Arrangement for transferring information between a vehicle and one or more transmitters separate from the vehicle includes an antenna mounted on the vehicle and capable of receiving radio frequency waves emitted by the transmitter and containing information, a position determining device for determining the position of the vehicle, and a processor coupled to the antenna and the position determining device and arranged to analyze the waves received by the antenna, determine whether any received waves contain information of interest for operation of the vehicle based on the vehicle's position as determined by the position determining device, and extract the information of interest only from the received waves determined to contain information of interest. The information of interest may be information about the transmitter such as its location, speed, velocity, etc., or information relating to road conditions, weather and the like.

A detailed discussion of background information is set forth in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 108/22,445 and is incorporated by reference herein. Some more pertinent background is set forth below. All of the patents, patent applications, technical papers and other references referenced therein are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Various patents, patent applications, patent publications and other published documents are discussed below as background of the invention. No admission is made that any or all of these references are prior art and indeed, it is contemplated that they may not be available as prior art when interpreting 35 U.S.C. §102 in consideration of the claims of the present application.
1. Communication With Other Vehicles
The RtZF system of this invention can incorporate vehicle to vehicle communication allowing vehicles to inform other vehicles of their location, velocity, mass etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 05,506,584 to Boles relates to a system for communication between vehicles through a transmit and transponder relationship. The patent mentions that there may be as many as 90 vehicles within one half mile of an interrogation device in a multi-lane environment, where many of them may be at the same or nearly the same range. Boles utilizes a transponder device, the coded responses which are randomized in time, and an interrogation device which processes the return signals to provide vehicle identification, speed, location and transponder status information on vehicles to an operator or for storage in memory. No mention is made of how a vehicle knows its location or how accurate that knowledge is and therefore how it can transmit that location to other vehicles.
U.S. Pat. No. 05,128,669 to Dabbs provides for 2-way communication and addressing messages to specific vehicles. This is unnecessary and the communications can be general since the amount of information that is unique to one vehicle is small. A method of handing bi-directional communication is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 05,506,584 to Boles. The preferred vehicle to vehicle communication system using pseudonoise techniques is more thoroughly discussed below.
In embodiments of the invention described herein, vehicle to vehicle communication is used, among other purposes, to allow the fact that one vehicle knows its position more accurately than another to use communication to cause the other vehicle to also improve the accuracy with which it knows its position.
2. Infrastructure to Vehicle Communication
The RtZF system of this invention can also incorporate communication from a vehicle to the infrastructure for a variety of reasons including obtaining the latest map updates, weather conditions, road conditions, speed limits, sign contents, accidents ahead, congestion ahead, construction, general internet access and for many other reasons.
The DGPS correction information can be broadcast over the radio data system (RDS) via FM transmitters for land use. A company called Differential Correction, Inc. has come up with a technique to transmit this DGPS information on the RDS channel. This technique has been used in Europe since 1994 and, in particular, Sweden has launched a nationwide DPGS service via the RDS (see, Sjoberg, Lars, "A '1 Meter' Satellite Based Navigation Solutions for the Mobile Environment That Already Are Available Throughout Europe"). This system has the potential of providing accuracies on the premium service of between about 1 and 2 meters. A 1 meter accuracy, coupled with the carrier phase system to be described below, provides an accuracy substantially better than about 1 meter as preferred in the Road to Zero Fatalities™ (RtZF™) system of this invention.
In addition to the FM RDS system, the following other systems can be used to broadcast DGPS correction data: cellular mobile phones, satellite mobile phones, satellite internet, WiFi, WiMAX, MCA (multi-channel access), wireless tele-terminals, DARCs/RBDS (radio data systems/radio broadcast data system), type FM sub-carrier, exclusive wireless, and pagers. In particular, DARC type is used for vehicle information and communication systems so that its hardware can be shared. Alternately, the cellular phone system, coupled with the Internet, could be used for transmitting corrections (see, Ito, Toru and Nishiguchi, Hiroshi entitled "Development of DGPS using FM Sub-Carrier For ITS"). Primarily, as discussed elsewhere, vehicle to vehicle communications can be used to transmit DGPS corrections from one vehicle to another whether the source is a central DGPS system or one based on PPS or other system.
One approach for the cellular system is to use the GSM mobile telephone system, which is the Europe-wide standard. This can be used for transmitting DGPS and possibly map update information (see, Hob, A., Ilg, J. and Hampel, A. entitled "Integration Potential Of Traffic Telematics).
In Choi, Jong and Kim, Hoi, "An Interim Report: Building A Wireless Internet-Based Traveler's Information System As A Replacement Of Car Navigation Systems", a system of showing congestion at intersections is broadcast to the vehicle through the Internet. The use of satellites is discussed as well as VCS system.
This is another example of the use of the Internet to provide highway users with up-to-date traffic congestion information. Nowhere in this example, however, is the Internet used to transmit map information. In fact, once there is an internet or equivalent connection to a vehicle then other information can be transmitted such as updated map information, weather and visibility, local conditions ahead, accident information, congestion information, DGPS corrections, etc. In fact, with a high bandwidth Internet connection, much of the computations, especially safety related computations, can best be done on the Internet where the system reliability would exceed that of a vehicle based system. The forecast that "the network is the computer" will begin to become reality. The crash of a safety related processor due to a software bug could not be tolerated in a safety related system and would be less likely to occur if the critical computations occur on the network. Furthermore, upgrades to vehicle based software also become feasible over such a high bandwidth connection.
A paper by Sheu, Dennis, Liaw, Jeff and Oshizawa, Al, entitled "A Communication System For In-Vehicle Navigation System" provides another description of the use of the Internet for real traffic information. However, the author (unnecessarily) complicates matters by using push technology which isn't absolutely necessary and with the belief that the Internet connection to a particular vehicle to allow all vehicles to communicate, would have to be stopped which, of course, is not the case. For example, consider the @home network where everyone on the network is connected all the time.
A paper by Rick Schuman entitled "Progress Towards Implementing Interoperable DSRC Systems In North America" describes the standards for dedicated short-range communications (DSRC). DSRC could be used for inter-vehicle communications, however, its range according to the ITS proposal to the Federal Government would be limited to about 90 meters although there have been recent proposals to extend this to about 1000 meters. Also, there may be a problem with interference from toll collection systems, etc. According to this reference, however, "it is likely that any widespread deployment of intersection collision avoidance or automated highways would utilize DSRC". Ultra wide band communication systems, on the other hand, are a viable alternative to DSRC as explained below. The DSRC physical layer uses microwaves in the 902 to 928 megahertz band. However, ITS America submitted a petition to the FCC seeking to use the 5.85 to 5.925 gigahertz band for DSRC applications.
A version of CDPD, which is a commercially available mobile, wireless data network operated in the packet-switching mode, extends Internet protocol capabilities to cellular channels. This is reported on in a paper entitled "Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Opportunity".
According to a paper by Kelly, Robert, Povich, Doublas and Poole, Katherine entitled "Petition of Intelligent Transportation Society of America for Amendment Of The Commission's Rules to Add Intelligent Transportation Services (ITS) As A New Mobile Service With Co-Primary Status In The 5.850 to 5.925 GHz", from 1989 to 1993 police received an annual average of over 6.25 million vehicle accident reports. During this same period, the total comprehensive cost to the nation of motor vehicle accidents exceeded the annual average of 400 billion dollars. In 1987 alone, Americans lost over 2 billion hours (approximately 22,800 years) sitting in traffic jams. Each driver in Washington D.C. wastes an average of 70 hours per year idling in traffic. From 1986 to 1996, car travel has increased almost 40% which amounts to about a 3.4% increase per year.
Further, from Kelly et al., the FCC has allocated in Docket 94-124, 46.7 to 46.9 GHz and 76 to 77 GHz bands for unlicensed vehicular collision avoidance radar. The petition for DSRC calls for a range of up to about 50 meters. This would not be sufficient for the RtZF™ system. For example, in the case of a car passing another car at 150 kilometers per hour. Fifty meters amounts to about one second, which would be insufficient time for the passing vehicle to complete the passing and return to the safe lane. Something more in the order of about 500 meters would be more appropriate. This, however, may interfere with other uses of DSRC such as automatic toll taking, etc., thus DSRC may not be the optimum communication system for communication between vehicles. DSRC is expected to operate at a data rate of approximately 600 kbps. DSRC is expected to use channels that are six megahertz wide. It might be possible to allocate one or more of the six megahertz channels to the RtZF™ system.
On DSRC Executive Roundtable—Meeting Summary, Appendix I—Proposed Changes to FCC Regulations covering the proposed changes to the FCC regulations, it is stated that ". . . DSRCS systems utilize non-voice radio techniques to transfer data over short distances between roadside and mobile units, between mobile units and between portable and mobile units to perform operations related to the improvement of traffic flow, traffic safety and other intelligent transportation service applications . . . ", etc.
A state or the Federal Government may require in the future that all vehicles have passive transponders such as RFID tags. This could be part of the registration system for the vehicle and, in fact, could even be part of the license plate. This is somewhat discussed in a paper by Shladover, Steven entitled "Cooperative Advanced Vehicle Control and Safety Systems (AVCSS)". AVCSS sensors will make it easy to detect the presence, location and identity of all other vehicles in their vicinity. Passive radio frequency transponders are discussed. The use of differential GPS with accuracies as good as about two (2) centimeters, coupled with an inertial guidance system, is discussed, as is the ability of vehicles to communicate their locations to other vehicles. It discusses the use of accurate maps, but not of lateral vehicle control using these maps. It is obvious from reading this paper that the author did not contemplate the safety system aspects of using accurate maps and accurate GPS. In fact, the author stresses the importance of cooperation between various government levels and agencies and the private sector in order to make AVCSS feasible. "Automotive suppliers cannot sell infrastructure-dependent systems to their customers until the very large majority of the infrastructure is suitable equipped."
3. Limitations of the Prior Art
Previous inventions have attempted to solve the collision avoidance problem for each vehicle independently of the other vehicles on the roadway. Systems that predict vehicle trajectories generally fail because two vehicles can be on a collision course and within the last 0.1 second a slight change of direction avoids the collision. This is a common occurrence that depends on the actions of the individual drivers and no collision avoidance system now in existence is believed to be able to differentiate this case from an actual collision. In the present invention described below, every equipped vehicle will be confined to a corridor and to a position within that corridor where the corridor depends on sub-meter accurate digital maps. Only if that vehicle deviates from the corridor will an alarm sound or the vehicle control system take over control of the vehicle sufficiently to prevent the vehicle from leaving its corridor if an accident would result from the departure from that corridor.
Additionally, no prior art system is believed to have successfully used the GPS navigational system, or an augmented DGPS to locate a vehicle on a roadway with sufficient accuracy that that information can be used to prevent the equipped vehicle from leaving the roadway or striking another similarly equipped vehicle.
Prior art systems in addition to being poor at locating potential hazards on the roadway, have not been able to ascertain whether they are in fact on the roadway or off on the side, whether they are threatening vehicles, static signs, overpasses etc. In fact, no credible attempt to date has been made to identify or categorize objects which may impact the subject vehicle.
The RtZF™ system in accordance with this invention also contemplates a different kind of interrogating system. It is optionally based on scanning infrared laser radar, terahertz radar with or without range gating. This system, when used in conjunction with accurate maps, will permit a precise imaging of an object on the road in front of the vehicle, for example, permitting it to be identified (using neural networks) and its location, velocity and the probability of a collision to be determined.
In particular, the system of this invention is particularly effective in eliminating accidents at intersections caused by drivers running stop signs, red stoplights and turning into oncoming traffic. There are approximately one million such accidents and they are the largest killer in older drivers who frequently get confused at intersections.
