An air exchange and cleaning system for building enclosures, particularly indoor firing ranges, which removes particulate matter, such as lead and other heavy metals, and gun powder residues and gases from the enclosure atmosphere. An air handler unit includes a particulate matter separator and five stages of filtration which filter both powder and gases from the air. Ducts connect the air handler unit to the enclosed area of the building. The system includes a control system which starts the air handler unit, checks the status of the filters and other operating systems of the air handler unit and ensures that a required minimum negative pressure within the enclosure is achieved before signals are sent to permit operations within the enclosure. In the example of an indoor firing range, the air handler unit and duct system purges the range of possibly contaminated air, checks for satisfactory system operation and ensures a predetermined negative pressure is reached before turning on lighting to the range. When used for a firing range, the air inlet duct system is arranged to create an air wall within the interior of the range and at a position immediately downrange from the shooters' positions. A shooter can project his pistol bearing arm through the air wall while standing on the uprange side. Lead particles, unburned powder and gases are drawn away from the shooters' positions and routed through exhaust ducting to the air handler unit.

The present invention relates to an air filtration and cleaning system for enclosures and more particularly to such a system particularly adapted for indoor gun firing ranges. Indoor gun firing ranges present particular problems for indoor air quality as well as the quality of air exhausted to ambient outdoor air. Standards for lead exposure and air quality have been developed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as state and local air quality and environmental protection authorities. Laws and regulations have been established which present new compliance requirements and difficulties for owners and operators of such indoor range facilities. These standards provide specific guidelines to ensure that contaminants present in indoor firing ranges are properly controlled to ensure the safety of the shooter, employee and other persons who may be present within the range area. Further, the standards provide specific guidelines to ensure that contaminated air is not discharged into the atmosphere, but that contaminant levels are reduced to minimally acceptable levels. Indoor gun ranges present particularly difficult problems, because, as noted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,901, the following chemical elements are released into the atmosphere: boron, sodium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus, sulphur, chlorine, potassium, calcium, titanium, chromium, manganese, iron, nickel, copper, zinc, arsenic, selenium, silver, cadmium, antimony, telrium, mercury, thallium, bismuth, lead solids and lead oxides as well as unburned gun powder and carbon monoxide gas. Certain of these elements are toxic, and continued exposure to them, as by a range employee, may lead to health problems or even death. Moreover, these contaminants cannot be released safely into the outside air.
Most existing indoor gun ranges have poorly designed ventilation systems, and either no or limited filtration such that at the present time few, if any, ranges comply with existing clean air standards. While Clean Air Act administrators on federal, state and local levels have not heretofore been active in ensuring compliance by gun range operators, administrators have been advising the operators that compliance will be necessary and monitored.
Additionally, the same or similar conditions which contaminate the air in gun ranges are also present with respect to other industrial processes. For example, metal plating operations are well recognized sources of contaminated air, as are radiator repair and other lead uses, including certain flux cleaning operations such as in the production of printed circuit boards and other electronic operations. Other industries or practices which produce contaminated air include biochemical operations or medical laboratories. Some such operations employ a "clean room" technique which circulates air through filters and which maintain a slight overpressure within an enclosed area. Greater than ambient pressure, or overpressure, is particularly hazardous when contaminants are involved, because overpressure within an enclosed area forces contaminants out of the room rather than creating a negative or underpressure within the room which would pull outside air in.
Others have attempted to respond to the problem of contaminated air within an indoor firing range by employing various air duct systems and filtration methods. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,901, assigned to American Air Filter Company, Inc., is directed to an indoor gun firing range enclosure for removing contaminants from the air, but still exhausts 80% of the air volume of the indoor chamber to the outside after being filtered. The method of filtration is such that filtration is arguably incomplete and would fail to meet current Clean Air Act standards. Older systems are also energy inefficient. Additionally, the system described in the '901 patent pulls air from one end of the range to the downrange end so that the shooter is constantly standing in an uncomfortable draft. The practice disclosed in the '901 patent demonstrates the problems of providing a safe, clean and comfortable environment for the shooter which can be in conflict with the necessity to comply with Clean Air Act standards.

Air exchange and cleaning system for building enclosure, particularly indoor firing range


