A debris collection and metrology system for collecting and analyzing debris from a tip used in nanomachining processes, the system including an irradiation source, an irradiation detector, an actuator, and a controller. The irradiation source is operable to direct incident irradiation onto the tip, and the irradiation detector is operable to receive a sample irradiation from the tip, the sample irradiation being generated as a result of the direct incident irradiation being applied onto the tip. The controller is operatively coupled to an actuator system and the irradiation detector, and the controller is operable to receive a first signal based on a first response of the irradiation detector to the sample irradiation, and the controller is operable to effect relative motion between the tip and at least one of the irradiation source and the irradiation detector based on the first signal.

Nanomachining, by definition, involves mechanically removing nanometer-scaled volumes of material from, for example, a photolithography mask, a semiconductor substrate/wafer, or any surface on which scanning probe microscopy (SPM) can be performed. For the purposes of this discussion, "substrate" will refer to any object upon which nanomachining may be performed.
Examples of photolithography masks include: standard photomasks (193 nm wavelength, with or without immersion), next generation lithography mask (imprint, directed self-assembly, etc.), extreme ultraviolet lithography photomasks (EUV or EUVL), and any other viable or useful mask technology. Examples of other surfaces which are considered substrates are membranes, pellicle films, micro-electronic/nano-electronic mechanical systems MEMS/NEMS. Use of the terms, "mask", or "substrate" in the present disclosure include the above examples, although it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that other photomasks or surfaces may also be applicable.
Nanomachining in the related art may be performed by applying forces to a surface of a substrate with a tip (e.g., a diamond cutting bit) that is positioned on a cantilever arm of an atomic force microscope (AFM). More specifically, the tip may first be inserted into the surface of the substrate, and then the tip may be dragged through the substrate in a plane that is parallel to the surface (i.e., the xy-plane). This results in displacement and/or removal of material from the substrate as the tip is dragged along.
As a result of this nanomachining, debris (which includes anything foreign to the substrate surface) is generated on the substrate. More specifically, small particles may form during the nanomachining process as material is removed from the substrate. These particles, in some instances, remain on the substrate once the nanomachining process is complete. Such particles are often found, for example, in trenches and/or cavities present on the substrate.
In order to remove debris, particles or anything foreign to the substrate, particularly in high-aspect photolithography mask structures and electronic circuitry; wet cleaning techniques have been used. More specifically, the use of chemicals in a liquid state and/or agitation of the overall mask or circuitry may be employed. However, both chemical methods and agitation methods such as, for example, megasonic agitation, can adversely alter or destroy both high-aspect ratio structures and mask optical proximity correction features (i.e., features that are generally so small that these features do not image, but rather form diffraction patterns that are used beneficially by mask designers to form patterns).
In order to better understand why high-aspect shapes and structures are particularly susceptible to being destroyed by chemicals and agitation; one has to recall that such shapes and structures, by definition, include large amounts of surface area and are therefore very thermodynamically unstable. As such, these shapes and structures are highly susceptible to delamination and/or other forms of destruction when chemical and/or mechanical energy is applied.
It is important to note that in imprint lithography and EUV (or EUVL) that use of a pellicle to keep particles off the lithographic surface being copied is currently not feasible. Technologies that cannot use pellicles are generally more susceptible to failure by particle contamination which blocks the ability to transfer the pattern to the wafer. Pellicles are in development for EUV masks, but as prior experience with DUV pellicle masks indicates, the use of a pellicle only mitigates (but does not entirely prevent) critical particle and other contaminates from falling on the surface and any subsequent exposure to the high-energy photons will tend to fix these particles to the mask surface with a greater degree of adhesion. In addition, these technologies may be implemented with smaller feature sizes (1 to 300 nm), making them more susceptible to damage during standard wet clean practices which may typically be used. In the specific case of EUV or EUVL, the technology may require the substrate be in a vacuum environment during use and likely during storage awaiting use. In order to use standard wet clean technologies, this vacuum would have to be broken which could easily lead to further particle contamination.
Other currently available methods for removing debris from a substrate make use of cryogenic cleaning systems and techniques. For example, the substrate containing the high-aspect shapes and/or structures may be effectively "sandblasted" using carbon dioxide particles instead of sand.
However, even cryogenic cleaning systems and processes in the related art are also known to adversely alter or destroy high-aspect features. In addition, cryogenic cleaning processes affect a relatively large area of a substrate (e.g., treated areas may be approximately 10 millimeters across or more in order to clean debris with dimensions on the order of nanometers). As a result, areas of the substrate that may not need to have debris removed therefrom are nonetheless exposed to the cryogenic cleaning process and to the potential structure-destroying energies associated therewith. It is noted that there are numerous physical differences between nano and micro regimes, for the purposes here, the focus will be on the differences related to nanoparticle cleaning processes. There are many similarities between nano and macro scale cleaning processes, but there are also many critical differences. For the purposes of this disclosure, the common definition of the nanoscale is of use: this defines a size range of 1 to 100 nm. This is a generalized range since many of processes reviewed here may occur below this range (into atomic scales) and be able to affect particles larger than this range (into the micro regime).
Some physical differences between macro and nano particle cleaning processes include transport related properties including: surface area, mean free path, thermal, and field-effects. The first two in this list are more relevant to the thermo-mechanical-chemical behavior of particles while the last one is more concerned with particle interactions with electromagnetic fields. Thermal transport phenomenon intersects both of these regimes in that it is also the thermo-mechanical physical chemistry around particles and the interaction of particles with electromagnetic fields in the infrared wavelength regime. To functionally demonstrate some of these differences, a thought experiment example of a nanoparticle trapped at the bottom of a high aspect line and space structure (70 nm deep and 40 nm wide˜AR=1.75) is posited. In order to clean this particle with macroscale processes, the energy required to remove the particle is approximately the same as the energy required to damage features or patterns on the substrate, thereby making it impossible to clean the high aspect line and space structure without damage. For macro-scale cleaning processes (Aqueous, Surfactant, Sonic Agitation, etc.), at the energy level where the nanoparticle is removed, the surrounding feature or pattern is also damaged. If one has the technical capability to manipulate nano-sharp (or nanoscale) structures accurately within nano-distances to the nanoparticle, then one may apply the energy to clean the nanoparticle to the nanoparticle only. For nanoscale cleaning processes, the energy required to remove the nanoparticle is applied only to the nanoparticle and not the surrounding features or patterns on the substrate.
First, looking at the surface area properties of particles, there are mathematical scaling differences which are obvious as a theoretical particle (modelled here as a perfect sphere) approaches the nanoscale regime. The bulk properties of materials are gauged with the volume of materials while the surface is gauged by the external area. For a hypothetical particle, its volume decreases inversely by the cube (3rd power) while the surface area decreases by the square with respect to the particle's diameter. This difference means that material properties which dominate the behavior of a particle at macro, and even micro, scale diameters become negligible into the nano regime (and smaller). Examples of these properties include mass and inertial properties of the particle, which is a critical consideration for some cleaning techniques such as sonic agitation or laser shock.
The next transport property examined here is the mean free path. For macro to micro regimes, fluids (in both liquid, gaseous, and mixed states) can be accurately modelled in their behavior as continuum flow. When considering surfaces, such as the surface of an AFM tip and a nanoparticle, that are separated by gaps on the nanoscale or smaller, these fluids can't be considered continuum. This means that fluids do not move according to classical flow models, but can be more accurately related to the ballistic atomic motion of a rarefied gas or even a vacuum. For an average atom or molecule (approximately 0.3 nm in diameter) in a gas at standard temperature and pressure, the calculated mean free path (i.e., distance in which a molecule will travel in a straight line before it will on average impact another atom or molecule) is approximately 94 nm, which is a large distance for an AFM scanning probe. Since fluids are much denser than gasses, they will have much smaller mean free paths, but it must be noted that the mean free path for any fluid can't be less than the atom or molecule's diameter. If we compare the assumed atom or molecule diameter of 0.3 nm given above to the typical tip to surface mean separation distance during non-contact scanning mode which can be as small as 1 nm, thus except for the most dense fluids, the fluid environment between an AFM tip apex and the surface being scanned will behave in a range of fluid properties from rarefied gas to near-vacuum. The observations in the prior review are crucial to demonstrating that thermo-fluid processes behave in fundamentally different ways when scaled from the macro to nano scale. This affects the mechanisms and kinetics of various process aspects such as chemical reactions, removal of products such as loose particles to the environment, charging or charge neutralization, and the transport of heat or thermal energy.
The known thermal transport differences from macro and nano to sub-nano scales has been found by studies using scanning thermal probe microscopy. One early difference seen is that the transport rate of thermal energy can be an order of magnitude less across nanoscale distances than the macro scale. This is how scanning thermal probe microscopy can work with a nano probe heated to a temperature difference of sometimes hundreds of degrees with respect to a surface it is scanning in non-contact mode with tip to surface separations as small as the nano or Angstrom scale. The reasons for this lower thermal transport are implied in the prior section about mean free path in fluids. One form of thermal transport, however, is enhanced which is blackbody radiation. It has been experimentally shown that the Plank limit for blackbody spectral radiance at a given temperature can be exceeded at nanoscale distances. Thus, not only does the magnitude of thermal transport decrease, but the primary type of transport, from conduction/convection to blackbody which is in keeping with the rarefied to vacuum fluid behavior, changes.
Differences in the interactions of fields (an electromagnetic field is the primary intended example here due to its longer wavelengths compared to other possible examples), for the purposes in this discussion, could be further sub-classified as wavelength related and other quantum effects (in particular tunneling). At nanoscales, the behavior of electromagnetic fields between a source (envisioned here as the apex of an AFM tip whether as the primary source or as a modification of a relatively far field source) and a surface will not be subject to wavelength dependent diffraction limitations to resolution that far field sources will experience. This behavior, commonly referred to as the near-field optics, has been used with great success in scanning probe technologies such as near field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM). Beyond applications in metrology, the near field behavior can affect the electromagnetic interaction of all nanoscale sized objects spaced nano-distances from each other. The next near-field behavior mentioned is quantum tunneling where a particle, in particular an electron, can be transported across a barrier it could not classically penetrate. This phenomenon allows for energy transport by a means not seen at macro scales, and is used in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and some solid-state electronic devices. Finally, there are more esoteric quantum effects often seen with (but not limited to) electromagnetic fields at nanoscales, such as proximity excitation and sensing of plasmonic resonances, however, it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that the current discussion gives a sufficient demonstration of the fundamental differences between macro and nano-scale physical processes.
In the following, the term "surface energy" may be used to refer to the thermodynamic properties of surfaces which are available to perform work (in this case, the work of adhesion of debris to the surfaces of the substrate and the tip respectively). One way to classically calculate this is the Gibb's free energy which is given as:G(p,T)=U+pV−TS where:
U=Internal Energy;
p=Pressure;
V=Volume;
T=Temperature; and
S=Entropy.
Since the current practice does not vary pressure, volume, and temperature (although this does not need to be the case since these parameters could equally be manipulated to get the desired effects as well) they will not be discussed in detail. Thus, the only terms being manipulated in the equation above will be internal energy and entropy as driving mechanisms in the methods discussed below. Entropy, since it is intended that the probe tip surface will be cleaner (i.e., no debris or unintended surface contaminates) than the substrate being cleaned is naturally a thermodynamic driving mechanism to preferentially contaminate the tip surface over the substrate (and then subsequently, contaminate the cleaner pallet of soft material). The internal energy is manipulated between the pallet, tip, debris, and substrate surfaces by the thermophysical properties characterized by their respective surface energies. One way to relate the differential surface energy to the Gibbs free energy is to look at theoretical developments for the creep properties of engineering materials at high temperatures (i.e., a significant fraction of their melting point temperature) for a cylinder of radius r, and length l, under uniaxial tension P:dG=−P*dl+γ*dA where
γ=Surface energy density [J/m2]; and
A=Surface area [m2].
The observation that the stress and extrinsic surface energy of an object are factors in its Gibbs free energy induces one to believe these factors (in addition to the surface energy density γ) could also be manipulated to perform reversible preferential adhesion of the debris to the tip (with respect to the substrate) and then subsequently the soft pallet. Means to do this include applied stress (whether externally or internally applied) and temperature. It should be noted that it is intended that the driving process will always result in a series of surface interactions with a net ΔG<0 in order to provide a differential surface energy gradient to preferentially decontaminate the substrate and subsequently preferentially contaminate the soft pallet. This could be considered analogous to a ball preferentially rolling down an incline to a lower energy state (except that, here, the incline in thermodynamic surface energy also includes the overall disorder in the whole system or entropy). FIG. 6 shows one possible set of surface interactions where the method described here could provide a down-hill thermodynamic Gibbs free energy gradient to selectively remove a contaminate and selectively deposit it on a soft patch. This sequence is one of the theoretical mechanisms thought to be responsible for the current practice aspects using low surface energy fluorocarbon materials with medium to low surface energy tip materials such as diamond.

