A disk device includes: a traverse chassis, one end of which is configured to be movable between a first position and a second position in a first direction; a cam member, formed with a cam groove configured to move in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction and having a first end and a second end; a cam follower fitted with the cam groove so as to be movable between the first end and the second end in accordance with the movement of the cam member; a guide member, having a guide face configured to guide the cam follower in the first direction in cooperation with the cam member; and an urging member, configured to urge the cam follower against an inner wall of the cam groove and the guide face when the cam follower is placed in the first end.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk device, in particular, a disk device in which a turntable, coacting with a clamper to clamp a disk and rotating the disk, is mounted on a traverse chassis and in which a countermeasure for suppressing reading error of the disk due to self-induced vibration of the traverse chassis is applied.
2. Description of the Related Art
With this type of disk device, one end of the traverse chassis is supported on a fixed frame (loader chassis), and the traverse chassis is enabled to tiltingly move (enabled to move reciprocatingly) along a rectilinear path with a position of support by the fixed frame as a pivot. The turntable is mounted, along with an optical element, such as an optical pickup, etc., on the traverse chassis, and when the traverse chassis moves onward along with the turntable, the disk, mounted on the turntable, is clamped by coaction of the turntable and a clamper, attached to the fixed frame and waiting at a fixed position. The disk, clamped by the clamper and the turntable, rotates together with the turntable, and during the rotation, the disk is optically processed by the optical pickup.
With this type of disk device, there is known a configuration employing a cam mechanism, to be described below, as a means for making the traverse chassis undergo reciprocal movement (see JP-A-2003-223776). This is a schematic exploded perspective view of a cam mechanism 10 described in JP-A-2003-223776.
FIG. 5 is a schematic front view of the cam mechanism 10 of a disk device described in JP-A-2003-223776. The cam mechanism 10 is constituted of a follower 20, disposed on the traverse chassis (not shown), a cam plate 30, moved forward and in reverse as indicated by arrows X in a direction orthogonal to a direction of reciprocal movement of another end of the traverse chassis, a cam groove 31, formed in the cam plate 30 and making the follower 20 slide to make the other end of the traverse chassis move reciprocatingly along a rectilinear path, and an auxiliary guiding member 40, having straight guiding surfaces 41 that make the follower 20 slide when the cam plate 30 is moved forward and in reverse to guide the reciprocal movement of the follower 20. The cam groove 31 of the cam plate 30 includes a horizontal first riding surface 32, onto which the follower 20 rides at its onward movement limit position, a horizontal second riding surface 33, onto which the follower 20 rides at its return movement limit position, and an inclined surface 34, making the first and second riding surfaces 32 and 33 continuous.
In the disk device, including the cam mechanism 10, when the turntable, mounted on the traverse chassis, and the clamper coact to clamp a disk, the follower 20 of the cam mechanism 10 that rides on the first riding surface 32 of the cam groove 31 is clamped by the guiding surfaces 41 as shown in FIG. 5. The follower 20 and the other end of the traverse chassis provided with the follower 20 are thus provisionally positioned in the reciprocal movement direction (vertical direction), indicated by arrows A in the figure, and a direction (left/right direction), indicated by arrows B in the figure and orthogonal to the reciprocal movement direction of the traverse chassis.
With the cam mechanism 10 described with reference to FIG. 5, for a vibration absorbing action by an elastic member 23 of the follower 20 to be exhibited with good efficiency, the follower 20 of the cam mechanism 10, riding on the first riding surface 32 of the cam groove 31, is desirably clamped by the guiding surfaces 41 and positioned accurately in the mutually orthogonal directions indicated by the arrows A and B.
However, because gaps that are essential for allowing smooth movement of the follower 20 and gaps, etc., due to manufacturing errors are present between the guiding surfaces 41 and the follower 20 of the cam mechanism 10 riding on the first riding surface 32 of the cam groove 31 and between the follower 20 and the cam groove 31, the follower 20 is not accurately positioned without play in the mutually orthogonal directions indicated by the arrows A and B. Thus with the cam mechanism 10, when the traverse chassis undergoes self-induced vibration during disk rotation, the entirety of the follower 20 may vibrate and the vibration absorbing action by the elastic member 23 of the follower 20 may not be exhibited efficiently. When the follower 20 thus undergoes self-induced vibration and the vibration absorbing property of the elastic member 23 degrades, the rotating disk vibrates, causing optical reading errors by the optical pickup to occur readily and thus image distortion, sound skipping, etc., to occur readily.
This problem is known to occur especially readily during reproduction of a disk with a mass eccentricity, etc. There is also a possibility for optical reading errors occurring readily due to deformation of the first riding surface 32 of the cam groove 34, the guiding surfaces 41 of the auxiliary guiding member 40, etc., caused by influence of heat generated by the vibration of the follower accompanying the self-induced vibration of the traverse chassis, and it is known that the possibility of this occurring is especially high under a high temperature environment, such as 65° C. temperature and 80% humidity, or after high temperature storage, such as 120 hours of storage under 65° C. temperature and 80% humidity.


The apparatus comprises a filling nozzle having a conical part so that it can fit in a leaktight manner on to a burred aperture in a tooth to be filled. The nozzle has a suction tube and a first annular channel connected to the suction tube and coming out into the dental cavity in order to create a vacuum therein. A second central channel serves to bring a filling paste from a reservoir to the dental cavity. The cross-section of flow of the first channel is several times smaller than that of the second channel, so that the paste travels much more slowly in the first channel than in the second, under the effect of the partial vacuum in the dental cavity.

Tooth canals are currently filled by the "lentula" method or by using gutta-percha cones. These two methods are satisfactory but fill the lateral canals randomly and in any case do not fill the canaliculi. Processes involving the injection of hot gutta-percha appeared a few years ago on the American market, but the results do not yet seem to be convincing. The process is very difficult to apply in the case of canals treated by the hydraulic method, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,947.
The latter patent describes a vacuum filling process which has shown a few shortcomings. The friction of the plunger of the syringe has to be compensated by a slight pressure on said plunger, which runs the risk of causing overflowing at the apex. Filling paste often passes into the suction tube connecting the nozzle to the vacuum pump.
The vacuum filling of devitalized teeth was proposed as long ago as 1958 (Prof. Dr.med.Dr.med.dent. Gustav Korkhaus and Dr.med.dent. Rudolf Alfter: Die Vakuumwurzelbehandlung (Vacuum Treatment of Roots), Forschungsberichte des Wirtschaft- and Verkehrsministeriums Nordrhein-Westfalen; Westdeutscher Verlag, Cologne and Opladen, 1958). However, the equipment used at the time was cumbersome and rather inefficient and was poorly suited to dental technique. The three-way valve was not easy to use and the dead volumes were very large.

Apparatus for filling tooth root canals under vacuum


A cache system includes a data storage which stores the data, which a memory supplies, in memory regions that are identified by identification numbers. A management data storage stores a relation between the identification numbers and the addresses of data items stored or being stored in the data storage and stores validation information indicating whether the data storage stores the data items. A refill-processing unit designates a memory region in which the data of a new address supplied from a processor is to be stored and requests the memory to output the data of the new address. An inspection unit receives the identification number of the memory region designated, determines whether the validation information about the identification number of the memory region designated is valid, and requests the data storage to output the data stored in the memory region designated when the validation information is valid.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cache system to be provided between a processor and a memory device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Unlike ordinary processors, any processor that processes streams, such as 3D-graphics large-scale integration (LSI) processor, performs no branching. Therefore, the pipeline process would not be disturbed.
In most cases where such an LSI processor refers to the data stored in a memory, it first pre-fetches desired data from the memory and then fetches the data from the memory after the data is filled in a cache system by virtue of the pre-fetching. The latency of the memory is thereby concealed.
The cache system needs to have a complicated circuit for determining hits in pre-fetching desired data and fetching the data, as will be described below.
First, the processor such as an LSI (requester) supplies a read address to a tag unit and the FIFO memory unit, both provided in the cache system. The tag unit is constituted by a table stored in the memory. It holds the address at which the data is stored in a cache-data storage unit and the addresses at which data items are stored in the memory. The determining unit of the cache system refers to the tag unit, determining whether a cache-data storage unit contains the data of the address read from processor (it determines whether a hit has been made). This operation is called "pre-fetching."
If the data of the address is not stored in the cache-data storage unit, a signal indicating this fact is supplied to the refill-processing unit of the cache system. On receiving the signal, the refill-processing unit outputs a read address and a refill request to the memory. In response to the refill request, the memory supplies the data of the read address to the cache-data storage unit (it performs refilling).
Upon lapse of a predetermined time, an FIFO memory unit supplies the read address to the determining unit. The determining unit determines again whether or not a hit has been made. This operation is called "fetching." If the cache-data storage unit stores the data of the read address, this data is supplied to the requester.
As indicated above, the determining unit determines whether a hit has been made, in the pre-fetching and the fetching. Therefore, the determining unit must have a circuit configuration that can perform hit-determination in both the pre-fetching and the fetching. The determining unit inevitably has a large area. A number of request are made to the cache system, particularly in 3D-graphics processes. To cope with this, the determining unit has a very large area.


