A method for fabricating a part includes sectionalizing a computer-generated representation of a part into strata having an order, forming layers corresponding to the strata from sheet material, stacking at least two of the layers in the order, and joining the layers together. The method is suitable for producing a phase-change material container for a thermal energy harvesting device, for example.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to rapid prototyping techniques. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for additive fabrication of parts using laminated sheets.
Related Art
Rapid prototyping is a growing field of interest and development in manufacturing today. Rapid prototyping is the blanket term for a variety of techniques for quickly fabricating scale models or even full scale prototypes of a physical part or assembly. Rapid prototyping can use additive or subtractive fabrication techniques. In one example of additive fabrication, three-dimensional CAD data is provided to a computer controlled device, such as a 3-D printer, which lays down successive layers of a curable medium, gradually producing a three-dimensional part.
Additive fabrication techniques enable the production of shapes and designs that are not possible using other more conventional tooling processes. Such designs can include enclosed spaces and other features that even highly complex machining equipment cannot easily produce. Although many existing additive fabrication techniques do not apply to metals, some additive fabrication techniques applicable to metals have been developed. These include laser sintering, electron beam melting, direct metal deposition, and ultrasonic consolidation, for example.
While these additive fabrication techniques are highly desirable for a range of prototype and production activities, current methods have some limitations. For example, known additive fabrication methods that can use metals tend to be very costly, require highly specialized equipment, and have limitations on materials that can be used. All of these issues make it difficult to use these techniques in some development activities. Limitations on materials can preclude the use of materials such as copper, which can be highly desirable in some applications. Some highly specialized processes, such as laser sintering, involve very specialized equipment and highly trained personnel, but may otherwise be the only option for fabricating some metal parts.
The present disclosure is directed toward addressing one or more of the above issues.

System and method for additive fabrication using laminated sheets


An operational amplifier includes a first differential stage, a second differential stage, a second cascade amplifier stage, an output unit, a first switching control unit and a second switching control unit. When an external signal for stopping operation is input, the first switching control unit shuts off a connection between a non-inverting input terminal and a control electrode of one input transistor at each first and second differential stage, and shuts off a connection between an inverting input terminal and a control electrode of another input transistor at the first and second differential stages, and the second switching control unit connects the negative-side power supply voltage terminal to each control gate of the input transistors at the first and second differential stages and to the substrate gates of the input transistors at the first differential stage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an operational amplifier used in portable devices, such as mobile phones, digital cameras, and so on, and more specifically, to an operational amplifier capable of operating at low voltage.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there is increasing demand for portable devices, such as mobile phones, digital cameras, and so on that are capable of low-voltage operation with low power consumption. For such devices, it is extremely important to have a high-performance operational amplifier capable of operating under such low-power voltage conditions. Such an operational amplifier may be formed of a rail-to-rail-input folded-cascade-type AB-class operational amplifier to achieve stable operation under low-power voltage conditions.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of a rail-to-rail-input folded-cascade-type AB-class operational amplifier 100. The operational amplifier 100 includes a PMOS (P-type Metal Oxide Semiconductor) transistor input unit 101, an NMOS (N-type Metal Oxide Semiconductor) transistor input unit 102, a PMOS transistor cascade amplifier unit 103, an NMOS transistor cascade amplifier unit 104, and an output unit 105.
The PMOS transistor input unit 101 includes a bias current MOS transistor M101 and a pair of PMOS transistors M102 and M103. The PMOS transistors M102 and M103 form a differential pair. A predetermined bias voltage bias1 is input to a gate of the bias current MOS transistor M101 so that a current source is formed.
The NMOS transistor input unit 102 includes a bias current MOS transistor M104 and a pair of NMOS transistors M105 and M106. The NMOS transistors M105 and M106 form a differential pair. A predetermined bias voltage bias2 is input to a gate of the bias current MOS transistor M104 so that a current source is formed.
The PMOS transistor cascade amplifier unit 103 includes load current source MOS transistors M107 and M108, and gate-grounded MOS (ggMOS) transistors M109 and M110. A predetermined bias voltage bias3 is input to the gate of each of the load current source MOS transistors M107 and M108 so that current sources are formed. Further, a predetermined bias voltage bias4 is input to the gate of each of the ggMOS transistors M109 and M110 so that the load current source MOS transistors M107 and M108 operate in each saturation region.
The NMOS transistor cascade amplifier unit 104 includes load current source MOS transistors M115 and M116, and gate-grounded MOS (ggMOS) transistors M113 and M114. A predetermined bias voltage bias7 is input to the gate of each of the ggMOS transistors M113 and M114 so that the load current source MOS transistors M115 and M116 operate in each saturation region.
The output unit 105 includes an NMOS transistor N111 and a PMOS transistor M112 in an input stage, and further includes a PMOS transistor M117 and an NMOS transistor N118 in an output stage.
The operational amplifier 100 operates as an AB-class operational amplifier by inputting a predetermined bias voltage bias5 to a gate of the NMOS transistor N111 and a predetermined bias voltage bias6 to a gate of the PMOS transistor N112. In the AB-class operational amplifier, the PMOS transistor M117 and the NMOS transistor N118 each operate in a stable state.
To reduce output noise, transistors which may contribute noise generation are formed of low-voltage transistors, each of which has high transconductance gm. In FIG. 1, the PMOS transistors M102, M103, M107 and M108 and the NMOS transistors M105, M106, M115 and M116 are formed of low-voltage transistors.
FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of the operational amplifier 100 when such transistors in FIG. 1 are replaced by low-voltage transistors. In FIG. 2, NMOS transistors M119 and M120, and PMOS transistors M102 are employed to protect the low-voltage transistors under normal operating conditions.
FIG. 3 is an equivalent circuit diagram of the operational amplifier 100 when such AB-class operational amplifier operates in a sleep mode. As shown in FIG. 3, in sleep mode, each gate of the PMOS transistors M101, M107, M108, M110 and M117 is connected to power supply voltage VDD, and each gate of the NMOS transistors M104, M113, M114, and M118 is connected to ground voltage GND. Under these conditions, each node of sources of the PMOS transistors M102 and M103, drains of the NMOS transistors M105 and M106, and a drain of the PMOS M107 attains a high impedance. Accordingly, a high voltage may be applied to these nodes. When the high voltage exceeds a maximum breakdown voltage of each MOS transistor, failure such as destruction of the MOS transistors may occur.


A worm is configured to attach to a shaft and turn a worm gear. The worm has a housing is a first exterior thread. An insert mates to the housing and has a second exterior thread. The first exterior thread and the second exterior thread form a continuous exterior thread.

The embodiments herein relate generally to systems that transfer power from one shaft to another.
In a motor there is a motor shaft. There is also a worm that is attached to the motor shaft. The purpose of the worm is to move a worm gear. Prior to embodiments of the disclosed invention, worms were made in one piece. Because worms were made in one-piece worms were difficult to install and more difficult to remove. This caused the worm to break. A one-piece worm could break upon installation and removal, and was difficult to repair or replace. Embodiments of the disclosed invention solve these problems.


Electrical connection of an annular corrugated tube having an outer surface shape wherein grooves and ridges are alternately repeated in the axial direction of the tube in a wave form is carried out by cutting the tube at a groove, disposing a clamping member on each side of a ridge at the cut end of the tube and electrically connecting the tube to the clamping member positioned on the cut end of the tube side of the ridge by squashing the ridge with the clamping members.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and structure for electrically connecting an annular corrugated tube, and more particularly for example to a method and structure for electrically connecting a coaxial cable having an outer conductor with an annular corrugated outer surface as an annular corrugated tube when the end of the outer conductor is clamped by clamping members.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 5, when a coaxial cable 100 is to be connected to an antenna or the like, a connector 50 is usually attached to its end. The coaxial cable 100 comprises an annular corrugated outer conductor 101 formed as an annular corrugated tube. Here, for the convenience of the following description, the concave portions of the outer conductor 101 will be referred to as grooves and the convex portions will be referred to as ridges. Accordingly, the outer conductor 101 has the shape of a tube wherein grooves and ridges are alternately periodically repeated in the axial direction of the tube. An inner conductor 102 having the shape of a straight pipe is disposed inside the outer conductor 101 coaxially therewith. An insulator 103 for electrically insulating the two conductors from each other is filled between the two conductors 101, 102. A corrosion prevention layer 104 for preventing corrosion of the coaxial cable 100 covers the outside of the outer conductor 101.
The connector 50 connected to the end of the coaxial cable 100 comprises a gripping flange 51, a connector proper 52, a connecting metal 53, an insulator 54, a contact 55, a support member 56 and a split clamp 57.
By the coaxial cable 100 being connected to the connector 50, the end of the outer conductor 101 is clamped by the support member 56 and the split clamp 57 and the outer conductor 101 of the coaxial cable 100 is electrically connected to the connector 50. Therefore, it is necessary that the end of the outer conductor 101 be clamped by the support member 56 and the split clamp 57. However, because the outer surface of the outer conductor 101 of the coaxial cable 100 is ridged and the pitch at which the grooves and ridges constituting the annular corrugated form are repeated is relatively long, the angle of slope of the ridges is also gentle.
Consequently, when the end of the outer conductor 101 has not undergone any preparatory treatment, the work of clamping the end of the coaxial cable 100 with the support member 56 and the split clamp 57 is not always easy.
As a result, conventionally, to facilitate this clamping, the end of the outer conductor 101 has been widened radially outward. When it has been widened radially outward, the end of the outer conductor 101 can be easily clamped between the support member 56 and the split clamp 57.
However, with this kind of conventional connection, the work of widening the end of the outer conductor 101 radially outward is time and labor consuming. Also, a specialized and costly tool is necessary for widening the end of the outer conductor 101. Furthermore, in order to widen the end of the outer conductor 101 radially outward it is necessary to cut the outer conductor 101 along a ridge using a cutting blade, and a complicated and expensive tool including members for guiding the cutting blade along the ridge is required for this.
Thus with an annular corrugated tube like the outer conductor described above it is costly and not easy to clamp the end of the tube to a connecting member such as a connector with clamping members.