A solar battery module according to the present invention includes interconnectors for series-connecting a plurality of solar battery cells, and one or more bypass diodes which allow output currents of the cells to be bypassed with respect to one or more cells, wherein each of those diodes is a chip shaped thin diode and is attached on an electrode or a cell or between interconnectors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a solar battery module including a plurality of solar battery cells which are electrically series-connected and, more particularly, to improvements of a solar battery module including a bypass diode allowing output currents of solar battery cells to be bypassed.
2. Description of the Background Art
With reference to FIGS. 19A, 19B, and 19C, one example of a conventional solar battery module is illustrated. FIGS. 19A, 19B, and 19C show, respectively, a top plan view, a longitudinal cross-sectional view and an equivalent circuit diagram of the solar battery module. In general, a solar battery module 1A includes a plurality of solar battery cells 2 which are electrically series-connected by an interconnector 3 so as to obtain a desired output voltage. In the solar battery module 1A having such structure that the plurality of solar battery cells 2 are series-connected, however, even in a case o where one solar battery cell 2 in the module is shaded, whereas other cells 2 are unshaded, the solar battery module 1A is greatly affected by the single shaded cell, resulting in a substantial decrease in the output of the entire module 1A.
FIGS. 20A and 20B show output voltage-current (V-I) characteristics of one solar battery cell 2. In the graph of each of FIGS. 20A and 20B, the horizontal axis represents voltage V, and the vertical axis represents current I. FIG. 20A shows V-I characteristics provided when one entire solar battery cell 2 is irradiated with light, and FIG. 20B shows V-I characteristics provided when about a half of one solar battery cell 2 is shaded. As can be understood from a comparison between FIGS. 20A and 20B, the output current I of the half-shaded solar battery cell 2 decreases to approximately one-half that of the cell 2 which is entirely irradiated with light.
FIGS. 21A and 21B are similar to FIGS. 20A and 20B and show V-I characteristics of a complete solar battery module 1A. FIG. 21A shows V-I characteristics provided when all of the solar battery cells 2 in the module 1A are irradiated with light, and FIG. 21B shows V-I characteristics provided when approximately one-half of one solar battery cell 2 in the module 1A is shaded. As will be apparent from a comparison between FIGS. 21A and 21B, even in the case where approximately one-half of a single solar battery cell 2 in the module 1A is shaded, the solar battery module 1A is affected such that the output current I of the entire module 1A decreases by approximately one-half.
With reference to FIGS. 22A and 22B, one example of a solar battery system in which a plurality of solar battery modules 1A are further series-connected is schematically shown. FIGS. 22A and 22B show, respectively, a block diagram and an equivalent circuit diagram of that solar battery system. In this solar battery system also, even if only one of the solar battery cells in the system is shaded, the same output decrease as shown in FIG. 21B occurs.
Moreover, in the above-described solar battery module and solar battery system, a large reverse bias voltage is applied to a shaded solar battery cell, so that the shaded cell is destroyed, depending on the external circuit connected with the solar battery module or the solar battery system. In an extreme case, solar battery cells are overheated by the reverse bias voltage, causing a fire in the case where a solar battery module is installed on a roof.
In order to eliminate the problems of the output decrease in the solar battery module or the breakdown of the cell, a solar battery module incorporating a bypass diode is known in the prior art.
FIGS. 23A, 23B, and 23C are similar to FIGS. 19A, 19B, and 19C and illustrate an example of a solar battery module incorporating a bypass diode according to the prior art. FIGS. 23A, 23B, and 23C show, respectively, a top plan view, a longitudinal cross-sectional view, and an equivalent circuit diagram of a solar battery module 1B. FIG. 23D is a perspective view showing one bypass diode. In this solar battery module 1B, bypass diodes 4 are connected in parallel in reverse polarity with respect to respective solar battery cells 2 included in the module 1B.
FIGS. 24A, 24B, 25A, and 25B are similar to FIGS. 20A, 20B, 21A, and 21B, respectively, and show output V-I characteristics of the solar battery module 1B of FIG. 23A. FIGS. 24A and 24B show output V-I characteristics of a single solar battery cell 2 incorporating a bypass diode 4. As can be understood from a comparison with FIGS. 20A and 20B, when there is one solar battery cell 2, the bypass diode 4 does not reduce the decrease in the output of the shaded solar battery cell 2. When a reverse bias voltage externally acts on the solar battery cell 2, however, the bypass diode 4 can act to release the reverse bias voltage and protect the solar battery cell 2 from destruction due to the reverse bias voltage.
FIGS. 25A shows V-I characteristics provided when all of the solar battery cells 2 in the solar battery module 1B of FIG. 23A are irradiated with light, and FIG. 25B shows V-I characteristics provided when approximately one-half of one solar battery cell 2 in the module 1B is shaded.
As can be understood from a comparison between FIGS. 25B and 21B, the bypass diode 4 can act to minimize a decrease in the output of the entire module 1B when a portion of the solar battery cells 2 in the solar battery module 1B are shaded.
With reference to FIGS. 26A, 26B, and 26C, an example of a solar battery module incorporating one bypass diode is illustrated. FIGS. 26A, 26B, and 26C show, respectively, a top plan view, a longitudinal cross-sectional view, and an equivalent circuit diagram of a solar battery module 1C. The solar battery module 1C including a desired number of series-connected solar battery cells 2 includes one bypass diode 4 connected in parallel in a reverse polarity to the solar battery module 1C. When a portion of the solar battery cells 2 in the solar battery module 1C is shaded, this bypass diode 4 does not reduce the decrease in the output of the entire module 1C; however, when a reverse bias voltage acts on the module 1C, the bypass diode 4 can act to protect the entire module 1C from breakdown due to the applied reverse bias voltage.
With reference to FIGS. 27A and 27B, a solar battery system including one bypass diode for each solar battery module is schematically illustrated. FIGS. 27A and 27B show, respectively, a block diagram and an equivalent circuit diagram of that solar battery system. This solar battery system includes a plurality of series-connected solar battery modules 1C, each solar battery module 1C including one bypass diode 4. These bypass diodes 4 can act to reduce the decrease in the output of the entire solar battery system even in a case where a portion of the solar battery cells in the solar battery modules 1C is shaded.
With reference to FIGS. 28A, 28B, and 28C, another example of a conventional solar battery module is illustrated. FIGS. 28A, 28B, and 28C show, respectively, a top view, a longitudinal cross-section view, and an equivalent circuit diagram of a solar battery module 1D. The module 1D of FIGS. 28A, 28B, and 28C is similar to the module 1A of FIGS. 19A, 19B, and 19C; however, with reference to FIGS. 28A, 28B, and 28C, a plurality of relatively small solar battery cells 2 each having a comb-like front electrode 2a are electrically series-connected in such a manner that a portion of each solar battery cell 2 is overlapped with a portion of each adjacent cell 2, in a so-called roof-tile-stacked manner. A back electrode (not shown) is formed on approximately the entire back surface of each of these small solar battery cells 2, and a portion of the front electrode 2a of one solar battery cell 2 is directly attached to the back electrode of its adjacent solar battery cell 2. Solar battery cells 2 on opposite ends of a series of the roof-tile-stacked solar battery cells 2 are connected with interconnectors 3.
In the roof-tile-stacked solar battery module 1D shown in FIGS. 28A, 28B, and 28C also, when a portion of the solar battery cells 2 are shaded, there occurs the same problem of a substantial decrease in output current as described in FIGS. 21A and 21B.
In addition, since the roof-tile-stacked solar battery module 1D has poor flexibility, a crack is liable to be produced in a direction orthogonal to the direction of elongation of that module, as illustrated in FIGS. 29A and 29B. This crack is liable to be produced particularly in a long solar battery module in which a large number of solar battery cells 2 are connected in series. FIGS. 29A and 29B show, respectively, a top view and a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the solar battery module 1D including a cracked solar battery cell 2. When a crack 2K is formed completely across one solar battery cell 2 as shown in FIGS. 29A and 29B, the output of the entire solar battery module 1D decreases down to 0.
The diode 4 of the type shown FIG. 23D is employed in the solar battery module incorporating the prior art bypass diode 4. This diode 4 typically has a cylindrical form of approximately 3-4 mm in diameter and approximately 10 mm in length. On the other hand, the solar battery cell 2 has a thin plate form of, e.g., 100.times.100.times.0.4 mm.sup.3 in size.
Accordingly, when the solar battery module is laminated with and interposed between protection layers, the thin solar battery cell 2 sometimes cracks by being pressed by the thick diode 4. In addition, the overall laminated solar battery module becomes thick due to the thick diode 4, resulting in an increase in the overall weight of the module. Moreover, there is a problem such that if the diode 4 is provided in portions other than the solar battery cell, the size of the entire solar battery module increases by the proportion corresponding to the provision of the diode 4, and the module conversion efficiency (photoelectric conversion efficiency of the module with respect to the size of the module) decreases, resulting in a deterioration in the appearance of the product and a degradation in the value of the commodity. There is another problem that since the diode 4 is thick, a laminating step becomes complicated, resulting in a higher cost of the product.
Moreover, a solar battery module in which solar battery cells having a thin plate form and a relatively small size of, e.g., 30.times.30.times.0.4 mm.sup.3 are roof-tile-stacked, a crack is liable to be produced in the direction orthogonal to the elongated direction of the module as shown in FIGS. 29A and 29B. This results in a problems such that the output of the solar battery module is 0.


