The present invention relates to compositions forming a low viscosity mixture of: a. 25-55 wt. % of at least one diacyl glycerol and/or at least one tocopherol; b. 25-55 wt. % of at least one phospholipid component comprising phospholipids having i. polar head groups comprising more than 50% phosphatidyl ethanolamine, and ii. two acyl chains each independently having 16 to 20 carbons wherein at least one acyl chain has at least one unsaturation in the carbon chain, and there are no more than four unsaturations over two carbon chains; c. 5-25 wt. % of at least one biocompatible, oxygen containing, low viscosity organic solvent; wherein 0.1-10 wt. % of at least one peptide active agent comprising at least one somatostatin receptor agonist is dissolved or dispersed in the low viscosity mixture; and wherein the pre-formulation forms, or is capable of forming, at least one non-lamellar liquid crystalline phase structure upon contact with an aqueous fluid. The invention further relates to methods of treatment comprising administration of such compositions, and to pre-filled administration devices and kits containing the formulations.

Many bioactive agents including pharmaceuticals, nutrients, vitamins and so forth have a "functional window". That is to say that there is a range of concentrations over which these agents can be observed to provide some biological effect. Where the concentration in the appropriate part of the body (e.g. locally or as demonstrated by serum concentration) falls below a certain level, no beneficial effect can be attributed to the agent. Similarly, there is generally an upper concentration level above which no further benefit is derived by increasing the concentration. In some cases increasing the concentration above a particular level results in undesirable or even dangerous effects.
Some bioactive agents have a long biological half-life and/or a wide functional window and thus may be administered occasionally, maintaining a functional biological concentration over a substantial period of time (e.g. 6 hours to several days). In other cases the rate of clearance is high and/or the functional window is narrow and thus to maintain a biological concentration within this window regular (or even continuous) doses of a small amount are required. This can be particularly difficult where non-oral routes of administration (e.g. parenteral administration) are desirable. Furthermore, in some circumstances, such as in the fitting of implants (e.g. joint replacements or oral implants) the area of desired action may not remain accessible for repeated administration. In such cases a single administration must provide active agent at a therapeutic level over the whole period during which activity is needed.
Sustained activity is furthermore important in situations where a physical soothing or barrier property is provided by a formulation. In such circumstances the biological effect may be provided by, for example, the separation of a biological tissue from some undesirable agent or environment or by the provision of a soothing interface between the tissue and its surroundings. Where compositions provide such a barrier or interfacial property, whether including a "drug" type active agent or not, it is an advantage if the composition is sufficiently permanent to allow a reasonable period between administrations.
Different methods have been used and proposed for the sustained release of biologically active agents. Such methods include slow-release, orally administered compositions, such as coated tablets, formulations designed for gradual absorption, such as transdermal patches, and slow-release implants such as "sticks" implanted under the skin.
One method by which the gradual release of a bioactive agent has been proposed is a so-called "depot" injection. In this method, a bioactive agent is formulated with carriers providing a gradual release of active agent over a period of a number of hours, days, weeks, or even months. These are often based upon a degrading matrix which gradually degrades and/or disperses in the body to release the active agent.
There is an enormous potential in the use of peptides (including proteins) for treating various disease states, as well as in prophylaxis and in improving general health and well-being of subjects. However, the performance of administered peptide agents is generally limited due to poor bioavailability, which in turn is caused by the rapid degradation of peptides and proteins in biological fluids. This increases the dose which must be administered and in many cases restricts the effective routes of administration. These effects are further exaggerated by the often limited permeability of peptides and proteins across biological membranes.
Peptides and proteins that are administered to the mammalian body (e.g. orally, intramuscularly etc.) are subject to degradation by various proteolytic enzymes and systems present throughout the body. Well known sites of peptidase activity include the stomach (e.g. pepsin), and the intestinal tract (e.g. trypsin, chymotrypsin, and others) but other peptidases (e.g. aminopeptidases, carboxypeptidases, etc.) are found throughout the body. Upon oral administration, gastric and intestinal degradation reduces the amount of peptide or protein which potentially could be absorbed through the intestinal surface lining and thereby decreases their bioavailability. Similarly, free peptides and proteins in the mammalian blood stream are also subject to enzymatic degradation (e.g. by plasma proteases etc.).
Some patients undergoing treatment will typically require a therapeutic dose to be maintained for a considerable period and/or ongoing treatment for many months or years. Thus a depot system allowing loading and controlled release of a larger dose over a longer period would offer a considerable advantage over conventional delivery systems.
The most common of the established methods of depot injection relies upon a polymeric depot system. This is typically a biodegradable polymer such as poly (lactic acid) (PLA) and/or poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and may be in the form of a solution in an organic solvent, a pre-polymer mixed with an initiator, encapsulated polymer particles or polymer microspheres. The polymer or polymer particles entrap the active agent and are gradually degraded releasing the agent by slow diffusion and/or as the matrix is absorbed. Examples of such systems include those described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,763, U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,656 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,113,943 and can result in delivery of active agents over a period of up to several months. These systems do, however, have a number of limitations including the complexity of manufacturing and difficulty in sterilising (especially the microspheres). The local irritation caused by the lactic and/or glycolic acid which is released at the injection site is also a noticeable drawback. There is also often quite a complex procedure to prepare the injection dose from the powder precursor requiring reconstitution of the system before administration to a subject e.g. by injection.
Peptides may be delivered by systems such as the Alkermes Medisorb® delivery system consisting of microspheres of biodegradable polymers. Such polymer microsphere formulations must generally be administered by means of a sizable needle, typically of 20-gauge or wider. This is necessary as a result of the nature of the polymeric dosing systems used, which are typically polymer suspensions.
Evidently, it would be an advantage to provide a system of low viscosity, such as a homogeneous solution, dispersion of fine particles, or L2 phase, which could be administered easily through a narrow needle, thus decreasing the discomfort of the patient during the procedure. This ease of administration is particularly significant where patients will be on a self-administration regime and may already be self-administering several times each day. Providing a sustained formulation with a duration of a few days, but which is sufficiently complex to administer that it requires treatment by a healthcare professional will not be an advantage to all patients over twice-daily or daily self-administration, and is likely to be more costly. Providing a formulation which gives sufficiently long duration to justify a visit to a health professional for administration and/or a preparation which can be self-administered, and reducing preparation time of health-care professionals or patients prior to the actual administration are all important issues.
From a drug delivery point of view, polymer depot compositions also have the disadvantage of accepting only relatively low drug loads and having a "burst/lag" release profile. The nature of the polymeric matrix, especially when applied as a solution or pre-polymer, causes an initial burst of drug release when the composition is first administered. This is followed by a period of low release, while the degradation of the matrix begins, followed finally by an increase in the release rate to the desired sustained profile. This burst/lag release profile can cause the in vivo concentration of active agent to burst above the functional window immediately following administration, then drop back through the bottom of the functional window during the lag period before reaching a sustained functional concentration. Evidently, from a functional and toxicological point of view this burst/lag release profile is undesirable and could be dangerous. It may also limit the equilibrium concentration which can be provided due to the danger of adverse effects at the "peak" point.
One class of peptide hormones which benefits particularly from a very "low burst", stable in vivo concentration are Somatostatin receptor agonists such as Pasireotide (SOM230). In vivo testing suggests that these peptides are particularly beneficial when maintained at a steady plasma concentration and as a regulatory hormone, somatostatin and its analogues are particularly likely to benefit from a stable plasma level. This not only suggests that a depot composition would be an advantage to avoid "spikes" in concentration upon administration and/or repeated daily dosing, but furthermore that such a depot composition should have as flat a release profile as possible during the therapeutic period.
Controlled-release formulations are typically generated from bio-compatible polymers in the form of, for example, implants or injectable beads. The current leading formulation of Pasireotide, for example (Pasireotide LAR) comprises microparticles of poly (D,L-lactide-co-glycolide). There is a corresponding formulation for octreotide. Polymer microsphere formulations must generally be administered by means of a sizable needle, typically of 20-gauge or wider. This is necessary as a result of the nature of the polymeric dosing systems used, which are typically polymer suspensions. It would be an advantage to provide a system of low viscosity, such as a homogeneous solution, dispersion of fine particles, or L2 phase, which could be administered easily through a narrow needle, thus decreasing the discomfort of the patient during the procedure. Ease of administration is particularly significant when patients will be self-administering but also reduces the burden on healthcare professionals when they are conducting the administration.
Previous depot systems have been sought to address the problem of burst release. In particular, the use of hydrolysed polylactic acid and the inclusion of poly lactic acid-polyethylene glycol block copolymers have been proposed to provide the "low burst" polymeric system described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,113,943 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,630,115. These systems provide improved profiles but the burst/lag effect remains and they do not address other issues such as the irritation caused by the use of polymers producing acidic degradation products.
One alternative to the more established, polymer based, depot systems is to use a lipid-based slow release matrix comprising a liquid crystalline phase. Systems of this type have been proposed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,272, and WO2005/117830. Such compositions have many advantages and are potentially highly effective, but in some situations it can be an advantage to have lipid based compositions that are even longer lasting, more resistant to chemical and/or enzymatic degradation and/or more physically robust than those proposed in the known literature.
The formation of non-lamellar phases in certain regions of the amphiphile (e.g. lipid)/water, amphiphile/oil and amphiphile/oil/water phase diagrams is a well known phenomenon. Such phases include non-lamellar liquid crystalline phases such as the cubic P, cubic D, cubic G, cubic micellar and hexagonal phases, which are fluid at the molecular level but show significant long-range order, and the L3 phase which comprises a multiply interconnected bi-continuous network of bilayer sheets which are non-lamellar but lack the long-range order of the liquid crystalline phases. Depending upon the mean curvature of the amphiphile sheets or layers, these phases may be described as normal (mean curvature towards the apolar region) or reversed (mean curvature towards the polar region).
Knowledge of the spontaneous or preferred curvature of a particular component allows some degree of prediction as to which structures will be formed or formable by that amphiphile in aqueous mixtures. However, particularly where mixtures of amphiphiles is concerned, the exact nature of the phase structure and physical properties of the composition will depend greatly upon the specific interaction between the components with each other and/or with the solvent and other components of the mixtures.
The non-lamellar liquid crystalline and L3 phases formed by certain amphiphiles and mixtures thereof are thermodynamically stable systems. That is to say, they are not simply a meta-stable state that will separate and/or reform into layers, lamellar phases or the like, but are the stable thermodynamic form of the lipid/solvent mixture.
The early attempts to develop lipid depot formulations, as in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,272 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,807,573, using liquid crystal phases could in some cases be effective in terms of delivery but their performance was less than ideal in other critical properties. In particular, cubic liquid crystalline phases are relatively viscous in nature. This makes application with a standard syringe difficult, and possibly painful to the patient, and makes sterilisation by filtration impossible because the composition cannot be passed through the necessary fine-pored membrane.
WO2005/117830, for example, provides an improved system which has low viscosity so as to improve the ease of manufacturing, handling and administration with a standard syringe, allow for sterile filtration and reduce the pain on injection to the patient. However, for long-term depot formulations and/or for formulations having protective or soothing properties (such as surface-coating formulations for use in, for example, per-oral applications), a crucial property is related to the robustness of the gel formed by the pre-formulation in the presence of e.g. aqueous body fluids towards chemical and/or mechanical degradation, e.g. erosion/fragmentation/dissolution by endogenous surface active agents (surfactants), lipid-degrading enzymes and/or physical break-up.
The present inventors have now established that providing a pre-formulation comprising particular amphiphilic components, a biologically tolerable solvent and at least one peptide active agent comprising at least one somatostatin receptor agonist, especially in a low viscosity phase such as molecular solution, gives a pre-formulation with greatly improved mechanical and/or chemical/enzymatic robustness. In addition, the pre-formulation maintains many or all of the advantages of previous lipid depot systems, i.e. it is easy to manufacture, may be sterile-filtered, it has low viscosity (allowing easy and less painful administration), allows a high level of peptide active agent to be incorporated (thus allowing a smaller amount of composition to be used) and/or forms a desired non-lamellar depot composition in vivo having a controllable "burst" or "non-burst" release profile. Advantages in terms of the protective and/or soothing nature of the compositions may also be maintained. The compositions are also formed from materials that are non-toxic, biotolerable and biodegradable.
Due to its improved resistance to degradation from erosion and/or fragmentation by physical and/or chemical means, the pre-formulation is especially suitable for the formation of depot compositions following parenteral administration for long-term drug delivery, e.g. several days to several months after parenteral administration. The compositions are also advantageous for non-parenteral (e.g. local or topical) administration to body cavities and/or surfaces of the body or elsewhere.
In particular, the compositions of the current invention are more resistant to chemical/biological degradation and their mechanical resistance is improved in comparison with existing lipid depot systems, while retaining the ability to spontaneously self-assemble in situ. When tested in degradative/fragmenting systems which cause turbidity upon breakup of the depot, the turbidity factor of the present formulations has been demonstrated as being a factor of ten lower than for the previous lipid based liquid crystal forming systems. This makes the compositions of the invention particularly effective in terms of the longevity of release. They are also well suited for application in areas with high erosion/degradation problems, for example per-oral application, or lower-GI-tract applications.
A lipid-based, slow-release composition based upon phosphatidyl choline and other lipid components is described in WO2006/131730 for GLP-1 and analogues thereof. This is a highly effective formulation, but the concentration of active agent which can be included in the formulation is limited by its solubility. Evidently, a higher concentration of active agent, together with improved mechanical and/or chemical/enzymatic robustness allows for the possibility of even longer duration depot products, products maintaining a higher systemic concentration, and products having a smaller injection volume, all of which factors are of considerable advantage under appropriate circumstances. It would thus be of considerable value to establish a way by which higher concentrations of active agents could be included in a lipid-based depot formulation.
The present inventors have now further established that by incorporating at least one polar solvent a pre-formulation may be generated addressing many of the shortfalls of known depot formulations, and which may be applied to provide an improved controlled release of a peptide active agent comprising at least one somatostatin receptor agonist. By use of specific components in carefully selected ratios, and in particular with a mixture of an alcohol and a polar solvent, a robust depot formulation can be generated having a combination of properties exceeding the performance of even the known lipid controlled-release compositions.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Robust controlled-release peptide formulations