4. Definitions
"Pattern recognition" as used herein will generally mean any system which processes a signal that is generated by an object (e.g., representative of a pattern of returned or received impulses, waves or other physical property specific to and/or characteristic of and/or representative of that object) or is modified by interacting with an object, in order to determine to which one of a set of classes that the object belongs. Such a system might determine only that the object is or is not a member of one specified class, or it might attempt to assign the object to one of a larger set of specified classes, or find that it is not a member of any of the classes in the set. The signals processed are generally a series of electrical signals coming from transducers that are sensitive to acoustic (ultrasonic) or electromagnetic radiation (e.g., visible light, infrared radiation, capacitance or electric and/or magnetic fields), although other sources of information are frequently included. Pattern recognition systems generally involve the creation of a set of rules that permit the pattern to be recognized. These rules can be created by fuzzy logic systems, statistical correlations, or through sensor fusion methodologies as well as by trained pattern recognition systems such as neural networks, combination neural networks, cellular neural networks or support vector machines.
"Neural network" as used herein, unless stated otherwise, will generally mean a single neural network, a combination neural network, a cellular neural network, a support vector machine or any combinations thereof. For the purposes herein, a "neural network" is defined to include all such learning systems including cellular neural networks, support vector machines and other kernel-based learning systems and methods, cellular automata and all other pattern recognition methods and systems that learn. A "combination neural network" as used herein will generally apply to any combination of two or more neural networks as most broadly defined that are either connected together or that analyze all or a portion of the input data.
A trainable or a trained pattern recognition system as used herein generally means a pattern recognition system that is taught to recognize various patterns constituted within the signals by subjecting the system to a variety of examples. The most successful such system is the neural network used either singly or as a combination of neural networks. Thus, to generate the pattern recognition algorithm, test data is first obtained which constitutes a plurality of sets of returned waves, or wave patterns, or other information radiated or obtained from an object (or from the space in which the object will be situated in the passenger compartment, i.e., the space above the seat) and an indication of the identify of that object. A number of different objects are tested to obtain the unique patterns from each object. As such, the algorithm is generated, and stored in a computer processor, and which can later be applied to provide the identity of an object based on the wave pattern being received during use by a receiver connected to the processor and other information. For the purposes here, the identity of an object sometimes applies to not only the object itself but also to its location and/or orientation and velocity in the vicinity of the vehicle. For example, a vehicle that is stopped but pointing at the side of the host vehicle is different from the same vehicle that is approaching at such a velocity as to impact the host vehicle. Not all pattern recognition systems are trained systems and not all trained systems are neural networks. Other pattern recognition systems are based on fuzzy logic, sensor fusion, Kalman filters, correlation as well as linear and non-linear regression. Still other pattern recognition systems are hybrids of more than one system such as neural-fuzzy systems.
The use of pattern recognition, or more particularly how it is used, is important to the instant invention. In the above-cited prior art, except in that assigned to the current assignee, pattern recognition which is based on training, as exemplified through the use of neural networks, is not mentioned for use in monitoring the interior passenger compartment or exterior environments of the vehicle in all of the aspects of the invention disclosed herein. Thus, the methods used to adapt such systems to a vehicle are also not mentioned.
A pattern recognition algorithm will thus generally mean an algorithm applying or obtained using any type of pattern recognition system, e.g., a neural network, sensor fusion, fuzzy logic, etc.
To "identify" as used herein will generally mean to determine that the object belongs to a particular set or class. The class may be one containing, for example, all motorcycles, one containing all trees, or all trees in the path of the host vehicle depending on the purpose of the system.
To "ascertain the identity of" as used herein with reference to an object will generally mean to determine the type or nature of the object (obtain information as to what the object is), i.e., that the object is an car, a car on a collision course with the host vehicle, a truck, a tree, a pedestrian, a deer etc.
A "rear seat" of a vehicle as used herein will generally mean any seat behind the front seat on which a driver sits. Thus, in minivans or other large vehicles where there are more than two rows of seats, each row of seats behind the driver is considered a rear seat and thus there may be more than one "rear seat" in such vehicles. The space behind the front seat includes any number of such rear seats as well as any trunk spaces or other rear areas such as are present in station wagons.
An "optical image" will generally mean any type of image obtained using electromagnetic radiation including visual, infrared, terahertz and radar radiation.
In the description herein on anticipatory sensing, the term "approaching" when used in connection with the mention of an object or vehicle approaching another will usually mean the relative motion of the object toward the vehicle having the anticipatory sensor system. Thus, in a side impact with a tree, the tree will be considered as approaching the side of the vehicle and impacting the vehicle. In other words, the coordinate system used in general will be a coordinate system residing in the target vehicle. The "target" vehicle is the vehicle that is being impacted. This convention permits a general description to cover all of the cases such as where (i) a moving vehicle impacts into the side of a stationary vehicle, (ii) where both vehicles are moving when they impact, or (iii) where a vehicle is moving sideways into a stationary vehicle, tree or wall.
"Vehicle" as used herein includes any container that is movable either under its own power or using power from another vehicle. It includes, but is not limited to, automobiles, trucks, railroad cars, ships, airplanes, trailers, shipping containers, barges, etc. The word "container" will frequently be used interchangeably with vehicle however a container will generally mean that part of a vehicle that separate from and in some cases may exist separately and away from the source of motive power. Thus a shipping container may exist in a shipping yard and a trailer may be parked in a parking lot without the tractor. The passenger compartment or a trunk of an automobile, on the other hand, are compartments of a container that generally only exists attaches to the vehicle chassis that also has an associated engine for moving the vehicle. Note a container can have one or a plurality of compartments.
"Out-of-position" as used for an occupant will generally mean that the occupant, either the driver or a passenger, is sufficiently close to an occupant protection apparatus (airbag) prior to deployment that he or she is likely to be more seriously injured by the deployment event itself than by the accident. It may also mean that the occupant is not positioned appropriately in order to attain the beneficial, restraining effects of the deployment of the airbag. As for the occupant being too close to the airbag, this typically occurs when the occupant's head or chest is closer than some distance such as about 5 inches from the deployment door of the airbag module. The actual distance where airbag deployment should be suppressed depends on the design of the airbag module and is typically farther for the passenger airbag than for the driver airbag.
"Transducer" or "transceiver" as used herein will generally mean the combination of a transmitter and a receiver. In come cases, the same device will serve both as the transmitter and receiver while in others two separate devices adjacent to each other will be used. In some cases, a transmitter is not used and in such cases transducer will mean only a receiver. Transducers include, for example, capacitive, inductive, ultrasonic, electromagnetic (antenna, CCD, CMOS arrays, laser, radar transmitter, terahertz transmitter and receiver, focal plane array, pin or avalanche diode, etc.), electric field, weight measuring or sensing devices. In some cases, a transducer will be a single pixel either acting alone, in a linear or an array of some other appropriate shape. In some cases, a transducer may comprise two parts such as the plates of a capacitor or the antennas of an electric field sensor. Sometimes, one antenna or plate will communicate with several other antennas or plates and thus for the purposes herein, a transducer will be broadly defined to refer, in most cases, to any one of the plates of a capacitor or antennas of a field sensor and in some other cases a pair of such plates or antennas will comprise a transducer as determined by the context in which the term is used.
"Adaptation" as used here will generally represent the method by which a particular occupant or vehicle or other object sensing system is designed and arranged for a particular vehicle model. It includes such things as the process by which the number, kind and location of various transducers is determined. For pattern recognition systems, it includes the process by which the pattern recognition system is designed and then taught or made to recognize the desired patterns. In this connection, it will usually include (1) the method of training when training is used, (2) the makeup of the databases used, testing and validating the particular system, or, in the case of a neural network, the particular network architecture chosen, (3) the process by which environmental influences are incorporated into the system, and (4) any process for determining the pre-processing of the data or the post processing of the results of the pattern recognition system. The above list is illustrative and not exhaustive. Basically, adaptation includes all of the steps that are undertaken to adapt transducers and other sources of information to a particular vehicle to create the system that accurately identifies and/or determines the location of an occupant or other object in a vehicle or in the environment around the vehicle.
A "morphological characteristic" will generally mean any measurable property of a human such as height, weight, leg or arm length, head diameter, skin color or pattern, blood vessel pattern, voice pattern, finger prints, iris patterns, etc.
A "wave sensor" or "wave transducer" is generally any device which senses either ultrasonic or electromagnetic waves. An electromagnetic wave sensor, for example, includes devices that sense any portion of the electromagnetic spectrum from ultraviolet down to a few hertz. The most commonly used kinds of electromagnetic wave sensors include CCD and CMOS arrays for sensing visible and/or infrared waves, millimeter wave and microwave radar, and capacitive or electric and/or magnetic field monitoring sensors that rely on the dielectric constant of the object occupying a space but also rely on the time variation of the field, expressed by waves as defined below, to determine a change in state.
A "CCD" will be defined to include all devices, including CMOS arrays, APS arrays, QWIP arrays or equivalent, artificial retinas and particularly HDRC arrays, which are capable of converting light frequencies, including infrared, visible and ultraviolet, into electrical signals. The particular CCD array used for many of the applications disclosed herein is implemented on a single chip that is less than two centimeters on a side. Data from the CCD array is digitized and sent serially to an electronic circuit (at times designated 120 herein) containing a microprocessor for analysis of the digitized data. In order to minimize the amount of data that needs to be stored, initial processing of the image data takes place as it is being received from the CCD array, as discussed in more detail above. In some cases, some image processing can take place on the chip such as described in the Kage et al. artificial retina article referenced above.
The "windshield header" as used herein includes the space above the front windshield including the first few inches of the roof.
An "occupant protection apparatus" is any device, apparatus, system or component which is actuatable or deployable or includes a component which is actuatable or deployable for the purpose of attempting to reduce injury to the occupant in the event of a crash, rollover or other potential injurious event involving a vehicle
Inertial measurement unit (IMU), inertial navigation system (INS) and inertial reference unit (IRU) will in general be used be used interchangeably to mean a device having a plurality of accelerometers and a plurality of gyroscopes generally within the same package. Usually such a device will contain 3 accelerometers and 3 gyroscopes. In some cases a distinction will be made whereby the INS relates to an IMU or an IRU plus additional sensors and software such as a GPS, speedometer, odometer or other sensors plus optimizing software which may be based on a Kalman filter.
A precise positioning system or PPS is a system based on some information, usually of a physical nature, in the infrastructure that determines the precise location of a vehicle independently of a GPS based system or the IMU. Such a system is employed as a vehicle is traveling and passes a particular location. A PPS can make use of various technologies including radar, laser radar, terahertz radar, RFID tags located in the infrastructure, MIR transmitters and receivers. Such locations are identified on a map database resident within the vehicle. In one case, for example, the map database contains data from a terahertz radar continuous scan of the environment to the side of a vehicle from a device located on a vehicle and pointed 45 degrees up relative to the horizontal plane. The map database contains the exact location of the vehicle that corresponds to the scan. Another vehicle can then determine its location by comparing its scan data with that stored with the map database and when there is a match, the vehicle knows its location. Of course many other technologies can be used to accomplish a similar result.