A system for damping the extension and retraction of a hydraulic cylinder of a work vehicle at the ends of the cylinder's stroke.

Hydraulic cylinders are the most common actuator used on work vehicles to swing backhoe booms, raise and lower booms and dippers, articulate vehicles, raise buckets, tilt buckets, extend and retract stabilizers and a variety of other tasks.
Hydraulic cylinders are subject to extreme forces. The operating pressures in hydraulic cylinders can easily reach 1500 pounds per square inch. These pressures are large enough to permit the cylinders to move the devices to which they are coupled at great speed. Often, the speeds are great enough that the vehicle can be damaged over time. Further, the noise of impact can be excessive as the various component bang into each other.
Reaching a "stop" in this context means reaching the greatest possible extension or retraction of the cylinder itself, whether that extension or retraction is stop by structures within the cylinder, or structures to which the cylinder is coupled.
To reduce this potential damage, hydraulic cylinders have been coupled to mechanical and electrical devices that decelerate the cylinder reducing its speed of movement as the cylinder approaches one of its two stop positions. Mechanical devices include such things as self-contained hydraulic dampers or resilient shock absorbers that engage the cylinder (or more typically, a mechanical linkage coupled to the cylinder) in the last few centimeters of travel. The advantage to mechanical devices is that they are simple and robust.
Electrical devices have also been devised to decelerate the cylinder as it approaches a stop position. These systems typically include an electrical circuit coupled to a valve that controls the flow of hydraulic fluid to the cylinder. The circuit senses the position of the cylinder and throttles the flow of hydraulic fluid to the cylinder as the cylinder approaches a stop. One example of the circuit like this is shown in US patent application publication 2004/0045289 A1.
In the '289 reference, a controller 40 is coupled to a valve 35 which controls the flow of fluid to a cylinder 17. Controller 40 is also coupled to a sensor 20 that indicates the position of a swing angle of a working machine—in this case an excavator. When the operator swings the excavator boom, the sensor senses that the boom is approaching a limit of movement (i.e. approaching a stop). Controller 40 throttles the valve controlling fluid flow to cylinder 17. This reduction in flow decelerates the rate the cylinder extends or and slows the cylinder and excavator boom to a halt just as the boom and cylinder reach the stop.
Drawbacks of both the mechanical and electrical systems are that they cannot be easily and temporarily turned off—they always damp the movement of the hydraulic cylinder. The operator occasionally prefers to "bump" the implement against its stop, bringing the implement to a sudden halt. Such bumping is useful to empty an implement bucket having sticky material, or to shake dirt off the implement itself. If the hydraulic cylinder is only capable of smoothly decelerating a bucket without any sudden impact, the operator will never be able to empty the bucket or dislodge the earth.
What is needed, therefore, is an arrangement for turning off cylinder damping or cushioning in order to provide a sudden halt against a stop. What is also needed is a system for selectively permitting an implement to make sudden halt against a stop in one mode of operation and to make a gentle cushion stop in a second mode of operation. What is also needed is a system to select between these two modes of operation. What is further needed is a system for automatically selecting between these modes of operation requiring little if any operator intervention. What is also needed is a system for selecting one of these modes using the operator input device that also commands the movement of the cylinder. It is an object of this invention to provide such a system.


A system for determining a state of a door having a locking mechanism for locking the door includes a locking mechanism and a door sensor. The locking mechanism sensor is disposed for sensing a condition of the locking mechanism and generating a signal indicative thereof. The door sensor disposed for sensing a condition of the door and generating a signal indicative thereof. The system further includes a processor for determining a state of the door, in response to the signals from the locking mechanism sensor and the door sensor. The state of the door is a secured state when the door sensor senses the condition of the door as closed and the locking mechanism sensor senses the condition of the locking mechanism as locked. A method for determining a state of a door having a locking mechanism for locking the door includes sensing a condition of the locking mechanism and sensing a condition of the door. The method further includes, determining a state of the door as a secured state when the condition of the locking mechanism is sensed as locked and the condition of the door is sensed as closed.

This disclosure relates generally to a system and method for determining a state of a door having a locking mechanism for locking the door. More specifically, this disclosure relates to a system and method for determining a state of the door as a secured state when the door is sensed as closed and the locking mechanism is sensed as locked.
In multi-unit buildings, many security systems currently employ remotely operated door locks. The remotely operated door locks receive command signals from a central control unit and responsively lock or unlock the door. However, existing systems do not monitor or return door status information. For example, if the door is unable to lock because of misalignment, the door being ajar, or the locking mechanism being jammed the central control unit is not aware that the door is not properly locked and therefore the building is not secure. Additionally, while some current security systems do monitor the position of the door relative to the doorframe they do not monitor the position of the door locking mechanism. Consequently, such systems may not be aware of changes in the status of the position of the door and/or the locking mechanism.
Accordingly, a continued need exist for improved security systems for door locks, particularly in multi-unit buildings.

System and method for determining a state of a door


Inorganic substrates with a hydrophobic surface layer of a fluorinated material having the following structure are disclosed:

Household appliances such as refrigerators, washers, dryers and grills typically have a metal housing such as mild steel and a coating to protect the metal from corrosion. However, many appliances are being made from polished or brushed metals such as stainless steel, copper, brass and aluminum that have a glamorous look that fits in with many different color environments where the appliances are used. Also, the stainless steel does not require a protective coating.
One of the disadvantages of stainless steel is a tendency to show fingerprints, smudges and staining. Surprisingly, the fingerprints and smudges adhere well to the stainless steel and are difficult to remove, and after cleaning, quickly reappear. It would be desirable to treat the metal surfaces, such as stainless steel surfaces, to make them more resistant to smudging and fingerprints, and to make the substrates easier to clean.

Inorganic substrates with hydrophobic surface layers

Abstract: where A is an oxygen radical or a chemical bond; n is 1 to 20; Y is H, F, CnH2n+1 or CnF2n+1; X is H or F; b is at least 1, m is 0 to 50, and p is 1 to 20. The fluorinated material can be directly adhered to the inorganic substrate or can be indirectly adhered to the inorganic substrate through an intermediate organometallic coating.


Electrically conductive dispersions of high pH polyaniline/perfluorosulfonic acid or perfluoroalkylene sulfonamide polymers are provided. Also provided are films made with such dispersions having enhanced electrical conductivity. Devices are provided with at least one layer comprised of a film that is baked at a temperature above 100° C. Further provided are processes for making films and layers for devices comprising such films.

Electrically conducting polymers have been used in a variety of organic electronic devices, including in the development of electroluminescent ("EL") devices for use in light emissive displays. With respect to EL devices, such as organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) containing conducting polymers, such devices generally have the following configuration:                anode/buffer layer/EL material/cathode
The anode is typically any material that is transparent and has the ability to inject holes into the EL material, such as, for example, indium/tin oxide (ITO). The anode is optionally supported on a glass or plastic substrate. EL materials include fluorescent dyes, fluorescent and phosphorescent metal complexes, conjugated polymers, and mixtures thereof. The cathode is typically any material (such as, e.g., Ca or Ba) that has the ability to inject electrons into the EL material.
The buffer layer is typically an electrically conducting polymer and facilitates the injection of holes from the anode into the EL material layer. The buffer layer can also be called a hole-injection layer, a hole transport layer, or may be characterized as part of a bilayer anode. Typical conducting polymers employed as buffer layers include polyaniline and polydioxythiophenes such as poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDT).
There are provided herein needed film forming polymers at pH ranges sufficient to avoid device degradation but which are also useful in semiconducting device layers.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Compositions of polyaniline made with perfuoropolymeric acid which are heat-enhanced and electronic devices made therewith


A method and apparatus for performing a two-phase commit of a transaction is provided. The mechanisms described herein perform a two-phase commit in a manner that reduces the number of messages transmitted between a coordinating database system and the participating database systems, and the number of log flushes performed to complete a two-phase commit. Once the coordinating database system determines that all participating database systems participating in a database transaction are prepared to commit, the coordinating database system commits the transaction on the coordinating database system. Forget requests are then transmitted to each of the participating database systems. Rather than waiting to receive a forget acknowledgment and performing other forget processing operations, the coordinating database system delegates this work to a forget collector. A commit acknowledgement may be sent to a user by the coordinating database system prior to receiving the forgot acknowledgements, and the user may proceed as if the whole transaction is committed on all database systems. When a participating database system receives a forget request for a transaction, the participating database system commits the transaction by generating a commit record in its log. Rather than flushing the log to make the commit persistent, and performing other forget processing operations, the participating database system hands off this work to a forget collector.