A hardware accelerator for accelerating the zero knowledge succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge (zk-SNARK) protocol by reducing the computation time of the cryptographic verification is disclosed. The accelerator includes a zk-SNARK engine having one or more processing units running in parallel. The processing unit can include one or more multiply-accumulate operation (MAC) units, one or more fast Fourier transform (FFT) units; and one or more elliptic curve processor (ECP) units. The one or more ECP units are configured to reduce a bit-length of a scalar di in an ECP algorithm used for generating a proof, thereby the cryptographic verification requires less computation power.

In cryptography, ZKP is a method by which a prover can interact with a verifier and provide proof of knowledge to the verifier without unveiling the confidential data. The notion of "zero knowledge" allows the prover to show to the verifier that a statement is true, without revealing any information beyond the validity of the statement. Therefore the privacy on the content of the prover can be preserved and protected.
ZKP is particularly useful in providing a privacy-preserving verification, thereby realizing a decentralized anonymous payment transaction, such as Zcash. One example of a ZKP is the zk-SNARK. The zk-SNARK protocol uses several algorithms to achieve a proof of knowledge with reduced proof size, including a key generation, a proof generation, and a proof verification. The key generation uses a secret key to generate a proving key (pk) and a verification key (vk) pair, and then subsequently discards the secret key for security. The proof generation generates a proof without disclosing the secret key. The proof is relatively small in size, so the proof verification can verify the proof relatively quickly without acquiring any knowledge of the secret key. The computation requirement of the proof verification is very low.
For the proof generation, a proof is created from the secret key by the computation of complex equations, which is in the form of polynomial equations. The process may be very computationally intensive and requires high computation power. As an illustrative example, a software implementation of the proof generation may involve a calculation of equations of millions of steps iteratively. Each step may require a computation of additions and multiplications. Therefore, the generation of a proof may require extensive processing time and computer resources.
US 201900261461A1 discloses apparatuses for accelerating blockchain transaction. The circuitry includes an accelerator (e.g. FPGA or ASIC), which may provide dedicated hardware resources to accelerate highly expensive ZKP or homomorphic encryption operations, returning valid/invalid, and a set of ledger state updates. However, the accelerator may only include one or more processing circuits, which is analogous to a separated processor having conventional structures for performing the zk-SNARK operation. There is no description of any particular structures or designs of circuitry in the accelerator for improving the efficiency of the proof generation.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a method and an apparatus that seeks to address at least some of the above problems by accelerating the zk-SNARK. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the disclosure.

Zero knowledge proof hardware accelerator and the method thereof

Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company Limited


A microscope device (100) includes a surgical microscope (20), a camera (30), connected to the surgical microscope (20), for sensing an object (200) imaged by the surgical microscope, a stand (10) carrying the surgical microscope (20) as well as the camera (30), an operating unit (50), spatially separated from the camera (30), for controlling device functions of the camera (30). The operating unit (30) includes a screen (40) for displaying activatable device functions (51) and a selection and activation means, embodied as an actuatable rotary/push operating means (60), for selecting and activating one of the device functions displayed. The operating unit (50) is set up such that by rotating the rotary/push operating means (60), one (52) of the displayed device functions is selected, and by pushing the rotary/push operating means (60), the selected device function (52) is activated.

