A crosslinked rubber composition contains ethylene-propylene-diene copolymer rubber crosslinked with a rotaxane compound having a cyclic molecule and an axial molecule penetrating through the cyclic molecule. In the crosslinked rubber composition, the ethylene-propylene-diene copolymer rubber contains vinylnorbornene, dicyclopentadiene, or tetrahydroindene as a diene component, and the rotaxane compound has a nitrile oxide group on the cyclic molecule and one end of the axial molecule, and the cyclic molecule is crown ether.

Vulcanized rubber has superior characteristics and thus is widely used as an industrial material. When unvulcanized rubber is vulcanized by any technique, the vulcanized rubber exhibits strength and elasticity, but exhibits a limited elongation at break. Tough rubber that is less likely to break could be used in the large deformation regime to which conventional rubber cannot be applied. However, existing vulcanized rubber compositions cannot be applied to the large deformation regime.
Patent Document 1 discloses "a rotaxane compound having one or more cyclic molecules, and one chain molecule (corresponding to "axial molecule" in the present application) penetrating through the one or more cyclic molecules, wherein one or more molecules among the one or more cyclic molecules and the one chain molecule have one or more reactive groups selected from the group consisting of a nitrile oxide group and an azide group," which compound is used for the synthesis of, for example, a rotaxane network polymer (RCP), which is a crosslinked polymer having a rotaxane structure at crosslinking points.
Patent Document 1 also discloses that raw material rubber (e.g., polybutadiene rubber, natural rubber, or styrene-butadiene rubber) was reacted with nitrile-N-oxide 4-3 rotaxane in a chloroform solution for 24 hours, to thereby produce a solvent-insoluble crosslinked product in Example 9-1.
Patent Document 1 also describes, in another section, ethylene-propylene-diene copolymer rubber as one exemplary rubber. However, Patent Document 1 does not describe in any example that the ethylene-propylene-diene copolymer rubber was reacted with a rotaxane compound to produce a crosslinked product, and does not describe the ethylene-propylene-diene copolymer rubber in detail. The object of the invention in Patent Document 1 is to provide "a technique capable of synthesizing, for example, rotaxane network polymers having various structures," and Patent Document 1 does not include studies on, for example, the elongation, strength, and yield of a crosslinked product. The elongation and strength of a crosslinked product is often required particularly in rubber parts for automobiles (e.g., weather strip, hose, and drive shaft boot).

Crosslinked rubber composition and production method therefor


The present invention relates to a method of fabricating ultra-fine grain cermet alloys with a homogenous solid solution grain structure. More particularly, the invention relates to a method of fabricating an ultra-fine TiC-base cermet alloy with a homogenous solid solution structure which does not comprise a core-rim structure in the carbide grain.

The present invention relates to a method of fabricating ultra-fine cermet alloys with a homogenous solid solution grain structure. More particularly, the invention relates to a method of fabricating an ultra-fine TiC-base cermet alloy with a homogenous solid solution grain structure that does not comprise a core-rim structure in the carbide grain.
In general, the ultra-fine TiC-base cermet alloys are used as cutting tools for the finishing works of steel and cast iron due to their high hardness and abrasion resistance characteristics.
The sintered body of a TiC-base cermet alloy comprises a distinctive dual structure in its carbide grains. This dual structure which is known as the core-rim structure comprises a center region (core) in which the main component includes TiC or TiCN, and a outer (peripheral) second region (rim) which surrounds the core and is mainly a carbide of solid solution such as (Ti, TM)C or (Ti, TM) (C, N), (See, FIG. 8: In reference to Hans-Olof Andrn, "Microstructures of cemented carbides," Materials and Design, 22, pp491–498 (2002)).
The rim region surrounding the core is also known to form an end-product in the type of solid solution that precipitates on the surface of TiC or TiCN grains as a result of grain growth process in a Ni-rich liquid during liquid phase sintering process (In reference to T. Yamamoto, A. Jaroenworaluck, Y. Ikuhara and T. Sakuma, "Nano-probe analysis of core-rim structure of carbides in TiC-20 wt % Mo2C-20 wt % Ni cermet, "Journal of Materials Research, 14, (1999), pp4129–4131).
The reason for this formation is not contributed to thermodynamically equilibrium structure but more to a kinetic reason (In reference to J. H. shim, C. S. Oh and D. N. Lee, "A thermodynamic evaluation of the Ti—Mo—C system," Metallurgical and Materials Transaction B, 27B, (1996), pp955–996).
TiC-base cermet alloy with the previously mentioned core-rim structure is not representing the physical property of carbides of uniform grain structure that composition allows but showing the physical property that originates from the dual structure of carbide grains. This also has some drawbacks of deteriorating the physical property of the sintering body.
Accordingly, in perspective of the composition, the cermet with a uniform microstructure could represent a different physical property with respect to that of the existing cermet.
To date, however, no fabrication method of TiC-base cermet alloys with the core-rim structure were able to overcome the limit of kinectic determination.
One of the big emerging technologies in the area of cutting tool material development is improving the hardness and toughness of cutting materials by reducing the size of carbide grains from a few micrometers to several sub-micrometers.
The fabrication methods of ultra-fine grain cutting tool materials which are known to date all involves sintering of carbides powder with a diameter less than 100 nm (nanometer) that is fabricated through a gas phase or solid state reaction.
However, the gas phase or solid state reaction method is inappropriate for massive manufacturing of carbide nano-powders, because the carbide nano-powders obtained from such methods could easily be oxidized when exposed to the atmosphere.

Method of fabricating ultra-fine cermet alloys with homogeneous solid grain structure

Abstract: The object of the present invention is to provide a method of fabricating a TiC-base cermet alloy without the core-rim structure.

Abstract: The above objects of the present invention could be achieved by employing a conventional sintering process (vacuum sintering) of (Ti,TM)C carbide obtained from a mechano-chemical synthesis (high energy ball-milling) from milling the powders of Ti, TM, Ni and Co metals.

Korea Institute of Science and Technology


Embodiments of the present disclosure provide an interactive method of a robot, an interactive device of a robot and a device. The method includes: obtaining voice information input by an interactive object, and performing semantic recognition on the voice information to obtain a conversation intention; obtaining feedback information corresponding to the conversation intention based on a conversation scenario knowledge base pre-configured by a simulated user; and converting the feedback information into a voice of the simulated user, and playing the voice to the interactive object.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a new technical science relating to the theories, methods, techniques and application systems for simulating, extending and expanding human intelligence. Artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science, which attempts to understand the essence of intelligence and to produce an intelligent robot capable of acting like a human. Research in AI may cover fields such as robots, speech recognition, image recognition, natural language processing, expert systems, among others.
In the related art, certain robots are capable of applying certain biological features for a particular scenario, such as Zhiling Lin's (a Chinese actress) voice navigation of Amap which provides navigation services for users by voice synthesis technology, or family companion robots which record parent's voices to tell stories to children, etc. These robots have limited interactive capabilities, and at present, most robots cannot simulate a character to interact with an interactive object with a high degree of freedom.