The present invention relates to providing atomicty of transactions on a database system, and in particular, to two-phase commits.
One of the long standing challenges in distributed computing has been to maintain data consistency across all of the nodes in a network. Perhaps nowhere is data consistency more important than in distributed database systems, where a distributed transaction may specify updates to related data residing on different database systems. To maintain data consistency, all changes made in all database systems by the distributed transaction must be either committed or, in the event of an error, xe2x80x9crolled backxe2x80x9d. When a transaction is committed, all of the changes to data specified by the transaction are made permanent. On the other hand, when a transaction is rolled back, all of the changes to data specified by the transaction already made are retracted or undone, as if the changes to the data were never made.
One approach for ensuring data consistency when processing distributed transactions is referred to as xe2x80x9ctwo-phase commitxe2x80x9d. According to the two-phase commit approach, one database system (the coordinating database system) is responsible for coordinating the commitment of the transaction on one or more other database systems. The other database systems that hold data affected by the transaction are referred to as participating database systems.
A two-phase commit involves two phases, the prepare phase and the commit phase. In the prepare phase, the transaction is prepared in each of the participating database systems. When a transaction is prepared on a database system, the database is put into such a state that it is guaranteed that modifications specified by the transaction to the database data can be committed. When all participants involved in a transaction are prepared, the prepared phase ends and the commit phase may begin.
In the commit phase, the coordinating database system commits the transaction on the coordinating database system and on the participating database systems. Specifically, the coordinating database system sends messages to the participants requesting that the participants commit the modifications specified by the transaction to data on the participating database systems. The participating database systems and the coordinating database system then commit the transaction. Finally, the participating database systems transmit a message acknowledging the commit to the coordinating database system.
On the other hand, if a participating database system is unable to prepare, or the coordinating database system is unable to commit, then at least one of the database systems is unable to make the changes specified by the transaction. In this case, all of the modifications at each of the participants and the coordinating database system are retracted, restoring each database system to its state prior to the changes.
The two-phase commit ensures data consistency while providing simultaneous processing of modifications to distributed databases. However, these benefits are not achieved without costs. Such costs include network traffic that occurs as a result of transmitting requests to prepare and commit from the coordinating database system to the participants, and of transmitting acknowledgements from the participants to the coordinating database system. Another cost is the increased latency experienced by a database system involved in a distributed transaction in waiting for other database systems to become prepared.
FIG. 1 shows a distributed database system used to illustrate in more detail the costs associated with the two-phase commit performed according to a conventional approach for performing a two-phase commit. Distributed database systems 100 includes a coordinating database system 110 and a participating database system 150. Database system 110 receives requests for data from database clients 120, which include client 122 and client 124. Such requests may be in the form of, for example, SQL statements.
Coordinating database system 110 includes a log, such as log 112. The log 112 is used to record modifications made to the database system, and other events affecting the status of those modifications, such as commits. Log 112 contains a variety of log records. When these log records are first created, initially they are stored in volatile memory, and are soon stored permanently to non-volatile storage (e.g. a non-volatile storage device such as a disk). Once log records are written to non-volatile storage, the modifications and other events specified by the log records are referred to as being xe2x80x9cpersistentxe2x80x9d. The modifications and events are xe2x80x9cpersistentxe2x80x9d because the permanently stored log records may be used, in the event of a system failure, after the failure to replay the modifications and events to restore the database to its pre-failure state.
For example, log 112 may contain redo records, which are used to record database operations such as INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, ALTER, or DROP. When a transaction modifies data in a database system, a redo record that specifies the modification is added to the log. To make the modifications permanent, a commit command is issued to database system 110. In response, database system 110 records the commit in a log record of log 112 referred to as a commit record. When a failure occurs after the redo records and the log record reflecting the commit are stored in non-volatile storage, the database may be modified based on the redo records.
FIG. 2 is a state diagram showing transaction states associated with a transaction as it progresses through the phases of a two-phase commit, and the steps that are performed before transitioning between various transaction states according to a conventional approach for performing a two-phase commit. The transaction states are illustrated using distributed database systems 100 as an example. Transaction states 201 are the transaction states that a transaction goes through within a coordinating database system (i.e. coordinating database system 110), and transaction states 202 are the transaction states a transaction goes through within a participating database system (i.e. participating database system 150).
Referring to FIG. 2, inactive states 210, 240, 250, 290 represent the inactive state of a transaction being processed on a distributed database system 200. In the inactive state, there are no database operations specified by the transaction that require any further action (e.g. commit, undo, locking or unlocking of resources needed to perform the operations, such as data blocks). On a given database system, a transaction is initially in the inactive state (i.e. inactive state 210 and 250), and eventually transitions to the inactive state upon completion (i.e. inactive states 240 and 290).
A transaction transitions from the inactive state to the active state when a database system receives a xe2x80x9cbegin transactionxe2x80x9d request. For example, client 122 (FIG. 1) may issue a BEGIN TRANSACTION request to database system 110. At step 212, database system 110 receives the begin transaction request and enters active state 220. Next, coordinating database system 110 receives a command to modify data on participating database system 150. In response, at step 221, coordinating database system 110 transmits a request to participating database system 250 to begin a transaction. At step 222, coordinating database system 110 transmits one or more requests to participating database system 150 to modify data on participating database system 150.
At step 252, participating database system 150 receives the request to begin a transaction. Relative to participating database system 150, the transaction enters the active state 260. Afterwards, participating database system 150 receives the request to modify data.
Once a transaction within a database system enters the active state, the database system may receive any number of requests to modify data as part of the transaction. For example, client 122 may issue requests to coordinating database system 110 to modify data on both coordinating database system 110 and participating database system 150. In response to receiving the requests to modify data on participating database system 150, coordinating database system 110 transmits requests to modify data on participating database system 150 to participating database system 150.
At step 223, the coordinating database system receives a request from client 122 to commit the transaction. In response, at step 224, coordinating database system 110 transmits a prepare request to participating database system 150. At step 262, participating database system 150 receives the request.
At step 264, participating database system 150 flushes log 152 (FIG. 1) to non-volatile storage. xe2x80x9cFlushing the logxe2x80x9d refers to causing the log records of the log that are currently only stored in volatile memory to be stored to non-volatile storage. Thus, flushing the log renders the modifications for participating database system 150 persistent. When the modifications are rendered persistent, participating database system 150 is able to guarantee that it can commit the transaction. Consequently, after step 264, the transaction enters the prepared state. At step 266, participating database system 150 records the transition to the prepared state in log 152 (i.e. creating a log record recording the fact the prepared state has been reached).
At step 272, participating database system 150 transmits a prepared acknowledgment to the coordinating database system 110. A prepared acknowledgment is a message sent by a participating database system that indicates whether or not the participating database system is prepared to commit the transaction. A participating database system is prepared to commit when the transaction is in the prepared state on the participating database system. At step 226, coordinating database system 110 receives the prepared acknowledgment.
At step 228, coordinating database system 110 commits and flushes the log 112. Specifically, coordinating database system 110 creates a log record in log 112 to record the commit. When coordinating database system 110 flushes the log, it renders the commit persistent. When a commit is persistent, the transaction is in the committed state. Thus, after flushing the log, coordinating database system 110 transitions to committed state 230.
After the transaction reaches the committed state, at step 232, coordinating database system 110 transmits to participating database system 110 a forget request. Next, database system 150 forgets the transaction. A forget request is a message sent to a participating database system requesting that the participating database system performing forget processing. Forget processing is the additional operations needed to transition a transaction from the prepared or committed state to the inactive state (e.g. commit the transaction, release resources, and render the transaction inactive).
At step 274, participating database system 150 receives the forget request. At step 276, participating database system commits (including creating a log record to record the commit), and then flushes log 152. At this stage, the transaction enters the inactive state on participating database system 150. At step 282, participating database system 150 releases any remaining locks on resources that were locked by participating database system 150 on behalf of the transaction. At step 284, participating database system 150 transmits a forget acknowledgement to coordinating database system 110. A forget acknowledgement is a message sent by a participating database system acknowledging that forget processing is completed on the participating database system.
At step 234, coordinating database system 110 receives the message acknowledging the forget. At step 236, coordinating database system 110 releases the locks on resources that were locked by coordinating database system 110 on behalf of the transaction. At this stage, the transaction enters the inactive state on coordinating database system 110.
The per transaction cost of the two-phase commit can be measured by the number of transmitted messages and log flushes that are attributable to performing the two-phase commit. Because four messages are attributable to the two-phase commit (i.e. step 221, step 232, step 272, and step 284), the per transaction cost in terms of messages is 4N, where N equals the number of participating database systems. Because one log flush for coordinating database system (i.e. step 228) and two log flushes for each participating database system are attributable to the two-phase commit, the cost in terms of log flushes is 2N+1, where N is the number of participating database systems.
Typically database systems transmit messages to each other through interprocess communication mechanisms, which may occur over a network. Interprocess communication mechanisms are expensive in terms of computer resources. Furthermore, the messages transmitted between the coordinating database system and the participating database systems are part of a handshaking scheme which may cause substantial delay to processing transactions. Specifically, after the coordinating database system transmits the prepare request to each participating database system, the prepare phase does not complete until each participating database system finishes preparing the transaction and transmits a prepared acknowledgement to the coordinating database system. Furthermore, after transmitting a forget request, the commit phase does not complete until each participating database system commits the transaction and transmits a forget acknowledgment to the participating database system. If any participating database system experiences a delay, every database system involved in the transaction experiences the delay.
Each log flush requires a write to non-volatile storage, a task which requires a relatively long period on the computer time scale. Thus, each log flush further contributes to the delay in completing the transaction. Finally, because resources locked for a transaction are not unlocked until the two-phase commit is complete, any delay increases the amount of time other processes will have to wait for those resources.
Based on the foregoing, it is clearly desirable to provide a method which reduces the number messages, handshaking, and log flushes required to complete a transaction under a two-phase commit.
A method and apparatus for performing a two-phase commit of a transaction being coordinated by a coordinating database system is described. According to an aspect of the present invention, once a coordinating database system determines that all participating database systems participating in a database transaction are prepared to commit, the coordinating database system commits the transaction on the coordinating database system. Forget requests are then transmitted to each of the participating database systems. Rather than waiting to receive a forget acknowledgment and performing other forget processing operations, the coordinating database system delegates this work to a forget collector. A commit acknowledgement may be sent to a user by the coordinating database system prior to receiving the forgot acknowledgements, and the user may proceed as if the whole transaction is committed on all database systems.
According to another aspect of the present invention, when a participating database system receives a forget request for a transaction, the participating database system commits the transaction by generating a commit record in its log. Rather than flushing the log to make the commit persistent, and performing other forget processing operations, the participating database system hands off this work to a forget collector.