Relevant microscope devices possess a stand on which the actual surgical microscope is movably arranged. The surgical microscope is usually embodied as a stereomicroscope, and in addition to one or more observation beam paths usually also possesses a so-called photo beam path, which serves to couple the object image out to a camera mounted on the surgical microscope. The camera serves for display of the object image on a screen, for image acquisition, and/or for documentation of the procedure, etc.
Operating units that possess a plurality of knobs, directional pads, etc. are used nowadays to control such medical cameras. In order to control device functions of the camera such as, for example, resolution, brightness, contrast, white balance, digital image format or video format (e.g. BMP, TIF, JPG, MPG, AVI, etc.), image or video compression methods, etc., the user or operator is forced to switch his or her attention frequently between the screen on which the device functions are displayed and the operating means; this is particularly unergonomic, time-consuming, and irritating. It creates a particularly serious disruption to an ongoing surgery.
Because this must occur under sterile conditions, the operators wear gloves, which further complicates operation.
It is therefore desirable to simplify the operation of cameras on surgical microscopes.


The present invention relates to an actuator current control method. The method of the present invention comprising the steps of measuring a feedback current passing through an actuator, determining PWM duty according to an error component between a target current produced based on an input signal and the feedback current to generate a PWM signal, controlling a current supplied to the actuator based on the PWM signal, and monitoring the feedback current at a time difference of a half period in every period of the PWM signal to estimate an average current and then determining based on the estimated average current whether or not the control of the supplied current has failed. According to the present invention, an algorithm for monitoring a feedback current at a time difference of a half period in every period of the PWM signal to estimate an average current when measuring the average current of the actuator feedback current can be employed. Therefore, since a digital filter such as a low pass filter is not used, any time delay other than the time delay due to the inductance in the actuator is not generated. Accordingly, the reliability of the system (i.e., actuator current control device) can be increased. Furthermore, since the control circuit can be simplified, the system reliability can be ensured due to the minimization of the number of the electronic components and the economical efficiency of the system can be thus increased.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an actuator current control method, and more particularly, to an actuator current control method which controls a current supplied to an actuator including an inductance component such as a proportional control solenoid and motor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate typical current control devices capable of controlling a related art actuator having an inductance component.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an actuator current control device according to a first example of the prior art. This actuator current control device comprises a microcomputer 10, a digital to analog (D/A) converter 21, a differential integrator 22, a pulse width modulated (PWM) pulse generating unit 23, an actuator driving unit 31, an actuator 32, a current sensing unit 41, and a low pass filter 42.
In such an actuator current control device, a target current(Ic) produced from an input signal by the microcomputer 10 is converted into an analog signal through the D/A converter 21, and the analog signal is compared with a current signal fed back from the current sensing unit 41 and then differentially integrated by an error ratio through the differential integrator 22. The integration result of the differential integrator 22 is converted into a PWM signal by the PWM pulse generating unit 23, by which the actuator driving unit 31 in turn is operated to control a current supplied to the actuator 32, i.e. to drive the actuator 32.
The current sensing unit 41 senses the current passing through the actuator 32, i.e. a feedback current(Id), and the microcomputer 10 monitors the feedback current(Id) passing through the low frequency pass filter 42 to determine whether or not the actuator current control device has failed.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an actuator current control device according to a second example of the prior art. This actuator current control device comprises an actuator driving unit 31, an actuator 32, a current sensing unit 41, a low pass filter 42, and a microcomputer 50 including a proportional integral (PI) controller 51.
In such an actuator current control device, the microcomputer 50 performs the same functions as those of the D/A converter 21, the differential integrator 22 and the PWM pulse generating unit 23 of the actuator current control device shown in FIG. 1. This is also referred to as a software feedback system. To this end, PWM duty is determined by the PI controller 51 of the microcomputer 50, and the PWM signal controls the current supplied to the actuator 32.
First, a control logic of the microcomputer 50 produces a target current(Ic) based on an input signal and the current sensing unit 41 senses a current passing through the actuator 32, i.e. the feedback current(Id).
When the target current(Ic) and the feedback current(Id) are inputted, the PI controller 51 determines the PWM duty based on an error component between the target current(Ic) and the feedback current(Id) and then outputs the PWM signal via a PWM port.
The actuator driving unit 31 connected to the PWM port of the microcomputer 50 is operated by the PWM signal and controls the current supplied to the actuator 32 to drive the actuator 32.
The microcomputer 50 monitors the feedback current(Id) passing through the low pass filter 42 to determine whether or not the actuator current control device has failed.
However, the aforementioned related art actuator current control devices have the following problems.
According to the first example of the related art actuator current control device, there is a problem in that the reliability and economical efficiency thereof are decreased due to the complexity of the analog circuit. Since the more the circuit is complicated, the more electronic components are used, there is a disadvantage in that the overall performance of the circuit may be significantly decreased if there are any unreliable components among the many electronic components.
Further, according to the second example of the related art actuator current control device, the reliability and economical efficiency thereof have been slightly increased by employing the software feedback system. However, several problems may occur since a signal passing through the low pass filter with a low cutoff frequency is used when a feedback average current is estimated. In order to eliminate the effect of a counter electromotive force due to the inductance of the actuator and smooth the pulsating current waveform, an RC filter with high capacitance is used as the low pass filter. Therefore, there is another problem in that a system control response is lowered due to a considerable time delay occurring when measuring the actual current supplied to the actuator.


This invention concerns a fuel delivery system for an aircraft engine, including a fuel delivery regulator arranged to receive fuel from a plurality of fuel sources for supply to the engine. An engine operating condition sensor reading is received by a control unit arranged to control operation of the regulator. The control unit actuates the regulator based on a received signal from the engine operating condition sensor in order to vary the volume of fuels from the plurality of fuel sources supplied to the engine during at least a portion of the landing/take-off (LTO) cycle relative to a further portion of the aircraft flight. The different fuels may include kerosene and an alternative fuel, such as a biofuel.

The present invention relates to fuel delivery systems for engines and, more particularly, for aircraft engines.
An important focus of improvements to aircraft engine operation concerns the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions due to fuel consumption. Whilst this is a concern for the whole life-cycle of aircraft engines, there is also a more specific consideration of local air quality (LAQ) in the vicinity of airports.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,311,686B discloses a method for assessing engine emissions and/or noise at a collection of ground-based monitoring stations, and presenting the results of that assessment to pilots such that they may determine and implement appropriate actions to minimise the emissions/noise at each of the ground stations. The assessment makes use of information such as aircraft location/altitude relative to each ground station, wind-speed/direction, and engine operation parameters influencing the quantity of emissions actually produced.
However U.S. Pat. No. 8,311,686B does not provide any executive action or decisions for ways to actually reduce emissions but rather requires human interpretation of the output information in order to decide what action may be most appropriate.
It is known in a general sense that the use of alternative aviation fuels can enable reduced levels of emissions from engines. Currently, alternative fuels (particularly biofuels) suffer a very significant price disadvantage in comparison with standard kerosene, and are in short supply. There are also technical limitations which prevent in many cases the complete substitution of kerosene with an alternative aircraft fuel and so, if such alternative fuels are used at all, they are typically supplied to aircraft in a predetermined blend comprising a high percentage of kerosene (representing the majority component within the blended fuel) and an alternative fuel (representing the minority component within the blended fuel).
The relative proportions of alternative fuel and kerosene within the blended fuel composition are determined by such factors as the availability and price of alternative fuel at the aircraft's departure airport, and the attitude of the aircraft operator to the use of alternative fuels which may cost significantly more per liter than standard kerosene. Regulatory limits or technical constraints may also place an upper bound on the proportion of alternative fuel that may be incorporated within the fuel blend.
It is an aim of the present invention to provide an engine fuel delivery system that can provide for a reduction in one or more environmental impact concerns.


A wiring substrate (11) includes: a substrate; and, formed upon the substrate, a plurality of wiring lines, a plurality of circuit elements, and a plurality of connecting terminals (51) connected via the plurality of wiring lines. Each of the plurality of connecting terminals (51) includes a pair of protrusion parts (50), forming a depression part (60) between the pair of protrusion parts (50), and a depression electrode (52) that is disposed in the depression part (60) and that at least partially covers each protrusion of the pair of protrusion parts (50).