Interactive method and device of robot, and device

BEIJING BAIDU NETCOM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


An efficient method and apparatus for storing and retrieving memory ranges is disclosed. A key range that is stored or to be stored is associated with a node in the tree hierarchy encompassing the entire memory address space. All previously stored ranges are listed or otherwise associated with each node, and all possible nodes that may contain ranges that overlap the key range, regardless of starting or ending locations or range length, are found. Partitions are developed in the tree structure of the available address space and the width of the key range (w), the widths of the partitions (d), and the range of offsets in the starting location of the key range with respect to a partition (o) are used to develop a formula that finds a partition suitable for storing the key range. Hashing and dynamic tree building may be used.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to allocating memory, and more particularly to making efficient use of resources for tracking different overlapping memory ranges.
2. Background Information
Client/server systems communicating over the Internet or other such communications means are well known in the art. Use of virtual memory is typical if not pervasive where an application (resident in the client) addresses a wide range of memory without regard to the actual memory hierarchies. Virtual memory is well understood in the art. Operating systems (OS) provide the appearance to multiple applications that they each have access to their own exclusive address space (Virtual Address space or VA). The OS maps the applications' accesses to the VA to a shared physical memory address space. Applications, in this discussion cannot directly access the physical memory, they can only do so via the OS. VA and physical memory are organized as equal sized pages, where each VA page maps to a single physical page. Hardware and software resources are allotted in proportion to the number of VA pages in order to timely perform the translation.
Since this mapping occurs whenever memory is accessed, in practice the actual mapping is performed in hardware in order to minimize the time overhead expense of mapping.
Use of VA provides several important benefits, including, inter alia: a) Security: since applications cannot directly access the pages in other applications; b) Run time resources: applications that have large VA space may have very small physical memory. In such a case, a "fault" occurs when the application accesses a VA page that has no corresponding physical page. The OS handles all such problems in a prescribed manner. The OS may allot physical memory or it may suspend or kill the application.
However, when the application can directly access the input/output (I/O) hardware that addresses physical memory without going through the OS, problems arise that are not handled by the OS. In such a case the I/O hardware operates outside the OS. The present invention is directed to such problems.
An application addresses VA while I/O hardware addresses physical memory. So the application VA address must be translated into a physical hardware address and the hardware must maintain a "shadow copy" of the virtual/physical mapping being managed by the OS to prevent chaos. The I/O maintains a translation table and must provide resources proportional to the number of VA pages associated with each application in order to support system operation. Minimizing the entries (and therefore the resources used) into such an I/O translation table is an objective of the present invention.
It is understood that the physical address may be addressed to memory that is remotely accessed via a communications network using a standard protocol, e.g. TCP/IP. Such protocols will not be further discussed as they is well known in the art.
The interface provided to an application for I/O to memory generally specifies a range of memory, e.g. a "read" system call generally will include a pointer into memory and a size or length. A library implementing this task does not usually know what ranges the application will specify in advance. Thus if the library accesses the hardware directly and wants to minimize the hardware resources required, it should check to ensure that ranges received from the application do not overlap with previous ranges, and if the ranges overlap, the library should re-use the hardware translating table entries previously inserted. If none of the previously inserted entries suffice, the OS must be invoked so that new entries can be made into the translation table. It will be more efficient in time and resources if existing entries are used.
System hardware and software resources are needed for storage of the translation tables, specifically, a shadow copy of the translation tables is needed and held in the IO hardware. As an application (or other applications running on the same processor) requires more blocks of memory, more IO hardware resources are required. If these memory allocations are separate and distinct without overlap there will be no problems. However, if the allocations overlap, and/or if there are many (say, thousands) allocations that may overlap, the use of many holding registers may be an inefficient use of IO hardware resources. It would be more efficient if the overlapping memory ranges were each coalesced into one range; this requires resources proportional to only the number of pages in the range, not to the number of overlapping ranges.
In applications that store and retrieve ranges of values, as discussed above, it would be necessary to discover all the stored ranges that overlap a key range when that key range is retrieved or stored. A linear search would include comparing the starting locations of any two ranges and the length or the ending locations to determine any overlap. For many range insertions, this will be very time and resource consuming. Hashing techniques might be considered appropriate for such a task. As is well known in the art, hash functions and tables have been very efficient for searching for or storing an item among a long list of such items. Briefly, an item is stored (or found) in a location by using the item as the argument in a function, called a hash function. The result is an address where the item is to be stored. When applied to memory systems, this hash address may indicate a group of locations, usually called a bucket, where a number of items can be stored or retrieved. The bucket contents are usually linearly examined.
Hashing has many variations, such as using pointers or storing pointers, and techniques to handle technical issues. For example, when there is no room in a bucket "a collision" occurs when the system tries to store another item in the bucket. One technique is to store the item in another location that is tracked in "a scatter diagram." As is well known many such techniques have been developed with respect to "hashing."
However, applying hashing to the problem of finding overlapping ranges is not effective. The difficulty is that hits in the range database (implying an overlap of a key range with a previously inserted range) must occur even when the key range has a different starting location, length and ending location from any other previously inserted range. It is evident that any hash function that guarantees to map any two overlapping ranges to the same value can only succeed by mapping all the ranges to the same value. Such a function, by definition, is inefficient.
In such systems as discussed herein, the conversion from virtual to physical memory addressing is accomplished while preserving data integrity, there must be a mechanism for controlling the physical memory and searching for memory ranges allocated that may overlap other previously allocated memory ranges. Again the searching is for page ranges allocated in the IO hardware. The present invention is directed toward this task.

Method and apparatus for determining if stored memory range overlaps key memory ranges where the memory address space is organized in a tree form and partition elements for storing key memory ranges


An angle aiming mechanism for a light assembly. The angle aiming mechanism including a body, a gear rotational coupled to the light assembly and an angle adjuster movable between a first position and a second position. The angle adjuster engaging the gear when the angle adjuster is in the first position. The angle adjuster disengaging the gear when the angle adjuster is in the second position. The angle adjuster configured such that rotation of the angle adjuster in the first position changes an angle of the light assembly relative to a reference plane.

Light systems may be placed proximate runways to aid pilots in properly positioning an aircraft for landing at an airport. In particular, a combination of lights from precision approach path indicators (PAPI) to approach and threshold lights aid the pilot in visually identifying the runway and aligning the aircraft with the runway. The operation requirements of the airfield will dictate the sophistication and configuration of the lighting system for the runway.
Known approach lights include a complex arrangement of screws and locknuts that are used to position the approach light at a desired angle. However, this known arrangement tends to be difficult to use and requires an excessive amount of time for the user to position the approach light. In addition, it is often difficult for the screws and locknuts to maintain the approach light at the desired angle for an extended period of time.
It is desirable to have a mechanism that can allow a user to quickly and easily adjust a light to the proper angle and that maintains the light at the desired angle without the need for further adjustment.

Angle aiming mechanism for approach light


The power semiconductor module includes a module package housing power semiconductor devices therein and a magnetic core set around the module package, such that magnetic core surrounds the power semiconductor devices such as IGBTs. Alternatively, the magnetic core is built in the module package such that the outer circumference faces of magnetic core and the side faces of module package form side faces of the power semiconductor module. The power semiconductor module according to the invention facilitates replacing the magnetic core, setting the magnetic core around the module package thereof, reducing the size thereof, simplifying the structure thereof, and easy manufacture thereof.

