., deciding which features are most predictive indicators to use for training a classifier—are e.g., Information Gain (IG), Odds Ratio, the Chi-Squared Test, and the like, as would be known to practitioners skilled in the art. Each uses a specific formulaic method for selecting features discriminatively for training a classifier. Each begins by counting the number of feature occurrences of each word in the positive class ("tp") and in the negative class ("fp"). For example, in FIG. 3, the feature "free" occurs in two of the three positive training examples; tp=2, pos=3. These counts are sufficient statistics for computing the method. Improved feature selection is highly important for classification tasks to make it tractable for machine learning and to improve classifier performance.

Feature selection for two-class classification systems

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A resonant converter and voltage stabilizing method thereof are provided. The resonant converter includes a converting stage circuit, a diode-rectifying stage circuit, a filter and load stage circuit, a logic circuit, a driving circuit, and an energy-recycling circuit. The method includes steps of recycling an energy from the filter and load stage circuit to the converting stage circuit when the resonant converter is light- or zero-loaded.

Recently, more and more strict demands are asked on the DC/DC converter such as high efficiency, high power density, high reliability and low cost. Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a block diagram showing a dc/dc converter according to the prior art. In FIG. 1, the dc/dc converter 10 includes a converting stage circuit 11, a diode-rectifying stage circuit 12, and a filter and load stage circuit 13. The operation principle of the dc/dc converter 10 includes the steps of: a dc voltage Vin is firstly modulated by the converting stage circuit 11, then rectified by the diode-rectifying stage circuit 12, and finally filtered by the filter and load stage circuit 13 to be sent to a load (not shown).
In the dc/dc converter 10, the energy is delivered from the converting stage circuit 11 to the filter and load stage circuit 13, which is a uni-direction path. And sometimes this "uni-directional path" energy transferring method will cause the output voltage of the dc/dc converter 10 unstable when operating at light or no load condition, as shown in FIG. 2(a).
Please refer to FIG. 2(a), which is a circuit diagram showing a full-bridge LLC converter according to the prior art. The full-bridge LLC converter is generally operated using Pulse Frequency Modulation (PFM) technique. In FIG. 2(a), the full-bridge LLC converter 20 includes a converting stage circuit, a diode-rectifying stage circuit, and a filter and load stage circuit. The converting stage circuit includes four switches Q1˜Q4, a resonant capacitor C1, a resonant inductor L1, a magnetizing inductor L2, and a transformer T1. The diode-rectifying stage circuit includes two diodes D1˜D2. The filter and load stage circuit includes a filter capacitor Cout. The switches Q1 and Q2 constitute one bridge arm and the switches Q3 and Q4 constitute the other. The respective driving signal of the switches Q1 and Q4 and the switches Q2 and Q3 drives the switches at nearly 50% duty cycle. Between the midpoint of the two bridge arms are the resonant capacitor C1, the resonant inductor L1, and the primary side of the transformer T1, which are connected in series. The secondary side of the transformer T1, which is a center-tap structure, includes two diodes D1 and D2 to form a full-wave rectifier. The output side of the full-bridge LLC converter 20 includes a capacitor Cout for filtering and stabilizing the output voltage.
For a resonant converter with the diode rectifying technique, there exists a minimum voltage gain in the range of the operation frequency thereof, for example, the minimum voltage gain obtained when the above full-bridge LLC converter 20 is operated at the highest operation frequency. Generally, a converter is designed to have its gain more than the above minimum voltage gain when operating in the range of the operation frequency thereof, and the converter is theoretically able to be operated stably with complete zero load. In practice, due to the parasitic oscillation generated by the parasitic parameters of the elements, e.g. the parasitic capacitor at the primary or secondary side of the transformer, an excess of energy will be injected into the output terminal so as to cause the output voltage to rise when using the diode-rectification at the secondary side, as shown in FIG. 2(a). Thus, the converter will be unstable when operating at light or no load condition.