Debris removal in high aspect structures


Embodiments relate generally to systems and methods for receiving communication on a head unit, wherein the communication may be sent to a mobile device coupled to the head unit. The head unit may be enabled to receive communication sent to the mobile device by an application on the head unit, wherein the application may communicate with the network in communication with the mobile device. The head unit may be operable to receive communication sent to a plurality of mobile devices, wherein the head unit may prioritize the received communication. Communication sent to the mobile device and/or head unit may comprise calls, messages, emails, and/or data.

Motor vehicles may now provide wireless communications based functionality. In an embodiment, a head unit may be installed in a motor vehicle that provides a variety of functionality that depends at least partly on wireless communications connectivity via a cellular network. For example, the head unit of a vehicle may be operable to communicate (wirelessly and/or via a cable or wire connection) with one or more mobile device within the vehicle, allowing for information transfer between the head unit and mobile device(s). Additionally, some motor vehicles and/or head units may be equipped with cellular communication capabilities and may be operable to execute communication applications.


Rock slabs or pieces are broken from larger rocks or from rock formations with reduced cracking of the broken rock slabs or pieces by drilling bore holes along the desired break lines, placing detonating cord into the bore holes, filling the bore holes with a shock transmitting and moderating composition, and detonating the detonation cord. The shock transmitting and moderating composition is preferably a gel with shock absorbing material such as microspheres or micro gas bubbles suspended therein. Openings in rock can also be formed by drilling at least one bore hole within the desired opening and drilling a plurality of bore holes along the desired periphery of the desired opening. Explosives within the at least one bore hole within the desired opening is detonated to break rock within the opening and detonating cord in the bore holes along the desired periphery of the desired opening which holes are filled with a shock transmitting and moderating composition is detonated to break the rock inwardly of the desired periphery while leaving stable the rock outwardly of the periphery.

1. Field
The invention is in the field of blasting blocks of rock from larger rock formations or larger blocks such as the blasting of loaves and blocks of rock in quarries, and in the field of blasting openings in rock.
2. State of the Art
In quarries, and particularly dimension stone quarries such as granite, marble, and limestone quarries, it is usual practice to break large pieces of rock, generally referred to as loaves, from the solid rock formation, and then, either at the site, or at a different site to which the loaves are moved, break the loaves into smaller blocks that are then further cut and finished to provide the finished rock product. The loaves are generally up to about fifty feet in length by about twenty feet in width by about fifteen feet in height and weigh in the range of about fifteen thousand tons. The smaller blocks into which the loaves are broken typically are about six feet in width by about five feet in height by about six to eight feet in length.
In separating the loaves from the solid rock formation, cuts in the rock to define the ends of the loaves are generally made by water jet cutting or by burning or spalling. Once the ends are cut to define the length of the loaf and to provide relief, bore holes are drilled into the rock along the desired lines of breakage at the back of the loaf and the bottom of the loaf between the end cuts. These bore holes are then filled with an explosive, the explosive is detonated, and the detonation separates the loaf of rock from the solid rock formation. Depending upon the explosives used, the holes along a horizontal break line (the bottom of the loaf) may be drilled at a slight angle in order to hold a liquid. This angle is normally about 2.degree. but may range up to about 60.degree.. The loaves are then further broken into the smaller blocks. These smaller blocks are moved to the finishing facility and cut and finished. Current practice in forming the smaller blocks at granite and similar quarries is to drill the loaves along further desired break lines. Holes about 11/4 inches in diameter are drilled about every 51/2 inches along the desired break lines. The holes are drilled almost through the block, but not all of the way through so the holes will hold water therein.
In blasting the smaller blocks, small explosive power is all that is needed. Such power can be provided by a length of detonating cord inserted into the hole and extending the entire length of the hole. However, the standard hole drilled in the rock is about 1-11/4 inch in diameter. Explosives filling such a hole would be much too powerful to provide the desired breaks and would result in significant overbreakage causing the rock to split where not desired and unwanted cracks to form extending peripherally around the diameter of the blast hole rendering much of the rock damaged, unusable, and wasted. The detonating cord, however, is significantly smaller in diameter than the diameter of the hole. If the detonating cord is merely placed in the hole and detonated, most of the explosive power is absorbed by the air in the empty hole and the blast is not effective to crack and break the rock along the desired break line. In some cases, if detonating cord of relatively large explosive power is used, it can merely be placed in the hole in air and detonated. However, this uses much more explosive power than necessary. Current practice in many quarries is to place the detonating cord in the hole, fill the hole with water, and then detonate the cord. The water transmits the explosive force of the detonation hydrostatically to the rock and the rock is broken as desired. However, the force of the explosion usually causes many small cracks, called spider cracks, to form extending from the hole anywhere from three inches to one foot into the rock. In finishing the block of rock, it is necessary to cut off the rock having the spider cracks. This wastes a substantial amount of the rock which is an economic loss to the quarry. For example, if the spider cracks extend three inches into the rock on all sides so that three inches is cut off all sides of a five by six by eight foot block, this wastes almost twelve percent of the rock in the block. If cracks extend twelve inches into the block so twelve inches of rock has to be cut, over forty percent of the block is wasted.
Where high quality stone is being broken into blocks and the excessive waste due to spider cracks is to be avoided, the blocks can be broken by wedging. In wedging, steel wedges are manually driven into the bore holes along the desired break line to force the block to break and separate from the loaf. However, the wedging is labor intensive and time consuming so use of explosives for breaking the block is generally preferred.
Attempts have been made to reduce the spider cracks in the rock blocks by arranging the detonating cord in the bore hole so that it extends down one side of the bore hole and up the other against the rock to be broken along the desired break line and the hole is then filled with sand rather than water. However, for the sand to be effective and to effectively flow into and fill a 1-11/4 inch diameter bore hole, the sand has to be very dry. It is extremely difficult to keep sand as dry as necessary in a quarry and even dry sand is difficult to pour into the hole. Generally dry sand is about forty percent void space. While this procedure appears to reduce cracking to some extent it is not as effective as desired and, in addition to the difficulty in filling the holes with sand, it is difficult and time consuming to correctly line-up the detonating cord and to provide the separations necessary to keep the cord apart and correctly aligned.
In many cases, in addition to breaking loaves into smaller blocks, the detonating cord with surrounding water provides enough explosive power for breaking the large loaves of rock from the solid rock formation so the water and detonating cord can be used in those situations also. However, there is still the problem of spider cracks that have to be removed before the rock is ready for finishing.