Structure for electrically connecting an annular corrugated tube


A method of producing a semiconductor memory device forms an overlap between a distribution of semiconductor clusters in a gate insulating layer and a drain region by oblique ion implantation using the edge of the semiconductor cluster distribution as a self-align mask. At least a portion of the semiconductor cluster distribution which is the nearest to the Si substrate and the drain overlaps a drain diffusion layer, and the semiconductor clusters are overlapped with each other. Thus, the device has a 1Tr/cell structure. As a result, the properties of a nonvolatile memory device using an insulating film are improved.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device and a method of producing the same and, more specifically, relates to a nonvolatile memory device, for example, a flash EEPROM (flash electrically erasable programmable read-only memory), in which an insulating film containing metal or semiconductor particles is used in a gate of a transistor.
Conventionally, in an MOS-type transistor used to store information, a semiconductor memory device has been proposed in which a portion containing conductive silicon clusters in insulating silicon is disposed above the channel area but below the control gate electrode.
One such conventional semiconductor memory device, shown in FIG. 6, comprises an n-channel transistor, a source region 13 and a drain region 12 of n-type semiconductor material, an Si substrate 11 which is a p-type semiconductor, and a gate region including a polysilicon layer 16 and an insulating region having two oxide layers 14 and a nitride layer 15 disposed between the oxide layers 14. When electrons are injected into the insulating region adjacent to the channel layer in the substrate during operation, this raises the gate threshold voltage which is necessary to render the channel layer conductive and, when electrons are withdrawn from semiconductive silicon clusters, the gate threshold voltage is reduced. In this way, the device can be arranged to retain data by applying a gate sensing voltage which is between the threshold values in the initial state and in the electron-injected state so as to give an on-off control to the transistor.
This operation is specifically described in the article entitled "A True Single-Transistor Oxide-Nitride-Oxide EEPROM Device" (IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. EDL-8, No. 4, March 1987). In this operation, data writing is normally carried out by electron injection, while data erasing is carried out by hole injection. After 40,000 write/erase cycles, the erased state and storage-state characteristics are degraded. In order to eliminate such drawbacks, this article proposes that the stored charges representing data be withdrawn into the drain region by tunneling. However, it is difficult for electrons to flow in a lateral direction in the nitride layer.
In conventional data storage devices, each memory cell must be made of only one transistor (1Tr/cell) to provide high-density integration. However, the method of integration of such devices has not been resolved and the removal of electrons from the drain region and the injection of electrons into the drain region have not yet been accomplished effectively.

Semiconductor memory device with three-dimensional cluster distribution


In the trucking industry, a wheel stud having a recess at either end to accommodate a sacrificial insert of metal higher in the electromotive series of metals than the metals of the wheel stud assembly, the lug and the components joined thereby and being of sufficient difference in color from the surrounding materials so as to be readily visible without disassembling the combination, and a method for its use.

The traditional means for removably attaching single or dual wheels to heavy truck axles involves a hub with hardened steel lugs pressed through its circumference which extend through aligned holes in the metal wheel and are secured thereto by single or double lug nuts. These removable components oft times weld together or bind due to corrosion and/or metal transfer, and efforts to separate them result in damage thereto.
Typically, water and road salts in the operating environment aid in the formation of corrosion/rust on the holding thread and/or splines of the wheel studs, so that the lugs become stuck on the wheel studs or the wheel studs become stuck in the hub. As a result, the studs have to be removed and replaced in order to prevent the wheel from becoming detached from the hub.
The use of fasteners with corrosion-inhibiting, fitted washers, such as J. E. Jones U.S. Pat. No. 3,574,080 and K. J. Shomber U.S. Pat. No. 3,060,112, or merely using washers made of non-conductive material between the components of the fastener assembly and the components to be fastened together, are known and utilized in the aviation industry and other high-tech assemblies. The unique arrangement of the components for removably attaching wheels to hubs on an axle of a heavy-duty truck place steel, steel alloys, and other dissimilar metals in close proximity, so a galvanic coupling is set up in the operating environment. The transfer of metal results in such corrosion that the lug can weld to the threaded end of the wheel stud or to the longitudinal splines on the end of the wheel stud pressed into the hub and the hubs corresponding mating splines. The problem of welding or corrosion of these components is that the components may be damaged in order to separate them for regular maintenance. This condition is what gave rise to W. H. Oliver U.S. Pat. No. 3,330,177, an impact cap for the threaded end of the wheel lug, to protect it when it is driven out of the wheel hub.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Corrosion-resistant metal fasteners and stud inserts


The invention claims a combined multifunctional electronic simulated cigarette, comprising an indicator, wherein the indicator is provided with a air inlet hole; one end of the indicator is connected with one end of an aroma generator; a first switch and a first battery are arranged between the indicator and the aroma generator; a solid aromatic substance is arranged in the aroma generator and is provided with electric heating wires; the other end of the aroma generator is connected with one end of a smoke capsule; solid adsorption cotton adsorbed with nicotine is arranged in the smoke capsule; the other end of the smoke capsule is connected with a suction nozzle which is provided with a suction hole. The invention can provide users with aromatic gases, nicotine component and simulated smoke simultaneously; and the users can respectively choose to inhale the aromatic gases, the nicotine component and the simulated smoke according to the needs, and the invention can meet the needs of the users or the smoking quitters in different stages, help the users to gradually reduce the suction amount of nicotine, and finally achieve the purpose of not taking in nicotine.

It is generally held by the public that smoking is harmful to human health; however, the nicotine in cigarette make smokers depend on cigarettes, which is one critical reason for smokers difficultly quitting smoking. Therefore, the simulated cigarette without nicotine, incapable of replacing the traditional cigarette, fails to meet the demands of smoking quitters at different stages. Additionally, some simulated cigarettes containing nicotine are likely to meet nicotine intake demand, but cannot reduce the dependence of smokers on nicotine while smoking the cigarette. Thus, it fails to assist smokers to quit smoking. Due to the above mentioned disadvantages of simulated cigarette, the electronic simulated cigarette, aiming at quitting smoking or replacing the present cigarette, has not been popularized yet.

Combined multifunctional electronic simulated cigarette


An electromechanical switching circuit comprises an integrated circuit (IC) having an input terminal, an output terminal and a control terminal. The IC is arranged based on a voltage transition at the control terminal, sampling the voltage level at the input terminal and supplying it at the output terminal. The output voltage level is maintained at the output terminal until a voltage transition at the control terminal. A control circuit connected to the control terminal includes a first monostable switch whose actuation causes a voltage transition at the control terminal so the voltage level applied at the input terminal is supplied at the output terminal. An output circuit includes a second, electromechanical, monostable switch whose contacts are moved to their unstable state in response to a first voltage level at the output terminal and allowed to resume their stable state in response to a second voltage level at the output terminal.

FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of a known type of electromechanical switch which can be switched between two alternate states, and which can be left indefinitely in either of the two states. In the context of the present invention an electromechanical switch is a type of electrical switch having mechanical contacts operated as a result of changes in an electromagnetic field flowing in a coil, usually a solenoid.
In FIG. 1 the electromechanical switch is a relay comprising a solenoid RLA and associated ganged contacts SW2 which are biased normally-open. The contacts SW2 can be held closed, against the opening bias, by the associated solenoid coil RLA provided that a sufficient current, known as a holding current, passes through the coil RLA. The combination of the solenoid coil RLA and its associated contacts SW2 may be embodied in an electromechanical relay of known type. The contacts SW2 are located in the live L and neutral N conductors of an AC mains supply to a load LD, so that opening the contacts SW2 will disconnect the load LD from the AC supply.
One side of the solenoid RLA is connected to the live conductor L via diode D1 and resistor R1, and the other side of the solenoid is connected to the neutral conductor N via a manually actuable switch SWφ. A capacitor C1 is connected in parallel with RLA and SWφ. SWφ is a mechanically latchable switch which when manually actuated will close and will remain in the closed state until manually actuated again to change it to the open state where it will remain until actuated again. RLA will be de-energized and energised in tandem with the open and closed states of SWφ, and RLA contacts SW2 will open and close in tandem with the state of RLA and SWφ.
In FIG. 1, when the AC supply is present, capacitor C1 will charge up via diode D1. However the relay coil RLA will not be energized and the associated contacts SW2 will remain open until SWφ is manually closed. When SWφ is closed a current will flow through RLA sufficient to close the load contacts LD and maintain them closed for as long as the switch SWφ remains latched closed. In the absence of any subsequent actuation of SWφ, in the event of loss of and subsequent restoration of the AC supply the load contacts SW2 will always revert to their last state, i.e. to the state prevailing immediately prior to the loss of supply. This is because the switch SWφ is a bistable switch; i.e. its contacts will always remain in their current state until the switch is next actuated.
On the other hand, a monostable switch has just one stable state in that its contacts will normally-be open or normally-closed. For a normally-open device, the switch contacts will be closed when the switch is operated by application of an external force, e.g. manual operation, but they will revert to the open state when the external force is removed. In the absence of an external force, a normally-open switch cannot be used directly to keep a connected load or circuit in a continuously energized state. However such a switch may be used indirectly to achieve this function, as demonstrated in FIG. 2. (In the drawings the same references have been used for the same or equivalent components.)
In FIG. 2, when the AC supply is present, capacitor C1 will charge up via diode D1. However the relay coil RLA will not be energized and its contacts SW2 will remain open until a solid state switch SCR1 is turned on. Switch SW1 is in this case a monostable normally-open type, and when this switch is momentarily held closed SCR1 will turn on and the relay coil RLA will be energized causing its contacts SW2 to close and provide power to the load LD. However, when SW1 is released and opens to its stable state, SCR1 will remain turned on due to the holding current flowing through it from C1 via the relay coil RLA, and the relay will remain energized with its contacts SW2 closed. The coil RLA can be de-energised by momentary closure of a further normally-open monostable switch SW3, which will remove the supply to RLA and also cause SCR1 to turn off. Thus by the use of two normally-open monostable switches SW1 and SW3, relay contacts SW2 can be opened and closed as required.
If the coil RLA were energized and its contacts SW2 closed, and there were a subsequent removal of the AC supply, the contacts SW2 would open due to the removal of current flowing in RLA. However, upon the restoration of the AC supply the contacts SW2 would remain open. It would require the user to operate SW1 to reclose the contacts SW2.
The arrangement of FIG. 1 can therefore be considered to be a circuit with memory in that the relay contacts SW2 will always revert automatically to their previous state on removal of and restoration of the AC supply, whereas the arrangement of FIG. 2 does not have memory in that contacts SW2 will always revert to the open state on removal of and restoration of the AC supply.
Latching (bistable) switches clearly are the preferred choice for applications requiring memory, and these are widely available. However, there are some applications where a latchable switch cannot be used. One example is where a micro switch is placed beneath a plastic membrane. Such membrane type switches are usually operated by applying force via a finger to the membrane directly above the switch. Most standard types of plastic membranes can accommodate only a very limited amount of displacement, e.g. <1 mm, and the switch must change states in response to this limited amount of displacement. In contrast, a latching push type switch will typically require a movement or displacement of >2.5 mm, which is well outside the range of movement achievable with a standard plastic membrane. It would therefore be impractical to use a latching switch under these conditions, and an alternative means must be found to achieve the desired latching switch function with a non-latching switch.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,916,438, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses an electrically latching residual current device comprising a relay whose contacts close automatically on application of a mains supply at or above a certain level. The RCD contacts will open automatically on loss of supply and will reclose automatically on restoration of the supply. The contacts will also open automatically in response to a residual fault current exceeding a certain safe level. In this case the circuit also has means for ensuring that in the event of a loss of supply and restoration of the supply prior to manual resetting of the RCD, the contacts will remain open until intentionally reclosed by the user. This is an important safety feature which prevents the RCD contacts from closing on to a pre-existing fault condition, and is achieved by opening a normally-closed contact in the relay circuit to prevent automatic restoration of the supply current to the relay in the event of the relay being de-energised in response to a fault condition. To this extent, it can be said that this circuit has a built in memory which ensures that the relay reverts to or remains in the state that it was in prior to loss of supply following a fault condition.
However, U.S. Pat. No. 7,916,438 achieves its memory function by the use of an additional electromechanical/electromagnetic means. This presents problems of design complexity, size, cost and user interface in that the resetting mechanism must be accessible to the user. The use of electromechanical or electromagnetic means such as solenoids and relays including permanent magnet relays to achieve the requisite memory function in RCDs and similar products is quite common despite the above mentioned problems because of the absence of an acceptable alternative means to achieve this function.