Intelligent Technologies International, Inc.


In some aspects, the invention features a door stop. In some embodiments, the door stop can be used to lock doors open. The door stop can include a base having first and second contact surfaces. The base can be positionable in an open position. In the open position, the first contact surface can contact a door jamb, a first hinge plate, or both. In the open position, the second contact surface can contact a hinged edge of a door, a second hinge plate, or both. The base can include a third contact surface. The third contact surface can be configured to contact a frame stop when the base is positioned in the open position. The third contact surface can be generally perpendicular to the first contact surface.

Door stops for maintaining doors in an open position have existed for some time. Door stops have many applications. Fire fighters often use them to prop open doors while fighting fires to make sure that equipment (e.g., hoses) and people are able to move from room to room without hindrance.
Door stops can also be used for security purposes. People tend to be less likely to engage in illicit conduct if they know that their conduct is not entirely private. Based on this principle, propping doors open with door stops can enhance security in some circumstances. For example, hotel maids are often instructed to prop doors open while cleaning hotel rooms in order to guard against the possibility of a person following them into a room, closing the door, and attacking them.


When an error occurs in a memory card of a computer system, error information having an error occurrence time, a number of a memory card in which the error has occurred, and an error status are sequentially stored as the error history information in a random access memory (RAM) connected to a system bus in the computer system. A number of errors of the memory card on which the error has occurred and an interval between the errors are calculated based on the error history information. When the calculation results deviate from each predetermined value, the memory card is deleted (e.g., disconnected from a memory board of the computer system) as having an intermittent fault or a high frequency of fault occurrence. During access to the memory, by referring to an address decode register, a memory card number is identified from the most-significant portion of the address.

The present invention relates to a memory and method in a computer system, and more particularly to a memory board and method which deletes (e.g., disconnects) a memory card upon, for example, an intermittent fault and/or a non-fatal fault.
In a conventional memory, a memory block is separated by detecting an error due to a fixed fault of a memory. In the conventional memory, an access to the separated memory block is prevented by registering a column address and a row number of the separated block in a delete column address register and a delete row address register.
In the conventional memory, a fault in a memory block is detected by one of checking a memory block during system start-up and a parity check during system operation. Therefore, a fault can be detected by these checks if the fault is a fixed fault. On the other hand, when a fault is an intermittent fault, the operation can be continued as long as a fault is not detected by checking.
With respect to contents of a fault, when an error due to a fault has a plurality of bit errors (e.g., errors in two or more bits) simultaneously, they are processed as a fault which cannot be recovered and are thus fatal. However, when a fault error has one bit error, an operation can be continued even if it is not processed as a fatal error because recovery is possible.
However, if an error is detected frequently, system reliability may be poor even if the error is due to an intermittent fault. The memory having an intermittent fault which is detected frequently may eventually cause a fatal fault even if the memory initially does not have a fatal fault. Thus, the memory lowers system reliability and requires time for recovering the fault (e.g., correcting the error), thereby deteriorating the system performance.

Computer system including memory and method for disconnecting memory card having predetermined fault


A switched capacitor narrow band pass filter includes a first switch including a first pole movable between two first switch terminals, a second switch including a second pole moveable between second switch terminals, and a third switch including additional poles movable between third switch terminals. The filter further includes an effective capacitor coupled to the first pole and a plurality of matchinq capacitors coupled respectively to the second and third switch terminals. The additional poles are coupled to the third switch terminals according to a first predetermined sequence and to the third switch terminals at a predetermined frequency. A differential amplifier assembly includes two positive and two negative terminals coupled to the additional poles in a second predetermined sequence wherein two of the additional poles are coupled to the positive terminals and two others of the additional poles are coupled to the negative terminals for signal summation.

This invention relates to a power line communication system, and more particularly to a power line communication system utilizing a local area network to relay utility usage data to a transmitting meter for transmission to a central database.
A power line communication system typically transmits and receives data over standard electrical house type wiring. An example of such a system is the remote intercom system using electrical wiring within a building to communicate data between the transmitter and receiver. A system such as this does not communicate with an external database, nor does it communicate between two or more buildings.
Utility meter communication systems exist that communicate with a central database by way of a radio frequency transmitter. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,495,239 discloses a system in which utility meter electronics communicate with a remote interrogator in a vehicle as it approaches the utility meter in a building. Additionally, utility meter communication systems exist which are able to communicate via telephone with a central database as is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,833,618. Utility meters in these utility meter communication systems lack the ability to communicate with one another and consequently, each utility meter must communicate with the central database or mobile interrogator. It would be desirable for utility meters within a utility meter communication network to have the capability of communicating with one another between multiple buildings. Additionally, there exists a need for a power line utility meter communication system with the capability of communicating with other utility meters within a local area network and communicating with a central database.
Present utility meter communication devices employ several electronic parts which result in a high cost of acquisition and maintenance of the communication module. It is desirable to have a utility meter communications system with relatively few parts that communicates with other utility meters and that can be constructed cheaply, and that require little maintenance.