FIG. 13 is a block circuit diagram of a conventional electric power converter including power semiconductor modules. In FIG. 13, a DC power supply 1, power semiconductor modules 2U, 2V and 2W, a motor 3 as a load, and a driver circuit 4 for driving power semiconductor modules 2U, 2V and 2W for the respective phases are shown. Each power semiconductor module 2U, 2V or 2W includes two insulated gate bipolar transistors (hereinafter referred to as "IGBTs") connected in series and two free wheel diodes connected in opposite parallel to the respective IGBTs. Power semiconductor modules 2U, 2V and 2W for the respective phases switch on and off the respective IGBTs on the upper arm and the respective IGBTs on the lower arm alternately to convert the AC electric power from DC power supply 1 to AC electric power and to supply the converted AC electric power to motor 3.
Pulse width modulation (hereinafter referred to as "PWM") has been well known as one of the methods for controlling the IGBTs′ switching. A control circuit 5 including a comparator 5c is disposed outside power semiconductor modules 2U, 2V and 2W for conducting PWM control. Comparator 5c compares a reference output voltage 5a and a carrier 5b and determines a switching pattern. The determined switching pattern is sent to driver circuit 4. Driver circuit 4 converts the switching pattern to gate signals and sends the gate signals to respective modules 2U, 2V and 2W.
Power semiconductor devices such as the IGBTs and the free wheel diodes are mounted on packages for the respective phases such that power semiconductor modules 2U, 2V and 2W are configured. The power semiconductor module configuration as described above facilitates simplifying the electric power converter structure, assembling the electric power converter easily, wiring the electric power converter easily, and cooling the devices in the electric power converter.
FIG. 14 is a schematic cross sectional view of power semiconductor modules 2U, 2V or 2W. Since each of the power semiconductor modules 2U, 2V and 2W have the same structure, the power semiconductor module is designated in FIG. 14 by the common reference numeral 2. As shown in FIG. 14, circuit patterns 9 are formed on a ceramic insulator substrate 16. Semiconductor chips 8 of the IGBTs and the free wheel diodes are mounted on respective circuit patterns 9. Circuit patterns 9 and semiconductor chips 8 are connected to each other via electrically conductive wires 7 made of aluminum or some other such electrically conductive material. Circuit patterns 9 are connected to an input terminal 2a or 2b connected to DC power supply 1. In FIG. 14, impedance elements 6y, which will be described later in detail, are shown. Impedance elements 6y are fixed to respective input terminals 2a and 2b. An insulator substrate 16 is mounted on the upper surface of a radiator plate 10 made of a copper alloy. A cooling fin 11 is fixed to the back surface of radiator plate 10 for dissipating the losses (heat) caused by semiconductor chips 8 in the electrically conductive states thereof to air. The cooling fin 11 is connected usually to the ground through an earth line 12 to prevent the electrification caused by a contact to cooling fin 11 from occurring.
In the above described conventional electric power converter including power semiconductor modules 2, excessively large switching noises are caused by the switching of the IGBTs and such power semiconductor devices. The excessively large switching noises further cause malfunctions of the other apparatus and equipments disposed around the electric power converter, noises in the other apparatus and equipments and such hazards. The switching noises may be generally classified into two different kinds: normal mode noises and common mode noises.
The normal mode switching noises are noises caused by the normal-mode high-frequency current that flows through the closed loop consisting of power semiconductor module 2 and DC power supply 1. The closed loop 13a, through which the normal mode noise current flows, is shown in FIG. 15(a). In the normal mode, LC resonance is caused by the switching of the power semiconductor devices based on the floating inductance of the wiring constituting closed loop 13a and the junction capacitance of the power semiconductor devices, further causing a high-frequency noise current that flows through closed loop 13a.
The common mode switching noises are noises caused by the noise current that flows through earth line 12 via the floating capacitance (or the earth capacitance) of power semiconductor module 2 and the floating capacitance (or the earth capacitance) inside the electric power converter. The closed loop 13b, through which the common mode noise current flows, is shown in FIG. 15(b). In FIG. 15(b), the floating capacitance 14 caused by the wiring in the electric power converter, the floating capacitance 15a and the floating capacitance 15b of the power semiconductor module 2 are shown.
In the common mode, floating capacitance 14, floating capacitance 15a and floating capacitance 15b are charged and discharged at a high frequency by a high voltage change (dV/dt) caused by the switching of the power semiconductor devices, causing a high-frequency charging and discharging current that flows through closed loop 13b via earth line 12. In some cases, the common mode noise current flows out to the side of DC power supply 1 or the common mode noises are radiated in the form of radio waves.
An impedance element, such as inductance, has generally been added to the noise current loop to suppress the normal mode noise current and the common mode noise current. In FIG. 14, for example, impedance elements 6y are connected in series to respective semiconductor chips 8 for suppressing the normal mode noise current.
As described above, the normal mode noise current and the common mode noise current will be suppressed to some extents, if an impedance element is disposed in the noise current path. If the impedance element for suppressing the noise current is arranged as closely as possible to the power semiconductor device, the entire circuit size may be reduced effectively and the packaging may be conducted effectively.
Conventional methods for suppressing various kinds of noise currents and the electromagnetic waves caused by switching are disclosed in the patent documents described below.
Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application 2000-58740 discloses a suppressing means for suppressing common mode noises. The suppressing means includes a ring-shaped filter element made of a composite magnetic material and surrounding the positive and negative poles of an inner lead (connection line) for connecting a DC power supply to a semiconductor device (IC chip). The filter element is sealed in a package.
Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Hei. 9 (1997)-121016 discloses a noise reducing element made of an amorphous magnetic alloy. The noise reducing element is set around the lead portion of a diode and such a semiconductor device or molded into a unit with the lead portion of a diode and such a semiconductor device.
Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application Hei. 11 (1999)-238844 discloses a ring-shaped soft magnetic element made of an amorphous alloy or a micro-crystalline magnetic alloy and disposed around a semiconductor device.
Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application 2001-160605 discloses an electromagnetic shield structure that surrounds the edges of a semiconductor package substrate, mounted on a printed circuit board by the melting of solder balls and by the bonding with the molten solder balls. The electromagnetic shield structure surrounds the edges of a semiconductor package substrate with a ferrite cap or with an electromagnetic wave absorber such as moldings and a tape made of an electromagnetic wave absorptive resin so that the electromagnetic waves radiated from the junction portions between the solder balls and printed circuit board may be absorbed.
Since the conventional technique disclosed in Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application 2000-58740 (hereinafter referred to as the "conventional technique 1") seals the filter element made of a composite magnetic material in a package, it is impossible to replace the filter element (to change the inductance value). Usually, the switching noise frequencies vary depending on the surroundings' circuit conditions (such as wiring floating inductance and floating capacitance). Due to this, it is desirable to dispose a filter element, added to a semiconductor device for noise reduction, outside a package so that the filter element may be replaced, if necessary. However, it is impossible for the conventional technique 1 to replace the filter element, even if it is necessary. Since the conventional technique 1 houses the filter element in a package, the package is inevitably large. These problems are also posed on the conventional technique described in FIG. 14.
Since the conventional technique disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Hei. 9 (1997)-121016 (hereinafter referred to as the "conventional technique 2") assumes the application thereof to a low-power semiconductor device having lead wires, it is impossible to apply the conventional technique 2 to a middle- or high-power semiconductor module without modification nor improvement. Since large wiring parts such as wide area copper bars are connected to the power module terminal usually to make a high current flow, it is impossible to set the noise reducing element as described in the reference around the power module terminal.
Since the conventional technique disclosed in Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application Hei. 11 (1999)-238844 sets a ring-shaped soft magnetic element around a semiconductor device in almost the same manner as the conventional technique 1, the desired noise reduction effects may not be obtained, if the peripheral circuit conditions are unfavorable.
When an electromagnetic shield is formed using a cap by the conventional technique disclosed in Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application 2001-160605 (hereinafter referred to as the "conventional technique 4"), it is necessary to provide the inner surface height of the cap with a certain leeway, since variations are caused between the molten states of the solder balls. Therefore, it is troublesome to manage the cap size and to design the cap. The cap is shaped with a cover having a window and manufactured through many manufacturing steps, causing high manufacturing costs. It is hard to replace the moldings or the tape used for the electromagnetic wave absorber according the conventional technique 4, even when it is necessary to replace the electromagnetic wave absorber corresponding to the frequencies of the noises to be absorbed.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a power semiconductor module that facilitates replacing the magnetic element such as a ferrite core (hereinafter referred to as the "magnetic core") thereof and reducing the size thereof. It would be also desirable to provide a power semiconductor module that facilitates setting a magnetic core around the module package securely. It would be further desirable to provide a power semiconductor module provided with a magnetic core having a relatively simple structure and easy to manufacture.