A semiconductor switch is configured to conduct or cutoff a signal path from its first terminal to its second terminal. An enhancement-type first transistor is arranged between the first terminal and the second terminal. A first bias circuit is connected to apply a gate voltage VG that corresponds to a control signal VCNT to the gate of the first transistor when the power supply voltages VDD and VSS are supplied. A second bias circuit is connected such that a voltage that corresponds to the lower voltage of the voltages at the first terminal and the second terminal is applied to the gate of the first transistor when the power supply voltages VDD and VSS are not supplied.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor switch.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to test whether or not a semiconductor device operates normally, or in order to identify defective parts, a semiconductor test apparatus (which will be referred to simply as the "test apparatus", or otherwise as the "ATE: Automatic Test Equipment") is employed. Typically, such a test apparatus provides an AC test and a DC test.
In the AC test, a test pattern is generated by means of a pattern generator and a timing generator. Furthermore, a driver generates a pattern signal (test signal) that corresponds to the test pattern, and supplies the pattern signal thus generated to a device under test (DUT). Upon reception of the pattern signal, the DUT performs predetermined signal processing, and outputs an output signal to the test apparatus. By means of a timing comparator, the test apparatus judges the signal level received from the DUT. By comparing the judgment result with an expected value, the test apparatus judges the quality of the functions of the DUT.
In the DC test operation, a DC test unit supplies a DC voltage or a current signal to the DUT, and the test apparatus tests the DC characteristics such as the input/output impedance of the DUT, the leak current thereof, and so forth.
In many cases, a driver, a timing comparator, and a PMU configured to perform a DC test operation are arranged on a board which is referred to as a pin card (pin electronics card), a digital module, or an interface card, and which is configured such that the board can be removed from the main unit of the test apparatus.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a typical configuration of such a pin card. FIG. 1 shows only one channel that corresponds to a given device pin. In practice, several hundreds through several thousands of channels are arranged in parallel.
An I/O terminal Pio of a pin card 200 is connected to a corresponding device pin of a DUT 1 via a cable and an unshown device chuck. The pin card 200 includes two switches (relays) SW1 and SW2, in addition to a driver DR, a timing comparator TCP, and a DC test unit PMU. The switches SW1 and SW2 are used to switch the test mode between the AC test mode and the DC test mode.
When the AC test operation is performed, the switch SW1 is turned on and the switch SW2 is turned off. In this state, the driver DR and the timing comparator TCP are connected to the DUT 1, and the DC test unit PMU is disconnected from the DUT 1.
Conversely, when the DC test operation is performed, the switch SW1 is turned off and the switch SW2 is turned on. In this state, the driver DR and the timing comparator TCP are disconnected from the DUT 1, and the DC test unit PMU is connected to the DUT 1.
In many cases, such a switch SW is configured as a semiconductor switch instead of being configured as a mechanical relay. FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram showing a semiconductor switch 80 investigated by the present inventors. The semiconductor switch 80 includes a transistor 82 and a bias circuit 84 that controls the voltage of a control electrode (gate) of the transistor 82. The transistor 82 is configured as an enhancement-type N-channel transistor. For example, the transistor 82 is configured as a MIS-HEMT (Metal Insulator Semiconductor-High Electron Mobility Transistor).
FIGS. 3A and 3B are diagrams each showing an example of the current/voltage characteristics of such a HEMT. The HEMT has a control electrode (gate) G, a first electrode E1, and a second electrode E2. Of the two electrodes, i.e., the first electrode and the second electrode, the electrode that is set to a higher electric potential will be referred to as the "drain D", and the electrode that is set to a lower electric potential will be referred to as the "source". The HEMT is configured as a device that is capable of controlling the on/off state of the drain/source current. When the gate/source voltage of the HEMT exceeds a predetermined threshold value VTH, the HEMT is turned on. FIG. 3A shows the current/voltage characteristics of a HEMT in a case in which it is configured as an enhancement-type HEMT. FIG. 3B is the current/voltage characteristics of a HEMT in a case in which it is configured as a depression-type HEMT.
Description will be made returning to FIG. 2. The bias circuit 84 receives the power supply voltages VDD and VSS, and controls the gate/source voltage VGS of the transistor 82 according to a control signal VCNT which is an instruction to turn on or otherwise turn off the transistor 82.
Specifically, when the control signal VCNT is set to a first level (e.g., high level), the bias circuit 84 applies, as the gate/source voltage of the transistor 82, a voltage that is higher than the threshold voltage VTH. When the control signal VCNT is set to a second level (e.g., low level), the bias circuit 84 applies, as the gate/source voltage of the transistor 82, a voltage (e.g., 0 V) that is lower than the threshold voltage VTH.
When the power supply voltages VDD and VSS are normally supplied to the bias circuit 84, the bias circuit 84 is capable of appropriately turning on and off the transistor 82 according to the control signal VCNT. However, when the power supply voltages VDD and VSS are not supplied (which will be referred to as the "no-power-supply state"), the output of the bias circuit 84 is set to a high-impedance state. In this state, the output voltage of the bias circuit 84, i.e., the gate voltage VG of the transistor 82, is fixedly set to 0 V (ground voltage) (or otherwise set to an indefinite value).
Description will be made regarding the semiconductor switch 80 shown in FIG. 2 assuming that the output terminal P2 is set to 0 V, a variable voltage VIN is input to the input terminal P1, and the HEMI has a threshold voltage VTH of 1 V.
When VIN>0 V (e.g., VIN=5 V), the electric potential (5 V) at the first electrode E1 is higher than the electric potential (0 V) at the second electrode E2. In this state, the first electrode E1 functions as a drain, and the second electrode E2 functions as a source. In this case, VGS, which is represented by VGS=VG−VS, is 0 V, and accordingly, Vas is lower than VTH. Thus, the transistor 82 is turned off.
Conversely, when VIN<0 V (e.g., VIN=−5 V), the electric potential (−5 V) at the first electrode E1 is lower than the electric potential (0 V) at the second electrode E2. In this state, the first electrode E1 functions as a source, and the second electrode E2 functions as a drain. In this case, VGS, which is represented by VGS=VG−VS, is 5 V, and accordingly, VGS>VTH holds true. Thus, the transistor 82 is turned on.
As described above, with the semiconductor switch 80 shown in FIG. 2, in the no-power-supply state, the on/off state depends on the electric potentials at the input terminal P1 and the output terminal P2, leading to instability of the on/off state. However, with the pin card 200 shown in FIG. 1, in the no-power-supply state, the switches SW1 and SW2 are preferably turned off. In addition to such a pin card 200, there are various kinds of known switches required to be turned off in the no-power-supply state.