Performing 2-phase commit with delayed forget


In an optical recording medium having two recording layers of a first recording layer and a second recording layer, the second recording layer contains metallized azo dyes represented by the following general formula (I) or (II), and recording characteristics of the second recording layer are improved by having optical density of 1.3 times as large as, or 1.3 times greater than, that of a dye contained in the first recording layer.

Recently, since a large volume of information can be stored and random access is easy, various types of optical recording media such as CD-Rs, CD-RWs, MOs, are widely recognized and gains popularity as an external recording storage in an information processing apparatus such as computers. Among the various types of the optical recording media, optical recording media such as CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, and DVD+Rs having a recording layer containing organic dyes are relatively low in price, and have compatibility with a playback-only optical disc, thereby being popularly used in particular. For example, a typical CD-R, or the like, having recording layers containing organic dyes, has a dye-containing recording layer and a reflective layer on a transparent disc substrate in this order, and has a laminated structure having a protective layer to cover the recording layer and the reflective layer on which recording/reading are carried out by laser light through the substrate.
As one of means for further increasing the volume of storage capacity of these optical recording media, there can be included a medium that is provided with a plurality of recording layers, for example, a dual layer. In this case, from the viewpoint of convenience, the dual layer is required to be made in such a manner that recording/reading can be carried out from one side of the two recording layers. In order to respond to the requirement, the applicant of the present invention has been applied for a patent regarding an optical recording medium including a first recording layer containing a dye, a first translucent reflective layer, an intermediate resin layer, a second recording layer containing a dye, a second reflective layer, an adhesive layer, and a second substrate, on a first disk-shape transparent substrate, in this order (patent document 1). With this, recording information on the first recording layer and the second recording layer become possible from one side of the optical recording medium having two recording layers, and also, as the dual-layer type optical recording medium, reading signals from the one side becomes possible at the time of reading.
[Patent document 1] Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2003-331463

Abstract: (In this regard, rings A1 and A2 are nitrogen-containing heteroaromatic rings, rings B1 and B2 are aromatic rings, and X is alkyl group substituted by at least two fluorine atoms).


A vehicle seat back assembly having a seat back shell to which a foam and a skin layer may be applied to finish a rear facing surface of the seat back shell. First and second seat back support frame members are received in pockets formed by the seat back shell and an inner shell. According to the method of making a vehicle seat back, a seat back shell is formed from a rigid structural material. In one embodiment, the foam layer is molded in situ onto the rear facing surface of the seat back shell and the skin layer is preferably formed over the foam layer. The foam layer and skin layers may also be omitted, leaving the rear facing surface uncovered. A peripheral portion of the skin layer is bonded to the inner surface of the seat back shell. A separately covered cushion is assembled to the inner portion of the seat back shell.

Vehicle seats used in automobiles, trucks, and other vehicles may be relatively complex structures. Conventional vehicle seats included a metal frame, springs, and padding that were upholstered with cloth, leather or vinyl. In the last decade, new developments in vehicle seat design have lead to incorporating foam and other engineering materials to eliminate inner spring construction. Generally, a specially contoured frame is covered with foam on all sides and a complex cover is fabricated to encase the entire vehicle seat structure with cloth, leather or vinyl. The cover must be specially adapted to accommodate hinges, tilt mechanisms, and other seat adjustment mechanisms.
Vehicle seats must meet standards for strength and durability. In addition, vehicle seats should offer design flexibility to allow them to be adapted to various passenger compartment configurations and adjustment mechanisms and other accessories. The appearance of a vehicle seat should allow for appearance treatments ranging from luxurious to sport to economy. Vehicle seats must also allow for efficient utilization of expensive seating fabrics and leather treatments that are frequently demanded by consumers.
Other important considerations in vehicle seat design are cost constraints. Vehicle seat designs should maximize efficient use of materials and ideally reduce labor requirements to provide maximum value.
These and other problems and objectives relating to vehicle seats and methods of making vehicle seats are addressed by the present invention as summarized below.

Vehicle seat back assembly and method of making a vehicle seat back assembly


A rotating boring tool (10) comprises a cylindrical shank (11) and a body (12), both of which are coaxial with each other, said body being provided at its tip end with cutting blades (13a, 13b) which are in point symmetry with respect to an axis of the shank. Provided on the body are two flutes (14a, 14b) continuous from the cutting blades. The both flutes are made to approach each other at the lower half lead portions (designated hereinbelow as f1 portions) of terminal end portions f0 of the flutes and positioned about 35 degrees or more offset from the position of point symmetry. Alternatively, the both flutes are merged at the f1 portions. Accordingly, thickened portions y0 are formed on the f1 portions to increase rigidity of the f1 portions. As a result, it is possible to suppress generation of fatigue failure at the f1 portions whereby a rotating boring tool of long service life which is hard to break is obtained and a product cost and a cost for tool replacement are considerably reduced.