Method of breaking slabs and explosive shock transmitting and moderating composition for use therein


A system for detecting a change in material composition in a product including a microwave transmitter emitting a microwave signal at a predetermined microwave frequency composition, and an ultrasonic transmitter emitting an ultrasound signal at a predetermined ultrasound frequency composition into at least a part of the product to create a density displacement within the product. The system further includes a receiver to receive a microwave signal and/or an ultrasonic signal passed through at least apart of the product, device to measure the attenuation and/or runtime between each emitted signal and each received signal, respectively, under the influence of the created density displacement, and a comparator to compare the measured attenuation and/or runtime with a previously determined attenuation and/or runtime to determine a change in material composition to detect a possible change in material composition in a product.

The term foreign bodies comprises all solid materials that are undesired in products, especially food products, originating from the product or not, such as bone fragments, bits of glass, rubber, gravel/stone, hair, insects, etc.
In the international application published as WO01/20311, an apparatus for detection of foreign bodies in materials is disclosed which is fast, non-invasive and non-destructive. Electromagnetic signals having at least two different frequencies pass through the material and the transmitted and received signals are analyzed and compared to a predetermined reference value, obtained from a reference sample, for each frequency. A presence of a foreign object in the material will create a difference in damping and/or phase shift between the material and the reference sample.
A drawback of the prior art is that the described method only measures the dielectric property ∈, which means that it is difficult to detect a foreign object in a material if the dielectric contrast between the object and the material is small.
Further drawbacks with the described method is that the resolution of the method is limited by the microwave wavelength, which in some cases results in a too small resolution, and increasing frequency reduces the wavelength and therefore increases the resolution at the cost of a limited penetration depth. The antenna patterns used in the apparatus are sensitive to adjacent products, which leads to crosstalk. Furthermore, measurement results are inherently temperature dependent.
Furthermore, the U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,124 A discloses a system including two different energy sources, viz. at least one microwave transmitter and at least one ultrasonic transmitter. The energies emitted from these different sources are said to complement each other in that the ultrasonic energy is sensitive to laminar conditions while microwave energy is sensitive to density changes, in the search for intra part or subsurface anomalies. Also, it is stated that ultrasonic energy penetrates a metal component with greater facility, while microwave energy will penetrate any non-metal component.
However, still, the mere complementary use of microwave and ultrasonic energies will not increase the resolution while maintaining a sufficient penetration depth in order to achieve the desired detection of a change in material composition, such as foreign bodies in food products.

System and method for detecting foreign objects in a product


One surface of a first substrate provided with at least light-absorbing layers separately formed, partition layers each formed between the light-absorbing layers and having an inverse taper shape, and material layers formed on the light-absorbing layers and on the partition layers so that the material layers are separated from each other is disposed to face a deposition target surface of a second substrate; light irradiation is performed from the other surface of the first substrate, only the material layers in regions overlapped with the light-absorbing layers are heated and evaporated to the deposition target surface of the second substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a deposition donor substrate used for deposition of a material that can be deposited by an evaporation method and a method for manufacturing a light-emitting device using the deposition donor substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Light-emitting elements, which use organic compounds as a light emitter and are characterized by the thinness, lightweight, fast response, and direct current low voltage driving, are expected to be applied to next-generation flat panel displays. In particular, display devices having light-emitting elements arranged in matrix are thought to be superior to conventional liquid crystal display devices for their wide viewing angles and excellent visibility.
As for a light-emitting mechanism of a light-emitting element, an EL layer is interposed between a pair of electrodes and voltage is applied, whereby electrons injected from a cathode and holes injected from an anode recombine in an emission center of the EL layer to form molecular excitons, and the molecular excitons release energy when relaxing into a ground state; therefore, light is emitted. A singlet excited state and a triplet excited state are known as excited states, and it is thought that light emission can be obtained through either of the excited states.
An EL layer included in a light-emitting element includes at least a light-emitting layer. In addition, the EL layer can have a stack structure including a hole-inject layer, a hole-transport layer, an electron-transport layer, an electron-inject layer, and the like, in addition to the light-emitting layer.
In addition, EL materials for forming EL layers are broadly classified into low molecular (monomer) materials and high molecular (polymer) materials. In general, a film of a low molecular material is often formed by an evaporation method, and a film of a high molecular material is often formed by an inkjet method or the like.
An evaporation apparatus which is used in an evaporation method has a substrate holder on which a substrate is set; a crucible (or an evaporation boat) containing an EL material, i.e., an EL layer-forming material; a heater for heating the EL material in the crucible; and a shutter for preventing the EL material from being diffused during sublimation. The EL material heated by the heater is sublimed and deposited to the substrate.
In order to form a uniform film, actually, a deposition target substrate needs to be rotated, or the substrate and the crucible need to be separated from each other by at least a certain distance. In addition, when films of different colors are separately formed using plural kinds of EL materials through a mask such as a metal mask, it is necessary that the distance between pixels be designed to be large and that the width of a partition layer (bank) formed using an insulator between pixels be large. Such needs are major problems in advancing high definition (increasing the number of pixels) and miniaturization of display pixel pitches along, in a light-emitting device including a light-emitting element. Further, there is a problem in that, with a larger deposition target substrate, a mask covering a substrate sags and accordingly an EL layer cannot be formed accurately.
Further, as for flat panel displays, it has been necessary to solve those problems as well as to improve productivity and reduce costs, in order to achieve higher definition.
Thus, a method for forming an EL layer of a light-emitting element through laser thermal transfer has been proposed (e.g., see Patent Document 1). Patent Document 1 discloses a transfer substrate which has a photothermal conversion layer including a low-reflective layer and a high-reflective layer, and a transfer layer, on a supporting substrate. Irradiation of such a transfer substrate with laser light allows the transfer layer to be transferred to an element-forming substrate.                [Patent Document 1] Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2006-309995

Deposition donor substrate and method for manufacturing light-emitting device

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A wind deflector (10) for a motor vehicle roof (2) with a roof opening (4) which can be closed by means of a movable cover (6), is located along the front edge of the roof opening (4) and can be moved between an inactive position which is retracted into the outside contour of the roof and a raised operating position, the effective area exposed to the incident flow of the head wind being formed from an air-permeable net (12). The net (12) which forms the effective area is made of several sections of different fabric density which are located next to one another. The net (12) can be a one-piece fabric with several sections of different fabric density made by means of a corresponding weaving technique, so that the net (12) does not have any seams or other connecting sites between the individual sections.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a wind deflector for a motor vehicle roof with a roof opening which can be closed by means of an adjustable cover, comprising a wind deflector which is located along the front edge of the roof opening and which can be moved between an inactive position which is retracted into the outside contour of the roof and a raised operating position, the effective area of the wind deflector exposed to the incident flow of the head wind being provided with an air-permeable net.
2. Description of Related Art
Wind deflectors of this type are designed to deflect the air incident on the wind deflector at least partially upward, with which, on the one hand, direct incident flow on the passengers is prevented, and on the other, the noise caused by the incident air is reduced.
German Patent Application DE 42 39 428 A1 discloses a wind deflector which is formed by an elastic net clamped in a frame. By using an elastic net, the negative pressure in the vehicle interior will be replenished in proportionate form and disturbing wind noise and draft phenomena will be minimized. However, it has been shown that the expected effect is inadequate for a net which is made the same over the entire width of the wind deflector, since the incident flow conditions, and optionally, the outflow conditions which are desirable behind the net are different over the width of the net, but there has not been any adaptation to these different conditions.
European Patent Application EP 0 490 213 A1 discloses a wind deflector which is provided with an air-permeable net in partial regions of its surface. Embodiments in this respect have a wind deflector which has been formed in itself by a rigid surface and which is provided with several openings which are distributed over its width and which for their part are each covered by a net. The openings distributed over the width of the wind deflector and the assigned nets are each the same so that, in this case, there is no adaptation to incident flow and outflow conditions which are different over the width of the wind deflector.