Electromechanical switching circuit with memory


A plurality of film insulators having conductive patterns that are formed on surfaces and conductive vias that pass through the film insulators in the direction of thickness are stacked together and collectively subjected to pressure and heat to be formed as a single unit. On one outermost layer of the multilayer board that has been thus formed, a plurality of connection terminals are exposed to the outside, connection bumps of an LSI chip being secured to these connection terminals. On the outermost layer of the opposite side, a multiplicity of metal pads are provided, and a solder ball is secured on each metal pad to form a ball grid array (BGA) structure for connecting to a motherboard.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a package substrate for a semiconductor device in which integrated circuit elements are mounted, to a method of fabricating the package substrate, and to a semiconductor device that includes the package substrate for a semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Packages are conventionally used for incorporating integrated circuit elements such as LSI chips and connecting the integrated circuit elements to what is called a "motherboard" (circuit board). Such a package incorporates a multilayer board on which various signal lines, ground patterns, and power-supply patterns have been formed. The integrated circuit elements and motherboard are connected by way of this multilayer board.
Multilayer boards for packaging of the prior art include the built-up type of multilayer board that is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-158671 (see FIG. 1). In a built-up multilayer board, substrate layers (layers of an organic material composed of, for example, epoxy resin) 102 composed of, for example, prepreg are successively laminated on both sides of thick core material 101 that serves as a base. An actual method of fabricating a built-up multilayer board is as follows: First, a thermosetting epoxy resin is impregnated in a glass cloth and cured to form core material 101 that is composed of glass epoxy resin. This core material 101 is of a multilayer construction having internal copper foil layers as necessary. Conductive patterns are formed of copper foil on both sides of core material 101, and through-holes 103 that pass through core material 101 are formed to interconnect the conductive patterns on the two sides of core material 101. Through-holes 103 are formed by opening holes in core material 101 by laser irradiation or by a drill and then depositing a metal layer by plating the interior walls of these through-holes. Causing portions of this metal layer to contact each of the conductive patterns on both sides of core material 101 electrically connects the conductive patterns on the two sides of core material 101.
Multilayering is realized by successively forming (building up) a plurality of substrate layers 102 of prepreg having conductive patterns 105 that are composed of, for example, copper foil on core material 101 that has been formed in this way. Through-holes are formed in substrate layers 102 in the direction of thickness, and vias 104 are formed by embedding metal in these through-holes. Vias 104 connect conductive patterns 105 that are located on the upper layers of substrate layers 102 and conductive patterns 105 that are located on the lower layers. By this method, a plurality of layers of substrate layers 102 that are composed of, for example, a prepreg and conductive patterns 105 that are formed of, for example, copper foil are formed on both sides of core material 101, and each layer of these conductive patterns 105 are connected by vias 104 to form a multilayer board.
In the configuration that is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-158671, in contrast to the configuration that is shown in FIG. 1, conductive patterns 105 on the both sides of substrate layer 102 are connected by forming through-holes in substrate layer 102 that are similar to the through-holes in core material 101.
Another package substrate of the prior art is a multilayer board in which a multiplicity of ceramic layers are laminated (see FIG. 2) as disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-118194. As the actual method of fabricating this multilayer board, a metal such as silver or tungsten is printed on a presintering sheet called a "green sheet" to form conductive patterns 106. Through-holes are next formed at prescribed positions of the green sheet by laser irradiation or punching, and metal is embedded in these through-holes to form vias 107. Vias 107 connect conductive patterns 106 that are located on the upper layers of the green sheet and conductive patterns 106 that are located on the lower layers. After stacking a multiplicity of green sheets in which conductive patterns 106 and vias 107 have been formed in this way, the green sheets are sintered to cure the green sheets all at one time. In this way, a multilayer board can be formed from ceramic 108.
The following explanation regards an example of a configuration that employs a multilayer board described above as the package substrate for a semiconductor device. A plurality of connection terminals 110 are provided on one of the outermost layers of a multilayer board for electrically connecting with solder bumps 116 when mounting integrated circuit elements 109 of the flip-chip connection type, these connection terminals 110 being exposed to the outside. A plurality of metal pads 111 are provided on the outermost layer on the opposite side of this multilayer board, and solder balls (ball terminals) 112 are mounted and secured on these metal pads 111. A ball grid array (BGA) structure for connecting with a motherboard is thus formed. In this way, a package substrate for a semiconductor device can be completed.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-038464 discloses a printed wiring board in which conductive patterns are formed on the surfaces of film insulators composed of polyarylketone and polyetherimide, and these film insulators are then laminated in a plurality of layers.
The built-up multilayer board such as disclosed in the example of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-158671 involves the formation of core material 101 followed by the successive formation of a plurality of substrate layers 102 and therefore necessitates an extremely time-consuming fabrication process and high fabrication costs. For example, this method is inefficient and impractical when fabricating a multilayer board having ten or more layers, and in particular, thirteen or more layers.
According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-158671, core material 101 must have sufficient strength and thickness for the laminated formation of a multiplicity of substrate layers 102. Core material 101 formed from only epoxy resin would therefore have insufficient strength, and a multilayer construction incorporating metal layers and further incorporating glass cloth is therefore adopted to obtain sufficient strength. However, the adoption of core material 101 having a multilayer construction is not preferable due to the further increase in fabrication time and fabrication costs. In addition, the incorporation of glass cloth in core material 101 raises the concern that penetration by moisture might lead to the occurrence of dendrites. To prevent the problem of dendrites, the pitch between through-holes 103 must be made at least 0.80 mm. This requirement interferes with the high-density wiring and prevents an adequate response to the demand for a more compact semiconductor device package.
In addition, because core material 101 is thick, the formation of vias by embedding metal in through-holes becomes problematic due to the difficulty of the fabrication steps and the amount of metal material that must be used. The inner circumference of through-holes is therefore covered by metal foil to form through-holes 103. In other words, the through-holes have a structure that is not filled, and vias 104 therefore cannot be formed directly above and directly below through-holes 103. The arrangement of a multiplicity of vias 104 in a direct line in the direction of thickness is therefore physically impossible due to the interposition of the locations of the holes of through-holes 103. As a result, vias 104 of each layer cannot all be formed in the same planar positions, but must be shifted within the plane. As a result, the connection of a multiplicity of layers of conductive patterns 105 on one surface of core material 101 to a multiplicity of layers of conductive patterns 105 on the other surface cannot be realized with good space efficiency. This construction therefore suffers from the problem of poor freedom degree of design.
In addition, when flip-chip integrated circuit elements 109 are mounted on one of the outermost layers of this multilayer board and a motherboard (not shown) is connected to the outermost layer on the opposite side, the reliability of the connection between integrated circuit elements 109 and the multilayer board is poor. The reason for this poor reliability is the high degree of thermal stress that occurs between integrated circuit elements 109 and the multilayer board due to the great difference between the linear expansion coefficient of the built-up portion of the multilayer board (approximately 50 ppm in the direction of thickness and 14-16 ppm in the surface direction) and the linear expansion coefficient of the silicon that is the main material of integrated circuit elements 109 (3-4 ppm in the direction of thickness and 3-4 ppm in the surface direction).
On the other hand, a ceramic multilayer board such as was disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-118194 does not allow green sheets of very thin construction. For example, when constructing a multilayer board having ten or more, or in particular, having thirteen or more layers, the thickness of the green sheets, which each have a thickness of, for example, 2 mm or more, complicates their use as a package for semiconductor devices.
In this example, conductive pattern 106 is formed by printing metal on a green sheet, following which the green sheet is sintered and cured. However, the final dimensional accuracy of conductive pattern 106 is poor in this fabrication method, and adequate control of the position of conductive pattern 106 to obtain the desired impedance is therefore extremely difficult.
In addition, when flip-chip integrated circuit elements 109 are mounted on one outermost layer of this multilayer board and a motherboard (not shown) is connected to the outermost layer on the opposite side, the reliability of the package connections are poor. This poor reliability results from the great difference between the linear expansion coefficient of the ceramic that is the main material of the multilayer board (4-6 ppm in the direction of thickness and 4-6 ppm in the surface direction) and the linear expansion coefficient of the glass epoxy resin that is the main material of the motherboard (16-17 ppm in the direction of thickness and 60 ppm in the surface direction). In addition, the semiconductor device package is subject to a high degree of stress. Further, the dielectric constant of a ceramic is higher than that of an organic material, and the loss of the high-frequency signal that passes through the conductive pattern is therefore great.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-095963 discloses a multi-layer board comprising a thermoplastic polyimide sheet having a thermosetting characteristic and a glass transition point Tg which is lower than the curing start temperature Ts of a thermosetting component.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-064009 discloses a method of manufacturing a printed circuit board wherein a plurality of slits are formed so as to surround a product region in each of laminated resin films. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-318538 also discloses a method of manufacturing a printed circuit board wherein a plurality of slits are formed between product regions in each of laminated resin films.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-324280 discloses a method of manufacturing a printed circuit board comprising thermoplastic resin sheets having a conductive pattern on one surface and a via hole on the other surface. Many thermoplastic resin sheets are laminated and simultaneously bonded each other and the conductive pattern is connected to the low melting point metal filled in the via hole by metallic bonding.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-209356 discloses a method of manufacturing a multi-layer board wherein a plurality of through holes are formed in each of resin films so as to superpose each other in a laminating direction of the films and conductive paste is filled in the through holes. The conductive paste is sintered to form poles which support a hot pressing plate, when the laminated films are heated and pressurized.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-273511 discloses a pressing method wherein a plurality of thermoplastic films having a conductive pattern on one surface are laminated and simultaneously bonded each other by heating and pressurization on the both sides with buffer members each of which is interposed between the outermost thermoplastic film and a thermal pressing plate.
"Microelectronics Packaging Handbook" by Rao R. Tummala, Eugene J. Rymaszewski, and Alan G. Klopfenstein, in particular pp. 375-411 of Japanese version, teaches various type of package, such as a ceramic chip carrier, a flat package, a hybrid package and a multi-layer ceramic substrate.

Package substrate for a semiconductor device having thermoplastic resin layers and conductive patterns


A brake-related ECU (46) terminates control on the basis of a control stop signal sent from a body-related ECU (40) connected with the brake-related ECU by a CAN 1, an engine revolving speed supplied from an engine ECU (42) connected with the brake-related ECU by the CAN 1, and wheel speeds detected by wheel speed sensors (20L, 20R, 22L, 22R) connected with the brake-related ECU by electric wiring (60).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a control system of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
In vehicles, a variety of electronic control units (ECUs) are installed to electronically control vehicle-mounted devices.
For example, there are installed an engine ECU for controlling an engine, a transmission ECU for controlling a transmission, a brake-related ECU for performing control according to brake operation, and braking-force control in anti-lock braking system, traction control, etc., a drive-related ECU for controlling distribution of drive force among wheels, a body-related ECU for controlling body-related devices such as doors, windows, windshield wipers, lights and like, etc.
Such ECUs, etc. are connected by a communication path allowing them to communicate with each other, such as an in-vehicle LAN according to the CAN (controller area network) standard (see Japanese Patent Publication 2005-238950, for example).
In such configuration, when a specified ECU, for example, the transmission ECU receives a signal indicating that the ignition switch is in "on" position, the transmission ECU sends a control start signal to pertinent ECUs.
Generally, when the ignition switch is shifted to "off" position, the transmission ECU sends a control stop signal to the pertinent ECUs so that they terminate control.
In such configuration, however, if, while the vehicle is moving, the ignition switch is shifted to the "off" position by erroneous operation, or a control stop signal is erroneously sent to the pertinent ECUs due to failure of the transmission ECU that receives a signal indicating whether the ignition switch is on or off, or a defect or the like of the communication path connecting the ECUs does not allow normal communications among the ECUs, there is caused a problem that the ECUs terminate control while the vehicle is moving.
This is undesirable, particularly because stop of control over braking systems such as an ABS may impair running safety.

Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha.


Disclosed are an editing apparatus and a method in a vide tape duplicating system for effectively editing using an automatic search function of the starting and ending points of a program to be edited. The editing apparatus includes a key input, an edit adjuster, a playback system, a recording system, a display and a system controller. The edit adjuster controls the editing operation to allow a playback signal within a preset editing section output from the playback system to be recorded on the recording system in accordance with the output signal of the key input. The editing method is performed by a first editing step of setting starting and ending points for at least one editing sections on a recording medium in the playback driver, and controlling the editing operation by the detection of the starting and ending points marking information on the editing section which is randomly set from points between the initial point and the final point of the recording medium. The second editing step selects one editing section from at least one set on the recording medium, and edits by detecting the starting and ending points of the set editing section. Therefore, a desired editing section can be randomly designated. Then, editing is controlled by detecting the designated information, thereby enabling a video tape duplicating system to precisely edit various programs.