Fuji Electric Device Technology Co., Ltd.


A device for forming an ion sheath in a plasma to deposit coatings on a non-conducting substrate. The device comprises a tubular reaction chamber having an outer surface wound helically with a first electrode having a first width. Helical winding of the first electrode provides a plurality of first wraps around the outer surface of the tubular reaction chamber. The device further includes a second electrode having a second width that is larger than the first width. Helical winding of the second electrode provides a plurality of second wraps alternating with the first wraps around the outer surface of the tubular reaction chamber. An ion sheath in a plasma forms to a thickness extending at least to the longitudinal axis of the tubular reaction chamber when the first electrode has a connection to a source of radio-frequency power and the second electrode provides a path to ground.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to coated optical fibers and to a device and method for contacting and positioning lengths of uncoated optical fiber for application, by chemical vapor deposition, of amorphous or metal coatings without adverse effect upon the strength characteristics of the uncoated optical fibers. More particularly the present invention provides a coating apparatus including a plasma reactor in the form of a tubular reaction chamber having powered and grounded electrodes wound helically on the outer surface of the tubular reaction chamber. The present invention further provides a fiber guide formed by freezing a layer of liquid, preferably water, to provide a solid collar that acts as a bearing for linear movement of a fiber along a prescribed axis during application of amorphous material, including diamond-like glass coatings, inside low pressure reaction chambers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Manufacture of optical fibers, used for formation of optical fiber refractive index gratings, typically involves drawing glass filaments from highly photosensitive glass pre-forms. The process uses a down-feed system to control the rate at which the photosensitive pre-form and cladding enters the heating zone of an induction furnace. Heating zone temperatures reach from about 2200° C. to about 2250° C. Within this temperature range an optical pre-form may be drawn to the filamentary form of an optical fiber. A laser telemetric measurement system monitors the diameter of the optical fiber and its position in the draw tower. Thereafter, the newly formed optical fiber passes to one of more coating stations for application of at least one UV curable, protective coating. The protective coating, commonly referred to as a buffer coating, prevents damage that a buffer-free optical fiber may sustain by physical impact or contact with environmental contaminants including water and aqueous solutions. Historically it has not been possible to touch uncoated glass fibers without degrading their strength. For this reason, fiber optic draw towers have a height to accommodate fiber formation and application of protective buffer coatings before the optical fiber reaches the bottom of the tower. Although damage by contact with bare optical fibers can occur in a fraction of a second, buffer coatings provide sufficient protection to fragile optical fibers to allow them to be wound around storage drums and held for further processing.
Subsequent processing of a coated optical fiber may include formation of a refractive index grating in its core to produce useful articles including narrow band retro-reflectors, gain flattening devices in optical amplifiers and wavelength filters in optical communication systems. Refractive index gratings include periodic variations of refractive index that may be described as adjacent parallel planes of alternating higher and lower refractive index. The process for forming refractive index gratings requires coated optical fibers containing dopant materials, such as germanium oxide, that increase the sensitivity of the optical fiber to changes in refractive index resulting from exposure to actinic radiation e.g. from an ultraviolet laser. Without pre-sensitization, the fabrication of refractive index gratings by exposure to actinic radiation may require impractical, extended exposure times in the path of the laser beam. The degree of development and magnitude of index of refraction modulations depends upon the photosensitivity of the absorbing silica or glass structure during exposure to actinic radiation. Conventional polymeric buffer coatings, which are preferred for protecting the optical fiber, absorb actinic radiation and interfere with formation of index of refraction modulations. Removal of protective buffer, even if only from a portion of its length, returns the bare portion of the optical fiber to a vulnerable condition in which damage may occur as the stripped optical fiber undergoes modification to produce a desired refractive index grating device. Vulnerability to damage persists until the bare portion of an optical fiber receives a protective recoat of buffer material.
Formation of refractive index gratings in an optical fiber, including a glass core and an overlying cladding layer of a similar glass composition, is possible without exposing the optical fiber to impact or contaminants that might adversely affect the original physical strength characteristics of the fiber. The threat of damage may be overcome using a coating of diamond-like carbon, diamond-like glass or an amorphous coating of similar structure that forms a protective layer, transparent to ultraviolet radiation, over optical fiber cladding. Published application WO 01/66484 A1 describes diamond-like coatings and methods for their application to protect optical fibers having suitable sensitivity to radiation from an ultraviolet laser for introduction of refractive index gratings into the optical fiber core.
The challenge with the use of diamond-like coatings is the retention of the original physical strength of a drawn optical fiber during application of the coating in vapor deposition chambers operating at reduced pressure. U.S. Pat. No. 4,402,993 describes a process for coating optical fibers immediately following fiber formation using conventional drawing techniques. Optical fibers, fed directly from a fiber extruder, pass through an appropriate protective shroud to the entry of an elongated chamber having inert gas air locks at its opposite ends. Between the pressure locks, the optical fiber passes successively through a series of evacuated chamber sections. The first section comprises a plasma-ion milling zone for removing contaminants and microscopic defects from the surface of the optical fiber. Next the cleaned optical fiber passes into a second zone wherein elemental carbon, propelled in plasma-ion form, coats the surface of fiber with a diamond-like elemental carbon film of sub-micron thickness. At various points through the coating apparatus the optical fiber passes through plates having orifices of a size that is larger than the diameter of the optical fiber. To prevent damage to the fiber, by impact or abrasion against the sides of an orifice, the coating apparatus uses an inert gas positioning vortex to control gas flow between cleaning and coating zones.
The use of an inert gas vortex is one method for positioning bare optical fibers as they pass between chambers operating at different pressures. Another method uses seals that prevent gas transfer between chambers. However, during movement between pressure-controlled chambers, optical fibers roll over the seals producing a rubbing motion that could also lead to fiber weakening. A coating process typically uses monitoring equipment to sense conditions such as vibration that could damage the fiber. These precautions reduce the probability that the strength characteristics of the drawn optical fiber will decrease during application of hermetically sealed coatings.
The process described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,402,993 uses a coating chamber operating at reduced pressure to allow plasma ion formation around an electrode structure inside the coating chamber. U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,723 describes generation of plasma activated species inside a coating chamber using a single electrode wrapped spirally around the outside of the coating chamber. The use of the external electrode allows treatment of particles with plasma-activated species to apply functional coatings to the particles. Japanese published application JP 11222530 describes plasma processing to produce polymer coated metal wire passing through a tubular chamber wrapped with a single electrode. The powered electrode is twisted spirally around the outside of the tubular chamber and the metal wire provides the other electrode for plasma generation at atmospheric pressure. Japanese Published Application JP 5106053 describes generation of a low pressure glow plasma discharge following introduction of a reactive gas into one end of an insulator tube that has a pair of spirally wrapped parallel electrodes wrapped around its outer periphery. The low-pressure glow discharge plasma etches the surface of substrates inside the tube. Preferably, the insulator tube consists of glass, plastics such as PTFT, FEP, PET, PPS, PEEK, ABS, and silicone and ceramics. The spiral of the parallel pair of electrodes may be made from Cu, Ag, Ni, Al, stainless steel, carbon etc., which are separated from each other at a distance of preferably 5-20 mm. The helical wraps of the electrode pair have a separation of 20 cm. A 50 cm diameter Pyrex discharge tube 3 mm in thickness provided the insulator tube for uniform etching of silicon wafers. A low pressure glow plasma discharge, of the type described, etches substrates, such as silicon wafers, which may be stationary or moving inside or located on the inner surface of a ceramic, plastic or glass insulator tube.
A coated optical fiber having at least one protective buffer layer applied to its surface may be the starting material for a vapor deposition process that applies a coating to an optical fiber. In this case, application of a layer of diamond-like glass, for example, requires removal of any coating over the cladding of an optical fiber. The process used to remove coating from the clad optical fiber, e.g. before imprinting a Bragg grating, represents one more operation that could adversely affect the strength of a delicate single mode, optical fiber that typically comprises a core less than 1 μm in diameter and a cladding layer that increases the diameter to about 125 μm.
There is increasing use of fiber optics in applications including information transmission and optoelectronic devices. Considering the number of conditions under which damage may occur to delicate optical fibers there is a need for processes and related equipment that suppress any decrease in strength characteristics from levels associated with newly drawn optical fibers.