In general this type of rotating boring tool, as shown for example in FIG. 10A, 10B is provided at its tip end of a body 1 with main cutting blades 2a and 2b in two places of point symmetry with respect to the axis of the tool. In the body 1 two chip discharging grooves 3a, 3b (hereinafter referred to as the flutes) are formed continuously from the main cutting blades 2a and 2b. Tool sections within the range where the flutes 3a and 3b are formed are in point symmetry with respect to the axis of the tool at any point as shown in FIG. 10B. A metal cutting drill in general is of the same system as the above-mentioned tool notwithstanding a difference in the shape of the cutting blades at the tip end.
There is also a rotating boring tool provided with three flutes and the same number of cutting blades equally spaced at the tip end of the body. In this case also, the tool sections within the range in which the flutes are formed are arranged at a nearly equal center angle with respect to the axis of the tool at any point.
The rotating boring tool stated above has been considered to cut well while advancing straight on account of the equal, well-balanced distribution of cutting resistance to the cutting blades during boring. Actually, however, it has become clear that it is very difficult to equally distribute the cutting resistance to each cutting blade. That is, because of low-precision mounting of the rotating boring tool to the rotating spindle, or a machining inaccuracy of the tip end of the tool occurring in manufacturing the rotating boring tool, and further nonuniform internal structure or presence of directional properties in a work to be bored, the uniformity of cutting resistance is deteriorated during boring operation even if the rotating boring tool is mounted accurately and other conditions are in order.
Therefore since a component force of the cutting resistance, frictional resistance, etc. acts at the tip end of the rotating boring tool, at right angles with the axis of the tool, the straightforward advance of the rotating boring tool is disturbed, and it causes the rotating boring tool to swerve more or less during boring. Particularly if the effective length of the flutes empirically exceeds seven times longer than the tool diameter, boring accuracy will be lowered when the rotating boring tool is used in deep hole boring.
Also, there sometimes occurred such a trouble as sudden breakage of the rotating boring tool. In most cases, no cause of the breakage could be found; and it has been thought to the extent that it is the cause to break easily that the rotating boring tool is slender. The inventor et al of the present invention, however, have made researches of breakage of the rotating boring tool, finding out a cause of the breakage.
In the case of the rotating boring tool having the aforesaid two flutes, an arbitrary section of a portion in which the flutes are effectively formed is of the shape shown in FIG. 10B. It is, however, clear that this portion has lower rigidity against bending in the y direction than in the x direction. The flutes are spiral and the tool bores while turning. Therefore the direction of the component force stated above coincides with the y direction in the section of a certain portion of the range within a 1/2 lead (hereinafter termed the f1 portion) before the terminal end portion f0 of the flutes is reached. Consequently if the component force perpendicular to the axis of the tool acts at the tip end of the rotating boring tool, the tool will be warped at some point of the f1 portion, swerving during boring. That is, the rotating boring tool will be subjected to repetitive bending at a rapid cycle within the f1 portion during rotation for boring. This bending remains within an elastic limit; the repetitive boring operation will cause a fatigue to arise in the f1 portion, resulting in a breakage in the f1 portion of the rotating boring tool.
Such a problem can be prevented by increasing the rigidity of the f1 portion; as a method for increasing the rigidity, the flutes in the entire portion or in the f1 portion are made shallower to increase the axial width of the rotating boring tool or made narrower to increase the width of the entire section. According to these two methods, however, it is necessary to shallow or narrow the flutes to the extent that chips can not smoothly be discharged. Particularly these methods are unapplicable to a rotating boring tool used in a deep hole boring of wood or the like which produces a large amount of chips per revolution of the tool.
To solve the above-described problem, the present invention has an object to provide a long-life, hard-to-break rotating boring tool having greater rigidity in the f1 portion without adversely affecting smooth discharge of chips in order to assure unswerving boring during boring operation.


A heat pump which has overlapping chambers and a somewhat s-shaped drain pan disposed between the two chambers provides a low profile, compact design. The chamber for circulating conditioned air has two air intake openings, one for a duct return and one for free return and a somewhat diagonally positioned evaporator/condenser coil. The drains are fully trapped within the housing of the heat pump for convenience in installation.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to an indoor heat pump for use in a confined space.
2. Description of the Prior Art and Objectives of the Invention
With the advent of apartment living, manufacturers of heating and cooling appliances were faced with a need to conserve space used by their appliances. While compact heat pumps and other combined technologies helped alleviate some of the space concerns, there is still a strong felt need to economize on the space used by heating and cooling devices. Numerous types have been built which attempt to make such appliances smaller, or otherwise reduce the space required. These include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,598,558; 5,140,830; 5,533,346 and 5,271,242. While these devices are improvements over the art of the time, there are still pressures to reduce the size of the appliances and to conserve valuable indoor space.
Likewise, there is a need to provide a heat pump which is easily adapted to condition air that is returned to the heat pump by a duct or a free return vent. Such a device would allow installers to use identical heat pumps in a number of different installation configurations, and thus, reduce the inventory of the installer or supplier.
There is an additional need for a self-contained heat pump which is readily installed without extensive additional plumbing to accommodate condensate drainage. Conventional heat pumps are trapped exteriorly of the heat pump housing and thus require additional installation and plumbing work.
With the above needs in mind, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a heat pump which has a very small footprint and thus takes up little floor space.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a heat pump which is only about 180 cm tall.
It is still a further objective of the present invention to provide a heat pump which has a drain trap fully contained within its housing.
It is yet a further objective of the present invention to provide a heat pump which has a diagonally positioned coil in fluid communication with two different air intake openings, namely a duct return, and a free return.
It is another objective to provide a heat pump with vertically overlapping interior chambers to effectively shorten the height of the heat pump.
It is still another objective to provide a heat pump with a drain pan that substantially covers the footprint of the heat pump.
It is yet another objective to provide a somewhat s-shaped drain pan in order to accommodate overlapping chambers.
These and further objectives and advantages will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to the following detailed description.