To solve the aforementioned problems, there are at least four technical schemes in the prior art, which are provided as follows.
The first is to consume the excess energy injected into the output terminal. The practical method is to install an adequate dummy load. However, the dummy load will cause the converter to be operated in a lower efficiency and consume more power when operating at no load condition. Besides, the size and the cost are also increased, too.
The second is to install an independent auxiliary circuit. When operating at light or zero load condition, the main circuit is switched off and the auxiliary circuit is operated to maintain the output voltage. In this regard, there will be no additional loss at normal load. However, it needs load judgment additionally and switching between the auxiliary circuit and the main circuit, which increases the control complexity and adds the additional requirements on the dynamic performance of the converter.
The third is to adopt burst mode control technique to reduce the energy transferred from the input terminal to the output terminal when operating at light load or no load condition.
The fourth is to prevent the excess energy from being injected into the output terminal when operating at light load or no load condition, which is realized by changing the resonant parameters or the resonant impedance. There are at least three methods as follows:
(1) U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,040
Please refer to FIG. 2(b), which is a circuit diagram showing the full-bridge LLC converter provided in U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,040. In the full-bridge LLC converter 21, the elements which are the same as those in FIG. 2(a) are marked with the same numerical symbols.
The technical scheme adopted in U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,040 is to change the resonant parameters according to the load conditions. As FIG. 2(b) shows, a switch Sa is introduced into the main circuit to be connected with the magnetizing inductor L2 in series. The equivalent magnetizing inductance is able to be adjusted by controlling the switch Sa. When operating at light or no load condition, the equivalent magnetizing inductance of the main circuit will be decreased after the switch Sa is turned on. Therefore, the minimum voltage gain of the main circuit will also be decreased in a specific range of operation frequency. Thus the main circuit will be operated stably.
(2) JP Patent No. 8,033,329
Please refer to FIG. 2(c), which is a circuit diagram showing the full-bridge LLC converter provided in JP Patent No. 8,033,329. In the full-bridge LLC converter 22, the elements, which are the same as those in FIG. 2(a) are marked with the same numerical symbols.
The technical scheme adopted in JP Patent No. 8,033,329 is to change the resonant impedance at different load conditions. As FIG. 2(c) shows, a parallel resonant unit composed of an inductor L2 and a capacitor C2 is in the resonant loop constituted by the resonant capacitor C1, the resonant inductor L1, and the primary side of the transformer T1, so as to increase the impedance of the resonant loop when the converter 22 is light- or zero-loaded. Thus the whole system will be operated stably accordingly. However, the drawback is that the parallel resonant unit will bear a large voltage current stress when the main circuit is light- or zero-loaded.
(3) JP Patent No. 2,106,164
Please refer to FIG. 2(d), which shows the full-bridge LLC converter provided in JP Patent No. 2,106,164. In the full-bridge LLC converter 23, the elements, which are the same as those in FIG. 2(a) are marked with the same numerical symbols.
As FIG. 2(d) shows, a series circuit composed of an auxiliary switch S and a resistor R is connected to the resonant capacitor C1 in parallel. With the series circuit, the energy at the resonant capacitor C1 will be consumed when operating at zero load condition, in order to prevent the excess of energy from being injected into the output terminal.