Plasma reactor including helical electrodes


The invention provides a novel method, in which self-aligned, borderless contacts and local interconnections of semiconductor devices are manufactured in an integral process. The method is compatible with the LOGIC self-aligned titanium silicide (SALICIDE) and N+/P+ poly dual gate process modules. That is, this invention provides a self-aligned local-interconnect and contact (SALIC) method for a logic technology to forming the self-aligned, borderless contacts, and local interconnects (LI) simultaneously.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a manufacturing method of semiconductor, and more particularly, to self-aligned local interconnect and contact (SALIC) technology, which integrates a process of self-aligned and borderless contacts as well as a process of local interconnects.
2. Description of Related Art
When integration of elements in integrated circuits (IC) increases, a resistance of source/drain regions in the elements of metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors simultaneously increases. As the resistance of the source/drain region is almost the same as the resistance of a channel of the MOS transistor, a process of self-aligned silicide (SALICIDE) is employed for reducing the sheet resistance of the source/drain regions in order to keep an integral of shallow junctions between the metal layer and the MOS transistor. The salicide process is currently applied in a manufacturing process of very large scale integration (VLSI) device.
Furthermore, a dual gate, such as a N.sup.+ /P.sup.+ poly dual gate, is employed in the element in deep submicron process when a demand for increasing the density of integrated circuits and decreasing the size of the elements is necessary. For a better performance, a tungsten silicide (WSi.sub.x) layer is used for covering the doped poly gate layer of elements, as the same time a poly silicide gate is formed by defining the tungsten suicide layer and the poly gate layer.
FIGS. 1A-1D are shown a conventional manufacturing process of self-aligned silicide. Referring to FIG. 1A, at first, there is a silicon substrate 10 which includes shallow trench isolation regions 11, a gate oxide layer 12a, and a poly gate layer 13a. The shallow trench isolation region 11 is formed by a plurality of steps. At first, shallow trenches are formed in the substrate 10. Then the shallow trenches are filled with, for example, silicon dioxide. Finally, the shallow trench isolation region 11 is formed by an anisotropic dry etching method. An active area 9 for a transistor element is sequentially formed beside every two shallow trench isolation regions 11.
Furthermore, the gate oxide layer 12a is made of, for example, silicon dioxide. The poly gate layer 13a is formed by, for example, a method of low pressure chemical vapor. The thickness of the poly gate layer 13a is about 2000 .ANG..about.3500 .ANG..
Referring to FIG. 1B, the poly gate layer 13a is covered by a tungsten silicide layer 14a. The tungsten suicide layer 14a can be formed by a process of low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD), in which the reaction is performed by, for example, a mixed gas of tungsten hexafluoride (WF.sub.6) and silane at a temperature of about 300.degree. C..about.400.degree. C. The thickness of the tungsten silicide layer 14a is about 400 .ANG..about.800 .ANG.. Next, a silicon nitride layer 15a is formed by depositing over the tungsten silicide layer 14a. The method of forming the silicon nitride layer 15a is, for example, a method of low pressure chemical vapor deposition.
Referring to FIG. 1C, a structure of gate electrode 13' is then formed above the substrate 10 by a conventional method of photolithography and etching, by which the gate oxide layer 12a, the poly gate layer 13a, the tungsten silicide layer 14a and the silicon nitride 15a are defined. The gate electrode 13' includes a gate oxide 12b, a poly gate layer 13b, a tungsten suicide layer 14b and a silicon nitride 15b.
Referring to FIG. 1D, a spacer 16 is formed around the sidewall of the gate electrode 13'. Then, the self-aligned silicide 17 is formed on a portion of the surface of the substrate 10. The self-aligned suicide 17 can be formed by steps of, at first, forming a titanium layer by sputtering over the sillicon 10. Next, the silicide 17 is formed in the interface of the titanium layer and the exposed parts of the substrate 10 by a method of, for example, a rapid thermal oxidation.
On the other hand, when the integration of the semiconductor device increases, the surface of the chip can not provide enough areas for interconnections inside the device. For catching up with increasing demands for interconnections inside, interconnections of more than two metal layers are currently employed in designs of integrated circuits, especially in complex IC products, e.g., a microprocessor. Even four or five metal layers are designed for interconnections of the elements in the microprocessor.
Referring to FIG.2A.about.2D, shown a conventional manufacturing process of local interconnects in local areas in the device. Referring to FIG. 2A, it shows a substrate 20, wherein the substrate 20 has a shallow trench isolation area 21 for defining the memory cells. Further, the substrate 20 is covered by a gate oxide layer 22, a first gate electrode 23 and a second gate electrode 24 formed above the gate oxide layer 22, and spacers 25 formed around the sidewalls of the first gate electrode 23 and the second gate electrode 24. The first gate electrode 23 and the second gate electrode 24 are made of, for example, polysilicon doped with impurities. The spacer 25 is made of, for example, silicon dioxide.
Referring to FIG. 2B, next, a process of forming self-aligned silicide (SALICIDE) is employed. Before employing the salicide process, the exposed portion of the gate oxide layer 22 is eliminated. The process includes steps of, for example, at first a metal layer is deposited over the first gate electrode 23, second gate electrode 23, and a gate oxide layer 22. The metal layer is, for example, a titanium layer deposited by magnetron DC sputtering. The thickness of the metal layer is preferably about 200.about.1000 .ANG.. Next, the titanium layer reacts with surface of the first gate electrode 23, the second gate electrode 24 and the exposed portion of the substrate 20 to produce the silicide 26 at a high temperature. The silicide is, for example, titanium silicide (TiSi.sub.2).
Referring to 2C, a titanium nitride layer 27a is deposited by reactive sputtering deposition over the substrate 20 to cover the first gate electrode 23, the second electrode 24, and the spacer 25. The method of reactive sputtering deposition uses the titanium as a metal target. Ions sputtered by bombard react with the nitrogen of the plasma in a circumstance filled with argon and nitrogen to produce titanium nitride (TiN). Then a photoresist layer 28 is formed over the substrate 20, wherein the photoresist layer 28 is defined to cover parts of the substrate 20. For example, referring to FIG. 2C, the portion of the titanium nitride layer 27a located on the surface of the first gate electrode 23 and half of the second gate electrode 24 is exposed.
Referring to FIG. 2D, the exposed titanium nitride 27a uncovered by the photoresist layer 28 is etched off and the residual titanium nitride layer 27b is formed. Next, in the following manufacturing process, the fore-end process of the local interconnect is performed by eliminating the photoresist layer 28. The back-end process can be easily performed by persons skilled in the art in order to complete the device.
Whereas, it is critical for a LOGIC technology to provide the self-aligned, borderless contacts, and local interconnects (LI) simultaneously. In the mean time, it has to be compatible with the LOGIC self-aligned titanium silicide(SALICIDE) and N+/P+ poly dual gate process modules. In the conventional manufacturing process, it has not been accomplished due to difficulties in integrating the salicide process and the LI into the logic salicide and N+/ P+ poly baseline process.