The present invention relates to an editing apparatus and a method in an audio/video information duplicating system, and more particularly to an editing apparatus in an audio/video information duplicating system which edits a program by the automatic search of starting and ending points, and an editing method suitable for controlling the editing apparatus.
Generally, a recording/reproducing system is composed of a recording system to record audio and video information on a recording medium, and a playback system to reproduce the audio and video information recorded on the recording medium. Such an audio/video information duplicating system includes two recorder/reproducers connected to each other (one for the playback deck and the other for the recording deck), wherein the information recorded in one recorder/reproducer is duplicated (or recorded) on the other recorder/reproducer. In particular, a system which embodies two recorder/reproducers as above together in one unit is known as a double-deck recorder/reproducer.
The recording medium, e.g., a video tape, of the recorder/reproducer includes a video track for recording and reproducing video information, an audio track for recording and reproducing audio information, and a control track for recording and reproducing reference signals to control traveling speed, phase, and other operations. Especially, binary information in the form of "0" and "1" is recorded on the control track through "N" and "S" magnetic poles at a density of 1 bit per two video tracks. In other words, 1 bit per frame is recorded, and the logic "0's" and "1's" are regularly set by a predetermined duty ratio.
With the current trend toward performing many diverse functions in the recorder/reproducer, a high speed search function has been added to find a desired program among a plurality of programs recorded on a recording medium by altering the duty ratio of the control track. The Video Index Search System (hereinafter referred to as VISS) is one kind of such a function, wherein index information is recorded on a certain point of the recording medium in a predetermined manner, and the recorded index information is sequentially searched by operating a VISS control key during the operation of the recording medium. After searching the index information, the PLAY mode is initiated to confirm whether or not the program corresponding to the searched index information is the desired one. If not, repeated index information searches are carried out by the use of the VISS control key until the corresponding index information is found.
However, in the conventional audio/video information duplicating system, the duplicating method (dubbing or editing process) is greatly restricted. For example, to search a desired program for duplication, several function keys need to be repeatedly operated to control the fast forward (FF) or PLAY modes in the playback deck, making the process inconvenient. Therefore, to solve this problem, proposals have been made to utilize apparatuses adopting the aforesaid VISS information system. By using the VISS information, the FF and PLAY mode key operation is simplified. Further, the desired program can be quickly and easily detected, reproduced, and duplicated.
However, the VISS information system still has a problem in that a plurality of function keys need to be repeatedly pressed until the corresponding index information is found. In addition to this, after searching the desired program, when duplication is performed by the aforesaid two methods of control key operation, accurate duplication is not achieved in the course of converting to the PLAY mode in the playback deck and to the recording (REC) mode in the recording deck.

Editing apparatus and method in video tape duplicating system


Disclosed is a molding-system method, including a temperature-changing operation, including changing temperature of a feedstock being positioned in a barrel assembly from an out-of-barrel temperature to substantially within a processing-temperature range, in response to supplying a calculated amount of thermal energy to the barrel assembly based on a melt throughput being associated with molding articles.

Examples of known molding systems are (amongst others): (i) the HyPET (TRADEMARK) Molding System, (ii) the Quadloc (TRADEMARK) Molding System, (iii) the Hylectric (TRADEMARK) Molding System, and (iv) the HyMET (TRADEMARK) Molding System, all manufactured by Husky Injection-molding systems (Location: Canada; Web Site: www.husky.ca).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,272,466 (Inventor: HARRIS; Published: Jun. 9, 1981) discloses a molding-system method for controlling temperature of a plastics extruder that uses a deep well sensor and a shallow well sensor in each temperature control zone along an extruder barrel. The temperature indications of these sensors are not combined. The shallow well sensor detects temperature near the barrel surface. An associated computer compares the sensor temperature with a preset temperature set point. The differences between the detected and set temperature are used by the computer to effect heating or cooling of a temperature control zone. Each deep well sensor is located proximate a bore (that is, a melt pathway) in which the plastic is moved. The deep well sensor temperature indication is compared with the set point of a second computer. Based on variations of the temperature relative to the set point, an error signal is generated, and in turn the output of a heater is adapted. The computer compares a set point with that of the melt temperature, and modifies the set points of the several zones along the extruder barrel to correct the melt temperature.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,341 (Inventor: HAMBLETON; Published: Oct. 22, 1985) discloses a plastic injection apparatus that has: (i) a barrel, (ii) a plastic working screw located in the bore (that is, a melt pathway) of the barrel, (iii) a nozzle for injecting melted plastic from out of the front of the bore to a mold, and (iv) a plurality of axially spaced heater bands ringing the barrel over its length. The heat control for the plastic injection apparatus is improved by: (i) subdividing the barrel into a rear part and a front part, (ii) impeding an outward flow of heat energy from the rear part by using a thermal insulating material and by using a heat reflective surface, and (iii) promoting the outward flow of heat energy from the front part by using a cooling means and by using a tubular barrel cover, which encloses the front part. The tubular barrel cover has an inner surface and an outer surface, which are heat absorptive and heat reflective, respectively. In one embodiment, the thermal insulating material is incorporated in a tubular insulating shroud that encloses the heater bands in the rear part.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,272,644 (Inventor: KATSUMATA et al; Published: Dec. 21, 1993) discloses a heating-control apparatus that is used for controlling a heating temperature, especially for heating a resin in the injection molding machine. The heating-control apparatus includes: (i) a control device for controlling a heating means and the heating state of a heated barrel, and (ii) a condition compensating device for issuing a compensation input to the heating means in response to a reset of the control device (depending on the kinds of resin materials and molding conditions) so as to prevent: (i) insufficient moldability in the injection molding machine, and (ii) a deterioration of the resin.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,513 (Inventor: HONJO et al; Published: Jul. 7, 1998) discloses a device for: (i) controlling temperature of a nozzle of an injection molding machine, (ii) maintaining uniform temperature over the nozzle, and (iii) preventing stringiness or drooling of melted resin. A temperature-monitoring computer is used for controlling temperature at a front portion and at a rear portion of the nozzle by controlling the electric power supplied to a front heater and to a rear heater by using an "ON-OFF" operation of a relay and of a voltage regulator. The relay and the voltage regulator are used for controlling voltage applied to (by use of an operational amplifier): (i) the front heater, or (ii) the rear heater. The operational amplifier is used for detecting differences of temperature at the front portion and the rear portion of the nozzle.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,104,006 (Inventor: KIMURA et al; Published: Aug. 15, 2000) discloses a molding-system method and an apparatus for programmed temperature control of a heating barrel in which a thermal sensor can be set selectively in a plurality of sensor holes on a feeding zone of the heating barrel. By sensing the temperature at the most appropriate position in the feeding zone, the molding injection process is adapted to various resins with different properties, which prevents clogging of resin in the heating barrel and changed color of molded articles.

Method of molding system, including raising temperature of feedstock responsive to a calculated amount of thermal energy


A tube squeezing device includes a pair of hollow rollers, a coupling strap in a looped configuration inserted through the rollers, and a connection securing opposite ends of the strap together in offset relation to the remainder of the looped strap. Each elongated hollow roller is made of rigid material and has an interior bore extending between and open at a pair of opposite ends. The coupling strap is made of a substantially resilient flexible inelastic material. The strap has a pair of opposite ends and is of a length sufficient to permit the opposite ends of the strap to extend beyond an adjacent one pair of the pairs of opposite ends of the rollers. The connection secures the opposite ends of the coupling strap together to close the looped strap about adjacent longitudinal portions of the rollers. The connection is disposed in the bore of one of the rollers and to one side of an endless path defined by the looped strap. The closed strap retains the rollers in a spaced apart relationship in which a slot is defined therebetween adapted to receive therethrough a closed end of a flexible fluiddispensing tube. The material of the coupling strap is sufficiently resilient to urge the rollers toward one another to apply squeezing forces to opposite sides of the tube.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a flexible tube squeezing device and, more particularly, is concerned with an internally coupled dual roller flexible tube squeezing device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is a common problem for a user dispensing a fluid material, such as toothpaste, shampoo, adhesive, caulking, paints, etc., by manually squeezing a flexible tube, to have the contents of the tube spread throughout the tube. In particular, the contents spreads to the closed end of the tube as the user is attempting to dispense the contents from the open end.
The problem becomes greater as the tube becomes less full. Each time it is desired to dispense more of the fluid material, the user must first squeeze the tube starting at its closed end and working toward the open end in order to gather the contents at the open end.
It has been found desirable to provide assistance to the manual dispensing of the fluid material contained within the flexible tube in such a manner that precludes the contents from spreading to the closed end of the tube. The desired objective is to gather the contents towards the open end of the flexible tube, close off the emptied portion of the flexible tube, and thereby make each successive dispensing of a portion of the tube's contents as easy as the first.
A number of dual roller tube squeezing devices have been proposed in the prior patent art that attempt to provide this assistance to manual dispensing. Some representative examples of such tube squeezing devices are the ones disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. to Johnson (1,773,104 and 1,983,462), Hicks (3,999,688), and Kirkland (4,639,251), Italian patents to Bossi (444,344), Rubin (446,267 and 452,153) and Massai (464,081), and WIPO Intl. Publ. No. WO 91/09783. Many of these dual roller tube squeezing devices utilize pairs of cylindrical rollers which provide a slot between them into which the closed end of the flexible tube can be inserted. However, a practical and effective technique to couple the rollers together has yet to be found. Several of the dual roller tube squeezing devices disclosed in Italian Pat. No. 452,153 to Rubin utilize continuous loops in the form of either coil springs or elastic bands which extend through the central passages of the rollers and between the opposite ends thereof for internally coupling the rollers together. The rollers can be made of either nonelastic or elastic material.
However, the Rubin patent fails to disclose a practical technique for assembling these internally coupled dual roller tube squeezing devices. As a result, a need still exists for improvement in the design and construction of an internally coupled dual roller flexible tube squeezing device.