Resonant converter and voltage stabilizing method thereof


A drain valve device includes a drain valve housing arranged to be located within a drain opening. The housing has a wall structure surrounding an axis so as to define an internal flow passage through the housing and a strut member depending radially inwardly from the wall structure. The device has one or more valve members. A gas vent passage may be provided in the housing and a vent valve or control member may be provided to selectively prevent flow through the gas vent passage.

This disclosure concerns drain valves in which fluid can flow down a drain under the action of gravity. More particularly, this disclosure concerns drain valves for location in a liquid outflow from a urinal, sink, floor drain or the like. Open gravity drains allow escape of odorous gas or vapor into the surrounding air. Furthermore, they can expose individuals to airborne contaminants or, in the case of back-flow, water-borne contaminants, thereby increasing the risk of infection and potential disease transmission. It is a known fact that urine is highly corrosive and if not flushed periodically with water, it can corrode drain pipes.
In a conventional open drain, without a trap such as a urinal or floor/ground drain, it is customary to flush the drain with water and/or a cleaning solution regularly in order to prevent the above problems. However, this consumes significant volumes of liquid, which represents an inefficient and wasteful use of available water resources.
In the event that an open drain is flushed or washed less regularly, the drain can become unsanitary and the odor emanating from the drain can attract unwanted insects and vermin to its vicinity. More recent trends towards chemical or 'dry' cleaning mean that the drain is more susceptible to debris retention and clogging. In the event that a drain trap is used, clogging is particularly problematic and can quickly block the drain.
In order to help maintain the sanitary nature of a drain and prevent escaping odor, there have been proposed a number of devices for insertion into the drain opening within the prior art. Certain examples propose the use of chemical holder within the urinal and open drain. However, such examples are typically bulky, such that they are not well suited to a retro-fit of existing drains, as well as being expensive to manufacture. The use of chemicals means that the device requires frequent replacement, such that the ongoing cost to an end user is significant. Also, the chemical is a known pollutant and so the disposal of the chemical within such devices represents a major and costly undertaking at the water reclamation center.
Other examples of prior art devices comprise simpler valves, which are intended to remain closed when at rest, so as to prevent escape of gas from within the drain, but which open to allow liquid flow down the drain.
Other types of valve members that may be used including sheath valves or a hinged, flapper valve. Duckbill valves may offer a further alternative in this context. However, the available static flow area of those valves and the weight of liquid required to actuate the valve member into its open condition cause potential problems. For example, a volume liquid may be retained above the valve member for extended periods of time, which can in itself be odorous or otherwise unsanitary. In some instances solids like cigarettes butts, tooth picks, mop strings and sand can catch on the hinge member causing the valve to stay in the open position for long period of time.
Furthermore, the maximum flow rate permitted through the above examples of prior art valves is limited by the valve design and construction and may be insufficient to accommodate rapid flushing do to its narrow valve inside opening or, particularly in the case of ground drains, flooding.
The inventor has also found that the provision of a mechanical valve at a drain opening can cause further problems. More specifically, the movement of fluid within a drain system can cause pneumatic pressure within the drain and, in the case of drain backflow, hydraulic pressure at the drain opening. For an open drain, this pressure would naturally be relieved. However, where a liquid drain trap is used, the pressure acts on the underside the drain valve. This can lead to the build-up of excessive pressure within the drain, which may in itself be problematic for correct drain function, and which can in turn cause the drain valve to deform and/or become unseated, thereby preventing correct operation once the back-pressure is relieved.


An IO method and system for bit-deskewing are described. Embodiment includes a computer system with multiple components that transfer data among them. In one embodiment, a system component receives a forward strobe signal and multiple data bit signals from a transmitting component. The receiving component includes a forward strobe clock recovery circuit configurable to align a forward strobe sampling clock so as to improve sampling accuracy. The receiving component further includes at least one data bit clock recovery circuit configurable to align a data bit sampling clock so as to improve sampling accuracy, and to receive a signal from the forward strobe clock recovery circuit that causes the data bit sampling clock to track the forward strobe sampling clock during system operation.

As computer and other digital systems become more complex and more capable, methods and hardware to enhance the transfer of data between system components or elements typical continually evolve. Data to be transferred include signals representing data, commands, or any other signals. System components or elements can include different functional hardware blocks on a single integrated circuit (IC), or on different ICs. The different ICs may or may not be on the same printed circuit board (PCB). System components typically include an input/output (I/O) interface specifically designed to receive data from other system components and to transmit data to other system components. Generally speaking, existing I/O interfaces can be categorized into serial and parallel "links". Regardless of the type of I/O interface, transferred data must be synchronized between system components for proper operation. Synchronization includes accounting for or compensating for several phenomena that potentially cause errors, including signal jitter and signal skew. The phenomena include differences between component clocks, and physical attributes of the data paths that create noise and affect the integrity of the transferred signal. Current approaches to handling serial I/O and parallel I/O interfaces deal with these data synchronization issues, but have limitations.
A typical serial link embeds clock information within the data stream and extracts the clock information at the receiver using a clock recovery scheme. Such schemes are also known as per-line closed-loop timing. Guaranteeing transition density requires encoding the data, typically using 8B/10B codes. A disadvantage of this approach is that it adds bandwidth overhead and increases complexity, which hurts performance and increases cost.
A typical parallel link sends a clock signal, or strobe, with a group of N data signals (for example, N may be 8 in a double data rate dynamic random access memory (DDR DRAM)). Depending on the data rate and the level of sophistication required, one of the following "source-synchronous timing" methods is used: the receiver simply samples the data with the strobe directly if the strobe has already been shifted by half a bit time relative to the data sent by the transmitter; or if the strobe is aligned with the edge of the data sent by the transmitter, the receiver delays the strobe by the same fixed amount across the group of data to sample the data eye at the nominal center.
Each of the two parallel link approaches require very tight matching of the trace impedance and trace length across the group of data and the strobe to achieve high data rates. To alleviate this, each bit receiver can delay the strobe by a different amount to place its own clock at the center of its own data. This is sometimes called per-bit deskew. A disadvantage of this parallel scheme is that the strobe (which is usually sent across a circuit board and distributed to the group of data) is noisy, thus reducing the system timing budget. In addition, the receiver simply uses or delays the strobe, which adds jitter rather than filtering jitter. In some implementations, a strobe is transmitted for each data bit rather than for a group of bits, which increases pin counts and cost.