Manufacturing method for self-aligned local interconnects and contacts simultaneously

5F, No. 33, Alley 26, Lane 300, Jen-Ai Rd., Sec. 4


A method includes receiving data in a first series of blocks each having a first number of audio samples and repackaging the data into a second series of blocks each having a second number of audio samples. The second number of audio samples is a non-integer fraction of the first number of audio samples. The method further includes transmitting the second series of blocks over a series of fixed duration time intervals, and adjusting the payload of adjacent time intervals to reduce jitter in the transmission of the second series of blocks.

Audio content signals are sometimes processed or distributed through one or more systems before reaching a device that renders the audio content into an acoustic signal for listening. In some cases, it may be desirable for the audio content to be rendered in a timely manner to be synchronized with other related events, such as audio content associated with a video signal or other visual event or content. For example, a television program may include both video and audio content, and the device that renders the audio content (e.g., a loudspeaker) may be a different device than that which renders the visual element (e.g., a video display). In some instances, it may be desirable for the loudspeaker to process and distribute the audio content to a further rendering device, such as a headset, for example. Various systems that may process or distribute the audio content prior to rendering the audio content as an acoustic signal may add amounts of latency (e.g., delay) and inconsistency (e.g., delay variation, jitter) that cause the rendered acoustic signal to be perceived by a user as unsynchronized with the rendered video. It is therefore desirable to process and distribute audio content in a manner with reduced latency and/or reduced jitter.


A ratchet screw driver includes a handle having a tube and having a number of ratchet teeth and a driving stem rotatably engaged in the tube. A follower is slidably engaged on the driving stem and includes a number of ratchet teeth for engaging with the ratchet teeth of the handle. A spring may bias the ratchet teeth of the follower to engage with the ratchet teeth of the handle for allowing the driving stem to be rotated in an active direction by the handle and to be rotated freely relative to the handle when the handle is rotated in the reverse direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a screw driver, and more particularly to a ratchet screw driver.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typical screw drivers comprise a driving shaft engaged in a handle for driving fasteners. A number of ratchet mechanisms are engaged in the handle for allowing the driving shaft to be rotated in an active direction and to be rotated freely in the opposite direction. However, the ratchet mechanism includes a complicated configuration. In addition, the tool bits may not be received in the handle in which the ratchet mechanism is engaged therein.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages of the conventional screw drivers.

No. 150, Sec. 3, Chung San Rd., Wu Zh Hsiang


Systems and methods for cross-session response tracking in a distributed computing environment using query identifiers generated based on search parameters. A search query including search parameters is received from a client device. A query identifier for the search query is generated based on the search parameters. One version of a search result among multiple versions of the search result is selected based on the query identifier and sent to the client device. A record in a transaction database is correlated with the selected version of the search result using the query identifier.

Controlled experiments, such as A|B testing, enable updates to current systems or new features to be objectively evaluated while minimizing the risks associated with full deployment. In A|B testing, for example, an update or a new feature of a system being tested (hereinafter "version B") may be objectively evaluated against a current version (hereinafter "version A"). Users interacting with the system under test may be partitioned such that a first subset of the users are presented with version A while a second subset of the users are presented with version B. Evaluation metrics may be determined for each version using data collected regarding responses or behaviors of users in the first and second subsets. Such evaluation metrics facilitate objectively evaluating version B against version A.
Obtaining valid results from these controlled experiments may involve two distinct requirements. First, a technique may be required for partitioning users interacting with a system being tested that is independent of tested system behavior to realize unbiased assignation to version A or version B. Second, a technique of correlating those partitions with subsequent responses or outcomes may be required to obtain data for generating evaluation metrics. These distinct requirements may be difficult to satisfy when implementing controlled experiments in distributed computing environments.
Conventional techniques for implementing controlled experiments in distributed computing environments utilize client-side identifiers to partition users and correlate those partitions with subsequent responses. In using client-side identifiers, conventional techniques depend on users to maintain an unbiased assignation to partitions or to correlate those assigned partitions with subsequent results or outcomes. For example, some conventional techniques use data (known as "cookies") persistently stored on client devices by a web server interacting with web-browsers executing on the client devices to assign users to a particular test partition. Under this cookie-based approach, a user that is initially assigned to version A of a controlled experiment may subsequently be assigned to version B by merely clearing the cookies stored on a client device of the user. By clearing the cookies stored on the client device, the user is introducing bias into the assignment of partitions.
As another example, some conventional techniques use session identifiers assigned by web servers to client devices (or applications) upon establishing client-server sessions with the client devices. However, session identifiers are generally based on specific parameters associated with the client devices, such as a network address of a client device, a machine address associated with a client device, a descriptor of a particular application executing on a client device, and the like. As such, this session-based approach is inherently client/session-specific. For example, a user may be assigned to a partition during a first session. That user may initiate a new (second) session with a web-server using a different client device, a different network connection, or even a different application executing on the same client device during a transaction. By initiating the second session, the user may have frustrated the ability to correlate the partition assigned during the first session with the subsequent response or outcome of the second session.

Query-based identifiers for cross-session response tracking


A novel display panel that is highly convenient or reliable is provided. The display panel includes a first pixel; the first pixel includes a first display element, a first color conversion layer, and a first absorption layer; the first display element emits first light; the first absorption layer overlaps with the first display element; and the first absorption layer absorbs the first light. Furthermore, the first color conversion layer is sandwiched between the first display element and the first absorption layer; the first color conversion layer converts the first light into second light; and the second light has a spectrum including a high proportion of light with a long wavelength compared with the first light.

There is known a light-emitting device including a first light-emitting element, a second light-emitting element, and a third light-emitting element; the first light-emitting element, the second light-emitting element, and the third light-emitting element include a common EL layer; the EL layer includes a layer containing a light-emitting material emitting blue fluorescence and a layer containing a light-emitting material emitting yellow or green phosphorescence; light emitted from the second light-emitting element enters a color filter layer or a second color conversion layer; and light emitted from the third light-emitting element enters a first color conversion layer (Patent Document 1).