In recent years, flat display devices such as liquid crystal display devices or organic EL display devices are widely used as display devices for televisions, mobile phones, smartphones, and the like, for example. Such flat display devices are provided with a driver circuit (typically, a driver IC chip) for supplying driving signals to a display panel. In many cases, the display panel has at least one transparent substrate, and an IC chip having a driver circuit formed thereon is mounted on the transparent substrate.
A TFT liquid crystal display device, for example, has a glass substrate, and the glass substrate has formed thereon: pixel electrodes provided for respective pixels; TFTs provided such that each pixel electrode has at least one TFT; signal lines (source bus lines) connected to the pixel electrodes via the TFTs; and scan lines (gate bus lines) connected to the TFTs for controlling the switching of the TFTs. The driver IC chip for supplying prescribed signals (data signals and scan signals) to the signal lines and the scan lines is mounted on the same glass substrate (TFT substrate).
In terms of the mounting structure for the driver IC chip, a COG (chip on glass) method has been used in recent years because of the advantages thereof such as low cost, high reliability, and thickness reduction. In the COG method, the driver IC chip as a bare chip is mounted on the glass substrate of the liquid crystal panel. Other known methods include a COF method in which the driver IC chip is mounted on a film.
One known example of the COG method is a so-called face-down mounting structure in which protruding bump electrodes are formed on the surface of the driver IC chip where circuits are formed, and the bump electrodes are connected to respective pads (connecting terminal electrodes of scan lines or signal lines; also referred to as bonding pads) formed on a glass substrate of a liquid crystal panel. In this mounting structure, the bump electrodes are formed of a metal such as Au, for example, and are connected to the pads through an anisotropic conductive layer, for example.
Because the anisotropic conductive layer has conductivity only in the thickness direction, and not in the horizontal direction, it is not necessary to pattern the conductive layer, and the bump electrode and the pad facing each other can be electrically connected to each other through the anisotropic conductive layer. Also, because a gap between respective adjacent electrodes is filled with a resin material (adhesive material), it is possible to achieve excellent insulating properties. The anisotropic conductive layer is formed of an anisotropic conductive film (ACF), an anisotropic conductive paste (ACP), or the like.
FIG. 10 shows a conventional chip mounting structure 900 in which a driver IC chip 920 is mounted in an edge of the liquid crystal panel with the face-down mounting. As shown in the figure, the driver IC chip 920 is connected to a TFT substrate 910 of the liquid crystal panel through an ACF 930. More specifically, bump electrodes 922 provided on the IC chip 920 and connecting terminals (pads) 912 provided on the TFT substrate 910 are electrically connected to each other via conductive particles 932 included in the ACF 930 provided between the IC chip 920 and the TFT substrate 910. By the resin material of the ACF 930 being cured, the IC chip 920 is affixed onto the TFT substrate 910.
Various techniques have been proposed for connecting an electronic component such as an IC chip to a wiring substrate such as a TFT substrate, and for example, a technique for improving the connection reliability by using an elastic body (resin material, for example) is known.
Patent Document 1 shows a structure in which a mounting substrate for an electronic component has a recess, and an electronic component is placed inside of the recess such that a conductive elastic body is interposed between the electronic component and the side faces of the recess. In this electronic component mounting structure, the electronic component is pressed toward the side faces of the recess by the elastic body, and connecting electrodes at the side faces of the recess and electrodes at the side faces of the electronic component are more reliably connected to each other.
Patent Document 2 discloses a configuration in which each pad is disposed on the chip mounting substrate through a protruding elastic body. In this manner, it is possible to achieve a high bonding property when the chip is mounted, regardless of the rigidity of the substrate. Patent Document 3 discloses a configuration in which a resin layer is provided on a mounting substrate, and an IC chip is connected to the substrate in such a manner that bump electrodes are connected to electrodes formed on the resin layer, while sinking into the resin layer.

Electronic circuit substrate, display device, and wiring substrate


Device, method, and computer program product for monitoring the social health of a persistent virtual environment. The disclosed technology monitors social interactions between subscribers of on-line entities who have interactions related to the persistent virtual environment.

1. Technical Field
The disclosed technology relates to the fields of monitoring persistent virtual environments and Social Network Analysis of on-line entities within the persistent virtual environment.
2. Background Art
Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) are becoming increasingly popular with subscribers in the millions. The MMOG providers sell a product (the software executed on a player's computer) and a service (by making a persistent virtual environment available to the account holder) for a periodic subscription fee. Thus, account holder retention is financially important to the MMOG provider because the longer the player associated with the account holder remains involved with the MMOG, the longer the MMOG provider receives subscription income. Hence, the MMOG providers are motivated to create and sustain healthy, long lived, online player communities.
Maintaining and increasing subscriber motivation to continue the subscription is a major business focus of the game industry. However, no diagnostic tools are available to timely measure the social aspects of player interactions in the persistent virtual environment or to measure or monitor the health of the online player community in a persistent virtual environment. While the MMOG provider can gather massive amounts of information about the persistent virtual environment, this information must be analyzed at high cost with, for example, Microsoft® Excel® or SPSS®. Thus, it is difficult, expensive and time consuming for the MMOG provider to monitor the social health of the persistent virtual environment and the analysis results only reflect the state of the persistent virtual environment at the time the data was collected. Thus the analysis is not timely, has no capability to forecast problems, and only operates from single source of information.
Microsoft, Excel, are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation of Redmond Wash. SPSS is a registered trademark of SPSS Inc., of Chicago, Ill.
Marc Smith et al. in Visualization Components for Persistent Conversations, Proceedings of CHI'2001 (Seattle Wash., April 1998), ACM Press, pages 136-143, teaches analyzing and presenting a snapshot visualization of interpersonal connections extracted from newsgroup communications.
Warren Sack, in Conversation Map: An Interface for Very-Large-Scale Conversations, Journal of Management Information Systems, Winter 2000, Vol. 17, No. 3, pages 73-92, taught a series of visualization panels to analyze social interactions in newsgroup to help readers navigate the newsgroup's information space.
Smith and Sack only teach analyzing data from a single information source (the newsgroup).
Nicolas Ducheneaut, in Socialization in an Open Source software community: A socio-technical analysis, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 14(4), pages 323-368, taught techniques for visualizing interactions between people and interactions between people and things (for example, software code) over time. Ducheneaut teaches accessing a variety of information sources, but is narrowly focused to Open Source Software development projects.
It would be advantageous to provide a way to timely monitor persistent virtual environments and to measure, monitor, and treat the health of online player communities within persistent virtual environments.

Method, device, and program product to monitor the social health of a persistent virtual environment


A novel catalyst and the use thereof in a reforming process is disclosed. The dual-function catalyst comprises a refractory inorganic oxide, indium, Group IVA(IUPAC 14) metal, and a platinum-group metal concentrated in the surface layer of each catalyst particle. Utilization of this catalyst in the conversion of hydrocarbons, especially in reforming, results in significantly improved selectivity to the desired gasoline or aromatics product.

The subject of the present invention is a novel dual-function catalytic composite, characterized by a combination of three or more metals with specified gradients on the finished catalyst particle, and its use in hydrocarbon conversion. Catalysts having both a hydrogenation-dehydrogenation function and an isomerization/cracking function ("dual-function" catalysts) are used widely in many applications, particularly in the petroleum and petrochemical industry, to accelerate a wide spectrum of hydrocarbon-conversion reactions. The isomerization/cracking function generally relates to an acid-action material of the porous, adsorptive, refractory-oxide type which is typically utilized as the support or carrier for a heavy-metal component, such as the Group VIII(IUPAC 8-10) metals, which primarily contribute the hydrogenation-dehydrogenation function. Other metals in combined or elemental form can influence one or both of the isomerization/cracking and hydrogenation-dehydrogenation functions.
In another aspect, the present invention comprehends improved processes that emanate from the use of the novel catalyst. These dual-function catalysts are used to accelerate a wide variety of hydrocarbon-conversion reactions such as dehydrogenation, hydrogenation, hydrocracking, hydrogenolysis, desulfurization, cyclization, catalytic cracking, alkylation, polymerization, and isomerization. In a specific aspect, an improved reforming process utilizes the subject catalyst to increase selectivity to gasoline and aromatics products.
Catalytic reforming comprises a variety of reaction sequences, including dehydrogenation of cyclohexanes to aromatics, dehydroisomerization of alkylcyclopentanes to aromatics, dehydrocyclization of an acyclic hydrocarbon to aromatics, hydrocracking of paraffins to light products boiling outside the gasoline range, dealkylation of alkylbenzenes and isomerization of paraffins. Some of the reactions occurring during reforming, such as hydrocracking which produces light paraffin gases, have a deleterious effect on the yield of products boiling in the gasoline range. Improvements in catalytic reforming technology thus are targeted toward enhancing those reactions effecting a higher yield of the gasoline fraction at a given octane number.
It is of critical importance that a dual-function catalyst exhibit the capability both to initially perform its specified functions efficiently and to perform them satisfactorily for prolonged periods of time. The parameters used in the art to measure how well a particular catalyst performs its intended functions in a particular hydrocarbon reaction environment are activity, selectivity and stability. In a reforming environment, these parameters are defined as follows:
Activity is a measure of the ability of the catalyst to convert hydrocarbon reactants to products at a designated severity level representing a combination of reaction conditions: temperature, pressure, contact time, and hydrogen partial pressure. Activity typically is designated as the octane number of the pentanes and heavier ("C.sub.5 +") product stream from a given feedstock at a given severity level, or conversely as the temperature required to achieve a given octane number. PA0 Selectivity refers to the percentage yield of petrochemical aromatics or C.sub.5 + gasoline product from a given feedstock at a particular activity level. PA0 Stability refers to the rate of change of activity or selectivity per unit of time or of feedstock processed. Activity stability generally is measured as the rate of change of operating temperature per unit of time/feedstock to achieve a given C.sub.5 + product octane, with a lower rate of change corresponding to better activity stability. Selectivity stability is measured as the rate of decrease of C.sub.5 + product or aromatics yield per unit of time or of feedstock.
Research and development to improve performance of reforming catalysts is being stimulated by the reformulation of gasoline, following upon widespread removal of lead antiknock additive, in order to reduce harmful vehicle emissions. Gasoline-upgrading processes such as catalytic reforming must operate at higher efficiency with greater flexibility in order to meet these changing requirements. Catalyst selectivity is becoming ever more important to tailor gasoline components to these needs while avoiding losses to lower-value products. The major problem facing workers in this area of the art, therefore, is to develop more selective catalysts while maintaining effective catalyst activity and stability.
The art teaches the use of indium in multimetallic catalysts for the catalytic reforming of naphtha feedstocks. U.S. Pat. No. 3,951,868 (Wilhelm) teaches a catalyst comprising platinum, halogen, germanium or tin, and indium wherein the ratio of indium to platinum-group metal is about 0.1:1-1:1. U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,935 (Robinson et al.) discloses a catalyst comprising a platinum-group metal, tin, indium, a halogen, and a porous support which may comprise alumina. The feature of the catalyst is an atomic ratio of indium to platinum-group metal of more than 1.35, and preferably about 2.55. Neither of these references suggest a multigradient catalyst in which the platinum-group metal is concentrated in the surface layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,625 (Imai et al.) teaches a dehydrogenation catalyst comprising a surface-impregnated platinum-group metal and a modifier selected from tin, germanium and rhenium on a refractory support having a nominal diameter of at least 850 microns. The catalyst preferably is nonacidic to minimize isomerization activity through incorporation of an alkali or alkaline earth metal.