A matching circuit for two-channel Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs) is disclosed in which two ADCs convert analog signals of two channels to digital signals with the same operational characteristics. A bias voltage supplier operates in such a way that analog signals of first and second channels are each converted to digital signals by first and second ADCs, a bias voltage supplier generates a DC bias voltage to set up DC levels of the analog signals of the first and second channels, and a reference voltage supplier generates a reference voltage and supplies it to the first and second ADCs. Therefore, the first and second ADCs convert the analog signals to digital signals with the same operational characteristics.

This description relates to a matching circuit for two-channel Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs) by which operational characteristics of two ADCs for respectively converting two-channel analog signals to digital signals can be matched.
More particularly, this description relates to a matching circuit for two-channel ADCs by which operation characteristics of two ADCs for converting an analog signal of I (In-phase) channel and an analog signal of Q (Quadrature-phase) channel to respective digital signals in satellite Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) signals received by a satellite DMB receiver can be mutually and accurately matched.
Recently, concomitant with development of digital broadcasting techniques and implementation of satellite digital multimedia broadcasting, demand on satellite DMB receivers capable of receiving and viewing DMB signals has continuously increased.
The satellite DMB signals received by the satellite DMB receivers include analog signals of two channels. In other words, the satellite DMB receivers receive an analog signal of I (In-phase) channel and an analog signal of Q (Quadrature-channel). The satellite DMB receiver converts the two channels of analog signals to respective digital signals via ADCs and displays them on a screen. The characteristics of converting the analog signals of two channels to respective digital signals by the satellite DMB receivers are directly reflected on those of the picture quality on the screen.
Chips inherently disposed in the satellite DMB receivers are mounted with two ADCs for converting the analog signals of two channels to respective digital signals. In addition, the analog signals should be set up with a predetermined level of direct current (DC) bias voltage in order for said two ADCs to convert the analog signals of two channels to respective digital signals. Furthermore, a maximum reference voltage and a minimum reference voltage each of a predetermined level should be supplied to allow the analog signals to be converted to digital signals within scopes of maximum reference voltage and minimum reference voltage.
There is no specification on the operational characteristics relative to two ADCs disposed in the satellite DMB receivers. Typically, satellite DMB receiver manufacturers provide two DC bias voltage suppliers to generate a DC bias voltage in order to set up a DC bias voltage of a predetermined level, and supply the generated DC bias voltage to analog signals of two channels for combination thereof. The manufacturers also prepare two reference voltage generators for generating a maximum reference voltage and a minimum reference voltage, and the maximum reference voltage and the minimum reference voltage generated by said two reference voltage generators are supplied to two ADCs.
Adjustment is implemented in which levels of the DC bias voltage generated by said two bias voltage suppliers and levels of the maximum reference voltage and the minimum reference voltage generated by said two reference voltage generators are matched.
However, even if the DC bias voltage outputted by the two bias voltage suppliers and the maximum reference voltage and the minimum reference voltage outputted by the two reference voltage generators are adjusted to match each other, chances are that the DC bias voltage and the maximum and minimum reference voltages do not match as time goes by.
If the levels of the DC bias voltage and the levels of maximum and minimum reference voltages supplied to said two ADCs change and do not match therebetween, gains of said two ADCs come to differ, and difference of gains between the said two ADCs bring about differentiation of values in which analog signals of two channels each having the same level are converted to digital signals, thereby resulting in degraded picture quality.
Therefore, it is preferred that two ADCs convert two analog signals to respective digital signals with the same operational characteristics therebetween.

Matching circuit for two-channel analog to digital converters


The torso-support garment provides increased support for larger women that is useful as an undergarment, as a bra-top for outerwear, or as the top of a two-piece swimsuit. The garment comprises an inner and an outer bra attached together. Each inner cup is attached to an outer cup and each inner backstrap is attached to an outer backstrap. The inner bra is made of a heavyweight powerknit fabric having two-way stretch properties.

Often larger women do not have the necessary support with conventional garments. As a result, they may feel self-conscious and even limit their physical activities. Numerous designs have been proposed:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,598 (Hall) discloses an exercise brassiere that provides breast support and is comfortable to wear, the brassiere having an outer, a middle, and an inner layer, the brassiere being supported from the shoulder to the waistband of the wearer. The fabric material has a significantly greater stretchability in the horizontal direction than in the vertical direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,986 (Feigenbaum et al.) discloses a woman's bodysuit for swimming, exercising or other athletic activities, the bodysuit being soft and comfortable, while providing support in the torso, the bodysuit including a full and partial bra liner for support.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,894 (Kudo) discloses a one-piece swimsuit, wherein the bra portion includes inner shaped cups, functioning as underwear and eliminating the need for a garment supporter under the swimsuit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,143,662 (Fisher) discloses a brassiere having two cups and supporting straps that provide a seamless-type brassiere, being made of one-hundred percent nylon material similar to the material used in panty hose.
What is needed is a torso-support garment for larger women that can be worn for all occasions and provides the necessary comfort and support.
What is needed is a torso-support garment for larger women that can be worn as an undergarment, a bra-top, or the top of a two-piece swimsuit.
What is needed is a torso-support garment specifically designed for larger women, which can be worn all day and every day, which can even be worn for aerobics and other athletic activities, which provides the necessary support and comfort, which looks like a conventional garment, which will withstand repeated machine washings, and which can be readily made from available materials.


A micro-retarder plate using a single plate with phase retardation. The plate with phase retardation having a pattern that further comprises a plurality of first retardation state areas and second retardation state areas alternating with each other is formed on the micro-retarder plate. The pattern is formed using an infra-red laser to expose the plate with phase retardation, or using a circuit board with a pattern of electrothermal resistor thereon in contact with the plate of phase retardation. The linear polarized lights with direction of polarization being 45 degrees to the stretching direction of the retardation film passing through the first retardation state areas and the second retardation state areas are perpendicular to each other. The micro-retarder is laminated between two protection layers with index matching glue to remove the scattering effect caused by the heat process.

This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 88122875, filed Dec. 24, 1999.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a micro-retarder plate, and more particular, to a micro-retarder plate using only a single layer of retardation material that can be applied in a three-dimensional stereo imaging and display system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Processing a polarizer or a phase retarder to obtain a pattern thereon, and applying the patterned polarizer or phase retarder to a liquid crystal display screen, a three-dimensional stereo imaging can thus be provided for audience wearing a pair of polarization glasses. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,285, the fabrication method performed on a micro polarizer includes ink printing and photolithography. U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,717 also discloses using method of etching photoresist to fabricate micro-polarizer.
In the above prior arts U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,285 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,717, as shown in FIG. 1A to FIG. 1C, two polarizers 102 and 104 processed with polarization directions vertical to each other are required. By laminating these two polarizers and alternating the patterns thereof, an observer wearing a pair of glasses can see a three dimensional image using this lamination 106. For example, as shown in FIG. 1C, lamination 106 of micro-polarizer is disposed in front of a liquid crystal display 108 that comprises left-eye vision areas and right-eye vision area alternating with each other. As shown in FIG. 1C, aligning with the liquid crystal display 108, two polarization directions 112 are alternating each other corresponsive with the left- and right-eye vision areas. An observer wearing a pair of glass 110 can thus see a three-dimensional image. However, as the patterns on the polarizers are typically very small in dimension, so that it is very difficult to aligning two patterns exactly alternating to each other. While misalignment occurs, it is easily to cause a double image that seriously affects the stereo effect. In addition, using the micro-polarizer reduces the incident light into less than a half in intensity since double layer micro-polarizers are used. Therefore, the brightness of the image is very often a problem for such a display system.
The invention provides a micro-retarder plate, comprising a single plate with phase retardation. The plate with phase retardation comprises a pattern that further comprises a plurality of first retardation state areas and a plurality of second retardation state areas alternating with each other. The pattern is formed using an infra-red laser to expose the plate with phase retardation, or using a circuit board with a pattern of electrothermal resistor thereon in contact with the plate of phase retardation. The micro-retarder is laminated between two transparent layers for index-matching. The transparent layers can further be laminated with two protection layers.
Thus formed, only a single plate with phase retardation is required, so that the material consumption is greatly reduced. Using only a single plate of retardation material to form the micro-retarder, the alignment of the areas between two polarizers with different polarization state is no longer required and thus the double image caused by misalignment is prevented. Furthermore, the brightness of the light passing through the micro-retarder using single plate can be maintained. In addition, without using the conventional chemical process, the environment pollution can also be prevented.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