Display panel, display device, input/output device, and data processing device


In a fixing device with a fixing roller that fixes the toner held on a sheet, a pressuring roller that contacts with the fixing roller, and a supply roller that applies the oil to the fixing roller, image noises and offset phenomenon are prevented by replenishing the consumed oil immediately to the supply roller only when the fixing roller is rotating, based on the oil replenishing speed determined by the rotational speed of the fixing roller and the oil replenishing amount determined by the total rotation time of the fixing roller.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fixing device for thermally fixing an unfixed image on a recording medium, and a device and a method for replenishing a releasing agent for use in the fixing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic printer, copying machine, is normally equipped with a fixing device that fixes an unfixed toner image on a sheet as recording medium based on the pressure-thermal fixing process.
In such a fixing device, the sheet surface that retains the toner comes in direct contact with the surface of the fixing roller. As a result, it often causes a phenomenon called "offset" because unfixed toner on the sheet smears the fixing roller.
The offset phenomenon has been dealt with coating the surface of the fixing roller by means of a releasing agent coating mechanism with a releasing agent that helps to release the toner from the fixing roller smoothly, and maintaining the surface of the fixing roller clean using a cleaning roller and the like. Since silicon oil is normally used as the releasing agent, the releasing agent will be also called the "oil" in the following discussion for the sake of convenience.
The function of the releasing agent coating mechanism is to apply the oil to the surface of the fixing roller adequately as the oil is taken away by the sheet from the fixing roller surface each time the sheet passes the roller, or when the printing paper feed occurs. Consequently, the releasing agent coating mechanism is also referred to as the oil replenishing mechanism.
An oil replenishing mechanism of the prior art is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication, JP-A-60-151680. The oil replenishing mechanism includes a cylindrical part, which has multiple small holes and holds the oil internally, a heat resistant porous elastic part that covers the outside of the cylindrical part, and an oil replenishing roller coated with a silicon varnish thin film that covers the outside surface of the heat resistant elastic part.
However, such an oil replenishing mechanism has a shortcoming that there is a limit to the amount of oil it can hold inside the cylindrical part, so that it has only a short life as an oil replenishing device.
Another Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication, No. P-A-05-265346, discloses an oil replenishing mechanism that improves the shortcoming described above. The oil replenishing mechanism comprises: an oil coating roller that holds the oil inside, is in contact with the fixing roller under a pressure to be driven by the latter, and coats the fixing roller surface with the oil seeping out from the inside of the coating roller; and an oil replenishing device that replenishes the oil inside the coating roller from an external source; where the coating roller and the replenishing device are combined into a single sealed unit.
However, it is difficult to make the oil exist in a stable manner inside the coating roller of such an oil replenishing mechanism. Also, the coating roller has another shortcoming that its coating action is sometimes not uniform because it makes starts and stops repeatedly. In particular, the oil tends to gather at the lower portion of the coating roller due to the gravity when the coating roller is at still.
If the fixing roller is coated under such a condition, the oil seeping amount becomes uneven and hence the coating of the oil becomes uneven around the periphery of the fixing roller. Consequently, the offset phenomenon cannot be completely eliminated with such devices or mechanisms. The offset phenomenon is more conspicuously on a device or apparatus that handles color images, causes uneven luster and image noises.

Fixing device, and releasing agent replenishing device and method for use in the fixing device


Equalization of a temperature distribution in a flow direction on a cooling plate is facilitated so that temperatures of plural cells that thermally contact with the cooling plate are equalized, to reduce variability in the state of charge-discharge and the lifetimes of the respective cells. A battery module includes a cooling plate having a refrigerant channel in which a refrigerant circulates, and plural cells that are thermally conductively coupled onto a surface of the cooling plate, in which the refrigerant channel is formed with plural large diameter pipes that decelerate the refrigerant, and plural small diameter pipes that accelerate the refrigerant, a channel sectional area of the large diameter pipes is larger than a refrigerant channel sectional area of the small diameter pipes arranged on an inflow side of the large diameter pipes.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a battery module having a plurality of chargeable and dischargeable battery cells connected to each other, and more particularly to a cooling structure for the battery module.
2. Background Art
The battery module mounted in hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles is configured by a combination of a large number of secondary batteries such as a lithium ion battery cell, a nickel hydride battery cell, or a nickel-cadmium battery cell. Charge and discharge currents of the battery module are generally large, and heat generation is also increased, as a result of which a temperature rise of the battery cell per se also increases. The temperature rise in the battery cell needs to be reduced as much as possible so as to be rapidly cooled from the view point of the lifetime of battery.
As a method of rapidly cooling the battery cell, there is a method using a refrigerant. There has been known a method in which a plurality of cells are coupled onto a surface of a cooling plate having a refrigerant channel through an insulating sheet so as to be cooled, and the refrigerant is supplied to the cooling plate to cool the battery cells (refer to JP-A-2010-62130).

Battery module and power supply apparatus


An expandable bootie is disclosed. The bootie includes a main body composed of fabric, wherein the main body is shaped in the form of a foot having a longitudinal axis, and a zipper that commences at a toe portion of the main body, and extends in a spiral path around the main body such that the spiral path twists at least three hundred and sixty degrees around the main body. The bootie further includes a portion of fabric disposed between mating tape members of the zipper, wherein when the zipper is closed the portion of fabric is contracted and wherein when the zipper is open the portion of fabric is extended and the main body has a longer longitudinal length, and a strap comprising a strip extending substantially horizontally and connected to an ankle portion of the main body.

Children, especially infants, grow at a rapid pace. As a result, children are constantly outgrowing their clothing and parents struggle to provide their children with properly fitting clothing. This problem is especially pronounced in the area of footwear. Whereas ill-fitting clothing may only look out of place, shoes that do not fit properly can also cause aches and pains to the wearer. Further, since children's feet are in the growth phase, their delicate feet can be negatively affected by wearing shoes that are too tight. Thus, when caring for a child, there is a constant need to provide properly fitting footwear. This can be wasteful for families finding themselves making multiple footwear purchases following multiple growth spurts
Some attempts have been made to provide expandable shoes. U.S. Pat. No. 3,389,481, for example, discloses a shoe in which a two plate assembly is disposed between an inner and a disjointed outer sole, having overlapping front and back portions. One of the plates includes a spring tongue, and the other plate includes two apertures to receive the spring tongue, each aperture corresponding to a shoe size. To adjust the shoe size, a screw which extends through the heel and into the disjointed soles is removed. The shoe may then be pulled apart allowing the disjointed sole to separate until the spring tongue engages the next aperture. Thus the shoe size may be lengthened by one size, but apparently the size cannot be controlled finely or reduced. The shoe includes two crinkled leather portions, one on each side of the shoe, to facilitate expansion of the shoe. The apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 3,389,481, however, is a complex device with a multitude of moving parts composed of a variety of materials. These characteristics are disadvantageous since they increase manufacturing costs, enhance the probability of failure of the product and increase the consumer sales price.
In another example, international patent application WO 01/33986 also describes an expandable shoe. The expandable shoe includes an outer shell having a front and a rear outer assembly each attached to a flexible, expandable segment. An adjustable inner assembly is disposed within the outer shell and includes a control mechanism, accessible from the outer shell, which may be urged from a lock state into a state in which the inner assembly and outer shell may be adjusted. A visualization window provides a view port to the inner assembly. The apparatus of patent application WO 01/33986, however, is also an intricate device with multiple moving parts composed of different materials.
Consequently, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above, and particularly for a simpler and more efficient expandable footwear product for children.


The invention provides a light-emitting device and a method of illumination. The light-emitting device includes one or more semiconductor layers, a reflective bottom surface, and a top surface coupled to semiconductor layer. The semiconductor layers include an active region where a primary light is generated. The relative position of the top surface, the reflective bottom surface and the active region is adjusted to substantially transmit the primary light through the sides of the light-emitting device.