Selective multimetallic-multigradient reforming catalyst


A loudspeaker includes a diaphragm and an edge having an inner periphery end portion thereof connected with an outer periphery of the diaphragm, in which an outer end portion of the edge is attached to a speaker frame. The diaphragm has a bent portion in the vicinity of a border at the inner periphery side of a connecting portion connecting the diaphragm with the edge. A reinforcing portion is formed on the bent portion in order to reinforce the bent portion. It is, therefore, possible to disperse or reduce various forces applied to the bent portion, and to prevent strength deterioration or damage of the diaphragm even when sound signals having large amplitude are applied to the loudspeaker. As a result, it is also possible to prevent deterioration of acoustic characteristics.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a loudspeaker.
The present application claims priority from Japanese Application No. 2005-280003, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been known various types of loudspeakers such as a fixed-edge speaker or a free-edge speaker. In the fixed-edge speaker, a diaphragm and an edge are integrally formed by the same material. In the free-edge. speaker, a diaphragm and an edge are formed by a separate process, and then the edge is bonded onto an outer periphery of the diaphragm. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-25088 discloses the free-edge speaker, in which an up-rolled edge is arranged in an outer periphery of the loud speaker and a diaphragm is arranged on an inner periphery of the up-rolled edge to be connected thereto.
A free-edge speaker 100J has a basic structure as shown in FIG. 1B. In specific, a magnetic circuit 1 includes a magnet 2, a lower plate 3, and an upper plate 4. In the magnetic circuit 1, a gap between magnetic poles is formed between the upper plate 4 and a center pole 5 which stands straight from a center position of the lower plate 3. A coil bobbin 6 which sets a voice coil 7 by winding is located so as to arrange the voice coil 7 within the gap between the magnetic poles.
A center cap 8 is mounted in the proximity of an upper end Of the coil bobbin 6. In the vicinity of the upper end of the coil bobbin 6, a center portion of a diaphragm 9 is fixed. An edge 12 is connected with an outer periphery of the diaphragm 9. A bent portion 91 is formed on the inner periphery side of the connecting portion. The diaphragm 9 is attached on an upper portion of a speaker frame 10, which is provided on the upper plate 4, through the edge 12.
On the upper portion of the speaker frame 10 is formed an outer peripheral rim 10a, which has an attaching surface 10binside it. Outside the edge 12 is formed an outer end portion 12a, which is mounted by a gasket 13 attached on the attaching surface 10b of the speaker frame 10. The outer end portion 12a is pressed down onto the attaching surface 10b by the gasket 13, which is also attached onto the attaching surface 10b, so as to be airtightly attached onto the attaching surface 10b. In addition, one end of a damper 11 is connected with the coil bobbin 6, and the other end thereof is supported by a damper supporting section 11a, which is connected with the speaker frame 10, so that the voice coil 7 can be accurately held within the gap between the magnetic poles of the magnetic circuit 1.
In such a configured loudspeaker, the coil bobbin 6 is oscillated according to driving signals supplied to the voice coil 7. The diaphragm 9, which is supported by the damper 11 and the edge 12 having a function of suspension, is oscillated by the oscillation of the coil bobbin 6, thereby reproducing sound based on sound signals supplied to the voice coil 7.
When sound signals having large amplitude are applied to the above-mentioned loudspeaker, however, the diaphragm 9 is driven at large amplitude to apply a heavy load to a bent portion 91 that is formed in a border of a connecting portion connecting the diaphragm 9 and the edge 12. As a result, there may occur strength deterioration of the diaphragm 9. If the diaphragm 9 has serious strength deterioration, the bent portion 91 may have a crack or the like so that the diaphragm 9 can be damaged.
When the sound signals having large amplitude are applied to the loudspeaker, there occurs the strength deterioration or damage of the diaphragm 9, which can deteriorate acoustic characteristics of the loudspeaker.


A print cartridge contains a matrix array of electrodes which are energized to deposit a latent charge image. To make the cartridge, electrodes are fabricated on a sheet which is then deformed about a rigid spine. Certain electrodes are formed of plural segments, and the segments are electrically interconnected only after the sheet is deformed. This prevents strains introduced during manufacture from building up over large distances and pulling active electrode structures out of alignment. A preferred cartridge has an area of active electrodes, which is planar and undeformed. Lead-in electrodes extend through deformed regions of the sheet, and are conductively fastened to the active electrodes only after the sheet has been deformed about a rigid spine and the electrodes have attained a stable and unstressed position. The spine maintains the active electrodes in a precise plane, and accommodates pressure from spring-loaded electrical contacts without deflecting.