An image compression and expansion apparatus is provided which changes an appearance value of quantization table of quantizer/inverse-quantizer without actually changing values of quantization table by carrying out calculation for every processing. An image compression and expansion apparatus which compresses and expands image data comprises a quantizer which linearly quantizes a Discrete Cosine Transform coefficient by different step size for every coefficient location, an inverse-quantizer which inverse-quantizes coefficients obtained in Huffman decoding, and a quantization table which is necessary for quantization and inverse-quantization process comprising: a register for setting a necessary value in response to an outside signal; a data processing unit for carrying out an operation between values set into the register and values in the quantization table to carry out quantization and inverse-quantization operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a quantizer table controller of quantizer/inverse-quantizer in an image compression and expansion apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a conventional image compression and expansion apparatus. An operation of the first embodiment is explained below. First of all, in the coder portion, image data, for example, component image Pxy (x, y=0,1,2,3 . . . 7) having an 8-bit width, is inputted from the image data input terminal 1. The inputted image data is transmitted to DCT (Discrete Cosine Transformer) 2. DCT 2 carries out a two dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform on the divided 8xc3x978 picture element block Pxy. As a result of the two dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform, 64 (=8xc3x978) coefficients Suv are obtained. The 64 coefficients obtained are then rearranged from a serial order to a zigzag order in a zigzag transformer 23 and transmitted to the quantizer 3. The 64 coefficients are quantized in the quantizer 3 by different step sizes at every coefficient location using the quantization table 4. The 64 quantized coefficients are transmitted to Huffman encoder 5. Huffman encoder 5 carries out a coding operation according to Huffman coding system using the encoding table 6 and the encoded data are outputted from the output terminal 7 in units of several bytes (16-bits wide, for instance).
Next, in the decoder portion, the encoded data are inputted into an input terminal 8 in units of several bytes unit. The inputted encoded data are transmitted to Huffman decoder 9. In Huffman decoder 9, the data is then decoded to ruv by Huffman decoding system using the encoding table 6 and then transmitted to the inverse-quantizer 10. Huffman decoded coefficients are inverse-quantized to Suv in the inverse-quantizer 10 per 64 coefficients using the quantization table 4 rearranged from a zigzag order into a serial order for every 8xc3x978 image block at an inverse zigzag transformer 24, and then transmitted to the inverse discrete cosine transformer (IDCT) 11.
The inverse discrete cosine transformer 11 carries out a two dimensional Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform for every 8xc3x978 picture element block. As a result of Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform, reconstruction image data Pxy for every 8xc3x978 picture element block are obtained and then the image data Pxy are outputted from the image data output terminal 12 as a component image having an 8 -bit width.
Detailed operation is explained below. An 8xc3x978 component image Pxy (x, y=0, 1, 2, 3 . . . 7) is transformed using a two dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform at DCT 2 and the following coefficient Suv is obtained from formula (1):                               S          uv                =                              1            4                                          C            u                                          C            v                                                        ∑                              x                =                0                            7                                                                  ∑                                  y                  =                  0                                7                                                                            (                                                            P                      xy                                        -                                          L                      s                                                        )                                                cos                                                  xe2x80x83                                                                                (                                                                        2                                                    x                                                +                        1                                            )                                                            u                                                              xe2x80x83                                                            π                                    16                                                                  xe2x80x83                                                cos                                                  xe2x80x83                                                                                (                                                                        2                                                    y                                                +                        1                                            )                                                            v                                                              xe2x80x83                                                            π                                    16                                                                                (        1        )
where x, y=picture element position within block u, v=location of Discrete Cosine Transform coefficient                               Cu          ,                      Cv            =                                          1                /                                  2                                            :                                                            u          ,                      v            =            0                                                        =                      1            :                                      others                                          Ls          =                      128            :                                                            bit                                      xe2x80x83                                    accuracy                                      xe2x80x83                                    of                                      xe2x80x83                                    Pxy                    =                      8                                      xe2x80x83                                    bits                                                        =                      2048            :                                                            bit                                      xe2x80x83                                    accuracy                                      xe2x80x83                                    of                                      xe2x80x83                                    Pxy                    =                      12                                      xe2x80x83                                    bits
Discrete Cosine Transform coefficient Suv is obtained by the two dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform. Discrete Cosine Transform coefficient Suv, as shown in FIG.9, comprises S00 (DC coefficient) and the rest of S01xcx9cS77 (AC coefficient). S00 has a maximum value and other values of AC coefficient are very small compared with S00.
A more detailed explanation about the quantizer 3 and the inverse-quantizer 10 of the invention is given below. Discrete Cosine Transform coefficients obtained as above are divided using values Quv of quantization table 4 in the quantizer 3. In other words, a quantized Discrete Cosine Transform coefficient ruv is calculated as follows.
ruv=round (Suv/Quv)
Where, the round function is a function which assigns an operation result of Suv /Quv to a nearest integer number. Therefore, a quantization table value Quv is determined such that the quantization table value Quv becomes large where the two dimensional order uv increases. As a result, most of the AC coefficients become zero where the two dimensional order uv is large. Thus, the component image of 8xc3x978 picture elements is transformed by two dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform and quantized in order to compress the component image, which greatly decreases the transmitted bits as a result.
On the other hand, in the decoder portion, a compressed picture signal inputted from the input terminal 8 is decoded in Huffman decoder 9 and transformed to quantized Discrete Cosine Transform coefficients ruv. Quantized Discrete Cosine Transform coefficient ruv is multiplied, i.e. inverse-quantized, by value Quv of quantization table 4 in the inverse-quantization 10.
Discrete Cosine Transform coefficient Suv is obtained by carrying out the inverse-quantization by the following formula:
Suv=ruvxc3x97Quv
Discrete Cosine Transform coefficient Suv thus obtained is transformed to a component image Pxy of 8xc3x978 picture elements by a two dimensional Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform shown in formula (2):
                              P          xy                =                                            1              4                                                                  ∑                                  u                  =                  0                                7                                                                            ∑                                      v                    =                    0                                    7                                                                                C                    u                                                                          C                    v                                                                          S                    uv                                                      cos                                                        xe2x80x83                                                                                (                                                                              2                                                        x                                                    +                          1                                                )                                                                  u                                                                    xe2x80x83                                                                  π                                        16                                                                          xe2x80x83                                                      cos                                                        xe2x80x83                                                                                (                                                                              2                                                        y                                                    +                          1                                                )                                                                  v                                                                    xe2x80x83                                                                  π                                        16                                                                                +                      L            s                                              (        2        )
where x, y=picture element position within block u, v=location of Discrete Cosine Transform coefficient                               Cu          ,                      Cv            =                                          1                /                                  2                                            :                                                            u          ,                      v            =            0                                                        =                      1            :                                      others                                          Ls          =                      128            :                                                            bit                                      xe2x80x83                                    accuracy                                      xe2x80x83                                    of                                      xe2x80x83                                    Pxy                    =                      8                                      xe2x80x83                                    bits                                                        =                      2048            :                                                            bit                                      xe2x80x83                                    accuracy                                      xe2x80x83                                    of                                      xe2x80x83                                    Pxy                    =                      12                                      xe2x80x83                                    bits
Since the quantizer/inverse-quantizer in a conventional image compression and expansion apparatus is constructed as explained above, a table value had to be updated because every different processing or expansion processing needs a different quantization table value. When updating a quantization table, it is difficult to update a quantization table without stopping the system. Therefore, it is necessary to stop the system before updating the quantization table in the conventional art.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an image compression and expansion apparatus which changes values of a quantization table of quantizer/inverse-quantizer in appearance by carrying out an operation at each processing step without actually writing new quantization table values in a quantization table.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an image compression and expansion apparatus wherein values of register can be controlled from outside a CPU, which may easily change many kinds of tables.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an image compression and expansion apparatus wherein the compressibility of image may be easily changed locally in the display by always monitoring the compression data and by changing a scaling factor according to various kinds of conditions such as a block unit and a block line unit.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an image compression and expansion apparatus wherein the compressibility can be changed such that it is rough at the end of a frame and fine at the center portion of the frame.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image compression and expansion apparatus which comprises a register for setting necessary values in response to an outside signal; a data processing unit for carrying out an operation between values set into the register and values in the quantization table thereby carrying out quantization and inverse-quantization operations.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image compression and expansion apparatus wherein a data processing unit comprises multiplication means which multiplies data output Quv of the quantization table by an output C of the register to generate a new table value Quvxe2x80x2 using following formula.
xe2x80x83Quvxe2x80x2=Quvxc3x97C
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image compression and expansion apparatus wherein a data processing unit comprises shift means which shifts a data output Quv of the quantization table toward an upper bit direction or a lower bit direction in response to output C of the register to generate a new table value Quvxe2x80x2 using the following formula:
Quvxe2x80x2=Quvxc3x972c
According to further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image compression and expansion apparatus wherein a data processing unit comprises multiplication means which multiplies a data output Quv of the quantization table by an output C of the register, and a shift means which shifts data output Quv of the quantization table toward an upper bit direction or a lower bit direction in response to the output C of the register to generate a new table value Quvxe2x80x2 using the following formula:
Quvxe2x80x2=Quvxc3x97Cxc3x972n
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image compression and expansion apparatus wherein a data processing unit comprises division means which divides a data output Quv of the quantization table by an output C of the register to generate the new table value Quvxe2x80x2 using a following formula:
Quvxe2x80x2=Quv/C
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image compression and expansion apparatus wherein a data processing unit comprises shift means which shifts a data output Quv of the quantization table toward an upper bit direction or a lower bit direction according to the output C of the register, and division means which divides a data output Quv of the quantization table by the output C of the register to generate a new table value Quvxe2x80x2 using following formula:
Quvxe2x80x2=Quvxc3x972n/C
According to further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image compression and expansion apparatus wherein an output C of the data processing unit is a constant.
According to further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image compression and expansion apparatus wherein the output C of the data processing unit is a function of picture element location (u,v), that is, C=f (u,v).
According to further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image compression and expansion apparatus wherein the output C of the data processing unit is a function of location in a frame.

Image compression and expansion apparatus using a effectively modifiable quantization table

Mitsubishi Electric Semiconductor Software Co., Ltd.


An LCD panel that provides improved image quality by preventing light leakage and maintaining constant cell gap is provided, along with a method of making the LCD panel. The LCD panel includes a first member that has a column spacer, a second member that is positioned substantially parallel to the first member, and a polymer layer disposed between the column spacer and the second member. The polymer layer combines the column spacer with the second member. A liquid crystal layer is disposed between the first member and the second member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display panel and a method of making the same, and more particularly to a liquid crystal display panel with a constant cell gap between two substrates.
2. Description of the Related Art
An LCD (liquid crystal display) device includes an LCD panel having a TFT (Thin Film Transistor) substrate on which TFTs are formed, a color filter substrate on which a color filter layer is formed and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the two substrates. Since the LCD panel does not emit light by itself, the LCD may include a backlight unit disposed in the rear of the TFT substrate. The transmittance of the light generated by the backlight unit as it passes through the LCD depends on the alignment of liquid crystals in the liquid crystal layer.
The LCD also comprises a driving circuit applying a driving signal to a gate line and a data line formed on the TFT substrate in order to form a screen on a display area. The driving circuit includes a gate driving chip, a data driving chip and a printed circuit board on which a timing controller and a driving voltage generating part are formed.
Optical characteristic of the LCD panel is closely related to the cell gap in the liquid crystal layer formed between the two substrates. Specifically, the contrast and the angular field are known to depend upon multiplication of the birefringence Δn of the liquid crystal and the cell gap. Therefore, when the cell gap of the LCD panel is not constant, the optical characteristic is not constant either.
The cell gap becomes irregular when the LCD panel gets bent. Bending of the LCD panel is especially problematic when a flexible material such as plastic is used for the substrate. A method of maintaining a constant cell gap in an LCD made with flexible substrate is desired to ensure stable optical characteristics and quality images.