Internally-coupled dual roller tube squeezing device


A device for mixing fluid materials using chaotic flow combined with sonic energy. The device includes sine wave baffles to produce mixing by folding, stretching and breaking the material as it continuously flows and simultaneously chopping the mixed material with vorticular motion using pressure fronts produced by sonic energy generators.

This invention relates to a unique combination of two known ways of mixing fluids. The system combines dynamic systems, such as impellers or static mixers, with linear actuators such as sonic or ultrasonic driven devices.
The mixing of a very viscous liquid with either a solid or a liquid of low viscosity has always been a difficult task. In any fluid flow, "chaos" occurs whenever the fluid elements are stretched or folded, and this chaos produces mixing. However, chaotic mixing alone is not sufficient in some instances to produce complete and efficient mixing, since the chaos may occur in only certain regions of the fluid flow. Therefore, islands of unmixed material will persist in even the most chaotic of flows.
Mixing of fluids can also be improved by the use of time-periodic changes in geometry. For example, by causing a fluid to flow down a channel in which a sine wave baffle has been added, chaotic advection is generated. An example of a device that attempts to combined dynamic systems of mixing with linear actuators is shown in Federal Republic of Germany Patent DL 204,403 in which the fluid is first mixed in a static mixer utilizing helices after which the fluid is mixed downstream by a nozzle producing variable frequency vibration in the 10-30 kHz range. However, devices of this type first mix the material and subsequently chop it. Especially with certain types of materials, this does not produce efficient mixing. There is therefore a need for an improved device that can efficiently and effectively combine chaotic mixing with the effects of sonic energy to produce a much improved and superior mixing and reactance of the materials.


System and methods for transaction processing using a rewards account are described. The method may include: receiving a transaction containing a transaction type, formatting a message based on the transaction type and sending the message. The method may alternately include, receiving a transaction message and processing a transaction based on a transaction type contained within the transaction message. The system may include one or more software modules performing the following functions: receiving module to receive transactions, transaction processing module to parse the transaction and determine a transaction type, message processing module to format a transaction message based on the transaction type, and a user interface module to provide a user interface to a customer.

Customers demand more of the products and services they use than ever before. They insist that the companies they deal with on a regular basis provide them greater and greater levels of information. These companies are maintaining increasingly larger and larger databases of information about their customers enabling them to deliver higher and higher levels of user satisfaction using that information and implement more robust systems of rewards for their users.
Reward, or affinity, programs provide an additional level of service to a company's most valued customers. By incenting those customers to use more and more of the company's products by providing them rewards, customers maintain longer and stronger relationships with their customers. One of the most widely known example of a reward program is a frequent flyer program. Customers accumulate miles as they fly more and more with the same airline. They can redeem these miles for free flights, first class upgrades and the like. As rewards programs become more prevalently used by other companies, better methods of providing easy access to those rewards are needed.

Systems and methods for automated reward redemption

United Services Automobile Association (USAA)


Systems, methods, and computer readable media providing a speech input interface. The interface can receive speech input and non-speech input from a user through a user interface. The speech input can be converted to text data and the text data can be combined with the non-speech input for presentation to a user.

Keyboards or keypads are often used to input text into computing devices. However, some software solutions enable the user to enter text data using speech. These software solutions convert the speech to text using speech recognition engines. However, these software solutions can be difficult to use when entering symbolic characters, style or typeface input because they typically require escape sequences to exit a speech input mode and then additional input to return to speech input mode.

Providing text input using speech data and non-speech data


A plasma display device is provided that can realize a stable progressive display using a plasma display panel that has a shared type arrangement form of display electrodes. A plasma display panel structure including display electrodes having a shape that has little variation of electrode area between cells and a driving sequence are combined in which the addressing step is divided into the first half and the second half. One of the first half addressing and the second half addressing is performed for a row on which the first display electrode is arranged that has an odd arrangement order when noting only the first display electrodes that are not used for row selection, and the other of the first half addressing and the second half addressing is performed for a row on which the first display electrode is arranged that has an even arrangement order.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display device including a plasma display panel and a drive unit thereof.
An image display in a progressive form is superior to an image display in an interlace form from a viewpoint of luminance. Improvements of a plasma display device have been proceeding so as to realize an image display of a high resolution in a stable progressive form.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A surface discharge format is adopted for an AC type plasma display panel for a color display. Here, the surface discharge format has a structure in which display electrodes that become anodes and cathodes in display discharge for determining light emission quantity of cells are arranged on a front or back substrate in parallel, and address electrodes are arranged so as to cross the display electrode pairs.
There are two types of arrangement forms of the display electrodes in the surface discharge format. For convenience, one of the types is referred to as an individual type, and the other is referred to as a shared type. The individual type has a structure in which a pair of display electrodes is arranged for each row of a matrix display. The total number of display electrodes is twice the number of rows. The individual type can realize the progressive display by relatively simple driving sequence because each row can be controlled independently of other rows. However, an electrode gap between neighboring rows (that is called an opposite slit) becomes a non-light emission area, so a utilization factor of a screen is small. The shared type has a structure in which display electrodes whose number is the number of rows plus one are arranged at a constant pitch. In the shared type, neighboring display electrodes constitute a pair of electrodes for surface discharge, and all the display electrode gaps become surface discharge gaps. The shared type is superior to the individual type from the viewpoints of a vertical resolution (the number of rows) and the utilization factor of a screen. In either the individual type or the shared type, display electrodes making pairs are arranged in parallel, so it is necessary to provide a partition (a discharge barrier) for preventing discharge interference between cells arranged along the display electrode at least.
As a pattern of the partition, there are a stripe pattern by which a discharge space is divided into columns of the matrix display and a mesh pattern by which a discharge space is divided into columns and rows (i.e., into cells).
Conventionally, a plasma display panel having the stripe pattern partition and the shared type display electrode is driven by an interlace drive sequence, in which odd rows and even rows are lighted alternately. This driving sequence is disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 9-160525. In addition, a variation of a shape of a display electrode in this type plasma display panel is disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2000-113828. In FIG. 3 of this publication a display electrode (a main electrode) that is patterned in T-shape for each cell is described, while in FIG. 11 of this publication a display electrode whose part for one row has a ladder-like shape is described. This publication also describes an effect of a band-like shape of the electrode that is cut off partially, which is that spreading of discharge in the column direction is suppressed, and that the maximum value of discharge current is decreased.
On the other hand, Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2003-5699 describes a driving sequence for realizing a progressive form display by using a plasma display panel that has the shared type display electrodes and the mesh pattern partition that can suppress the discharge interference between rows. According to this driving sequence, rows are divided into two groups in accordance with a specific rule, addressing is performed for each group, and a reset step including charge adjustment is inserted between addressing for one group and addressing for the other group.
The progressive display according to the driving sequence described in the above-mentioned Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2003-5699 requires a complicated control of wall charge, so it is necessary to decrease a variation of an operational condition among cells in the plasma display panel as much as possible. The variation of an operational condition causes a lighting error, which may make a display unstable. More specifically, there is a cell in which an area of the display electrode is smaller than a design value because of a misregistration of substrates that constitute a panel enclosure, a variation of a cell size depending on the partition, or the like. In such a cell, forming of charge for generating address discharge will occur insufficiently, so that a discharge start voltage for the address discharge will be higher than in other cells. In this case, the address discharge may be failed at high probability. On the contrary, a cell in which the area of the display electrode is larger than the design value will form excessive charge by the address discharge, so discharge may be generated in error in high probability.
In particular, if the plasma display panel has a larger screen and higher definition, the variation of cells becomes conspicuous, so that a stable progressive display becomes difficult to realize.