The present invention relates to charge transfer imaging of the type wherein a latent charge image is deposited on a receiving member, and in particular relates to a cartridge for creating the latent charge image. Such cartridges are characterized by having sets of mutually crossing electrodes, that together define a matrix array of charge-generating loci. By way of example, such charge generators may be used to selectively change the state of a planar liquid crystal or other display, or to "write" the latent charge image on a moving dielectric surface, such as a belt or drum, for toning and printing an electrographic image. In this latter area electric charge transfer print cartridges, to compete effectively with other technologies, must exhibit an image resolution of hundreds of dots per inch, or more. This has necessitated the fabrication of electrode arrays having small dimension and very dense packing of elements. For example, a cartridge spanning an 81/2 inch office-size sheet may have over one hundred parallel "finger" electrodes, each having 8, 12 or 16 apertures that define charge transfer loci, within an overall vertical band of about one centimeter width.
The existing print cartridges of this type are versatile, in the sense that the charge generation sites are individually addressable, and their individual outputs may be controlled in magnitude, so that images may be selectively printed or their shading characteristics manipulated or improved by control and image-processing software. Nonetheless, they rely on projecting charged particles across a gap to the receiving member, and the quantity of charge received at the member thus critically depends on maintaining a proper gap and uniform alignment over the active area of the cartridge.
Since the introduction of the earliest cartridges of this type, as exemplified, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,155,093 to Fotland and Carrish and 4,160,257 to Carrish, these cartridges have been fabricated with a rigidifying member to provide the necessary stiffness and dimensional stability.
In a typical construction the cartridge is located adjacent a dielectric surface of a drum, oriented parallel to the drum axis, at a spacing of 0.2 to 0.5 mm. from the surface. When a belt is used rather than an imaging drum, the belt typically passes over a drum or over a flat platen, which holds it in a precise physical location opposed to the cartridge and which generally also defines a conductive backplane that establishes an accelerating potential to move the charge carriers from the cartridge to the imaging member.
These cartridges operate by controlled generation of localized plasma discharges, and in use are subject to heating up; they must also be mounted so that their many electrical contacts are dependably maintained without introducing mechanical stresses that might deform the cartridge along its span. If dimensional changes in the cartridge to imaging member gap do occur, they can result in flashover or arcing when the gap decreases, or loss of intensity or resolution when the gap increases.
One example of cartridge construction is described in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,060 to McCallum et al. This cartridge includes a number of relatively thin planar structural layers and produces a charge transfer image by means of a charge generator in the form of a matrix of electrodes located on an inner surface of the cartridge. Outer surfaces of the cartridge facing away from the drum are provided with contacts for electrical connection of individual electrodes with corresponding spring biased contacts linked to a cartridge control board, also known as a mother board, for controlling image generation. An exemplary configuration of a drum-type printer for receiving such a cartridge is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,847 to Maczuszenko et al. That cartridge also includes an aluminum spine which rigidifies the cartridge and extends outwardly to provide a handle to be used when the cartridge is being fitted or removed from the printer.
That cartridge is mounted in a printer on mounting blocks which are adjusted relative to rigid parts of the printer structure using shims to give the desired spacing between the cartridge and the drum surface (typically 0.01 inches). Understandably, it would be difficult to adjust the spacing each time a cartridge was replaced. Accordingly, the mounting blocks are set-up during assembly of the printer and are not normally adjusted during the life of the printer, so that replacement cartridges must be accurately located on the mounting blocks. To achieve this accurate location, the lower contact surface of each cartridge must be accurately sized and is, therefore, formed of a substantial piece of high grade material, typically high grade fibre glass reinforced epoxy, which adds considerably to the cost of the cartridge. Also, particles of dust or the like may find their way between the contact surfaces of the cartridge and mounting and thus affect the spacing.
Connections between the contacts on the outer face of the cartridge and the mother board are made by spring pin contacts which extend downwardly from the mother board. These contacts are relatively expensive and the total cost of the hundreds of contacts required for a cartridge adds significantly to the total cost of the printer. Also, the spring forces exerted on the cartridge contacts by the spring contacts further complicate the accurate location of the cartridge because the accumulation of small forces tends to push the cartridge towards the drum, and could affect the spacing between the cartridge and drum.
Other forms of cartridges are available which provide cartridge contacts on the inner face of the cartridge and do not require such expensive spring pin contacts. However, the mother board contacts for such cartridges must be located in the restricted space between the cartridge and the drum, the space becoming more restricted as larger diameter print drums are utilized. These cartridges also suffer from the disadvantage that the spring forces from the mother board contacts tend to push the cartridge away from the drum, and again could affect the spacing between the cartridge and the drum.
These disadvantages have lead to the design of a different configuration of cartridge and cartridge mounting, as described, for example, in commonly-owned U.S. patent entitled Charge Transfer Imaging Cartridge Mounting and Printer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,070. In one such mounting, the cartridge includes a rectangular cross section spine, the inner portion of the cartridge being located on a face of the spine and the cartridge contacts being located on side faces of the spine. The cartridge is located in a channel defined by two spaced elements, from which spring biased mother board contacts extend to bear against the cartridge contacts. As the spring forces from the mother board contacts are acting on the cartridge parallel to the inner face and the drum surface, the forces do not tend to affect the spacing between the cartridge and the drum.
In order to preserve the benefits of planar fabrication of these devices, and yet not exert forces perpendicular to the electrode plane for contacting the various electrodes, a further cartridge exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,975 was developed. That cartridge was formed by a planar electrode matrix fabricated on a flexible dielectric substrate. With this arrangement, the completed electrode matrix could be bent around a rigid box spine, and its electrodes easily accessed and contacted on the sides or back of the spine.
This latter construction has achieved a very dense dot array with a high degree of surface flatness in a cartridge that is not prone to warpage in use.
However, while the array remains flat, the processing and wrapping of the flexible array about the rigid spine has now been found to introduce stresses into the structure that could affect alignment of the electrodes defining individual dot sites. The effect of such stresses introduced during manufacturing is an irregular shifting of the electrode layers of the device such that the active electrodes or corona recesses become misaligned, leading to loss of output.


A control device for an engine is provided. A cavity formed in a crown surface of a piston of the engine includes a first cavity part disposed in a radially center area, a second cavity part disposed radially outward of the first cavity part, and a connecting part connecting these two parts. The control device causes a fuel injection valve to perform a first injection in which fuel is injected at a timing when the piston is located at an advancing side of CTDC and an injection axis thereof intersects with the connecting part, a second injection in which fuel is injected toward the first cavity part at a retarding side of the first injection, and a middle injection in which fuel is injected at a timing between the first and second injections, for a period shorter than each of the first and second injections.

A combustion chamber of an engine for vehicles, such as automobiles, is defined by an inner wall surface of a cylinder, a bottom surface of a cylinder head (a ceiling surface of the combustion chamber), and a crown surface of a piston. Fuel is supplied to the combustion chamber from a fuel injection valve. A fuel injection control is known, in which a cavity is disposed in the crown surface of the piston, and fuel is injected from the fuel injection valve toward the cavity. JP2007-211644A discloses a control method in which the cavity has a two-step structure comprised of an upper cavity and a lower cavity, and fuel is injected to a lip part located in the middle of the cavities.
An ideal mode of combustion inside the combustion chamber is to cause combustion in which air existing inside the combustion chamber is used up. Yet, inside the combustion chamber of which a bottom surface is defined by the piston crown surface having the upper and lower 2-step cavities, no useful technique has been proposed for a control mode of the fuel injection for effectively using the air (oxygen) existing inside the combustion chamber.


A structure for a terminal section of a motor having a plurality of terminals juxtaposed with each other and extending in the axial direction of the motor shaft. The plurality of terminals are inserted into an end case covering the yoke opening, and have lead connecting portions at the distal ends thereof, which are exposed to the outside of the end case and to which a plurality of leads are individually connected. The lead connecting portions are exposed in a stepped manner, that is, they are subsequently shifted from each other both in the direction around and in the direction along the motor shaft. The leads are connected to the exposed lead connecting portions from directions substantially perpendicular to the motor shaft. The structure is capable of ensuring a sufficient insulating distance and reducing the motor size without lowering operational efficiency during production and without increasing the number of sealing locations.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure for a terminal section of a motor. In particular, the invention is a structure for attaching a plurality of leads to a terminal section of a motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a motor includes a plurality of terminals whose proximal ends are connected to brushes or the like. The distal ends of the terminals need to be exposed to the outside of the motor in order that these ends can be connected to leads. However, there is a risk that, during a soldering operation, conduction may occur between adjacent terminals due to the so-called solder bridge phenomenon. In order to ensure an insulating distance, the terminals must be arranged with sufficient intervals therebetween. As a result, the thus arranged terminals inevitably occupy a great space. When the motor has a large number of terminals, particularly when it is a motor incorporating an additional built-in mechanism such as a rotation detecting mechanism, it is necessary to provide a particularly large space for an arrangement of the terminals, thereby presenting the problem of an increased size of the motor. In view of this problem, it has been proposed to distribute the positions at which the terminals are exposed into two locations so as to reduce the size of the motor. However, with the proposed arrangement, the operation of connecting the leads has to be performed at two locations, thereby lowering the efficiency of the connecting operation during production. In addition, when the portion where the leads are connected is to be resin-sealed, the number of locations at which the sealing operation takes place increases, thereby greatly deteriorating the efficiency of the sealing operation, and hence, increasing the production costs.
In order to prevent the solder bridge phenomenon, an insulating member may be interposed between adjacent lead connecting portions at the distal ends of the terminals. With this arrangement, however, there is a risk that, when sealing the lead connecting portions, the insulating members may hinder the flow of a viscose resin material, thereby deteriorating the sealing ability of the material.


In one embodiment, a computing device may collect a plurality of information items of a plurality of types relevant to a user; rank the plurality of information items based on their respective degrees of relevance to the user; construct an information feed that includes the plurality of information items in an order of their respective ranks; and send the information feed to a user device associated with the user for presentation of the plurality of information items to the user in the order of their respective ranks.

In network communications, there are two ways to send information in the form of a communication from one device to another device: push and pull. With push technology, the request for the communication transaction is initiated by the sending device. That is, the sending device "pushes" the communication (i.e., information), so to speak, to the receiving device. In this case, the sending device may be considered the active party and the receiving device may be considered the passive party in the transaction. In contrast, with pull technology, the request for the communication transaction is initiated by the receiving device. That is, the receiving device "pulls" the communication (i.e., information), so to speak, from the sending device. In this case, the sending device may be considered the passive party and the receiving device may be considered the active party in the transaction.