Liquid crystal display panel having a constant cell gap and method of making the same


An interior mounting system for a vehicle includes an interior assembly, a mounting assembly for mounting the interior assembly at a vehicle windshield, a first windshield mounting element adhered to an in-cabin surface of the vehicle windshield, and a second windshield mounting element attached at the in-cabin surface of the vehicle windshield and at or at least partially around the first mounting element. A mounting base of the mounting assembly is configured to engage at least the second mounting element when the mounting base is mounted at the first and second mounting elements at the in-cabin surface of the vehicle windshield. The first and second mounting elements cooperate to support the mounting base and the interior assembly when the first and second mounting elements are adhered to the in-cabin surface of the vehicle windshield and when the mounting base is mounted at the first and second mounting elements.

It is known to provide a mirror assembly that is adjustably mounted to an interior portion of a vehicle, such as via a double ball pivot joint or double ball pivot mounting configuration where the mirror casing and reflective element are adjusted relative to the interior portion of a vehicle by pivotal movement about the double ball pivot arm or configuration. The mirror casing and reflective element are pivotable about either ball pivot joint or ball joint by a user that is adjusting a rearward field of view of the reflective element. In some applications, a mirror assembly may be adjustably mounted to an interior portion of a vehicle via a single ball pivot joint or single pivot mounting configuration. Typically, a base portion or channel mount of the mirror mounting assembly is mounted to or attached to a windshield mounting button that is adhered to an in-cabin surface of the windshield of the vehicle.


A method of forming fine patterns of semiconductor devices comprises patterning one material layer using at least two sub-photomasks. The material layer is formed on a semiconductor substrate, and the material layer is patterned at least twice using each of the sub-photomasks. The shapes and sizes of the patterns on one sub-photomask are different to those of the other sub-photomask, and the patterns of one sub-photomask may partially overlap those of the other sub-photomask. The profiles of all patterns formed on the one material layer can thereby be optimized.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of fabricating semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to a method of forming fine patterns of semiconductor devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is currently a great amount of research in methods for forming fine patterns of semiconductor devices and photomasks necessary therefore because semiconductor devices are becoming more highly integrated. Presently, a phase shift mask process is widely used to form fine patterns of semiconductor devices because it is highly effective in forming periodic patterns. However, elaborate techniques are required to form a phase shift mask, and it is expensive to fabricate the phase shift mask, moreover, phase shift mask processes do not effectively form aperiodic patterns. Thus, processes using a phase shift mask are inappropriate for forming fine aperiodic or abnormal patterns at low cost. Since, pattern density increases as integration increases and pattern abnormalities increase as pattern density increases, pattern abnormalities in semiconductor devices increase with the increased integration thereof.
FIG. 1 is a plan view partially showing a conventional photomask 1. Here, reference numerals 5 and 7 denote a cell array region having high pattern density and a peripheral circuit region having low pattern density, respectively.
Referring to FIG. 1, adjacent contact hole patterns 3 are two-dimensionally separated by a predetermined distance d in the cell array region 5. On the other hand, contact hole patterns 3 in the peripheral circuit region 7 are two-dimensionally separated by a distance which is wider than the predetermined distance d.
FIG. 2A is a cross-sectional view of the photomask 1 shown in FIG. 1 taken along line A-Axe2x80x2. FIG. 2B is a graph of the light intensity of light beams passing through the contact hole patterns 3 of the photomask 1 shown in FIG. 2A. FIG. 2C is a cross-sectional view of a profile of a photoresist pattern 26 formed in accordance with the light intensity of the graph shown in FIG. 2B. Here, reference characters 5 and 7 denote the cell array region 5 and the peripheral circuit region 7 of FIG. 1, respectively.
Referring to FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C, an interdielectric layer 23 is formed on a semiconductor substrate 21, and an etch mask layer 25 having a high selectivity with respect to the interdielectric layer 23 is formed on the interdielectric layer 23. A photoresist layer 26 is formed on the etch mask layer 25, and the photoresist layer 26 is exposed to ultraviolet light using the photomask 1 and light 20 shown in FIG. 2A. The photomask 1 is composed of a transparent substrate 22 and an opaque material pattern 24 formed in a predetermined region on one side of the transparent substrate 22. The opaque material pattern is made of a chrome pattern. The opaque material pattern 24 is formed in the regions between the plurality of contact hole patterns 3 shown in FIG. 1. That is, the opaque material pattern 24 is formed by removing material or preventing the formation of material where the contact hole patterns 3 are transcribed thereon, thereby defining holes where the contact hole patterns are transcribed.
As described above, light 20 passes through the transparent substrate 22 and through the contact hole patterns 3 of the opaque material pattern 24 when the light 20 radiates the photomask 1. The light which passes through the transparent substrate 22 and the contact hole patterns 3 exposes a predetermined region of the photoresist layer 26 formed on the semiconductor substrate 21. The diffraction or interference effect on the light beams passing through the transparent substrate 22 and contact hole patterns 3 is more severe as the distance d between adjacent holes in the contact hole pattern 3 decreases. The etch mask layer 25 is formed on the interdielectric layer 23 and acts as an antireflection layer, but the diffraction and interference effects cannot be overcome.
Thus, as shown in FIG. 2B, light beams irradiate some of the region under the opaque material pattern 24. As a result, the portion of the photoresist pattern 26 corresponding to the contact hole patterns 3 formed in the cell array region 5 are inaccurately formed. Thus, when the etch mask layer 25 and the interdielectric layer 23 are etched using the photoresist pattern 26 as a mask, contact holes having an inaccurate profile are formed in the cell array region 5.
In the conventional art, when the sizes or shapes of patterns of the photomask 1 are different, it is difficult to optimize profiles of all patterns formed on the semiconductor substrate. For example, when patterns having various sizes or shapes are mixed in the photomask 1, it is difficult to optimize profiles of all patterns. This is because conditions of the photo process, for example, conditions of exposure and development, must be changed in accordance with the size or the shape of the pattern.
The present invention is directed to overcoming or at least reducing the effects of one or more of the problems set forth above.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided a photomask for forming fine patterns capable of optimizing the profiles of all patterns formed in a high pattern density region. More specifically, there is provided a photomask for forming fine patterns by etching one material layer formed on a semiconductor substrate. The photomask for forming fine patterns includes at least two sub-photomasks. Each of the sub-photomasks is composed of one transparent substrate and patterns on one side of the transparent substrate. All of the patterns to be formed can be thought of as an entire set of patterns which are split into subsets of patterns. The union of the subset of patterns is the entire set of patterns. Each sub-photomask is transcribed with a corresponding subset of patterns. The patterns of one sub-photomask correspond to one of the groups obtained by classifying a group of patterns finally formed on the semiconductor substrate. For instance, when the photomask is composed of two sub-photomasks, patterns on a substrate of the first sub-photomask (i.e., patterns of a first group) are patterns obtained by transcribing some of the entire set of patterns. The patterns on a substrate of the second sub-photomask (i.e., patterns of the second group) are patterns obtained by transcribing the entire set of patterns with the exception of the patterns of the first group.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, at least one of the patterns on one sub-photomask may overlap with at least one of the patterns on another sub-photomask. The overlapped pattern may correspond to a pattern such as an alignment key, which is difficult to completely pattern with one photo process.
In a further aspect of the present invention, when the sizes of the patterns in the entire set of patterns are the same, the minimum distance between patterns on the substrate of each of the sub-photomasks is wider than the minimum distance among the entire set of patterns. Thus, when the photo process is performed using each of the sub-photomasks, the distance between patterns is increased, so that the interference and/or diffraction effect of light beams can be remarkably suppressed.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, when there are two different shapes of patterns in the entire set of patterns, patterns of the same shape are transcribed on a substrate of one sub-photomask. For instance, when the entire set of patterns are classified into two kinds of shapes, i.e., rectangular patterns and regular square patterns, the rectangular patterns are transcribed on the substrate of one sub-photomask and regular square patterns are transcribed on the substrate of another sub-photomask. Here, the rectangular pattern may be a pattern for forming an interconnection of a bar type or a pattern for forming an oval contact hole, and the regular square pattern may correspond to a pattern for forming a circular contact hole. Thus, it is easy to optimize the profiles of the regular square patterns and rectangular patterns formed on the semiconductor substrate by changing the process conditions whenever a photo process using each of sub-photomask is performed.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of forming fine patterns using the photomask. More specifically, there is provided a method of forming fine patterns capable of optimizing the profiles of all patterns formed on a semiconductor substrate. In this method, one material layer to be patterned such as a dielectric layer or a conductive layer is formed on the semiconductor substrate, and the material layer is patterned using at least two sub-photomasks. Here, the sub-photomasks are the same as those of the sub-photomask for forming fine patterns. As a result, the method of forming fine patterns requires the same number of photo processes as the number of sub-photomasks.
In a further aspect of the present invention, when two sub-photomasks are used (i.e., first and second sub-photomasks) the step of patterning the material layer includes the sub-steps of forming a first photoresist pattern on the material layer using the first sub-photomask; first-patterning the material layer using the first photoresist pattern as an etch mask; removing the first photoresist pattern; forming a second photoresist pattern using the second sub-photomask which is different from the first sub-photomask on the semiconductor substrate where the first photoresist pattern is removed; patterning the first patterned material layer using the second photoresist pattern as an etch mask, thereby forming a plurality of patterns in the material layer.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, the present invention may further comprise a sub-step of forming an etch mask layer having an etch selectivity with respect to the material layer. At least two of the sub-photomasks are used for patterning the etch mask layer. Also, the material layer is patterned by one etching process using the patterned etch mask layer as an etch mask, thereby forming desired patterns. The etch mask layer is formed of a silicon nitride layer or a silicon oxynitride layer acting as an antireflection layer. When the two sub-photomasks are first and second sub-photomasks, the step of patterning the material layer includes the sub-steps of: forming the first photoresist pattern on the etch mask layer using the first sub-photomask; patterning the etch mask layer using the first photoresist pattern as an etch mask; removing the first photoresist pattern; forming a second photoresist pattern on the semiconductor substrate where the first photoresist pattern is removed; using the second sub-photomask which is different from the first sub-photomask; second-patterning the first-patterned etch mask layer using the second photoresist pattern as an etch mask; removing the second photoresist pattern, and etching the material layer using the second-patterned etch mask layer.
In accordance with still another aspect of the present invention, when the shapes of the patterns of the first sub-photomask are different from that of the second sub-photomask, the photo process using the first sub-photomask is performed under different conditions than that of the photo process using the second sub-photomask, thereby easily optimizing the profiles of all patterns finally formed in the material layer. When all patterns finally formed in the material layer have the same size, the profiles of all patterns formed in the material layer can be optimized by manufacturing first and second sub-photomasks such that a minimum distance of patterns transcribed on the first sub-photomask and a minimum distance of patterns transcribed on the second sub-photomask are wider than the distances of the plurality of patterns. This is because whenever photo processes are performed using each of the sub-photomasks, the minimum distance of the patterns transcribed on the semiconductor substrate is wider than that in the conventional art, so that the interference or diffraction effect of the light beams generated between adjacent patterns is remarkably reduced. Particularly, when an etch mask layer is additionally formed on the material layer, profiles of each of the patterns can be further optimized.
According to the present invention, a plurality of patterns which are formed by using single photo process, are formed by using at least two photo processes, thereby optimizing the profiles of each of the patterns.