In a data reprogramming system, a receiving unit receives a plurality of items of data for use in reprogramming. The plurality of items of data are sent to the receiving unit. The plurality of items of data are respectively attached with the same identifier. A data extracting unit verifies the received plurality of items of data and extracts at least one item of the data as validated data upon determination that the at least one item of the data meets a predetermined rule against at least one remaining item of the data based on the verified result.

A plurality of electronic control units (ECUs) are normally installed in a vehicle. For example, the ECUs include an engine control unit for controlling fuel injection of an engine installed in a vehicle and a brake control unit for controlling a brake system installed therein.
Each of the ECUs is equipped with a nonvolatile memory in which a control program and control data used to control at least one target device installed in the vehicle are stored in advance. Specifically, each ECU is programmed to execute the control program based on the control data and/or signals measured by in-vehicle sensors and sent therefrom, thereby controlling the corresponding target device in accordance with the control program; these measured signals represent the operating condition of the vehicle.
Descriptions of such control program and control data associated therewith stored in the nonvolatile memory may be required to be reprogrammed with a version upgrade of the control program.
In this case, a circuit board (on which an ECU whose control program and control data associated therewith are targets for reprogramming is mounted) is retrieved from the vehicle, and thereafter, the retrieved ECU and a proper external tool are connected via a cable to be communicable therebetween. Thereafter, communications between the ECU and the external tool allow the control program and/or the control data to be reprogrammed.
However, it may take a lot of trouble and time to use the control program and data reprogramming method set forth above.
In order to solve the problem, a control unit is conventionally disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H05-195859.
Specifically, in the Publication, an external management center stores in advance VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) codes of vehicles to be managed and version information indicative of a specific version of a control program (software item) that are used to distinguish this version from other versions. When receiving a request for reprogramming at least one item in the control program and the control data, a control unit installed in a vehicle wirelessly communicates with the management center to obtain reprogramming data therefrom. Next, the control unit reprograms the at least one item stored in a rewritable region of the nonvolatile memory based on the reprogramming data. Installation of the above-structured control unit in a vehicle allows a control program and control data stored therein to be very simply updated.
If the control unit is configured such that a control program and control data stored therein are unconditionally reprogrammable, unauthorized reprogramming and/or illegal modification may be made, resulting in vehicle-performance deterioration and/or environmental damage due to vehicle emission deterioration, such as emissions of NOx (Nitrous Oxides), HC (Hydrocarbons), and CO (Carbon Monoxide) exceeding the legal emission standards.
In order to avoid such unauthorized reprogramming and/or illegal modification, the control unit disclosed in the Publication is configured to receive an identifier (identification code) identifying, as a target to be reprogrammed, at least one of the vehicles to be managed; this identifier has been sent together with the reprogramming data.
In addition, the control unit is configured to determine whether the received identification code and a code, such as a VIN code specifying the vehicle and stored therein. If it is determined that the received identification code and the specifying code coincide with each other, the control unit is configured to perform control program and data reprogramming operations based on the reprogramming data.
In the conventional control unit, the control program and data reprogramming operations can be performed on the condition that the received identification code and the specifying code coincide with each other. This allows the security level of the control unit associated with the control program and data reprogramming to be highly maintained.
Control units of this type designed to wirelessly communicate with the management center to obtain the reprogramming data are more frequently accessed from external devices than previous control units designed to communicate with an external tool via a cable to obtain the reprogramming data therefrom. The high frequency of access may cause an identification code together with unauthorized data and/or illegal modified data to coincide with a specifying code of the vehicle. The match between the identification code together with the unauthorized data and/or illegal modified data and the specifying code of the vehicle by accident or intention may cause a control program and control data to be reprogrammed based on the unauthorized data and/or illegal modified data.
Specifically, the accidental or intended match of these codes may cause vehicle-performance deterioration and/or environmental damage due to vehicle emission deterioration, such as emissions of NOx, HC, and CO exceeding the legal emission standards.


Disclosed are a system and a method for complementing a position of a vehicle and an apparatus for controlling complementing a position of a vehicle that select a representative vehicle within divided areas and complement a position of an own vehicle from a representative vehicle by using a DGPS complementation signal received through vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communication.

A global positioning system (GPS) called satellite navigation equipment or a satellite locating system, which is a locating technology globally used, is one of the locating systems having the highest precision among locating systems which have been developed up to now.
However, in general, an error range in positioning using the GPS is 5 to 15 m and since an error of up to 30 m may be shown, performance required in general vehicle safety technology cannot be satisfied.
By considering such a point, a differential global positioning system (DGPS) is widely used in a vehicle safety technology field.
The DGPS as a GPS measurement technique of a relative positioning type complements elements that cause an error by using a reference point coordinate which has been already known and acquires more accurate positional information by maximally reducing the error.
However, since the DGPS has a limitation in that a service providing area is restricted by coverage of a base station and a position where a commercial DGPS complementation signal is serviced is too distant from the base station, positional accuracy cannot be enhanced even though the DGPS is used.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-089353 discloses a system for complementing a GPS signal of an own vehicle by receiving a DGPS signal from a road-side unit (RSU). However, this system has a problem in that traffic is significantly increased because all vehicles directly receive the DGPS signal from the road-side unit.

Apparatus for controlling complementing position of vehicle, and system and method for complementing position of vehicle with the said apparatus


The present invention relates to secondary electrolytic cells, and more particularly, to lithium ion electrolytic cells with an inorganic binder and an associated process for fabrication of same. A binder material is mixed with an active material for eventual application onto the surface of a first and/or second electrode. The binder material is soluble with the active material yet insoluble with respect to the associated organic electrolyte.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to secondary electrolytic cells, and more particularly, to lithium ion electrolytic cells with an inorganic binder and a process for fabricating same.
2. Background Art
Lithium ion electrolytic cells (such as lithium ion secondary batteries) have been known in the art for several years. Furthermore, lithium cells which utilize anode and cathode materials binded with organic polymers, such as PVDF, EPDM, and some fluorine-containing copolymers, are similarly well known in the art.
While the use of organic binders is well established in lithium ion cells--they nonetheless have some known limitations in terms of cell/battery performance. Indeed, when organic binders are utilized, physical and/or chemical instability can result due to, for example, solubility of a portion of the binder with the electrolyte--inasmuch as electrolytes used in lithium ion batteries are also made of organic compounds. Accordingly, such solubility can result in premature degradation of the binder (and electrode), and, in turn loss of adhesion of the active material to the associated current collector/electrode.
Additionally, when an organic binder is used to fabricate an electrode and to have it adhere to the current collector, it becomes necessary to use organic solvents--when actually mixing the binder with the active material paste/coating. Accordingly, after applying a coating of the mixed active material/binder to the current collector, and prior to completed fabrication of the cell, any remaining organic solvent must be removed. Failure to do so could result in a substantial loss of cell capacity and diminished cycle life.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a lithium ion electrolytic cell having a binder material with excellent physical and chemical stability.
It is further the object of the present invention to provide a unique process for preparing an electrode for use with an inorganic binder.
These and other objects will become apparent in light of the present Specification, Claims and Drawings.

Lithium ion electrolytic cell and method for fabricating same


Connection-oriented services for packet switched data communications networks are provided, including distributed MAC and protocol alias addresses discovery. Link state topology exchanges provide each switch with network topology graphs to determine paths from source to destination end systems. Broadcast frames are resolved to unicast frames to reduce broadcast traffic. Policy restrictions may be applied prior to connection setup. Connection management includes source-routed mapping of connections on the desired path. Distributed call rerouting is provided so switches receive topology change notifications and unmap failed link connections. Broadcast/unknown services provide non-resolvable packet restricted flooding. Connection-oriented switching is provided based on source and destination MAC addresses. Resolution of networks outside the switch domain is enabled by listening for network and server route advertisements and maintaining best routes to the networks and servers. Route and path metrics may be combined to determine paths from access switches to egress switches connected to the external network.