There are disclosed an opening filling apparatus and a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device by using the same. An opening of a semiconductor device is filled by using the filling apparatus comprising: a chamber having a rotation shaft, a motor, a plurality of plates arranged in a circular form centering at the rotation shaft, and a heater; and injectors for injecting gas. When the opening of a semiconductor device such as a trench or a contact hole is filled, filling material may move down by using the centrifugal force generated by rotating the substrate, to thereby fill the opening completely without a void.

The present invention relates to an opening filling apparatus and a manufacturing method of a semiconductor device by using the same, and more particularly, to an opening filling apparatus which can improve a filling characteristic by filling an opening such as a trench or a contact hole with centrifugal force and a manufacturing method of a semiconductor device by using the same.
As a semiconductor device is highly integrated, a contact is decreased in dimension while a device isolation region used for insulating one device from another is decreased. Therefore, when a trench for isolating each device or a contact hole for connecting conductive layers is formed, it is difficult to fill the trench or the contact hole without a void. Currently, a method for filling the trench or the contact hole without the void is under study.
Referring to FIGS. 1A through 1C, disadvantages of the conventional method for filling a trench will be explained.
In FIG. 1A, reference numeral 10 denotes a semiconductor substrate, 15 denotes an insulating layer, 20 denotes a void formed due to a poor step coverage.
In general, for isolating one device from another, a insulation material, for example, an oxide is deposited on semiconductor substrate 10 by using the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, thereby forming insulating layer 15 for filling a trench formed on semiconductor substrate 10. At this time, a void 20 is formed inside the trench due to a poor step coverage caused by the high-integration of the semiconductor device. As the succeeding heat treatment process is performed, the surface area of void 20 is decreased in size and therefore round hole-shaped void 25 is formed inside the trench (refer to FIG. 1B).
FIG. 1C is a scanning electron microscope (SEM) photograph of the hole-shaped void generated in the actual manufacturing process. Since the SEM photograph of the void is taken after the oxide stain treatment for controlling a contrast, the void is shown in larger size than the real one.
When an etching margin is too small, void 25 is exposed in the etching step and the exposed region is then filled with gate material, so that a gate stringer is generated or undesired impurity is doped into the surface of the void exposed at the ion-implantation. Therefore, the oxide layer cannot completely function as a device isolation region.
Referring to FIGS. 2A and 2B, disadvantages of the conventional method for filling a contact hole will be explained.
In FIG. 2A, the reference numeral 50 denotes a semiconductor substrate, 55 denotes an insulating layer where a contact hole is formed, and 60 denotes an interconnection layer for forming a contact hole.
The interconnection layer 60 is formed, for example, by depositing aluminum. In this case, however, a poor step coverage occurs as the contact hole is decreased in dimension due to a high-integration. Also, an agglomeration phenomenon that aluminum is conglomerated on the contact hole occurs in the succeeding heat treatment process, thereby causing a poor contact hole problem (refer to FIG. 2B).