In a microcomputer internally comprising a circuit including a CPU and operating in synchronism with an internal clock signal, and an OSD controller operating in synchronism with the internal clock signal and an external horizontal synchronous signal, an oscillation circuit is coupled to an external oscillator, for generating the internal clock signal used in common to the circuit and the OSD controller. An oscillation control circuitry receives the horizontal synchronous signal for generating a CPU stop request signal to the circuit before supply of each horizontal synchronous signal, so that the circuit generates a CPU stop signal after a stopping processing is completed. When the oscillation control circuitry receives the CPU stop signal, the oscillation control circuitry causes the oscillation circuit to stop generation of the internal clock signal. Thereafter, in response to each horizontal synchronous signal, the oscillation control circuitry causes the oscillation circuit to restart the generation of the internal clock signal. As a result, the internal clock signal is generated in synchronism with the horizontal synchronous signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microcomputer, and more specifically to a microcomputer internally including a controller operating in synchronism with an external synchronous signal.
2. Description of Related Art
In the prior art, a microcomputer of this type is widely incorporated for control in a product accompanied by a "on screen display" (abbreviated to "OSD" hereinafter) in a CRT display or a television receiver. A prior art microcomputer internally including an OSD controller comprises a dedicated oscillation circuit used for only the OSD controller and another dedicated oscillation circuit used for only the other circuits including a CPU, in order to elevate an OSD display quality, or alternatively an oscillation circuit provided in common to the OSD controller and the other circuits including the CPU, in order to commonly use external terminals to reduce the number of required external terminals.
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a block diagram of an oscillation source portion of a first example of the prior art microcomputer. The shown prior art microcomputer is generally designated with Reference Numeral 10, and includes a dedicated oscillation circuit 12 used for only an OSD controller 14 and another dedicated oscillation circuit 16 used for only the other circuits 18 including a CPU. The oscillation circuit 12 is connected through a pair of external terminals 20 and 22 to an external oscillator (not shown) such as a quartz crystal resonator, to generate a clock signal in cooperation with the external oscillator, and also connected through another external terminal 24 to receive a horizontal synchronous signal Hsync, so that the oscillation circuit 12 is controlled by the horizontal synchronous signal Hsync. On the other hand, the oscillation circuit 16 is connected through a pair of external terminals 26 and 28 to another external oscillator (not shown) to generate a clock signal in cooperation with the external oscillator
Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown a timing chart illustrating an operation of the oscillation source portion of the first example of the prior art microcomputer shown in FIG. 1. As seen from FIG. 2, when the horizontal synchronous signal Hsync becomes active, the oscillation circuit 12 for the OSD controller stops its oscillation at once, as shown by "a" in FIG. 2, and restarts the oscillation as soon as the horizontal synchronous signal Hsync is rendered inactive, so that an output of the oscillation circuit 12 is synchronized with the horizontal synchronous signal Hsync. On the other hand, the oscillation circuit 16 for the other circuits 18 including the CPU, oscillates independently of the oscillation circuit 12 for the OSD controller 14.
Referring to FIG. 3, there is shown a block diagram of an oscillation source portion of a second example of the prior art microcomputer. The shown prior art microcomputer is generally designated with Reference Numeral 30, and includes an oscillation circuit 32 provided in common to an OSD controller 34 and the other circuits 36 including a CPU. The oscillation circuit 32 is connected through a pair of external terminals 38 and 40 to for example an external oscillator (not shown) such as a quartz crystal resonator, and on the other hand, a horizontal synchronous signal Hsync is supplied through another external terminal 42 to the OSD controller 34, but is not supplied to the oscillation circuit 32.
Referring to FIG. 4, there is shown a timing chart illustrating an operation of the oscillation source portion of the first example of the prior art microcomputer shown in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the oscillation circuit 32 operates asynchronously with the horizontal synchronous signal Hsync. Therefore, the oscillation circuit 32 does not executes the stopping and the restarting of the oscillation, differently from the first example of the prior art microcomputer shown in FIG. 1.
The above mentioned prior art microcomputers have the following problems:
A first problem is that, in order to elevate the OSD display quality, a number of external terminals are required for the microcomputer, and a noise countermeasure of a peripheral circuit becomes complicated. An increased number of peripheral circuit parts required to compensate for shortage of the external terminal number and for conducting the noise countermeasure, results in an elevated cost and in an increased mounting area. This is hindrance in miniaturization and in a cost-down of the product.
The reason for this is that: If a time difference between a transition of the horizontal synchronous signal Hsync and a transition of the clock generated in the oscillation circuit is different from one horizontal period to another as shown in FIG. 4, a deviation occurs on the OSD, with the result that the OSD display quality is deteriorated. This deviation will be called a "horizontal deviation".
In order to prevent this horizontal deviation, the oscillation circuit is stopped and then caused to restart the oscillation at each horizontal synchronous signal, as the oscillation circuit 12 in the first example of the prior art microcomputer shown in FIG. 1.
However, if a "spike noise" occurs as shown by "b" in FIG. 2 as the result of a sudden stop of the supplying of the clock, there is possibility that the other circuits including the CPU cause malfunction. Because of this, the OSD controller 14 and the other circuits 18 including the CPU are required to have the dedicated oscillation circuits 12 and 16, respectively.
A second problem is that: If external terminals are used in common in order to reduce the number of external terminals, the OSD display quality is deteriorated. Because, if the oscillation circuit is used in common to the OSD controller and the other circuits including the CPU, the output of the oscillation circuit is not synchronized with the horizontal synchronous signal, with the result that the horizontal deviation occurs in the OSD controller as mentioned hereinbefore.

Microcomputer with controller operating in synchronism with external synchronous signal


A file control system includes a master terminal and a backup terminal, a plurality of satellite terminals, a master file and a backup file, and a file controller for each file. The master file responds to a request for price look up from any of the satellite terminals regardless of any operation of the master terminal or the backup terminal. The master file or the backup file acts or operates as the main operating file to update the system when the other file is down.

In the field of data processing, the use of point of sale (POS) terminals has required and also has enabled rapid and accurate transfer of information from one location to another in a business operation. In the case of department stores, the sales data must be transmitted or communicated from one or more terminals throughout the store to a central computer or processing unit.
A filing system is used to provide and maintain inventory and price data on the huge number of items that are sold in the store. The filing system and the control therefor provide means for retrieving and updating data and information regarding the constantly changing inventory and prices for the overall operation.
Representative documentation in the field of file control systems includes Japanese Patent Spec. No. 209642/87 which discloses point of sale data files provided in a master terminal and in a backup master terminal and wherein both terminals update the data files in response to a request from a satellite terminal and transmit PLU (price look up) data to the satellite terminals.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,319,326, issued to Y. Uchida on Mar. 9, 1982, discloses a plurality of electronic cash registers and a consolidator unit which includes means for storing data corresponding to data for each operator of the registers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,468,750, issued to M. E. Chamoff et al. on Aug. 28, 1984, discloses a system of smart terminals and a dumb controller coupled by means of a communications link. Each of the terminals has a programmable digital processor, entry devices and display devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,120, issued to S. Ohnishi et al. on Feb. 26, 1985, discloses a system for data transmission between slave cash registers and a master register wherein a transmitting device divides the data into parts and the capacity of a receiving device is identical with the capacity of a memory device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,643, issued to C. C. Freeny on Jul. 9, 1985, discloses a system for reproducing information in material objects such as tapes, recordings, games, motion pictures, etc. at point of sale locations from a remote location in response to receiving an owner authorization code from the owner of the information.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,594,664, issued to K. Hashimoto on Jun. 10, 1986, discloses a master cash processing unit and a plurality of slave units wherein the aggregated sales data is identified by codes associated with each lot of data and is sent to the master unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,964, issued to M. E. Getz et al. on Nov. 18, 1986, discloses a homogeneous hierarchical computer business system wherein terminals have switches to couple them to one of two alternate bus structures, ideally to two different controllers, and the controllers maintain files dedicated to attached terminals.
And, U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,536, issued to M. Yamamoto on Jul. 28, 1987, discloses a plurality of credit terminals and one of such terminals collects sales data from other terminals and transmits such data to the host computer.
In a conventional point of sale system, a master file contained therein has to perform numerous operations such as control of communications with a satellite terminal, data collection, counting operations, issuance of reports and like operations. Additionally, the master file may have to provide registration of sold goods similar to operations performed by the satellite terminal so that with such additional operation the master file cannot respond in rapid manner to a request from the satellite terminal. Further, it is known that peripheral devices such as a keyboard, a display, a printer, or a bar code reader may fail and thus add to the load imposed on the master file or the problems associated therewith.
Still further, it is known that when one or more of the peripheral devices, which are not directly related or associated with the file controller, fail in operation or something goes wrong in the operation, the master file needs to be slaved down in order to solve the problem. If the system includes a backup master file, more burdens are imposed on the backup file and the system cannot respond to requests from satellite terminals in rapid manner. Since the data file of a backup master file needs to be updated in accordance with the transmission of data from a satellite terminal, more burdens are also imposed on the satellite terminal.