Most data communications networks today rely heavily on shared-media, packet-based LAN technologies for both access and backbone connections. These networks use bridges and routers to connect multiple LANs into global internets.
A router-based, shared-media network cannot provide the high bandwidth and quality of service required by the latest networking applications and new faster workstations. For example, multimedia and full-motion video applications consume large amounts of bandwidth and require real-time delivery. Another high bandwidth application involves transmission of X-ray and other diagnostic information to enable doctors in different locations to consult while accessing the same patient information. Yet another application is "collaborative" engineering, i.e., allowing multiple engineers to work on the same project simultaneously while at different geographic locations. Thus, networks once used primarily for sending text files and E-mail or sharing common databases, are now being pushed to their limits as more users push more data across them.
One way to provide additional bandwidth on a given network segment is with larger shared-media pipes, such as FDDI or Fast Ethernet; however, this does not enable the application of policy or restricted access to the enhanced network resources. Alternatively, a network can be further segmented with additional router or bridge ports; however, this increases the cost of the network and the complexity of its management and configuration.
Switched networking is a proposed solution intended to provide additional bandwidth and quality of service. In such networks, the physical routers and hubs are replaced by switches and a management system is optionally provided for monitoring the configuration of the switches. The overall goal is to provide a scalable high-performance network where all links between switches can be used concurrently for connections.
One proposal is to establish a VLAN switch domain—a VLAN is a "logical" or "virtual" LAN in which users appear to be on the same physical (or extended) LAN segment, even though they may be geographically separated. However, many VLAN implementations restrict VLAN assignments to ports, rather than end systems, which limits the effectiveness of the VLAN groupings. Other limitations of existing VLAN implementations include excessive broadcast traffic (which consume both network bandwidth and end system CPU bandwidth), disallowing transmissions out multiple ports, hop-by-hop switching determinations, and requiring multi-protocol routers to enable transmission between separate VLANs. Another problem with many VLAN switched, networks is that although they allow a meshed topology, none of the redundant links can be active at the same time. Generally, the active links are determined by a spanning tree algorithm which finds one loop-free tree-based path through the network. Unfortunately, any links or nodes not in the active tree path are placed in standby.
Thus, there are numerous limitations with many prior switched communications networks.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Distributed connection-oriented services for switched communication networks


An apparatus for dissipating heat generated by an electronic device and a method for mounting the apparatus to an electronic device are disclosed. The apparatus includes a heat transfer body which is mounted in proximity to an electronic device. In addition, the apparatus includes an adhesive distributed on the heat transfer body, which affixes the heat transfer body in proximity to the electronic device. The adhesive is distributed on the heat transfer body such that heat transfer from the electronic device to the heat transfer body occurs substantially independently from the adhesive. The apparatus further includes a thermally conductive material disposed between the electronic device and the heat transfer body. The thermally conductive material is selected to maximize heat transfer from the electronic device to the heat transfer body.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to thermal management of electronic devices and in particular to a heat dissipation apparatus for an electronic device. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a heat sink apparatus and method for attaching the heat sink apparatus to an electronic device, wherein the heat sink apparatus is mechanically attached to the electronic device by adhesive and thermally coupled to the electronic device by a thermally conductive material.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the performance requirements for computers and other electronic equipment increase, the integrated circuit (IC) components comprising the electronic equipment operate at higher power and are manufactured at increased device densities. As a result, greater emphasis is being placed on the utilization of heat sinks and other means for managing the thermal environment of the IC components.
A conventional package for an IC chip includes a substrate to which the chip is electrically connected and a cap which seals the chip within the package. In addition, the package typically includes a thermal paste sandwiched between the cap and the upper chip surface which conducts heat from the chip to the cap. Packages for high-power chips often utilize a heat sink attached to the package cap to enhance the efficiency of heat transfer from the package cap to the surrounding environment, thereby maintaining the temperature of the chip within the recommended operating temperature range.
As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, heat sinks can be attached to IC packages by a variety of means, including clamps, screws, and other hardware, as well as thermally conductive adhesives. Because of the package-dependence of clamp or screw-mounted heat sinks and the additional labor required to attach clamp and screw-mounted heat sinks to packages, electronic device manufacturers often prefer utilizing adhesive-mounted heat sinks in order to minimize production costs. However, because materials having desirable adhesive properties typically do not have a high thermal conductivity, it is difficult to provide a high performance heat sink at a low cost.
Consequently, it would be desirable to provide an improved heat sink apparatus and method for attaching a heat sink apparatus to an electronic device which enable a high thermal performance heat sink apparatus to be assembled with minimal labor utilizing low-cost materials.

Heat dissipation apparatus and method for attaching a heat dissipation apparatus to an electronic device

International Business Machines Corporation


An optical system for arranging between a light source and a field diaphragm in an illumination beam path of a microscope comprises n imaging optical elements with focal lengths fi and Abbe numbers νi (i=1, . . . , n). The following relationship is met for the optical system:

a) Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an optical system for an illumination device of a microscope.
b) Description of the Related Art
To examine a specimen with a microscope, the specimen is usually illuminated by means of an illumination arrangement. In transmitted illumination, the light of the illumination arrangement is radiated through the specimen, whereas in incident illumination the illumination arrangement radiates light on the surface of the specimen that is examined by means of the microscope. Different requirements are imposed on the illumination arrangement for different illumination situations in incident light studies, for example, illumination for fluorescence microscopy at different wavelengths, darkfield illumination, white-light incident illumination, or structured incident illumination at different wavelengths.
In view of the different requirements for incident illumination, the construction shown schematically in FIG. 1 has proven useful. An illumination unit 1 with a light source 2 radiates a bundle of light rays on an optical system 4 with a collector 3 that images the light source 2 to infinity. First partial optics 5 generate an intermediate image of the light source 2 in an intermediate image plane and the intermediate image is imaged to infinity by second partial optics 6. The bundle of light rays exiting from the second partial optics 6 is deflected by a tube lens 7 and a semitransparent mirror 8 to the objective 9 and, after passing through the objective 9, illuminates an object 10. In conformity to the basic rules of Köhler illumination, an aperture diaphragm 11 is arranged in the intermediate image plane between the partial optics 5 and 6. The second partial optics 6 and the tube lens 7 image the intermediate image of the light source 2 in the objective pupil 12. This construction makes it possible to place a field diaphragm 13 in a plane in which a sharp intermediate image of the objective image is formed, namely, in the focal plane of the tube lens 7. Since a diffraction-limited intermediate image of the objective image is present in this plane, structures can be arranged which are then imaged with absolute sharpness on the object.
As a rule, neither the collector nor the partial optics are achromatic for reasons of cost. This leads to severe longitudinal chromatic aberrations of the light source image in the objective pupil. Particularly in illumination for fluorescence studies, these longitudinal chromatic aberrations cause a highly inhomogeneous illumination of the object field. This can only be avoided by readjusting the light source every time a filter is changed. This process is very cumbersome and makes the use of fast filter changers practically impossible.
This disadvantage can be overcome by using special collectors which are achromatic at least to the extent that the longitudinal chromatic aberration in the objective pupil is tolerable. However, such collectors have a very complicated construction.
Further, an intermediate image plane of the object image lies between the partial optics and the collector. Impurities in this intermediate image plane are imaged sharply on the object and considerably impede observation of the object. Elements of the achromatic collectors inevitably approach very close to this intermediate image plane, which leads to considerable problems with respect to the cleanliness of the collector lenses.

Abstract: ∑                  i          =          1                n                                    h          i                                      f            i                    ·                      v            i                                ≤    0.07    ,where hi is one half of the bundle diameter of a bundle of light rays proceeding from a point of the light source at the entrance to the imaging optical element i.


An electrical junction box of the present invention includes a frame (11) in which a storing box B is formed which has a unit storing room (20) in which an electronic control unit (63) is accommodated, and an upper cover (15) which is assembled to the side of the frame (11) where a accommodating port (20a), which becomes an entrance when the electronic control unit (63) is accommodated in the unit storing room (20), is formed so that the accommodating port (20a) is closed.

Traditionally, a type of electrical junction box which has a unit storing room that accommodates an electronic control unit including electrical control components is proposed (refer to a patent document 1). The electrical junction box has a storing room which accommodates a plurality of electric wires (harness) and connectors which are connected to the electronic control unit, besides the unit storing room which accommodates the electronic control unit. The electrical junction box packs up these components compactly and is installed in a vehicle indoor room. When the electronic control unit is to be accommodated in the unit storing room, the electrical junction box in which the electric wires, connectors and the like are arranged in advance is prepared by the electrical manufacturer or the electric wire arranging dealer, and then, the electronic control unit is accommodated in the unit storing room of the electrical junction box by the automobile manufacturer.


A portable hybrid hand labeler is disclosed that relies on mechanical motion, which eliminates the need for motors and the corresponding energy required to run the motors. The portable hybrid hand labeler also houses an ink jet head and a digital print mechanism, which offers the user infinite print flexibility via downloadable print bands. The portable hybrid hand labeler is preferably battery driven, and comprises a unique drive system and mechanism to harvest the kinetic energy from the trigger pull and a display panel with a solar panel to collect solar energy to trickle charge the battery pack, thereby increasing usage time between charges.