Opening filling apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device


A method to fabricate a metal via structure having improved electromigration resistance, comprising the following steps. A semiconductor structure having an exposed metal interconnect structure therein is provided. The metal interconnect structure including a metal via portion. A capping layer is formed over the metal interconnect structure. A via pattern structure is formed over the capping layer. The via pattern structure having a via pattern hole aligned with the metal via portion of the metal interconnect structure. Ions are implanted through the via pattern hole into the metal via portion, and any portion of the metal interconnect structure above the metal via portion. Whereby the metal via portion and the portion of the metal interconnect structure above the metal via portion have improved electromigration resistance.

The present invention relates generally to semiconductor devices and more specifically to methods of fabricating copper vias having improved electromigration (EM) resistance.
With the shrinking of dimensions, or design rule, in semiconductor devices, a greater challenge is occurring in copper (Cu) via electromigration (EM).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,096,648 to Lopatin et al. describes a copper damascene process with an impurity, e.g. Mg, implanted into copper lines to form a doped copper line interconnect. The implanted ions are activated by a subsequent annealing or deposited step that requires an elevated temperature.
Copper alloy, e.g. CuMg xcx9c2% and CuAl xcx9c1% with a resistivity of xcx9c2 xcexcOhm-cm), has been widely studied to improve Cu line performance against Cu oxidation by the self-passivation layer formation, i.e. e.g. MgO or Al2O3, respectively, at the copper surface which also improves EM.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,057,223 to Lanford et al. describes a copper damascene process by: forming a metal layer on the surface of a microelectronics substrate; forming a copper layer upon the metal layer; and annealing the metal and copper layers which diffuses at least some of the metal layer through the copper layer to the surface of the copper layer where the diffused metal ions forms a protective metal oxide at the surface of the copper layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,022,808 to Nogami et al. describes a doped copper damascene process. A via/contact hole and/or trench formed within a dielectric layer is filled with undoped copper. A doped (e.g. Pd, Zr, or Sn) copper layer is deposited on the undoped copper via/contact hole and/or line and the structure is annealed to diffuse the dopant from the overlying doped copper layer into the copper via/contact hole and/or line to improve its electomigration resistance.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method to improve Cu via EM resistance.
Other objects will appear hereinafter.
It has now been discovered that the above and other objects of the present invention may be accomplished in the following manner. Specifically, a semiconductor structure having an exposed metal interconnect structure therein is provided. The metal interconnect structure including a metal via portion. A capping layer is formed over the metal interconnect structure. A via pattern structure is formed over the capping layer. The via pattern structure having a via pattern hole aligned with the metal via portion of the metal interconnect structure. Ions are implanted through the via pattern hole into the metal via portion, and any portion of the metal interconnect structure above the metal via portion. Whereby the metal via portion and the portion of the metal interconnect structure above the metal via portion have improved electromigration resistance.

Method to improve copper via electromigration (EM) resistance

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company


The present invention discloses a light emitting device driver circuit. The light emitting device driver circuit drives a light emitting device circuit. The light emitting device circuit includes plural light emitting devices connected in series and a diode circuit, wherein the plural light emitting devices are divided to plural groups. The light emitting device driver circuit includes: a first switch circuit, a second switch circuit, a current source circuit, and a control circuit. The first switch circuit includes plural first switches connected in parallel to the corresponding groups respectively. The second switch circuit includes plural second switches coupled to a forward end and a reverse end of the diode circuit respectively, wherein the second switch circuit determines whether to conduct the forward end or the reverse end to the current source circuit according to the voltages of the forward end and the reverse end.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a light emitting device driver circuit; particularly, it relates to such light emitting device driver circuit with relatively fewer high voltage switches.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 1A shows a schematic diagram of a prior art light emitting diode (LED) driver circuit 10 and its related circuits. As shown in FIG. 1A, the LED driver circuit 10 includes a switch circuit 11, a switch control circuit 12, and a constant current source 13. The LED driver circuit 10 drives an LED circuit 20. The LED circuit 20 includes plural LEDs connected in series, e.g., LED1, LED2, LED3, and LED4 as shown in FIG. 1. The switch circuit 11 includes plural switches (e.g., four switches S1, S2, S3, and S4 as shown in FIG. 1), which are electrically connected to the corresponding LEDs LED1, LED2, LED3, and LED4 respectively. A rectifier circuit 30 rectifies an AC voltage from an AC power source 40, to generate a rectified input voltage Vin as shown in FIG. 1B. The LED driver circuit 10 drives the LED circuit 20 by respectively turning ON and OFF the switches S1-S4 according to the level of the rectified input voltage Vin, such that one or more of the LEDs LED1-LED4 glow accordingly.
For example, as shown by the signal waveforms in FIG. 1B, when the level of the rectified input voltage Vin is lower than level L1, the switch control circuit 12 turns OFF the switches S1-S4. When the level of the rectified input voltage Vin is between levels L1 and L2, the switch control circuit 12 turns ON the switch S1 and turns OFF the switches S2-S4, whereby the LED LED1 glows. Similarly, when the level of the rectified input voltage Vin is between levels L2 and L3, the switch S2 is turned ON, and the switches S1 and S3-S4 are turned OFF, whereby the LEDs LED1-LED2 glow. Similarly, when the level of the rectified input voltage Vin is between levels L3 and L4, the switch S3 is turned ON, and the switches S1-S2 and S4 are turned OFF, whereby the LEDs LED1-LED3 glow. Similarly, when the level of the rectified input voltage Vin exceeds level L4, the switch S4 is turned ON, and the switches S1-S3 are turned OFF, whereby the LEDs LED1-LED4 glow. U.S. Pat. No. 6,989,807, U.S. Pat. No. 7,081,722 and US 2011/0273102 are relevant prior art patents for reference.
In such prior art, the current source 13 provides a constant current, that is, when one or more of the LEDs LED1-LED4 glow, a current I1 flowing through the conductive LED(s) is the constant current. Referring to the signal waveform of the current I1 as shown in FIG. 1B, regardless how many of the LEDs LED1-LED4 glow, the current flowing through the conductive LED(s) is the constant current. Only when the level of the rectified input voltage Vin is lower than the level L1, i.e., when all the switches S1-S4 are turned OFF, the current I1 is zero current.
In comparison with a conventional driver circuit which drives the LED circuit with a DC voltage, an advantage of the prior art LED driver circuit 10 is that: the manufacturing cost of the LED driver circuit 10 is relatively lower because it does not need to convert the rectified input voltage to a DC voltage. If the rectified input voltage has a frequency which is enough high, naked eyes will not perceive any flicker of the LED circuit 20. However, a disadvantage of the prior art LED driver circuit 10 is that each LED requires to be connected to a corresponding high voltage switch, and each high voltage switch requires to be connected to a corresponding pin in the LED driver circuit 10; therefore, the size and manufacturing cost of the switch control circuit 12 are relatively high.
In view of above, the present invention proposes a light emitting device driver circuit with relatively fewer high voltage switches.