Method of forming fine patterns of a semiconductor device


A plurality of modules interact to form an adaptive network in which each module transmits and receives data signals indicative of proximity of objects. A central computer accumulates the data produced or received and relayed by each module for analyzing proximity responses to transmit through the adaptive network control signals to a selectively-addressed module to respond to computer analyses of the data accumulated from modules forming the adaptive network.

Certain installations require secure boundaries to preserve integrity or security of the installation against unauthorized intrusions. A store house of strategic materials or a temporary security area around a crime scene, or the like, is commonly marked by fencing or rope or tape borders, or the like, to inhibit further intrusion by unauthorized personnel. However, such factors are not deterrents to individuals who are determined to enter the security area.
Alternatively, more permanent installations commonly include closed-circuit video surveillance of a secured area, with concomitant monitors for security personnel in attendance to observe video images for any changed circumstances. Appropriate alarms and corrective measures may be initiated upon observation of a video image of changed circumstances that prompt human analysis and manual responses. These tactics are commonly expensive for video camera and monitor installations and for continuing labor expenses associated with continuous shifts of attendant personnel.


Disclosed is an OLED display device. The OLED display device includes a substrate in which a plurality of pixels are defined, a thin film transistor formed in each of the pixels defined in the substrate, a passivation layer formed on the thin film transistor, a planarizing layer formed on the passivation layer and including a groove formed in an upper end portion of each pixel, a reflective electrode formed in the groove of the planarizing layer, an anode electrode formed on the reflective electrode, an organic emitting layer formed on the anode electrode, and a cathode electrode formed on the organic emitting layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display device and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to an active OLED display device and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
With the advance of information communication technology, the demand for information display devices is rapidly increasing, and thus, the research and development of information display devices are being actively done. As the research and development of information display devices accelerate, display devices tend to realize a large screen, high resolution, a thin thickness, high definition, and a light weight.
Today is the mobile age, and, as a representative type of information display device which has noticeable advantages in thinning and lightening, flat panel display devices include liquid crystal display (LCD) devices, OLED display devices, etc.
Among such flat panel display devices, the OLED display devices have low power consumption, a good contrast ratio, a wide viewing angle, and a fast response time, and thus are attracting much attention as next generation flat panel display devices, following LCD devices. Also, recently, as research on enlargement is intensively done, technology for enhancing luminance uniformity and luminance is advancing.
In the technology for enhancing luminance, there is a micro-cavity. The micro-cavity denotes a state or structure in which light is repeatedly reflected in a certain section, and amplified by constructive interference. To apply the micro-cavity structure, a plurality of reflective electrodes which have different step heights for each pixel may be respectively formed in a plurality of anode electrodes.
FIG. 1 is a sectional view illustrating a portion of a related art OLED display device.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the related art OLED display device includes a substrate 101, a thin film transistor TR, a passivation layer 110, a planarizing layer 120, a reflective electrode 130, and an anode electrode 140.
The thin film transistor TR is formed in each of a plurality of pixels P that are defined in the substrate 101, and the passivation layer 110 and the planarizing layer 120 are formed on the thin film transistor TR. The anode electrode 140 is formed on the planarizing layer 120, and the reflective electrode 130 is formed under the anode electrode 140. Although not shown, the reflective electrode 130 may be formed under the anode electrode 140, and the anode electrode 140 may include the reflective electrode 130.
The reflective electrode 130 includes a reflective layer 131. Between the reflective layer 131 and cathode electrodes (not shown), light emitted from an organic emitting layer (not shown) is repeatedly reflected, amplified by constructive inference, and emitted to the outside. In this case, the pixels P emit light of different wavelengths, and thus, a distance corresponding to an integer multiple of a half wavelength of the light emitted from each pixel P should be set as a distance over which the light is repeatedly reflected, for causing constructive interference. That is, a distance between the reflective layer 131 and the cathode electrode should match the distance corresponding to the integer multiple of the half wavelength of the light emitted from each pixel P. The distance between the reflective layer 131 and the cathode electrode is called an optical distance of the micro-cavity.
In order to set a plurality of the optical distances for each pixel P differently, the reflective electrode 130 may include a transparent layer 132. FIG. 1 illustrates an example in which the transparent layer 132 is formed in only the rightmost pixel P. However, the transparent layer 312 may be formed on any one or more of the plurality of pixels P depending on light emitted from each pixel P. Also, in order to set the optical distance suitable for each pixel P, the transparent layer 132 may be formed on one or more of the pixels P illustrated in FIG. 1.
In this way, when the transparent layers 132 are uniquely formed for each respective pixel P, the number of mask processes increases, which further causes a reduction in process efficiency.

Organic light emitting diode display device and method of manufacturing the same