The present invention relates generally to a hybrid hand labeler that combines the mechanical motion of a traditional mechanical hand labeler with the benefits and advantages of digital printing. More specifically, the present invention relates to an improved, easy to manufacture, load and use hand-held labeler for printing and applying pressure sensitive labels to an object, such as a retail good. The hybrid hand labeler of the present invention is durable, relatively inexpensive and incorporates easy to use features such as a user display that enables the user to view and/or modify the printable image, and a sensor to detect when the user has engaged the labeler lever/trigger sufficiently to mechanically advance the label and to signal the control board to commence the printing of the label. The hybrid hand labeler of the present invention may be battery and/or solar powered, and is comprised of downloadable print bands that provide the user with greater print variability and flexibility.
By way of background, mechanical hand labelers have been in the market for over 40 years, and can be somewhat efficient for the labeling of items, such as retail products, with data having limited variability. More specifically, the process of depressing molded indicia against an ink roller and then depressing it onto a label, paper or other media is a simple cost effective method of marking. Further, the ink used in this process has the added advantage of being sun resistant.
However, while traditional mechanical hand labelers can be cost effective, they also tend to have poor print quality, especially with respect to larger fonts. In fact, the relationship between the size of the font being printed by the mechanical hand labeler and the quality of the print is inversely proportional. Stated differently, the quality of the mechanical hand labeler print decreases as the size of the font increases. This inversely proportional relationship is attributable, in part, to the non-flexible print bands of the hand labeler. More specifically, the print bands of the mechanical hand labelers are molded prior to the assembly of the device. Therefore, the mechanical labeler print bands offer little if any print flexibility, whereas a digital print mechanism offers infinite print flexibility.
Additionally, portable printers and/or hand labelers tend to be inefficient with respect to energy consumption, which limits the functionality and usage time between recharging. In addition, currently available portable printers depend on lithium ion battery technology.
Therefore, there exists in the art a long felt need for an improved, portable hand labeler that offers greater print flexibility and variability. There is also a long felt need in the art for a portable hand labeler that minimizes energy consumption and device downtime attributable to recharging of the device. The present invention discloses a hybrid hand labeler that relies on mechanical motion and digital printing using an ink jet head. The hybrid hand labeler also minimizes energy consumption by eliminating the need for motors, by harvesting kinetic energy from the otherwise required trigger/lever pulls, and by providing a solar panel on the display panel to collect solar energy that can be used to trickle charge the hand labeler's battery pack. The portable hybrid hand labeler of the present invention is also capable of being used with alkaline or NiCad batteries, both of which are more commonly available to the average consumer and are easily transportable.

Avery Dennison Retail Information Services LLC


A bicycle signal output device comprises a magnet structured to be mounted to one of a first part and a moving part of a bicycle, a coil structured to be mounted to the other one of the first part and the moving part of the bicycle, and a signal generating unit that operates using electrical power generated by the coil in response to relative motion between the magnet and the coil.

The present invention is directed to bicycles and, more particularly, to a self-powered bicycle signal output device and equipment that may use such a device.
Conventional cycle computers display riding information such as bicycle speed and riding distance. Such cycle computers typically comprise a rotation sensor and a parameter display device, wherein the rotation sensor outputs rotation signals in accordance with the rotation of a wheel, and the riding parameter display device displays bicycle speed and riding distance in response to the output rotation signals. It is also known to transmit the rotation signals wirelessly from the rotation sensor to the display device. Such a system is disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent application publication 3-12798. The device disclosed therein comprises a display unit and a signal generating unit for generating the rotation signals. The signal generating unit comprises a reed switch and a transmitting unit, wherein the reed switch detects the passage of a magnet attached to a spoke of the wheel, and the transmitting unit wirelessly transmits the rotation signals generated by the reed switch. The signal generating unit operates using a battery as the power source. The display unit comprises a case attached to a handlebar of the bicycle. In the case are provided a receiving unit that receives the transmitted rotation signals, a signal conversion unit that converts the received rotation signals to speed indicating information, and a display that displays the speed indicating information. The display unit also operates using a battery as the power source.
Since a battery is used as the power source for the various components, once the battery is expended, the device does not operate until the battery is replaced. To overcome this problem, it is possible to supply power from an electricity-generating hub dynamo or the like that operates using the rotation of the bicycle wheel. However, since the output from such a dynamo is in the form of a large alternating current, a variety of devices must be employed to condition the power for use in the cycle computer. This tends to make the overall device larger. Furthermore, such dynamos create undesirable resistance to pedaling for the rider. Thus, the use of a dynamo as a power source for a signal output device for wirelessly outputting rotation signals creates several problems.

Self-powered bicycle signal output device and display apparatus using same


Provided is an apparatus for assembling a camera module comprising a support frame that is formed in a rectangular shape and has a jig horizontally connected to an upper end thereof; a plurality of stages that are vertically stacked and installed in the support frame and adjust a printed circuit board (PCB) in three-axis directions; a board holder that is formed to extend from one end of the uppermost stage and has the PCB mounted on the extending end thereof; and a jig assembly that is disposed on an opening of the jig and has a barrel-integrated housing mounted on the central portion thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for assembling a camera module, which adjusts a focus is performed by adjusting three axes of an image sensor module which is closely attached to a lower portion of a barrel-integrated housing disposed in a jig.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the recent development of mobile terminals such as portable phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), the mobile terminals provide a phone call function and are used as multi-convergence devices. The most representative of the multi-convergence devices is a camera module. The resolution of the camera module changes from 300,000 pixels (VGA) to 8,000,000 pixels. Moreover, the camera module provides various additional functions, such as auto-focusing (AF) and optical zoom. Generally, camera modules are applied to various IT devices, such as camera phones, smart phones, and mobile communication terminals.
The camera modules are manufactured by using main parts of charge coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors. Incident light transmitted through the lens is condensed by the image sensor and is stored as data in a memory. The stored data is displayed as an image through a display medium, such as liquid crystal display (LCD) or PC monitor.
Typical camera modules are manufactured by a Chip On Film (COF) method, a Chip On Board (COB) method and the like. The COF method and the COB method will be described with reference to drawings.
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a conventional COF type camera module, and FIG. 2 is a partial sectional view of the conventional COF type camera module of FIG. 1.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional camera module 1 includes an image sensor 3 for converting an image signal inputted through a lens into an electric signal, a housing 2 for supporting the image sensor 3, a lens group 4 for collecting an image signal of an object in the image sensor 3, and a barrel 5 in which the lens group 4 is stacked in multi-layers.
A flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) 6 is electrically connected to a lower portion of the housing 2. Chip components (e.g., condensers and resistors) for driving the CCD or CMOS image sensor 3 are mounted on the FPCB 6.
In the camera module 1, an anisotropic conductive film (ACF) 8 is inserted between the FPCB 6 and the image sensor 3 in such a state that a plurality of circuit components are mounted on the FPCB 6. Then, heat and pressure are applied to electrically attach the FPCB 6 to the image sensor 3, and an IR filter 7 is attached on the FPCB 6.
Furthermore, in such a state that the barrel 5 and the housing 2 are provisionally screwed to each other, the assembled FPCB 6 is fixed to the bottom surface of the housing 2 by a separate adhesive.
Meanwhile, after the housing 2 to which the FPCB 6 and the barrel 5 are coupled is fixed by an adhesive, an object (resolution chart) is set at a predetermined distance in front of the barrel 5 so as to perform focus adjustment. The focus adjustment of the camera module 1, that is, the focus adjustment between the lens group 4 and the image sensor 3 is performed as a vertical transfer amount of the barrel 5 is adjusted by rotating the barrel 5 screwed to the housing 2.
At this time, the focus adjustment is performed in a state where the distance from the object is set at 50 cm to the infinity. After the focus is finally adjusted, the housing 2 and the barrel 5 is bonded and fixed to each other by an adhesive injected therebetween.
However, when the barrel 5 screwed to the housing 2 is rotated and vertically transferred in order to adjust the focus of an image formed in the image sensor 3 after the barrel 5 having the lens group 4 mounted therein is assembled into the housing 2, foreign matters such as particles, generated by friction at the screw-connection portion between the barrel 5 and the housing 2, drop down onto the upper surface of the IR filter 7 or the image sensor 3.
Further, the assembling of the FPCB 6 and the housing 2 is determined on the basis of the IR filter 7, which means that the IR filter 7 plays an important roll of adjusting the centers of the image sensor 3 and the lens group 4. Therefore, the mounting position of the IR filter 7 has a large effect upon foreign matters.
That is, as the IR filter 7 is mounted adjacent to the image sensor 3, foreign matters dropping onto the upper surface of the IR filter 7 can be easily recognized. On the contrary, as the IR filter 7 becomes distant from the image sensor 3, an effect caused by foreign matters becomes insensible. Therefore, the camera module needs to be designed in such a manner that the IR filter 7 and the image sensor 3 are spaced at a proper distance from each other.
FIGS. 3 and 4 are diagrams showing a camera module manufactured by the COB method. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional camera module manufactured by the COB method, and FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the camera module.
In the conventional camera module 10, a printed board 11 having a CCD or CMOS image sensor 12 mounted thereon by wire bonding is coupled to a lower portion of a housing 13 formed of plastics, and a lens barrel 16 having a cylindrical body 15 extending downward is coupled to a barrel 14 extending from the housing 13.
In the camera module 10, the housing 13 and the lens barrel 16 are coupled to each other by coupling a female screw 14a formed on the inner circumferential surface of the barrel 14 to a male screw 15a formed on the outer circumferential surface of the cylindrical body 15.
At this time, an infrared ray (IR) filter 18 is disposed between a lens L mounted in a lower end portion of the lens barrel 16 and the image sensor 12 attached on the printed board 11, the IR filter 18 blocking long-wavelength infrared rays incident on the image sensor 12.
In the camera module assembled in such a manner, while light incident from a specific object passes through the lens L, an image is inverted so that the focus is adjusted on the surface of the image sensor 12. At this time, when a focus is optimally adjusted while the lens barrel 16 screwed to the upper end of the housing 13 is rotated, an adhesive is injected between the housing 13 and the lens barrel 16 such that the housing 13 and the lens barrel 16 are bonded to each other. Then, the camera module is finalized.
In the above-described COF and COB methods, the lens barrel 5 or 16 is inserted through the upper opening of the housing 2 or 13 and is then closely attached through the screw coupling using male and female screws formed on the inner and outer circumferences of the respective members. Further, as the height of the lens barrel 5 or 16 is adjusted at the upper end of the housing 2 or 13 by rotating the lens barrel 5 or 16, the focus adjustment between the lens L within the lens barrel 5 or 16 and the image sensor 3 or 12 mounted on the printed board 6 or 11 is performed.
Therefore, in the conventional camera modules manufactured by the above-described assembling methods, when the housing 2 or 13 and the lens barrel 5 or 16 are vertically coupled, and if the male and female screws are engaged at a distorted angle, screw threads can be broken or the coupling portion can be worn away by the friction between the male and female screws. Then, foreign matters such as minute particles can be generated, thereby degrading the assembling property.
The particles generated between the housing 2 or 13 and the lens barrel 5 or 16 inevitably drop down onto the upper surface of the IR filter 7 or 18 or onto the light reception region of the image sensor 3 or 12. Therefore, when an image is reproduced by the image sensor 12, the particles have a large effect on the image.
Further, since the housing 2 or 13 and the lens barrel 5 or 16 are coupled through screws, the lens can be tilted along the angle of the screw formed on the lens barrel 5 or 16 when the lens barrel 5 or 16 is rotated.