A computer-implemented method for finding an asymmetric relation between a plurality of target words is disclosed. The method includes preparing a plurality of image sets, each of which includes one or more images relevant to a corresponding one of the plurality of the target words. The method also includes obtaining a plurality of object labels for each of the plurality of image sets. The method further includes computing a representation for each of the plurality of the target words using the plurality of the object labels obtained for each of the plurality of image sets. The method includes further determining whether there is an asymmetric relation between the plurality of the target words using representations computed for the plurality of the target words.

The present disclosure, generally, relates to finding of semantic relations, more particularly, to a technique of finding an asymmetric relation between words.
Recognizing asymmetric relation such as lexical entailment is helpful for various natural language processing (NLP) tasks, including textual entailment recognition, taxonomy creation, natural language inference, etc. Lexical entailment defines an asymmetric relation between two words, in which one word can be inferred by another word but not vice versa, as exemplified in paired words "dog" and "animal".
There has been a technique that leverages features obtained from images, which are usually extracted from a middle layer of a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN).

Finding of asymmetric relation between words

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A device manufacturing method includes a measurement phase and an exposure phase. The measurement phase includes conditioning a radiation beam with a first beam condition, forming the patterned radiation beam by imparting the radiation beam with the first beam condition with a first pattern in its cross-section, and projecting the patterned beam onto a sensor capable of providing a sensor output signal. The exposure phase includes fast switching the conditioning of the radiation beam to a second beam condition, the second beam condition being different from the first beam condition, forming the patterned radiation beam by imparting the radiation beam with the second beam condition with a second pattern in its cross-section, the second pattern being provided by a patterning device, and projecting the patterned beam onto a target portion of the substrate.

1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method for manufacturing a device and to a lithographic apparatus.
2. Background
A lithographic apparatus is a machine that applies a desired pattern onto a substrate, usually onto a target portion of the substrate. A lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In that instance, a patterning device, which is alternatively referred to as a mask or a reticle, may be used to generate a circuit pattern to be formed on an individual layer of the IC. This pattern can be transferred onto a target portion (e.g. including part of, one, or several dies) on a substrate (e.g. a silicon wafer). Transfer of the pattern is typically via imaging with a radiation beam with a radiation beam mode onto a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist) provided on the substrate. In general, a single substrate will contain a network of adjacent target portions that are successively patterned. Known lithographic apparatus include so-called steppers, in which each target portion is irradiated by exposing an entire pattern onto the target portion at one time, and so-called scanners, in which each target portion is irradiated by scanning the pattern through a radiation beam in a given direction (the "scanning"-direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate parallel or anti-parallel to this direction. It is also possible to transfer the pattern from the patterning device to the substrate by imprinting the pattern onto the substrate.
U.S. Appl. Publ. No. 2007/081138 A1, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a device manufacturing method using a lithographic apparatus in which, during an alignment calibration process in the lithographic apparatus using a sensor to detect a property of a projected image at substrate level, a diffuser is inserted into the radiation beam to increase the range of angles of radiation incident on the substrate. Thereby it can be ensured that sufficient radiation enters the sensor even when there is a mismatch between the radiation beam mode used and the acceptance NA of the sensor.
It may be a disadvantage of the known apparatus and the known method that the diffuser is to be physically moved from a first position outside the path of the radiation beam to a second position inside the radiation beam. This movement requires some time to complete and may negatively effect the through-put time of the apparatus.
It may be a further disadvantage of the known apparatus and the known method that they may not function well with any possible illumination mode, i.e. the radiation beam mode used for illumination of the substrate. For example, for an illumination mode with a very steep illumination profile in one or more very narrow angular ranges, such as a steep quadrupole profile filling only a small portion of the pupil, the mismatch between the illumination mode and the sensor acceptance range may be too large to allow to be compensated for by the diffuser. In particular, as the form of the diffuser will depend on the degree and nature of the mismatch between the illumination mode and the sensor acceptance range, it may be needed to use a diffuser of a form that is not available.
It may be a further disadvantage of the known apparatus and the known method that the mechanical movement of the diffuser over quite a significant distance may result in disturbances to the illumination beam, e.g. to mechanical vibrations.
It may be a further disadvantage of the known apparatus and the known method that the resulting diffuse beam may not be compatible with a measurement and/or alignment system of the lithographic apparatus. For example, a diffuse beam may conflict with performing an interferometric measurement on the beam quality or using an interferometric alignment method.
It may be a further disadvantage of the known apparatus and the known method that the effect of the diffuser is limited to increasing the range of angles at which radiation of the illumination beam is incident on a marker on the patterning device.