A dilatation catheter compromising a torque-transmitting shaft, a flexible body surrounding the shaft, and an inflatable balloon having a proximal end mounted on the flexible body. The dilatation catheter also includes a tip spring having a proximal end fixedly mounted to the shaft proximal to the distal end of the balloon and a distal end fixedly attached to the distal tip of the shaft. The dilatation catheter further comprises a tip tube having a proximal end fixedly mounted to the shaft and a distal end exending through the distal end of the balloon, the distal end of the balloon being fixedly attached to the tip tube, the tip tube being sufficiently flexible and the proximal end being sufficiently removed from the distal end of the balloon so that rotation of the shaft causes rotation of the tip substantially without twisting the balloon and substantially reducing rotation of the tip spring where it contacts the vascular system.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to medical catheters, particularly those for opening lesions in arteries.
Catheters designed for steering through a tortuous path of small arteries, such as the coronary arteries, have been of two general types. One type slides over a separate guidewire. The second type involves a guidewire built into the catheter. The guidewire and catheter are inserted in the artery as a unit.
Such catheters built on a wire are steered through the arteries by directing a bent tip in the proper direction to enter a branch. The guidewire is rotated to turn the bent tip in the proper direction. A known problem in the prior art on-the-wire catheters is that rotation of the guidewire may cause the balloon in the catheter to twist and wrap up around the guidewire. This will cause later problems in inflation and deflation of the balloon.
This problem is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,113 which explains the problems with balloon wrap. That patent discloses a typical prior art device where the distal end of the balloon is fixed directly to the guidewire. When the guidewire rotates, the balloon twists. In an attempt to mitigate this problem, that patent limited rotation of the wire. Such limitations on rotation are well known in other catheter arts, but is found to be necessary for a particular functional purpose in wires of the type disclosed with a balloon bonded directly to a guidewire. What is needed in the art is a balloon structure which performs the functions of traditional on-the-wire catheters, but is not subject to the balloon wrap problem of the style in U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,113.
One other attempt to solve this problem is a design such as the PROBE catheter from USCI. This has a guidewire independent of the end of the balloon. However, the device does not have sufficient structural integrity for retaining the guidewire relative to the catheter structure. A structure is needed which prevents wrap but which is structurally sound and preserves the integrity of the tip area.


The invention relates to ethylene polymers that are modified by ionizing radiation, prior to article formation, at a temperature less than the crystalline melt temperature and preferably under ambient atmosphere, as well as articles made from said polymers. The irradiated ethylene polymers exhibit enhanced melt strength, tensile strength, impact resistance, tear strength, adhesion to polar substances and thermal stability, decreased elongation, and lower melt flow index, but are easily processed and converted into and onto articles by conventional technologies including injection molding, extrusion, film and bottle blowing and powder coating.

2.1 Field of the Invention
The invention relates to irradiated ethylene polymers and articles made using said polymers. More specifically, the invention relates to ethylene polymers that are modified by ionizing radiation, in air, at a temperature less than the crystalline melt temperature of the polymer, prior to article formation, as well as articles made from said polymers.
2.2 Related Art
Polyethylene is one of the most widely used commercial synthetic thermoplastic polymers. Polyethylene is inexpensive, easy to process and convert into articles, tough and flexible. In addition, polyethylene is a good electrical insulator over many frequencies. Polyethylene also exhibits better chemical resistance, including moisture stability, than other commercial plastics including nylon. Furthermore, thin films of certain grades of polyethylene are transparent. Polyethylene also exhibits excellent physiological compatability characteristics.
The commercial importance of polyethylene is enhanced by the wide variety of grades that exist, each having different physical properties and, therefore, different end-use applications. Polyethylene can be coated onto, or formed into, a wide variety of products using conventional conversion technologies such as extrusion, injection molding, cast molding, film and bottle blowing and powder coating.
Despite its popularity, polyethylene has several shortcomings. For example, polyethylene has relatively low mechanical properties (e.g., tensile strength, impact strength, flexural modulus, hydrostatic stress strength, etc.), poor environmental stress crack resistance (ESCR), low service temperature, and relatively poor adhesion to polar surfaces.
Crosslinking polyethylene is well known. For example, it is known to crosslink polyethylene with chemicals, e.g., peroxides, silane and/or multi-functional (meth) acrylates. Alternatively, it is known to crosslink polyethylene with ionizing radiation, e.g., using electron beam or gamma radiation.
Irradiating artifacts formed from polyethylene to improve mechanical properties and thermal stability is known. Such artifacts include polyethylene coated cables and wires, underfloor hot water piping, heat shrinkable polyethylene films, and polyethylene foams, gaskets and o-rings. Generally, a high degree of crosslinking (e.g., 60–70% gel content) is imparted by such processes.
However, there has been little research and development on, and much less commercialization of, polyethylene resins crosslinked by ionizing radiation prior to artifact formation. One reason for this lack of research is the understanding that high levels of crosslinking drastically decreases melt flow, making the polymer difficult to process and convert into artifacts. To the extent that irradiated ethylene polymers are discussed in the prior art, the irradiation of the polymer is generally done under non-ambient atmosphere and/or above the crystalline melt temperature and steps are generally taken to insure an extremely low gel content (e.g., below 0.5% by weight).
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,995 ("the '995 patent") discloses "a novel polymer and polymer treatment method . . . [which] involves irradiation of a polymer under non-gelling conditions at a temperature above the polymer melting temperature and in the absence of oxygen." See the '995 patent, abstract (emphasis added). The '995 patent, therefore, teaches away from processes that irradiate polymers under gelling conditions and/or at temperatures below the crystalline melt temperature and/or under unmodified atmosphere.
As further example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,114,486 ("the 486 patent") relates to "a rheology-modified ethylene polymer having less than 0.5 weight percent gel . . . which is characterized as having improved rheological performance and/or melt strength attributes relative to the unmodified polymer." See the '486 patent abstract (emphasis added). "The rheology . . . is modified . . . by treating the ethylene polymer in the presence of a crosslinking agent in an amount . . . less than the amount which would cause more than 0.5 wt % gel formation . . . Crosslinking agents include peroxide compounds, and other known heat-activated curing agents, such as azo compounds, and electron beam, gamma-ray, and other known radiation cure systems." Id. at col. 13 lines 10–20. When radiation is used, "[t]he amount of energy used to modify the polymer is preferably at least 0.5 Mrad [5 kGy] . . . and typically up to 50 Mrads [500 kGy]." Id. at col. 14 lines 9–12. "The irradiation intensity is . . . adjusted to avoid substantial heating of the polymer, because that might cause the polymer to react with oxygen . . . unless additional measures are taken to prevent contact with oxygen." Id. at col. 14 lines 18–25.The '486 patent, therefore, fails to recognize any benefit of crosslinking polymers with radiation versus chemical crosslinking, much less the benefits achieved using the irradiation conditions set forth herein, and also teaches away from the modification of polymers to contain any significant amount of gel or any significant reaction with oxygen.
In addition, European Patent Application No. 0047625 ("EPA '47625") describes a process whereby "[a] blend of polyethylene having a density in the range of 0.935–0.948 g/cm3 and 1–3%, by weight, of carbon black and which has been irradiated in an inert atmosphere while in the form of granules, is fed to an extruder, extruded in the form of pipe and cooled." See EPA '47625 abstract (emphasis added). "In a preferred embodiment the granules of polyethylene have been subjected to irradiation in an amount in the range of 0.05–0.75 Mrad [0.5–7.5 kGy] of irradiation and particularly 0.3–0.7 [3–7 kGy] of irradiation." Id. at 4 lines 27–30. "Gel formation, on irradiation, in amounts of more than 0.1% by weight, is outside the scope of this invention in the unlikely event that it should occur." Id. at 5lines 5–8. EPA '47625, therefore, teaches away from the irradiation of polyethylene under ambient atmosphere, teaches away from the irradiation of polyethylene in the absence of carbon black, teaches away from the generation of polyethylene with a gel content greater than 0.1% by weight and, finally, fails to recognize the benefits achieved using the irradiation conditions set forth herein.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,130,139 (the '139 patent") describes a method whereby "a uniform dispersion of carbon black in polyolefins is obtained by subjecting the polymer to ionizing radiation prior to its admixture with the carbon black." See the '139 patent col. 1 lines 41–45. "As little as 0.0005 megarad [0.005 kGy] . . . is effective to improve the uniformity of dispersion of carbon black in polyolefins. As much as 10 megarads [100 kGy] or more of ionizing radiations can be used for purposes of the present invention." Id. at col. 2 lines 10–15. The '139 patent fails to recognize the benefits obtained from irradiating polyethylene under the conditions set forth herein and, instead, utilizes a broad range of doses to further the dispersion of a single filler, carbon black, that is neither required nor preferred herein.
Finally, Great Britain Pat. No. 831,896 ("GB '896") "[r]elates to the production of heat treated irradiated polymeric materials and blends of such materials with fillers." See GB '896 p. 1 lines 10–12. The method comprises "subjecting a polymer of at least one 1-olefin . . . to a dosage of from 105 to 1011 roentgens [roughly 1 kGy to 1,000,000 kGy] of radiation, and thereafter heating the irradiated polymer to a temperature above its softening point." Id. at p. 1 lines 49–59. "[T]he resulting product exhibits an increase in elongation and a decrease in stiffness, density and tensile strength over that of either the un-irradiated or irradiated starting polymer." Id. at p.1 lines 19–24 (emphasis added). In the sole example, "test specimens were placed in aluminum cans which were swept out with nitrogen and then irradiated . . . ." Id. at p. 3 lines 112–115. GB '896 teaches away from the irradiation of polyethylene under ambient atmosphere and teaches away from benefits, such as increased tensile strength, obtained using the irradiation conditions described herein.
The inventors listed on this application have received prior patents relating to polymer irradiation including the following: South African Pat. No. 89/6852 ("S.A. 89/6852") entitled "Crosslinking of Polymeric Materials," South African Pat. No. 92/6738 ("S.A. 92/6738") entitled "Process For Coating A Substrate With A Film Of Thermoplastic Polymeric Material; and South African Pat. No. 98/9245 ("S.A. 98/9245") entitled "Crosslinking Of Polymeric Materials." In general, these patents are directed toward the use of multi-functional crosslinking agents in conjunction with irradiation. Furthermore, these patents fail to recognize the revolutionary impact of carefully controlled irradiation on the properties of polyethylene feedstock.