The invention relates generally to the field of illumination systems, and more specifically, to light-emitting devices with uniform side emission in the radial direction.
Light-emitting devices are widely used in backlighting of display devices such as laptops, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, and the like. These light-emitting devices may be used in isolation or may be coupled to an optical waveguide for uniform light transmission. An example of the light-emitting devices may include a Light-Emitting Diode (LED).
Existing light-emitting devices do not provide a spatially wide emission of light. The emission pattern causes creation of dark corners in the optical waveguide coupled to the existing light-emitting devices. Therefore, a uniform illumination may not be achieved using the existing light-emitting devices. Additional light-emitting devices are required to distribute the light uniformly over, for example, a display. This increases the cost of the illumination systems that include the existing light-emitting devices.


The present document relates to Direct Current (DC) to DC power converters. In particular, the present document relates to DC to DC power converters which comprise one or more bipolar transistors as power switches. A control circuit configured to control a power switch of a switched-mode power converter is described. The power switch comprises a bipolar transistor. The control circuit is configured to determine an indication of a time instant, at which the power switch is switched off; and to adjust a basis current for controlling the power switch based on the determined indication of the time instant.

DC to DC power converters, e.g. power converters used for LED (light emitting diode) applications, typically make use of MOSFETs (metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors) for the high-voltage switching. The use of bipolar transistors as power switches may be beneficial in view of cost reduction. However, the control of a switching device comprising a bipolar transistor may be relatively complex.

Power switch control by adjusting the base current of a bipolar transistor


An adaptive evacuation system and method for providing a safety route to evacuees. Active smoke and heat detector information can be obtained from a fire panel. Routes and exits in proximity to the active detectors are assumed to be unsafe and closed for use in evacuation. Evacuation planning is accomplished with the remaining “safe” routes. The progression of fire and smoke and the time-dependent degradation of evacuation route safety associated with progression of fire and smoke can be predicted and initial classification and signaling of route safety can be performed. As the fire progresses, the initial time-dependent classifications are updated and initially safe routes are reclassified as unsafe and then evacuation directions are modified.

Typically, during an emergency evacuation of a building, occupants must make their own assessment regarding the relative safety of possible egress routes and select a route that they perceive as safe. Under the stress of time pressure and uncertainty, an occupant's assessment and choice of safety route may be faulty. Frequently, the default choice made by an occupant involves either evacuating along the same route that he or she used to enter the building that day, or moving toward a known fixed emergency exit that may or may not be safe. Adaptive evacuation systems offer the potential to relieve the occupant of these difficult egress decisions.
In conditions where it is difficult to find a safe path out of a building, indications as to which of the escape routes is/are safe and indications of how to get to that escape route can be very valuable. In more severe emergencies such as earthquakes, parts of a building may have collapsed. This severe damage can block the path to safe egress routes. Further, any changes in the building due to a collapse can combine with smoke and dust to become very disorienting.
In a severe fire, the whole process of searching for safety evacuation routes may become even more difficult if thick smoke fills the entire structure. In a severe fire, evacuee panic can combine with obscuration by heavy smoke to create severe disorientation in the evacuees. These difficulties can be further aggravated if the fire spreads so rapidly that the escape routes are blocked or cut off by the fire.
In conditions where it might be difficult to find a safe way out of a building, indications of where the safe egress routes are located would be very helpful. On the other hand, first responders, especially fire fighters, often have considerable difficulty in navigating through buildings during an emergency. Fire fighters have a difficult time determining their location in the building, and where they can go when smoke is thick. Fire fighters often do not know the building layout well, and do not have accurate information for navigating toward an identified location. As a result the fire fighter can be become lost. Fire fighters also often have a difficult time finding multiple objectives such as the fire, standpipes, and the suspected locations of victims, who must be found quickly.
It is important for fire fighting crews to go directly to the fire when they arrive at a fire scene. Even if the location of the fire is known, getting to the fire can be a challenging task due to a lack of knowledge of the building layout. Fire fighters also need other important information such as the need to travel to water supplies, victims, or special hazards.

Time-dependent classification and signaling of evacuation route safety


A method of handling data transmission and reception in device to device communication for a first communication device in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method comprises connecting to a network of the wireless communication system, using a first ciphering key to cipher a first plurality of data blocks in a communication path corresponding to the second communication device, wherein the communication path is used for transmitting the first plurality of data blocks to the second communication device and is not traversing the network, being configured to release the communication path by the network, and using a second ciphering key different to the first ciphering key to cipher a second plurality of data blocks in a connection corresponding to the network, wherein the second plurality of data blocks include data transmitted to the second communication device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method used in a communication device in a wireless communication system, and more particularly, to a method of handling data transmission and reception in device to device communication in a wireless communication system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In many communication systems, there are usually at least one kind of nodes serving for central control of radio resource and other kinds of nodes serving for user usage by means of connecting at least a serving node. In 3GPP LTE system of wireless communication system, for example, the mentioned nodes serving for central control are eNBs, relay nodes, radio remote heads (RRH), remote antennas, base stations, etc. Those nodes serving for user usage can be UEs, mobile stations, handsets, user devices, machine type devices (i.e. having capability of communicating with other devices without users), etc.
New direct communications between two user devices are different from conventional communication through eNB. This kind of device to device communication is new in wireless communication systems, and there is few information so far. Some similar but different behaviors could be found in Bluetooth and WiFi. However, for those skilled in the art should know these two systems are different from communication systems with central control, e.g. LTE, LTE-Advanced, WCDMA, HSPA, WiMAX, etc. Note that, in current wireless communication systems with central control, two communication devices (i.e. two UEs) use a proximity service direct communication mechanism for communication by means of user plane transmission using E-UTRA technology via a path not traversing any network node (i.e. an eNB). In a word, with the proximity service direct communication, a first UE can perform data transmission/reception to a second UE, wherein the first UE and the second UE are both proximity service direct communication enabled.
However, the applicant notice a problem associated to the proximity service direct communication. Consider a scenario that the first UE is configured proximity service direct communication to the second UE. The first UE has a RRC connection with a first eNB. The second UE has a RRC connection with the first eNB or a second eNB. It is not clear how to handle data transmission and reception between the first UE and the second UE if the proximity service direct communication is terminated e.g. due to reconfiguration or radio link failure.
Moreover, after RRC reconfiguration or radio link failure, the UE may perform Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) re-establishment. In addition, the UE shall reset the header compression protocol, apply the ciphering algorithm and key provided by upper layers during the PDCP re-establishment, set Next_PDCP_TX_SN and TX_HFN to 0 for an uplink data transfer procedure, and set Next_PDCP_RX_SN and RX_HFN to 0 for a downlink data transfer procedure. Furthermore, when the UE performs the PDCP re-establishment, for radio bearers that are mapped on RLC AM, the UE shall if the radio bearer is configured by upper layers to send a PDCP status report in the uplink, compile a status report after processing the PDCP data PDUs that are received from lower layers due to the re-establishment of the lower layers, and submit it to lower layers as the first PDCP PDU for the transmission.
Based on the abovementioned specification, the applicant has what ciphering algorithm and key, PDCP parameter setting, status report, and etc. in mind for data transmission and reception between the first UE and the second UE if the proximity service direct communication is terminated.

Method of handling data transmission and reception in device to device communication in wireless communication systems