A routing block using a switch with a pulsed serial link. An input of a routing block is supplied with an information signal. The routing block has multiple outputs. The information signal includes a first edge and a second edge on a single line. The first and second edges are separated by a time period. One of the first and second edges represents information conveyed by the signal. The other one of the first and second edges provides timing information. The information signal controls the routing block to select one of the multiple outputs and the transferring the signal to said selected one of said multiple outputs. Depending on the number of bits of information transmitted in each pulse and the number of switches controlled by the control information, the decoded control data will include at least one bit outputted serially to a control signal generator block.

Conventional integrated circuits (ICs) use timing signals to control sequences of events across a chip, and this is known as synchronous design. A clock signal is sent to each module on a chip and data signals are sent on separate lines. If a first module sends data to a second module following a clock transition Tn, then the second module will capture the data at the next clock transition, Tn+1. The use of synchronous design is a crucial factor in constraining the complexity of problems in integrated circuit design.
A typical system on a chip (SoC) may have a large number of clocks. All of the logic in all of the modules clocked by a single clock, and all of the logic and data connections between such modules is known as a single clock environment and this conforms to synchronous design. Other design techniques are employed for data signals that cross between logic or modules that are clocked by different clocks.
Whilst synchronous design between modules generally limits IC design problems there are problems with this approach. Firstly, for a synchronous chip to function correctly, a reliable clock signal has to be available across every part of the design. Tracks are generally used to transport the clock signal on a chip. High drive strengths will be required in order to overcome capacitance on these tracks. Lines with high drive strengths risk being cross-talk aggressors, meaning that they interfere with other lines on the chip. The solution is generally to limit the maximum length of any one track, and use repeaters where the track length is longer than this maximum length. However, in order to distribute the clock, there may well not be one long thin track, but a tree branch fan-out to a number of destinations. Driving a lot of circuit track has a number of undesirable effects including inducing cross-talk and transistor lifetime degradation. Furthermore, there are often design problems in driving many buffers to all destinations on a chip.
The problems with synchronous designs may be partially overcome in asynchronous designs, in which modules on a chip may operate at their own independent speeds, and no clock signal is transmitted between modules. However, an entirely asynchronous design is an extremely difficult proposition in practice, due to the uncertainty of when signals in the circuit are valid.
An approach has been proposed which is globally asynchronous, locally synchronous (GALS). This means that the logic in each module on a chip is synchronous while the connections between modules are asynchronous. This approach promises to solve timing problems and reduce power consumption, all without designers needing to learn fundamentally new skills or abandoning any of the existing huge investment in predefined, synchronous IP (Intellectual Property) circuit blocks. However, for asynchronous communication between modules on a chip, there are two basic requirements: the receiving unit has to know when to read the data line; and the sending unit has to know when it can send a new value. In synchronous designs these issues are controlled by the system clock, and by knowing the timing characteristics of the link, timing can be controlled such that these requirements are met.
Asynchronous design is significantly more difficult both for manual analysis and to automate because of the computational complexity. In synchronous design, it is only the final, settled output of each logic cone that needs to be analysed in terms of its logic value and timing; that is, what is the longest path that a transition could take to propagate through the logic cone and also what is the shortest path (used to determine how long the result will remain stable after a subsequent clock). This synchronous design analysis only need be performed at two process extremes, the slowest PVT (process, voltage, temperature) for the longest path and the fastest PVT for the shortest path. In synchronous design, it does not matter if the output of any cone of logic changes any number of times or glitches prior to the final settled output time because the resultant data is only captured once coincident with the following clock edge. However, in asynchronous design multiple output changes and glitches need to be avoided and the analysis for such needs to be performed across all variations of input timings and all combinations of timing paths through the logic cone.
In asynchronous design, the simplest approach is to use two wires—one for '1's and the other for '0's. When both wires are low, then no data is transmitted and the receiver knows that there is no data value on the wire. When either wire is set to high, the receiver knows that there is data on the wire, and depending on which wire is set to high, the data will be a 0 or a 1. Another approach is to have one wire designated as a clock or strobe, and the second wire (or collection of wires) carrying the data.
Particular problems arise when switching multi-wire asynchronous on-chip communications. It is possible to consider switching such communications, but this often involves a complex feedback path to communicate a handshake of each bit of data, or is limited by the number of switching elements that the separate wires can pass through before the difference in path delays for each wire and each gate within the switch becomes too large.
Consider normal serial data in a synchronous system. As explained above, either the clock is considered global, or the clock is routed alongside the data wire. At each switching node the potential misalignment between the data dn the clock increases and eventually becomes too large. The normal procedure is to limit the impact of switching by either limiting the clock frequency or by limiting the "size" (the number of cascaded switch elements) of the switch. The most common solution to this problem is to "retime" the signal at each switch step. Retiming involves capturing the data in a flip-flop and passing the output of that flip-flop, along with the clock, onto the next switch step. Thus one clock cycle of latency is added for each switch step. This is expensive, both in terms of latency and in terms of the area and power consumption of the flip-flop. Thus, the integrity of the data is corrected by resynchronizing with each clock.

Pulse link and apparatus for transmitting data and timing information on a single line

STMicroelectroncis (Research & Development) Limited


A low power, high speed magneto-resistive memory is disclosed. The disclosed memory directly senses the resistive state of one or more magneto-resistive memory elements. This allows the memory to be read during a single read cycle, without the need for a word line current. This may substantially increase the speed and reduce the power of the memory.