A ferroelectric memory device which is less likely to be affected with imprint effect and a highly effective method for reducing the imprint effect of the ferroelectric memory cell. A data reversing latch circuit is disposed between a pair of bit lines BL0 and /BL0 and has capacitors C1 and C2. When data is read, it is possible to store the potentials on the pair of bit lines BL0 and /BL0 as charges in the capacitors C1 and C2, and to reverse the high-low relationship between the potentials on the bit lines BL0 and /BL0 and then back to the original relationship according to stored charges in the capacitors C1 and C2. In this way, the imprint effect of the memory cell MO may be automatically reduced when data is read by reversing the data in the memory MO connected to the bit lines BL0 and /BL0 and again reversing the data back to normal.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a ferroelectric memory device adapted to reduce a lasting effect or imprint effect of ferroelectric memory cells. The present invention is also directed to a method of reducing a lasting effect or imprint effect of ferroelectric memory cells.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Ferroelectric memories using ferroelectric capacitors are known as nonvolatile semiconductor memories. Generally, the semiconductor memory including the ferroelectric memory is constituted with a plurality of memory cells arranged in rows and columns, with each memory cell constituting a single memory unit (a bit).
FIG. 9 shows an example of circuit constitution in the vicinity of a memory cell 2 constituting a conventional ferroelectric memory. This memory cell 2 is of the so-called "2-transistor, 2-capacitor type." The memory cell 2 is provided with a pair of cells 4 and 6. The cell 4 is provided with a ferroelectric capacitor 8. The cell 6 is constituted similarly to the cell 4 and provided with a ferroelectric capacitor 10.
FIG. 8 generally shows a hysteresis curve representing the relationship between the voltage and polarized state (electric charge) for the ferroelectric capacitor. The relationship between the voltage (the potential of the bit line BL or /BL relative to the reference voltage of the plate line PL shown in FIG. 9) and the polarized state (shown in the figure with the "electric charge" which is equivalent to the "polarized state") for the ferroelectric capacitor 8 or 10 can be represented using FIG. 8.
In FIG. 8, the state with a residual polarization Z1 is assumed as the polarized state P1, and the state with a residual polarization Z2 is assumed as the polarized state P2. The ferroelectric capacitors 8 and 10 are constituted so that they are in the polarized state P1 or P2 when no potential difference exists between their both ends.
For example, when the ferroelectric capacitor 8 is in the polarized state P1, the ferroelectric capacitor 10 is in the polarized state P2 (The state is assumed to correspond to a stored data "H."). On the other hand, when the ferroelectric capacitor 8 is in the polarized state P2, the ferroelectric capacitor 10 is in the polarized state P1 (This state is assumed to correspond to a stored data "L.").
When the polarized states of the ferroelectric capacitors 8 and 10 are known, the data stored in the memory cell 2 can be known (read).
In order to know the polarized states of the ferroelectric capacitors 8 and 10, voltages Vf1 and Vf2 produced between both ends of the ferroelectric capacitors 8 and 10 may be measured after discharging a loading capacitor (parasitic capacitances of the bit lines BL and /BL) 12, followed by bringing the bit lines BL and /BL to floating state, and applying a reading voltage Vp to the plate line PL.
According to a graphical solution using FIG. 8, when the capacitance of the loading capacitor 12 is represented with the slope of the straight line L1, if the ferroelectric capacitor 8 is in the first polarized state P1, the voltage Vf1 produced between both ends of the ferroelectric capacitors 8 becomes V1. On the other hand, if the ferroelectric capacitor 10 is in the second polarized state P2, the voltage Vf2 becomes V2. A sensing amplifier 14 is used to know the polarized states the ferroelectric capacitors 8 and 10 are in by measuring which of the voltages Vf1 and Vf2 is greater at the time of reading.
In this way, stored data ("H" or "L") corresponding to the polarized states of the ferroelectric capacitors 8 and 10 can be read by checking the polarized states.
However, a problem associated with the conventional ferroelectric memory described above is that the ferroelectric has the property of producing distortion (lasting effect or imprint effect) on its hysteresis curve when the ferroelectric is held in the polarized state for an extended period of time.
Therefore, when a data is left stored for a long period of time, the lasting effect or imprint effect occurs in the ferroelectric capacitors 8 and 10 which constitute the memory cell 2. When such an effect occurs, the voltage values Vf1 and Vf2 produced between both ends of the ferroelectric capacitors 8 and 10 vary. In particular, when a data is stored which is opposite to the data stored when the imprint effect occurred, it is difficult to correctly read the opposite data. That is to say, the function of the memory device deteriorates with time.

Ferroelectric memory device and method of reducing imprint effect thereof


Ink dispersions for use in fuel cells, comprising a mixture of: (1) a carbon-containing material, such as carbon black; and (2) a base or acid operable to adjust the pH of the ink dispersion, wherein the pH of the mixture has a zeta potential as close to lying outside the +/−30 mV range of the point of zero charge. The mixtures can also include a fluoropolymer, at least one alcohol, and water. The ink dispersions can be used in conjunction with the gas diffusion media components of the fuel cell, including proton exchange membrane fuel cells. The ink dispersions are very stable and can be used in conjunction with high current density applications.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to fuel cell systems, and more particularly to a new and improved ink compositions for gas diffusion media components of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell systems.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Fuel cells have been used as a power source in many applications. For example, fuel cells have been proposed for use in electrical vehicular power plants to replace internal combustion engines. In PEM-type fuel cells, hydrogen is supplied to the anode of the fuel cell and oxygen is supplied as the oxidant to the cathode. PEM fuel cells include a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) comprising a thin, proton transmissive, non-electrically conductive solid polymer electrolyte membrane having the anode catalyst on one of its faces and the cathode catalyst on the opposite face. The MEA is sandwiched between a pair of electrically conductive elements, sometimes referred to as the gas diffusion media components, that: (1) serve as current collectors for the anode and cathode; (2) contain appropriate openings therein for distributing the fuel cell's gaseous reactants over the surfaces of the respective anode and cathode catalysts; (3) remove product water vapor or liquid water from electrode to flow field channels; (4) are thermally conductive for heat rejection; and (5) have mechanical strength. The term fuel cell is typically used to refer to either a single cell or a plurality of cells (e.g., a stack) depending on the context. A plurality of individual cells are commonly bundled together to form a fuel cell stack and are commonly arranged in series. Each cell within the stack comprises the MEA described earlier, and each such MEA provides its increment of voltage.
In PEM fuel cells, hydrogen (H2) is the anode reactant (i.e., fuel) and oxygen is the cathode reactant (i.e., oxidant). The oxygen can be either a pure form (O2), or air (a mixture of O2 and N2). The solid polymer electrolytes are typically made from ion exchange resins such as perfluoronated sulfonic acid. The anode/cathode typically comprises finely divided catalytic particles, which are often supported on carbon particles, and mixed with a proton conductive resin. The catalytic particles are typically costly precious metal particles. These membrane electrode assemblies are relatively expensive to manufacture and require certain conditions, including proper water management and humidification, and control of catalyst fouling constituents such as carbon monoxide (CO), for effective operation.
Examples of technology related to PEM and other related types of fuel cell systems can be found with reference to commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 3,985,578 to Witherspoon et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,272,017 to Swathirajan et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,769 to Li et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,624 to Neutzler; U.S. Pat. No. 6,277,513 to Swathirajan et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,350,539 to Woods, III et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,372,376 to Fronk et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,521,381 to Vyas et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,524,736 to Sompalli et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,566,004 to Fly et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,663,994 to Fly et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,793,544 to Brady et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,794,068 to Rapaport et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,811,918 to Blunk et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,824,909 to Mathias et al.; U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2005/0026012 to O'Hara; 2005/0026018 to O'Hara et al.; and 2005/0026523 to O'Hara et al., the entire specifications of all of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference.
The gas diffusion media component of a PEM fuel cell is typically comprised of a non-woven carbon fiber paper, e.g., those available from Toray Industries, Inc. (Tokyo, Japan), or a woven carbon cloth, e.g., those available from Zoltek Corporation (St. Louis, Mo.) under the PANEX trade name. Upon arrival at the PEM fuel cell manufacturer, the as-is product is typically post treated in order to render the material hydrophobic. Additionally, it has become more common practice to apply a microlayer ink (sometimes referred to as a microporous layer (MPL)) to the gas diffusion layer (GDL) for more effective water management properties.
A typical microlayer ink generally includes a carbon black powder and a fluorinated polymer dispersion (typically PTFE) that is contained in a solvent system. Historically, stabilizing carbon black powder. in dispersions has been a challenge to ink specialists in numerous industries, including those involved with the production of PEM fuel cells. For a PEM fuel cell application, choosing the correct carbon black and polymer for optimal performance is another complexity. As such, current approaches of forming stable microlayer ink compositions, especially for use in conjunction with high current density (HCD) applications, are extremely difficult and have not resulted in completely satisfactory results.
Accordingly, there exists a need for new and improved ink compositions for gas diffusion media components of PEM fuel cell systems, especially those that are both stable and perform satisfactorily in conjunction with HCD applications.