Device manufacturing method and lithographic apparatus


A controller includes: a connection switch that switches a connection state of a winding of a synchronous motor during a rotating operation of the synchronous motor; a current detector that detects a rotary machine current flowing in the synchronous motor; a position/speed estimator that estimates a magnetic pole position and speed of a rotor; a voltage applicator that applies a voltage to the synchronous motor; and a control circuitry that generates a voltage command given to the voltage applicator on the basis of the magnetic pole position and the speed, and outputs a switching operation command for switching the connection state to the connection switch. The control circuitry generates the voltage command to bring the rotary machine current close to zero before the connection state of the winding is switched.

A rotary machine that switches a connection state of stator windings during a rotating operation has been known. Hereinafter, the stator windings will also be simply referred to as "windings". Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique that, in switching the windings, switches the connection state of the windings by turning off the output of an inverter and confirms the change in the connection state of the windings from a resistance value or an induced voltage after switching the connection state of the windings.

Rotary machine controller, refrigerant compressor, refrigeration cycle system, and air conditioner


A parking brake lock-in key switch system for a truck or bus brake system is disclosed. The system has two parking brake lock-in valves. One parking brake lock-in valve is installed in the air line piping between the primary air tank and the push pull double check valve and the second parking brake lock-in valve is in the air line piping between the secondary air tank and the push pull double check valve. The parking brake lock-in valves are air operated valves which when closed will lock in actuated parking brakes. The parking brake lock-in valves are operated by a solenoid operated pilot valve which provides air from an air supply to close the lock-in valves when the ignition key is moved to the `off` position. An actuated parking brake will be locked in because new air from the respective tanks will be prevented from flowing to the push pull double check valve and hence the brake chambers. The parking brake lock-in valve does not vent off downstream piping when it closes. Should the ignition key be positioned to the `off` position with the vehicle in motion and the parking brake actuator is not engaged in the park position, air will be locked in the air line piping between the parking brake lock-in valves and the individual brake chambers including the piping in which the push pull double check valve is installed. This locked in air will prevent the brake chambers from locking the wheels, hence preventing inadvertent engagement of the parking brakes.

The present invention relates to a parking brake lock-in key switch system for a truck or bus brake system. One type of vehicle on which an embodiment of this invention may be used is a school bus with an air brake system with a driver area operated parking brake actuator. The parking brake actuator is a push pull double check valve. Following a driver manually engaging the parking brake actuator, the parking brake lock-in key switch system will lock the parking brake in the engaged position upon the driver turning the ignition key to the `off` position. This effectively disables the parking brake actuator preventing inadvertent release of the parking brake. This system will not cause an inadvertent initiation of the parking brake should a driver turn the ignition key to the `off` position while the vehicle is moving down the road. The driver must first consciously operate the parking brake actuator for the parking brake lock-in key switch system of this invention to be functional.

Parking brake lock-in key switch system for vehicle air brake system

Navistar International Transportation Corp


A putter stroke training device comprising a putter guide apparatus having a shaft clamp configured to removably secure a golf putter shaft, an arm extension comprising a first end and a second end, wherein the shaft clamp may be coupled to the first end of the arm extension and the arm extension may be configured to extend away from the putter shaft, and wherein a rail contact member may be coupled to the second end of the arm extension; and a putter rail apparatus which may comprise a contact rail with a contact surface configured to make contact with the rail contact member of the putter guide apparatus.

In the game of golf, the winner is determined to be the player that expended the least number of club swings to place the ball in each of eighteen cups of a golf course. As such, it is of paramount important for a golfer to develop a consistent and precise swing, commonly referred to a stroke.
If a consistent stroke is important in the game of golf, then it is often argued that the aspect of putting benefits the most from this consistency. The object of the putting stroke is to strike the ball with the face of the putter club so that the ball travels in the intended line toward the golf cup. Typically, this requires that the face of the putter be precisely perpendicular to the intended path of the ball and that the face of the putter be maintained in this proper perpendicular orientation throughout the putting stroke.
Developing a consistent putting stroke and maintaining the putter face in a perpendicular orientation is one of the most challenging aspects of the game. The human body is comprised of more joints that pivot and rotate during the putting stoke than is convenient to enumerate. Training the various muscles that control these joints to move in a consistent fashion is one recognized way to develop and maintain a consistent putting stroke.
While there are devices and methods that aim to train the golfer to swing the putter in a consistent manner throughout the stroke, they are limited in certain aspects that prevent them from having universal application. Putting guide devices in the prior art are either incompatible with all types and styles of golf putters, or they are unable to accommodate the various body types and postures of golfers. These limitations require golfers and golf trainers to buy multiple training devices in order to find one that is beneficial to a particular golfer. Frequently, a golfer's body composition and posture change over time requiring further training device experimentation.
Therefore, a need exists for a novel putting guide apparatuses and methods that are capable of training the various muscles and joints employed during the putting stroke to move in a consistent fashion. There also exists a need for a putting guide apparatus that can be attached to all of the widely varied types of golf putters available. Finally, there exists a need for a putting guide apparatus that can be used by golfers with infinitely varied body types and postures.


An information handling system may include a processor and a plurality of ports communicatively coupled to the processor, and physically arranged in a first row and a second row at an exterior panel of an enclosure of the information handling system, such that the plurality of ports includes front ports of the first row visible when the exterior panel is viewed head on, rear ports of the first row located directly behind the front ports of the first row from a perspective in which the exterior panel is viewed head on, front ports of the second row visible when the exterior panel is viewed head on, and rear ports of the second row located directly behind the front ports of the second row from the perspective in which the exterior panel is viewed head on.