Point of sale system having backup file device


The lens barrel includes a first lens unit, a second lens unit, and a drive unit. The first lens unit includes a first lens element and a first lens support frame supporting the first lens element. The second lens unit includes a second lens element and a second lens support frame supporting the second lens element. The second lens unit is supported by the first lens unit to be movable in the optical axis direction of the first lens element with respect to the first lens unit. The drive unit is arranged to be used to drive the second lens unit with respect to the first lens unit, and is fixed to the first lens unit. When viewed in the optical axis direction, the drive unit is fixed to the first lens unit so that a first profile line formed by the first lens unit and the drive unit is substantially circular.

1. Technical Field
The technical field relates to a lens barrel with which the focal length can be changed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional digital cameras make use of a zoom lens system with which the focal length can be varied while the object distance of a subject that is in focus (hereinafter also referred to as the subject distance) is kept substantially constant. For example, zoom lens systems are employed in compact digital cameras and digital cameras with interchangeable lenses.
With a conventional lens barrel, for example, as the zoom mechanism operates, the focus lens unit including the focus lens is moved in the optical axis direction by a cam mechanism. This allows the focal length to be varied while the subject distance is kept substantially constant (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2006-113289).
A phase difference detection system has been employed as the auto-focus system with conventional interchangeable lens digital cameras.
More recently, however, an interchangeable lens digital camera has been proposed that makes use of a contrast detection system for auto-focusing. With this contrast detection system, for example, the focus lens unit is moved in the optical axis direction while evaluation values at various positions of the focus lens unit are found on the basis of image data. The focus lens unit is moved until the evaluation value goes past its peak, after which the evaluation value is returned to its maximum position to focus the subject image (an optical image of the subject). Thus, in auto-focusing by contrast detection, it is necessary to move the focus lens unit back and forth in the optical axis direction.
Also, since the focus needs to be continued during the capture of moving pictures, the focus lens unit has to be continuously moved back and forth and the peak of the evaluation value detected.
Thus, when a contrast detection system is used, since the focus lens unit is moved in the optical axis direction, making the focus lens unit smaller is preferable when drive speed is taken into account.


A high-speed communication control system is provided to resolve the problem of transmission delay, while a communication capacity is ensured.

An optical fiber communication system is known as a system that achieves a high-speed information communication. The optical fiber communication system connects a transmission station to a reception station using an optical fiber. The transmission capacity of the optical fiber communication system is large. However, in the optical fiber communication system, for example, transmission delay of about 1.5 times electromagnetic waves propagating in a free space occurs.
In the following non-patent Literature, there is a problem of transmission delay caused by an optical fiber communication system. For example, in security transaction, an ultra high-speed transaction is important. Therefore, in the optical fiber communication, transmission delay is a big problem. For example, when a transaction instruction is transmitted from Japan to a stock exchange or the like of Singapore, Europe, or US, relatively large transmission delay occurs due to a long transmission distance. For this reason, for example, when Japanese companies perform transaction in foreign security markets, the Japanese companies are at a great disadvantage than local companies.

Abstract: A communication system includes a transmission station 13 and a reception station 15. A communication system 17 includes an optical fiber line 19 and a wireless path 21 that connect the transmission station 13 to the reception station 15 so that information is transmitted and received. The transmission station 13 includes a communication control unit 11 that controls a communication path. The reception station 15 is able to communicate with the transmission station 13. The communication control unit 11 controls whether the information is transmitted to the reception station 15 via one of the optical fiber line 19 and the wireless path 21.

National Institute Of Information And Communications Technology


An improved lift boat includes a hull, a plurality of legs (preferably three), a plurality of pads, one pad attached to each leg, and a jacking mechanism for moving each upward and downward. Recesses in the hull receive the pads when the lift boat is underway. Preferably, the total bottom surface area of the pads is at least 30% of the surface area of the deck of the lift boat Preferably, the total bottom surface area of the pads is large enough such that, when the boat is loaded to capacity and is jacked up, the pads exert pressure of less than 7 p.s.i. on the sea floor. Preferably, the pads are partially recessed into the hull and extend laterally outward from the hull when the boat is underway to provide increased stability to the lift boat when it is underway.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to lift boats that feature a hull having a plurality of legs, each leg having an associated jacking mechanism that enables the hull to be elevated or lowered relative to the legs and wherein each leg has a load bearing pad that engages the seabed during use. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved lift boat having an improved leg, hull and pad configuration with improved stability, when jacked up and when underway, featuring port and starboard pads near the bow of the hull that extend laterally of the hull in respective port and starboard directions and that extend into recesses of the hull.
2. General Background of the Invention
Lift boats are well known in the art. These devices (sometimes called jack up barges or jack up rigs) include a floating hull that allows the boat to be transferred from one marine location to another. When the hull reaches a desired location, such as a proposed oil well or other job site, typically three or four legs are lowered from the hull or barge to the sea bed. These legs are then powered downwardly with jacking mechanisms to lift the hull vertically on the legs and above the water's surface. Once in operating position, a jack-up rig presents a stable platform surface for oil and gas well drilling operations, work-over operations, repair or maintenance work etc., notwithstanding the wave action at the water surface below.
There have been many patents that have issued relating to jack-up rigs. An example of a recent patent that discloses a jack-up rig is U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,366 issued to Kenneth Choate and John Laird entitled "OFFSHORE JACK-UP RIG LOCKING APPARATUS AND METHOD". The Choate et al. patent provides a locking apparatus and method for an offshore jack-up rig having at least one leg extending through the hull and at least one set of rack teeth attached to each of the legs. One or more locking bars are supported from the hull and are movable in a direction substantially normal to the face of the rack teeth. A piston and cylinder power assembly moves the bars towards the teeth and a retention system engages the bars holding them in engagement with the teeth. The elevating system of the rig co-acts with the set bars to lock the hull and legs together.
Another recent patent that relates to jack-up rigs and explains there operation is U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,814 entitled "LEG-HOLDING DEVICE FOR OFFSHORE PLATFORM".
Other examples of patents that have issued and relate generally to jack-up rigs include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,722,640; 4,627,768; 4,589,799; 4,505,616; and 4,482,272.
A patent that illustrates the elevating and lowering of a jack-up rig in a marine environment is U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,798, entitled "OVERLOADING DEVICE FOR A JACK-UP OIL PLATFORM AND PLATFORM INCLUDING THE DEVICE" (see FIGS. 4a–f).
A common element of a lift boat is a lifting crane that can be used to lift supplies from its own deck, work boat, supply boat or the like, and place those supplies on the platform. Patents have issued that are directed to the placement of a crane on a jack up barge. Some years ago, a patented crane apparatus was designed to fit over the leg of a smaller sized lift boat wherein the leg was of a cylindrical pipe configuration. U.S. Pat. No. 4,417,664 disclosed generally the concept of mounting a crane having a gantry and a boom about the leg of a lift boat. Another patent that addressed the problem of mounting a crane on a jack-up rig (lift boat) where there is limited space is U.S. Pat. No. 4,652,177. This patent proposes to mount the crane on the jacking structure or jacking tower of the jack-up rig (lift boat).
The following U.S. Patents are incorporated herein by reference: U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,308,743; 3,183,676; 3,290,007; 3,367,119; 3,606,251; 3,750,210; 3,945,450; 3,967,457; 4,417,664; 4,456,404; 4,678,165; 4,813,814; 5,139,366; 5,580,189; 5,797,703; and all patents mentioned herein.


In the proposed approach cluster elements (bins) are made available as a keypad in the form of a cluster map. The user directly selects the cluster element (bin) with a mouse, touch or actual keypad. For each of the associated attributes, a cluster map is available that orders the attributes from high-to-low by color or shade intensity. When a cluster element is selected in one cluster map, that same cluster element is also highlighted in other cluster maps. For each of the cluster maps, a value axis is available which shows the value of the parameter for the selected cluster element. In the case of numerical values, the high/low attribute pattern across the cluster maps is easily visible. The selected data objects in the cluster map are displayed in a separate widget.