Altering zeta potential of dispersions for better HCD performance and dispersion stability


Organic field effect transistors (OFETs) can be created rapidly and at low cost on organic films by using a multilayer film (202) that has an electrically conducting layer (204, 206) on each side of a dielectric core. The electrically conducting layer is patterned to form gate electrodes (214), and a polymer film (223) is attached onto the gate electrode side of the multilayer dielectric film, using heat and pressure (225) or an adhesive layer (228). A source electrode and a drain electrode (236) are then fashioned on the remaining side of the multilayer dielectric film, and an organic semiconductor (247) is deposited over the source and drain electrodes, so as to fill the gap between the source and drain electrodes and touch a portion of the dielectric film to create an organic field effect transistor.

Field effect transistors (FETs) are transistors in which the resistance of the current path from source to drain is modulated by applying a transverse electric field between grid or gate electrodes. The electric field varies the thickness of the depletion layer between the gates, thereby modifying the conductance. Organic field effect transistors (OFETs) utilize an organic semiconductor channel, such as polythiophene compounds, in place of conventional inorganic semiconducting materials. An OFET as generally practiced in the prior art is depicted in FIG. 1, where a gate electrode 20 is situated on a substrate 10, a gate dielectric layer 30 is disposed over the gate electrode 20, an organic semiconductor layer 40 used as an active layer of the transistor contacts the gate dielectric layer, and source and drain electrodes 50 and 60 also contact the organic semiconductor layer 40. The gate electrode 20 is typically formed in the organic transistor forming region by depositing a gate metal such as Cr/Au or Ti/Au and the thickness of the gate electrode 20 is typically about 1000 Ångstroms. On the gate electrode 20 in the transistor region, a dielectric layer 30 that insulates the gate electrode from other members is made of a non-conducting substance and is formed by a vacuum evaporation or a spin coating method with a nominal thickness of 3 micrometers or less and a conductivity less than 10 E-14 ohm/cm. The organic semiconductor layer 40 used as an active layer of the transistor is deposited by a spin coating or vacuum deposition method on the gate-insulating layer 30. Preferably, the thickness of the organic semiconductor layer 40 is less than 100 nm. The organic semiconductor layer 40 of the OFET can be made of a charge transfer complex or a thiophene polymer in order to enhance the mobility and the driving current of the field effect transistor. Some examples of charge transfer complexes are copper phthalocyanine, bis (tetra-n-butylammonium) palladium (II), and 7,7,8,8-tetracyano-p-quinodimethane. Then, a gold film with high electrical conductivity is patterned to form a source electrode 50 and a drain electrode 60.
These OFET fabrication methods are based on traditional silicon wafer deposition and other conventional vacuum deposition processes, which include sequential deposition of materials onto a single substrate. This processing occurs in a single, controlled manufacturing environment (e.g., clean room, vacuum chamber etc.). Depending on OFET design, three to five layers of materials are required to make a device. Sequential multiple layer deposition requires strict chemical and process compatibility for adjacent materials, long cycle time for layer-to-layer deposition, and post processing of each layer. These requirements significantly restrict materials selection and process adaptability of organic integrated circuit manufacturing. It would be a significant contribution to the art if a lower cost method of creating OFETs were developed that did not require such stringent process conditions.

Method of fabricating organic field effect transistors


A mode-locked laser serves as a light source for stabilizing the frequency of each optical carrier and generates high-quality optical multi-carrier. The mode-locked laser is equipped with a master laser for generating master laser light; a mode-locked laser section including in an optical resonator at least a modulating section, am amplifying section, and a bandwidth limiting section for reducing mode partition noise; and a signal generating section for generating a periodic signal that serves for mode locking of the mode-locked laser section and is to be applied to the modulating section. The master laser light is input to the optical resonator of the mode-locked laser section to cause injection locking. An optical multi-carrier source is constructed by combining this mode-locked laser with a waveguided optical nonlinear medium.

Optical multi-carrier sources that generate optical carriers at a constant frequency spacing are useful light sources for communication and measurement purposes.
FIG. 34 shows an optical multi-carrier source as a first conventional example (Non-patent document 1). This conventional example, which is suitable for generating tens of optical carriers, is configured in such a manner that optical single carrier sources 81 are provided in a number equal to the number of optical carriers, to output respective optical carriers which are combined together by a wavelength multiplexer 82. For miniaturization, small-size light sources such as distributed feedback semiconductor lasers are used as the optical single carrier sources 81.
FIG. 35 shows an optical multi-carrier source as a second conventional example. This conventional example is configured in such a manner that optical output (center optical frequency: v0) of an optical single carrier source 81 such as distributed feedback semiconductor lasers is input to an optical modulator (intensity modulator, phase modulator, or the like) 84 that is driven by a periodic signal having a repetition frequency f that is output from an oscillator 83 and optical multi-carrier is produced by generating plural sidebands having a constant spacing. Where many optical carriers are necessary, as described in Non-patent document 2, output beams of plural optical single carrier sources are multiplexed and them modulated by an optical modulator. Although the frequency spacing of the optical multi-carrier is equal to the modulation frequency of the optical modulator, the linewidth and the frequency stability of the optical multi-carrier are equivalent to those of optical output of optical single carrier sources.
An optical multi-carrier source as a third conventional example employs a multimode laser such as a Fabry-Pérot laser (Non-patent document 3) or a mode-locked laser (Non-patent document 4) and generates optical multi-carrier having a constant frequency spacing. To generate many optical carriers, a bandwidth limiting means such as an optical filter is not provided in a laser resonator. On the other hand, to stabilize the oscillation light frequency, injection locking caused by external light (Non-patent document 4) or an optical frequency locking means utilizing a wavelength filter is employed.
FIG. 36 shows an optical multi-carrier source as a fourth conventional example. This conventional example is configured in such a manner that a modulating section of an optical pulse source 85 is driven by a periodic signal supplied from a signal generating section 86 and output optical pulse train is input to a waveguided optical nonlinear medium 87, whereby optical multi-carrier is generated. A spectrum broadening phenomenon based on an optical nonlinear effect such as supercontinuum generation is caused in the waveguided optical nonlinear medium 87 with the output optical pulse train of the optical pulse source 85 as a seed, whereby the number of optical carriers included in the output optical pulse train is increased. The frequency spacing of the optical multi-carrier is equal to the repetition frequency of the output optical pulse train. The optical pulse source 85 may be a light source as a combination of an optical single carrier source and an external modulator (Non-patent document 5) or a mode-locked laser (Non-patent document 6).
Non-patent document 1: "500 Gb/s (50×10 Gb/s) WDM Transmission over 4,000 km Using Broadband EDFAs and Low Dispersion Slope Fiber," OFC/IOOC '99 Postdeadline Papers, 1999.
Non-patent document 2: "12.5 GHz Spaced 1.28 Tb/s (512-Channel×2.5 Gb/s) Super-Dense WDM Transmission over 320 km SMF Using Multiwavelength Generation Technique," IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 14, No. 3, 2002.
Non-patent document 3: "Longitudinal Mode Dependence of Transmission Characteristics for Injection Locked FP-LD," The 2002 General Assembly of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, B-10-155.
Non-patent document 4: "Experimental Investigation of Injection Locking of Fundamental and Subharmonic Frequency-Modulated Active Mode-Locked Laser Diodes," IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, Vol. 34, No. 9, 1998.
Non-patent document 5: "Low-Noise Optical Frequency Comb Generation Using Phase Modulator," 1st Microwave/Millimeter Wave Photonics (MWP) Research Meeting, The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, MWP03-4, 2003.
Non-patent document 6: "More Than 1,000 Channel Optical Frequency Chain Generation from Single Supercontinuum Source with 12.5 GHz Channel Spacing," Electronics Letters, Vol. 36, No. 25, 2000.

Mode-locked laser and optical multi-carrier source using same

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