The present invention relates to ferromagnetic thin film memories and, more particularly, to ferromagnetic thin film memories in which states of the memory cells based on magnetization direction are determined through magnetoresistive properties of the thin film sensed by an electronic circuit.
Digital memories of various kinds are used extensively in computers and computer system components, in digital processing systems, and the like. Such memories can be formed, to considerable advantage, based on the storage of digital bits as alternative states of magnetization in magnetic materials in each memory cell, typically thin film materials. These films may be ferromagnetic thin films having information stored therein through the direction of the magnetization occurring in that film, with this information being obtained through either inductive sensing to determine the magnetization state, or by magnetoresistive sensing of such states. Such ferromagnetic thin film memories may be conveniently provided on the surface of a monolithic integrated circuit to provide easy electrical interconnection between the memory cells and the memory operating circuitry.
Ferromagnetic thin film memory cells can be made very small and packed very closely together to achieve a significant density of stored digital bits, properties which permit them to be provided on the surface of a monolithic integrated circuit as indicated above. One construction, as an example, is shown in FIG. 1, where a bit structure 10 for a memory cell that is presented is formed over a semiconductor material body 12, as used in a monolithic integrated circuit, and directly on an insulating layer 13, itself supported on a major surface of body 12 in the integrated circuit. Only a small portion of the integrated circuit is shown, and then only a small portion of the semiconductor body is shown in that integrated circuit portion.
These bit structures in an assemblage in a memory are usually provided in a series string of such bit structures often collectively called a sense line. There are typically a plurality of such sense lines in a memory. In order to make interconnections between members of such sense lines, or between the sense lines and the external circuitry in the integrated circuit for operating the memory, terminal regions or junctures 14 are typically provided at each end of the bit structure for interconnection purposes. These interconnections might be formed of copper alloyed in aluminum.
The remainder of the bit structure disposed on the exposed major surface of insulating layer 13 includes a lower ferromagnetic thin film 15 and an upper ferromagnetic thin film 16. Ferromagnetic thin film layers 15 and 16 typically exhibit uniaxial anisotropy, magnetoresistance, little magnetostriction, and are of an alloy composition typically comprising nickel, cobalt and iron. The magnetic device structure can be a spin valve that includes a pinned reference layer 15 spaced apart from a xe2x80x9cfree layerxe2x80x9d 16 that stores the digital information. The lower ferromagnetic thin film 15 is typically, but not always, thicker than the upper ferromagnetic thin film 16. Alternatively, a pseudo-spin-valve structure can be used where the lower ferromagnetic thin film 15 is often called the hard layer, and the upper ferromagnetic thin film 16 is often called the soft layer.
Between ferromagnetic thin film layers 15 and 16 is typically a further thin layer 17 which usually would not exhibit ferromagnetism but may be either an electrical conductor or an electrical insulator. Layer 17 must, however, in this construction, minimize the exchange interaction between layers 15 and 16 so that the magnetization vectors of each layer are decoupled. A typical choice for layer 17 would be copper. An insulating layer 18 covers bit structure 10 although only a part of it is shown in FIG. 1.
Finally, a word line 19 is shown in FIG. 1 disposed on the major surface of insulating layer 18. Word line 19 typically includes an aluminum layer alloyed with copper on a titanium-tungsten base layer. A protective and insulating layer over the entire structure of FIG. 1 is often used in practice, but is not shown here.
Bit structure 10 can be operated in a longitudinal mode having its easy axis extend between internal interconnections 14 perpendicular to the direction of word line 19. Information kept as a digital bit having one of two alternative logic values in bit structure 10 is stored therein in layer 15 by having the magnetization vector point in one direction or the other, generally along the easy axis of magnetization. If the direction of magnetization is caused to rotate from such a direction by external magnetic fields, the electrical resistance of layers 15 and 16 changes with this magnetization direction rotation because of the magnetoresistive properties of such layers. For the kinds of materials typically used in layers 15 and 16, the maximum change in resistance is on the order of a few percent of the minimum resistance value.
In the memory shown in FIG. 1, sense current refers to the current flow through bit structure 10 from one terminal 14 to the other terminal 14. Word current refers to current flow in word line 19 adjacent to, and transverse to the orientation of bit structure 10. Bit structure 10 can be placed in one of the two possible magnetization states of layer 15 (pinned layer) through the selective application of sense and word currents i.e., information can be xe2x80x9cwrittenxe2x80x9d in bit structure 10. A bit structure 10 of a typical memory configuration can be placed in a xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d magnetization state by the application of a sense current of typically 1.0 mA, and coincidentally with the provision of a word current in one direction from 20 mA to 40 mA. The opposite magnetization state representing a xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d logic value can be provided through providing the same sense current and a word current of the same magnitude in the opposite direction. Such states typically occur fairly quickly after the proper current levels are reached, such state changes typically occurring in less than about 5 ns.
Determining which magnetization state is stored in bit structure 10 i.e., reading the information stored in bit structure 10, is typically done by providing externally caused magnetic fields in that bit structure, through providing, for example, word line currents and coincident sense line currents. These currents rotate the magnetization of the upper ferromagnetic thin film 16 (free layer) of the bit structure 10. As indicated above, this causes a change in the electrical resistance encountered between terminal regions 14 in bit structure 10 for different magnetization directions in the structure, including changing from one easy axis direction magnetization state to the opposite direction state. As a result, there is detectable differences in the voltage developed across magnetic bit structure 10 by the sense current flowing therethrough, depending on the relative magnetization direction of the pinned and free layers of bit structure 10.
During a typical read procedure, a word line current is provided over a selected bit structure 10 in a first direction. The word line current produces an externally generated magnetic field in the bit structure 10. The magnitude of the word line current must be large enough to rotate the free layer 15 of the bit structure 10. A typical word line current is 10-20 mA.
A sense current is also provided to the sense line that includes the bit structure 10. Because each sense line typically includes a series string of bit structures, the sense current typically flows through all of the bit structures that are members of the selected sense line. The sense current is typically provided concurrent with the word line current, and the resulting voltage (resistance) across the sense line is sensed. If the magnetization of the free layer 16 is parallel to the magnetization of the pinned layer 15, the voltage (resistance) is in a lower state. If the magnetization of the free layer 16 is anti-parallel to the magnetization of the pinned layer 15, the voltage (resistance) is in a higher state. The sensed voltage (resistance) is then typically stored using an auto-zero circuit. The time required to sense the voltage (resistance) of the members in the sense line, including bit structure 10, is typically about 50 ns. This time is relatively long, at least in part, because of the noise generated by the relatively large word line current that is present during the sensing operation.
After the voltage (resistance) of the sense line is sensed with the word line current in the first direction, the word line current is typically reversed. The magnitude of the word line current is again large enough to rotate the free layer 15 of the bit structure 10. A sense current is then provided to the sense line that includes bit structure 10, concurrent with the word line current, and the resulting voltage (resistance) across the members of the sense line is again sensed. The time typically required to sense the voltage (resistance) of the sense line is about 50 ns. The sensed voltage (resistance) is then compared to the previously sensed voltage (resistance) stored by the auto-zero circuit. If the resistance change is positive, one logic state is read. If the resistance change is negative, the opposite logic state is read.
The above-described reading procedure suffers from a number of disadvantages. One disadvantage is that two separate read cycles are required to read the state of a memory element; one with the word line current in one direction and another with the word line current in the opposite direction. Because two read cycles are required, the read access time of the memory can be limited.
Another disadvantage of the above-described reading procedure is that the voltage (resistance) sensed during the first cycle is relatively close in value to the voltage (resistance) sensed during the second cycle. This is because the reading procedure senses the resistance of all of the bit structures in the sense line, and not just the desired bit structure 10. As indicated above, the maximum change in resistance for a typical magneto-resistive bit structure 10 is on the order of a few percent of the minimum resistance value. While this resistance change is already relatively small, the percentage resistance change is effectively reduced by the resistance of the other bit structures that are in the selected sense line. As a result, it can be difficult and time consuming to compare the two resistance values to determine the state of the selected bit structure 10. This can increase the read access time and reduce the reliability of the memory.
Another disadvantage of the above-described reading procedure is that a relatively large word line current (10-30 mA) must typically be provided throughout each sensing cycle. This is particularly problematic because each sensing cycle may take on the order of 50 ns to sense the voltage (resistance) of the bit structure 10. As such, the reading operation may consume a significant amount of power. A related limitation is that the relatively large word line current can also cause a significant amount of noise at the bit structure 10. This can reduce the signal-to-noise ratio on the sense lines and slow the sensing operation.
The present invention overcomes many of the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a magneto-resistive memory that can directly sense the resistive state of one or more magneto-resistive memory elements, and therefore does not require two separate read cycles to read the state of a memory cell. This increases the speed and reduces the power of the memory. In addition, a word line current is not required to read a desired magneto-resistive memory element. This also helps increase the speed and reduce the power of the memory.
In one illustrative embodiment of the present invention, the magneto-resistive memory includes an array of memory cells arranged into rows and columns, with each column having a bit line. Each memory cell preferably includes a magneto-resistive bit, with the first end of the magneto-resistive bit connected to the bit line. Each memory cell preferably also includes a switch that is coupled to the second end of the magneto-resistive bit for selectively providing a path for a sense current to flow from the bit line, through the selected magneto-resistive bit, and to a first predetermined voltage terminal such as ground.
To read a selected memory cell of the magneto-resistive memory, a sense current is provided to the bit line that is connected to the selected memory cell, and the switch in the selected memory cell is enabled. By activating the switch, the sense current provided on the corresponding bit line flows through the magneto-resistive bit of the selected memory cell and to a predetermined voltage (e.g. ground). The switch provides selectivity between the rows of memory cells in the magneto-resistive memory. In this configuration, the sense current produces a voltage on the corresponding bit line that reflects the resistive state of the magneto-resistive bit. A sense amplifier may then be used to sense the voltage on the bit line.
In another illustrative embodiment of the present invention, each column has two bit lines, and each memory cell has two magneto-resistive bits that are written into opposite resistive states. The first end of a first magneto-resistive bit is connected to a first bit line, and first end of a second magneto-resistive bit is connected to a second bit line. Each memory cell preferably also includes a switch that is coupled to the second end of the first magneto-resistive bit and the second end of the second magneto-resistive bit. The switch selectively provides a path for a first sense current to flow from the first bit line, through the first magneto-resistive bit, and to a predetermined voltage. The switch also may selectively provide a path for a second sense current to flow from the second bit line, through the second magneto-resistive bit, and to the predetermined voltage.
In this illustrative embodiment, a selected memory cell is read by providing a first sense current to the first bit line and a second sense current to the second bit line. The first sense current is preferably substantially identical to the second sense current. Then, the switch of the selected memory cell is enabled. This allows the first sense current to flow through the first magneto-resistive bit to produce a first voltage on the first bit line, and further allows the second sense current to flow through the second magneto-resistive bit to produce a second voltage on the second bit line. A sense amplifier may then be used to sense the differential voltage between the first bit line and the second bit line.
Once the magneto-resistive state of the selected memory cell is sensed, the sensed state may be stored in a storage element, such as a latch or register. In an illustrative embodiment, a latch is provided that includes a first inverter and a second inverter coupled together in a cross-coupled configuration. Each of the first and second inverters preferably has a positive supply terminal, a negative supply terminal, an input terminal and an output terminal. The positive supply terminal of the first and second inverters are preferably coupled to a power supply voltage, such as VDD. The latch may also include a load transistor for loading a state into the latch. The load transistor preferably has a source terminal coupled to the input terminal of the first inverter, a drain terminal coupled to the input terminal of the second inverter, and a gate terminal coupled to a load enable terminal.
In one illustrative embodiment, the first bit line is coupled to a first predetermined node of the first inverter, and the second bit line is connected to a second predetermined node of the second inverter. The first predetermined node and the second predetermined node are preferably either the input terminal or the negative supply terminal of the corresponding cross-coupled inverter.
Rather than coupling the first bit line and the second bit line directly to the predetermined nodes of the latch, it is contemplated that the first bit line and the second bit line may first be provided to a differential amplifier. The differential amplifier may amplify the differential signal between the first bit line and the second bit line before providing an amplified differential signal to the predetermined nodes of the latch. It is also contemplated that the differential voltage signal between the first and second bit lines, either amplified or not, may be coupled to the predetermined nodes of the latch via one or more switches, if desired, as further described below.