A computer network search may be based on strings typed in by an end-user, using a search engine, such as GOOGLE™, YAHOO™, or another string-based web search engine. This type of search technology is focused on relating the meaning of the input strings to known documents that are then ranked by relevance. Though this is powerful in terms of textual information, it tends to be very limiting in terms of trading off attributes.
For instance, when a user types "car" into a string-based web search engine, he may see all sorts of information related to cars, including where he can rent cars and purchase cars. A website link may also be displayed that describes what a car is. When a user reads through all of the documents on the websites returned in search results and displayed by a string-based web search engine, the user may get an idea of the type of car that he is interested in.
Another technology is search based on similar clusters, in which data is sorted in clusters/bins prior to search. A good example of search based on similar clusters is using a car-related search website, such as the Edmunds website, and websites of car dealers. A car-related search website allows a user to select cars out of different overlapping bins, such as an SUV, wagon, sedan, mid-size, van, used, new, make, or model. When a user selects an SUV, the user may choose based upon price range or feature set. In this respect, the user receives a richer "car information" experience with a car search website than with a string-based web search engine. However, with a typical car search website, a user has to go through several car descriptions before finding something that he is satisfied with.


A method and system that applies transaction techniques to file system operations in non-database applications executing on parallel processing systems. For each of a set of file operations, methods embodied in program routines are defined for performing, finalizing, and undoing the operations, so that the operations may be used in a non-database application to create a transaction processing environment. In general, in one aspect, the invention provides a computer program library for adding the semantics of transactions to a set of native operations of a native file system. The library comprises a set of one or more families of routines, each such family of routines corresponding to at least one native operation, each such family of routines including: (a) a Perform routine including instructions for providing the functional equivalent of one of the family's corresponding native operations while preserving information necessary to roll back such native operations; (b) a Finalize routine including instructions for committing the result of the corresponding perform routine; and (c) an Undo routine including instructions for rolling back the result of the corresponding perform routine. Provision is also made for accomodating programs that cannot be modified to incorporate the Perform operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer file systems, and more particularly to methods and systems for providing transactional semantics to file system operations in parallel processing systems.
2. Background
Computational speeds of single processor computers have advanced tremendously over the past three decades. However, many fields require computational capacity that exceeds even the fastest single processor computer. An example is in data warehousing, where data volumes are so large that even the simplest operations may take days to complete on the fastest available uniprocessor computer. Accordingly, a variety of "parallel processing" systems have been developed to handle such problems. For purposes of this discussion, parallel processing systems include any configuration of computer systems using multiple central processing units (CPUs), either local (e.g., multiprocessor systems such as SMP computers), or locally distributed (e.g., multiple processors coupled as clusters or MPPs), or remotely distributed (e.g., multiple processors coupled via LAN or WAN networks), or any combination thereof.
Complex data processing applications running on parallel processing systems typically make changes to multiple external collections of data (files, databases, etc.), usually by a combination of file manipulation operations (such as creating, deleting and renaming) and data manipulation operations (such as reading and writing). Such applications do this by running one or more programs either concurrently or sequentially. If a failure occurs, partial changes may have been made to the external collections of data, which render that data unusable by the current application or other applications until corrected. Typically, this will happen if a file has been modified, deleted, or created in the course of a computation. In parallel processing systems, the problem is intensified since the collection of data will often be spread over many different nodes and storage units (e.g., magnetic disks), making the work required to "roll back" the state of the data increase proportionately with the number of storage units.
To recover from such failures, it is necessary to shut down the current (i.e., failed) application, and then either:
(1) undo all changes made by the application since its start (a "fall rollback"), or PA1 (2) restore the state of the system to an intermediate "checkpoint" and restart execution from that point (a "partial rollback"). PA1 1. the transaction master requests that the transaction be committed (i.e., made permanent); or PA1 2. the transaction master requests that the transaction be rolled back (i.e., undone); or PA1 3. if the transaction master exits without performing either action (e.g., due to a software failure), the system generates a roll back request on behalf of the transaction master. PA1 (a) a Perform routine including instructions for providing the functional equivalent of one of the family's corresponding native operations while preserving information necessary to roll back such native operations; PA1 (b) a Finalize (commit) routine including instructions for committing the result of the corresponding perform routine; and PA1 (c) an Undo (roll back) routine including instructions for rolling back the result of the corresponding perform routine.
One familiar method for dealing with such situations is to restore the prior state of the system manually, by removing junk files, for example. A shortcoming of such solutions is that they may require the participation of individuals familiar with the operation of the failed program, and that there is no guarantee that the proper corrective action will be taken. The problems are magnified in parallel processing systems, where a computation may be spread over multiple processors and the computation may have reached different points on different machines. In such cases, manual intervention may be required for every program participating in the computation and a single error may prevent the computation from being restarted successfully.
Another familiar solution to such problems is to build applications using databases and database management systems that allow groups of operations to be grouped into transactions. All operations in a transaction may either be committed (that is, made permanent) as a group, or rolled back (that is, undone) as a group. In addition, an integrity preserving protocol, such as the well-known "two-phase commit" protocol, may be used to ensure that, in cases where multiple machines are used to run the application in a parallel processing system, transactions may be spread across multiple machines with the database management system ensuring that either all operations on all machines are committed or all operations on all machines are rolled back.
Unfortunately, many applications are not written using databases and even those that do may still access and modify data stored in files using conventional file system operations. Accordingly, there is a need for a method by which operations on files may participate in an integrity preserving protocol, such that either all changes made to the file system by those applications are committed or all such changes are rolled back.
Referring to FIG. 1a through FIG. 1c, transaction processing in database systems is often implemented using some variant on the following method. First, a central transaction master, whose actions are shown to the left of the vertical separator, issues a start transaction command (Step 20). The transaction master then sends messages to various agents (Step 22), causing the recipient agents to perform actions (Step 24). Such messages normally include an identifier for the transaction and a variety of methods are available for the sending of messages, such as remote procedure calls (RPCs) and inter-process communication mechanisms. Agents may, at various times, send messages back to the master (to confirm completion of an action, for example). Whenever an agent performs an action that modifies any permanently stored data (e.g., a disk file) (Step 26), the agent uses a reliable atomic procedure to append a log entry to a log, typically a log file (Step 28). The agent may also, and optionally, save additional auxiliary information to supplement the log file entry, so that it is possible to undo the effects of the action (Step 30). The log entry serves as a note that, in the event of a failure, the action must be undone. The log entry typically contains the identifier of the transaction under which the operation was performed.
Eventually, one of the following will take place:
In cases 1 and 2, the decision is logged for use in the event of a failure of some kind.
To commit a transaction (Step 32), the transaction master engages (Step 34) a commit protocol, such as the two-phase commit protocol, to be executed by the agents (Step 36). If this protocol succeeds, commit processing continues (proceeds) (Step 40); otherwise, a roll back command is generated and the transaction is rolled back (Step 46). If the commit proceeds, each agent steps through its log (Step 40), and for each action belonging to the transaction being committed, a finalize routine may be invoked which will have the effect of erasing the auxiliary information which was saved to enable roll back processing (Step 42). When all log entries have been processed, the commit operation is complete (Step 44).
To roll a transaction back (Step 46), the transaction master broadcasts a roll back message (including the identifier for the transaction) to all agents that participated in the transaction (Step 48). Each agent steps through its log (Step 50), and for each operation belonging to the transaction being rolled back, an undo routine may be invoked which will have the effect of undoing the effects of the original operation (Step 52). When all log entries have been processed, the roll back operation is complete (Step 54).
To deal with a system failure, a recovery utility may be used (Step 56). For every transaction active in the system (Step 58), the recovery utility examines bookkeeping information produced by the master-agent commit protocol (Step 62) to determine whether a decision had been made to commit the transaction (Step 64). If so, commit processing is begun or resumed, as appropriate, at Step 40, where each agent steps through its own log and any necessary finalize routines are executed. Otherwise, the roll back process at Step 46 is performed for the transaction, where each agent steps through its own log and any necessary undo routines are executed.
A problem of the prior art is that no generalized method exists for applying the techniques of database transaction processing to non-database applications such that manual restoration of file state is substantially reduced or eliminated if a failure occurs. Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system that applies transaction techniques to file system operations in non-database applications executing on parallel processing systems. The present invention provides such a method and system.