Radiation treated ethylene polymers and articles made from said polymers


A diagnostic article and method is disclosed wherein the article includes a mirror, a plurality of attribute selection sites arranged along or associated with the mirror with each of the sites having a plurality of choice selectors, and an output for recommending at least one personal care product based upon input from the choice selectors. A diagnostic for skin includes attribute selection sites hosting questions related to a customer's age, skin coloration, dryness, sunburn susceptibility, pimple breakout affinity, wrinkle formation and pore size. Hair, dental and underarm products may also be personalized by the diagnostic system. The mirror allows a customer in-store to more accurately answer attribute questions through reference to the customer's mirror reflection.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns an article and method whereby consumers can self-evaluate the most suitable personal care products for their body.
2. The Related Art
"Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?". So inquired the wicked witch of the Snow White story. Were the witch to have had benefit of a personalized skin analysis, perhaps the recommended cosmetic treatment could have elevated her to be the fairest. Alas, she blindly selected her cosmetics without an understanding of those most suitable to her skin type.
Clinique® has for some years provided a slide rule type diagnosis system for in-store advice. Based on answers to certain questions, a customer is directed to the appropriate cosmetic product(s).
In-store product recommendation charts based on customer input have not been very successful. Some of the systems are complicated to operate and interpret. Other systems fail to attract attention. Better systems are necessary than heretofore known for providing an easy to operate, easy to understand and attention grabbing mechanism which can recommend personalized product(s).

Article and method for selection of individualized personal care products

Unilever Home & Personal Care USA, division of Conopco, Inc.


A tire deflator and method of deflating a tire includes at least one support, a tire deflating device detachably secured to the at least one support and a deploying mechanism cooperating with the support and deploying the spike so as to be projected toward the tire of the vehicle and to penetrate and deflate the tire. The method of deflating the tire includes the steps of detachably securing a tire deflating device to the support, positioning the deploying mechanism in proximity with the support and activating the deploying mechanism so as to deploy the tire deflating device into the tire and deflate the tire. The degree to which the tire deflating device is deployed can be limited so that the tire deflating device does not become dislodged from a moving tire after being penetrated by the tire deflating device and thus does not create the potential of striking a bystander.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is based on U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/027,482, filed Sep. 25, 1996, which is directed to a tire deflating mechanism and method wherein a non-lethal, buried device is capable of deflating pneumatic tires by driving hollow steel spikes through the tire treads of a target vehicle. The method and apparatus uses pyrotechnic gas generators or gunpowder to propel spikes from sheaths through a thin layer of soil and into the tire carcass so as to eliminate the blast effect of conventional anti-vehicle mines so as to be useful for establishing anti-vehicle perimeters around military bases and other sensitive areas. The movement of the spike can be limited by the use of cooperating tubes or pistons forming the support for the spike or by the utilization of a short tether on each spike which limits the range of spikes not encountering the tire, while those that penetrate a tire will be pneumatically released from their connection with a support. Spikes that are tethered are releasable from their tethers by air pressure within the tire in a first embodiment. The present invention permits a spike to be impaled in a tire to separate and rotate with the tire, while those not encountering a tire will pose no danger beyond a distance approximately 6 inches above the ground. The interengaging tubes of the second embodiment versus the utilization of the tethers in the first embodiment serves to reduce the possibility of injuries to bystanders from flying spikes while retaining an effective tire deflating capability.
2. Discussion of the Background
Tire deflating mechanisms are known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,397, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference, which is directed to a tire deflator and method of deflating a tire of a moving vehicle that includes at least one support mechanism and a spike secured to the at least one support mechanism such that upon the tire of the moving vehicle being penetrated by the spike, both the spike and support mechanism rotate with the tire so as to allow for a rapid air depletion of the tire. The method shown therein includes the steps of securing the spike to the at least one support mechanism, positioning the support mechanism in a roadway and penetrating the tire with a spike such that the spike and support mechanism as an integral unit becomes secured to the tire and rotate with the tire after the tire is penetrated by the spike.
Other arrangements for deflating a tire include deployable vehicle barricades as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,577,991 and a retractable barrier strip as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,588, the disclosure of each of which is also incorporated herein by reference. Another road barrier preventing passage of vehicles is characterized by French Patent 2552793 which comprises a set of retractable spikes mounted on a rotatable shaft underneath the road surface. Such structure is, however, complicated in terms of the number of elements required and the manner of operation thereof which includes the need for a double action jack which operates hydraulically, pneumatically or electrically, and which must be situated in a channel in the ground.


The sewing machine includes an imaging unit, a conveyor portion, a processor, and a memory. The imaging unit has an image capture range, and is configured to capture an image of a holder member. The conveyor portion is configured to convey the holder member relative to the imaging unit in a first and a second direction. The processor performs processes. The processes include causing the imaging unit to capture the image of the holder member that has entered the image capture range. The processes include acquiring first image data that is data of a first image representing the image of the holder member. The processes include identifying a predetermined marker from the first image of the acquired first image data. The processes include determining whether an inclination angle of the holder member exceeds a predetermined value on the basis of a variable acquired on the basis of the identified marker.

The present disclosure relates to a sewing machine and a holder member.
A sewing machine provided with an imaging unit is known. The sewing machine is provided with an image sensor, a holder member, and a moving mechanism. The image sensor is one example of the imaging unit, and has a predetermined image capture region. The holder member has a rectangular shape in a plan view, and holds an object of image capture by the image sensor. One end portion of the holder member is inserted into the moving mechanism, and the holder member is mounted on the moving mechanism. The moving mechanism moves the holder member in an X direction and a Y direction. As a result, the moving member moves the object of image capture entering the image capture region of the image sensor. The sewing machine causes the image sensor to continuously capture images of the object of image capture. The sewing machine generates a composite image representing the entire object of image capture, by combining a plurality of partial images captured by the image sensor.


A three-wheeled cycle is provided that can be ridden in an upright position. The cycle can have a suspension system for traversing rough terrain and for traction when turning. The front wheels can have a steering assembly comprised of a two-piece steering arm that clamps the handlebar to the front fork and connection rod with linkage pins. Furthermore, the design of the cycle can be favorable for transport of additional cargo loads.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to cycles and, more particularly, to a three-wheeled cycle (tricycle) configured with two front wheels.
2. Description of Related Art
Since the early 1980's, bicycling has advanced for use in different terrains and for practical uses beyond simple transport and road racing. The concept of the mountain bike created a new recreational industry by allowing bicyclists to ride on trails and uneven ground that would be inaccessible to bicycles without suspensions and high ratio gearing. More recently, fat-tire bicycles have entered the industry to allow bicyclists to ride in snow and extend the bicycling season into winter in regions with snow fall. Delivery tricycles have been in use for decades in some countries and recent years have brought the introduction of the cargo cycle. These cycles are designed to support greater loads that would be dangerous on standard, short-wheelbase bicycles.
Three-wheeled and four-wheeled human powered designs (tricycles, quadracycles) have also evolved to address the comfort of the rider and stability at low speeds. Recumbent three-wheeled cycles have tremendous stability due to their low center of gravity keeping the rider close to the ground. Riders are safer in sudden stops and in sharp turns. Upright, three-wheel vehicles allow the rider to maintain the upright stance of a bicyclist without the need for balance at low speeds. Furthermore, some designs have addressed the problem of vertical stability by allowing the rider to lean into turns at higher speeds, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,708,291.
In recent years, people can choose from a variety of bicycles and tricycles to address specific transportation needs, but few if any offer the equivalent scope of utility of a pick-up truck that can work to carry loads as well as offer convenient transport on multiple surfaces and situations. Gas prices, traffic congestion, and environmental awareness have compelled more people to decisions about using mountain bikes, cargo bikes, recumbent tricycles, and upright tricycles as the means for short distance commuting and alternatives to other motorized transport.