There is disclosed a recording head having recording elements for image recording on a recording medium, a character generator for generating a character pattern corresponding to address data, and a driver for driving the recording elements according to the character pattern from the character generator, thereby effecting recording on the recording medium. Also disclosed in a recording apparatus utilizing such recording head. The recording apparatus includes a control unit for controlling recording. With the recording head of the present invention, the control unit is required to process less data than that which a control unit used with a conventional recording head is required to process.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording head and a recording apparatus in which said recording head is mounted for effecting a recording operation, and more particularly a recording head equipped with a character generator for enabling character recording and a recording apparatus utilizing such recording head.
2. Related Background Art
For recording characters and numerals in a recording apparatus, there is generally employed a character generator composed for example of a ROM for generating character patterns, and the recording of such characters and numerals is achieved by the activation of recording elements of a recording head according to said generated patterns.
On the other hand, ink jet recording apparatuses are becoming popular among various recording apparatuses. Particularly the ink jet recording apparatus of the type in which each recording element is composed of an ink discharge opening, an ink liquid path communicating therewith and an electrothermal converter (hereinafter also called heater element) provided in said ink liquid path, and in which a bubble is generated in the ink by the heat generated by the electrothermal converter and the ink discharge is caused by the state change of ink resulting from expansion or contraction of said bubble, is attracting attention in recent years, because of the possibilities of high-density arrangement of the electrothermal converters and of high-speed recording.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a conventional structure for driving the recording head of the above-explained type.
A microprocessor unit (MPU) 31 reads bit map pattern data constituting a character, based on a character code, from a character generator (CG) formed in a ROM 33 connected to the MPU through a bus, and stores said data in an image buffer in a RAM 32. Upon completion of reading and storage of data of a line to be recorded on a recording medium, such as recording paper, the MPU 31 reads, from said RAM 32, the data of a number corresponding to that of the heater elements 40 of the recording head, and stores said data in a register 35. A recording pulse generator 36 generates head driving pulses at timings in consideration of the relative movement of the recording head and the recording medium. AND gates 38 release AND signals of said pulses and the output signals of the register 35, thus selectively driving the heater elements 40 of the recording head through a driver array 39 and effecting the recording operation.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing another conventional structure.
The structure shown in FIG. 6 is different from that in FIG. 5 in that the recording head is equipped with a driver array 39, AND gates 38 and a shift register/latch 37 for serial data transfer in addition to the heater elements, whereas the recording head shown in FIG. 5 has the heater elements 40 only.
FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the recording operation with the structure shown in FIG. 6, which is basically same as that of the structure shown in FIG. 5.
Steps S701-S703 receive data from a host system through an I/F controller 34, and prepare a text buffer in the RAM 32. Then a step S704 reads the code of a character from the text buffer, and subsequent steps S705, S706, S707 calculate the character generator address from said code, read the corresponding CG data and store said data in the image buffer.
Upon completion of storage of the data of a line into the image buffer in steps S708, S709, S710, a step S711 starts a carriage on which the recording head is mounted, and steps S712-S715 effect transfer and recording of data of a column corresponding to the heater elements 40 arranged on the recording head, in synchronization with the movement of the recording head. When the recording of a line is completed in a step S716, a step S717 stops the carriage at a home position, thereby terminating the recording of a line.
As explained in the foregoing, in the structure shown in FIG. 5, the recording head is equipped only with the heater elements, while other components such as driver are provided on a circuit board in the main body of the recording apparatus. Such structure is generally adopted for recording with a low resolving power, for a recording head with a relatively limited number of recording elements, or for reducing the cost of a disposable recording head.
On the other hand, in the structure shown in FIG. 6, the recording head is equipped with the driver, shift register/latch for serial data transfer and AND gates. Such structure, capable of serial data transfer to the recording head, allows to reduce the number of signal lines between the recording head and the main body of apparatus, in comparison with that in case of structure shown in FIG. 5. Moreover, it is capable of easy control of the signal transfer timing, because of the presence of the latch for the output of the shift register. Such structure is effective for reducing the number of lines in case of recording with a high resolving power or a case of recording head with a relatively large number of recording elements.
However the structure shown in FIG. 5, though being suitable for a disposable recording head of relatively simple structure, requires a high-speed MPU if the number of recording elements or the resolving power is increased, because the number of accesses of the MPU 31 to the CG or RAM 32, and the capacity of the RAM 32 has also to be increased according to the increase in the number of recording elements or in the resolving power. Such change will elevate the cost of the MPU or of the entire apparatus, and may eventually lead to a loss in the throughput of recording operation.
Also the number of lines connecting the recording head with the circuit board of the main body including the MPU 31 etc. increases with the increase in the number of recording elements or in the resolving power, thus elevating the cost and causing difficulty in the connecting operation in the mounting of the recording head.
Also if a font is desired other than the standard font stored in the CG of the ROM 33, there is often used an optional font cartridge. Such solution however results in drawbacks of requiring a connector for such font cartridge and a space in the apparatus for such font cartridge.
On the other hand, in the structure shown in FIG. 6, the amount of transferred data or the driving frequency of the recording head has to be increased in case of recording with a high resolving power or using a recording with an increased number of recording elements, and the serial data transfer becomes insufficient in the data transfer rate.

Recording apparatus including recording head provided with a character generator


A file system or other system that manages information entities includes a sub-system to store one or more tokens, as well as a token action log to associate each token with a customizable set of one or more actions, where each token is to trigger the associated set of one or more actions in response to accompanying a file-system/information entity that experiences an event. The file system also includes a token log manager, which initiates the appropriate actions corresponding to file-system entities that experience an event.

In the 1980s, personal computers of various types became popular in business and home settings. Originally, a person's electronic files could be kept on removable "floppy disks" that had limited storage. Soon, higher-density disk storage became popular since it allowed people to store larger quantities of files. The cost of disk storage continues to drop, providing little incentive to curb the proliferation of files.
However, the incentive to curb the proliferation of files is that file systems can become unmanageable. Finding files can be a major chore. The systems for indexing files on content or other information are less than fulfilling. Such systems require that the user at least know enough about the file to find it. Unspecific searches can result in numerous files to sort through before finding the file or files of interest.
File systems can also require great effort to maintain because files and other stored entities have differing value to the system operators. What is needed is a way to identify which files have what value.
Most file systems allow a specific set of attributes to be attributed to individual files. For example, some files may be marked "read-only," meaning that they can be read but not overwritten. Other files may be marked "hidden," meaning that they are not to appear on normal directory listings.
Many files systems also allow other file attributes such as the author or the modification date. Such attributes are primarily informational, not functional. For example, a file by one author does not automatically behave differently in the file system from a file by another author. Informational attributes can nevertheless be useful as a file search criteria (e.g. searching for files by a particular author).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Managing a message communication and file system


A semiconductor device has antenna pads and a testing pad formed on the substrate. An insulating resin layer containing a filler covers the testing pad, and bumps are provided on the antenna pads. Specific data in the semiconductor device are inhibited from being read out or rewritten, by the provision of the insulating resin layer containing a filler.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of producing the semiconductor device. In particular, the present invention relates to an electrode structure of a semiconductor device formed as a nonvolatile memory, and to a structure for preventing an operation of intentionally reading out the internal data and a method for its production.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, IC cards and, particularly, IC tags mounting a semiconductor device formed as a nonvolatile memory have been widely produced and used. In such semiconductor devices, part of the internal data is written as specific data in such a manner that data cannot be written and read out, and data are suitably written into a writable memory portion.
A nonvolatile memory IC for an IC tag includes antenna pads and a testing pad. FIG. 10 illustrates a conventional nonvolatile memory IC for an IC tag. The IC includes antenna pads 2 and a testing pad 3, formed on a substrate 1, and Au stud bumps 4 are formed on the antenna pads 2. The testing pad 3 is exposed for testing (for writing data). Reference numeral 5 denotes an inorganic insulating film and 6 denotes an organic insulating film.
In the above IC, a test is conducted after the antenna pads 2 and the testing pad 3 are formed, by bringing a testing probe into contact with the antenna pads 2 and with the testing pads 3. A needle scar 7 is formed on the antenna pads 2 and the testing pads 3 at portions where the probe comes into contact.
In the IC tags, the internal specific data, in most cases, must be kept secret and may be a history of the products and personal data. If the internal specific data can be read out or can be rewritten, it is possible that the data can be incorrectly used, which is not desirable.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2003-142539 (pp. 4-6, FIG. 3) discloses a semiconductor device and a method of testing a semiconductor device. According to this testing method, a probe is brought onto a desired terminal without problem even if the surface of the substrate is rough to some extent. As illustrated in FIG. 10, therefore, the data can be read out by bringing the probe into contact with the testing pad 3 even when there is a protrusion such as a stud bump 4 on the surface of the substrate and a difference in height between the stud bump 4 and the testing pad 3. Therefore, the internal specific data may be incorrectly used.
Further, the Au stud bump 4 is expensive to fabricate, and it is desired to fabricate the bumps at a low cost. It is therefore desired to employ a method, of forming the bumps, relying upon electrolytic plating or non-electrolytic plating.
Also, in the fabrication process, the bump is formed on the antenna pad after the steps in which the data are written and the probe is brought in contact with the testing pad. When the bump is formed by electrolytic plating, a seed layer for UBM plating (UBM; under bump metal or under barrier metal) is formed and, then, a metal is plated thereon to form a bump on the antenna pad. If the seed layer (UBM; under bump metal or under barrier metal) is formed on the pads 2 and 3 where the needle scars 7 of the probe remain in a protruded manner, then, the protruded portions of the pads are not covered with the underlying layer to a sufficient degree. Namely, the plated bump metal and the pad metal come into direct contact with each other, a diffusion reaction takes place during use, and the bump strength becomes drops.
Also, in the method of forming bumps relying on the non-electrolytic Ni plating, hydrogen, which is produced during the non-electrolytic Ni plating, penetrates a passivation film and enters into the ferroelectric layer and it becomes probable that the pinning phenomenon occurs to make it difficult to rewrite the data.

Semiconductor device with read out prevention and method of producing same