As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
An information handling system may have a network interface or other input/output (I/O) interface having an optical port, including an optical interface for communication of data via an optical cable. An example of such information handling system includes a switch having multiple optical ports, each optical port configured to receive a corresponding optical cable.
Industry forecasts suggest that processors (e.g., an application-specific integrated circuit) for future generation optical switches may support 51.2-terabit/second switch capacity, meaning a co-packaged optics processor may support 1024 optical fibers using a parallel opto-electronic interface. To fully support such increase in switch capacity, switch front panels at where optical ports are present may require presence of significantly more optical ports than are present in existing switches. For example, while traditional implementations may use switches sized at one rack unit (RU) and have sufficient front panel area to support the needed number of optical ports, advances in accordance with industry forecasts described above may require the use of a significantly increased number of optical ports.
While an obvious solution may be to simply increase physical dimensions of a switch to enlarge the front panel, such a solution has its own disadvantage of taking up additional space, which may be undesirable in a data center environment for which it is desired to maximize the number of computing devices present in the data center.


A surveying system, which comprises a surveying instrument 1 which measures a distance and an angle by projecting a distance measuring light toward a target 12 and can measure a three-dimensional position data of said target and has a function to track the target, and a movable side control device 12 provided on the target side, wherein said surveying instrument has a communication means 15 capable to transmit the three-dimensional position data of the target measured by the surveying instrument to said movable side control device and a first control arithmetic unit 29 for controlling the search of the target by the surveying instrument, wherein said movable side control device has a displacement amount detecting means 38 of the target and a second control arithmetic unit 35 for calculating the displacement amount of the target based on a target detection signal from the displacement amount detecting means and for calculating a target position based on the displacement amount of the target and based on the three-dimensional position data, and in case the surveying instrument cannot track the target, the target position transmitted from the movable side control device is acquired, and the first control arithmetic unit starts searching of the target with the target position as a starting point.

The present invention relates to a surveying system, in particular, to a surveying system using a surveying instrument with a tracking function.
As a surveying instrument for measuring a distance, a horizontal angle and a vertical angle, a surveying instrument provided with the tracking function has been known in the past. In this type of the surveying instrument, an object reflector (target) such as a corner cube is collimated by a collimating telescope provided on the surveying instrument. A tracking light is projected from the collimating telescope, and when the target is moved, a reflection light from the target is received and the target can be automatically tracked.
Normally, in a surveying instrument with the tracking function, no operator is assigned on the surveying instrument side, and a surveying operator works on the target side. The target is supported by the surveying operator or the target is supported on a construction machine and is moved.
In a case a moving speed of the target exceeds a following speed of the surveying instrument and the target goes out of a visual field of the collimating telescope or in case an obstacle such as a tree, a vehicle, a person, etc. temporarily comes into a space between the surveying instrument and the target, and the obstacle intercepts an optical path of the collimating telescope, the surveying instrument cannot receive a reflected light from the target, and an automatic tracking may be interrupted.
The reason for this is that, in a collimating telescope generally in use, a field angle (an angle of view) is as small as about 1° and a range to detect the reflection light for purpose of the automatic tracking is too narrow.
When the automatic tracking of the target is interrupted, the surveying instrument starts an operation to search the target. In the searching operation, the collimating telescope is rotated within a predetermined range in up-to-bottom direction and in left-to-right direction while the tracking light is projected for scanning and the target is detected.
In a conventional searching method, a scanning is performed by changing an elevation angle within a range of a predetermined horizontal angle using a position detected lastly by the collimating telescope on the surveying instrument side as a reference (FIG. 6 (A)), or the scanning or the like is carried out in a spiral manner from the last detected position (FIG. 6 (B)), and the target 12, which has been missed out of sight, is detected.
As described above, the field angle of the collimating telescope is small, in order to re-detect the target, it is necessary to have a finer scanning pitch. For this reason, when the automatic tracking is interrupted, much time is required for the purpose of detecting the target again and starting the automatic tracking operation. Further, under working conditions where the optical path is frequently intercepted by the obstacle, there is a problem in that a working efficiency of the measuring operation is extremely decreased.
A surveying instrument, which has the tracking function and performs searching when the tracking operation is interrupted, is disclosed in JP-A-2004-132914.


The present invention relates to a light emitting diode with enhanced luminance and light emitting performance due to increase in efficiency of current diffusion into an ITO layer, and a method of fabricating the light emitting diode. According to the present invention, there is manufactured at least one light emitting cell including an N-type semiconductor layer, an active layer and a P-type semiconductor layer on a substrate. The method of the present invention comprises the steps of (a) forming at least one light emitting cell with an ITO layer formed on a top surface of the P-type semiconductor layer; (b) forming a contact groove for wiring connection in the ITO layer through dry etching; and (c) filling the contact groove with a contact connection portion made of a conductive material for the wiring connection.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light emitting diode with a transparent ITO layer as an electrode layer and a method of fabricating the light emitting diode, and more particularly, to a light emitting diode with enhanced luminance and light emitting performance due to increase in efficiency of current diffusion into an ITO layer, and a method of fabricating the light emitting diode.
2. Discussion of the Background
A light emitting diode is a photoelectric conversion device having a structure in which an N-type semiconductor and a P-type semiconductor are joined together, and emits light through recombination of electrons and holes. As an example, a GaN based light emitting diode has been known as such a light emitting diode. A GaN based light emitting diode comprises light emitting cells each having an N-type semiconductor layer, an active layer (or a light emitting layer) and a P-type semiconductor layer which are made of GaN based materials and sequentially formed on a substrate made of sapphire, silicon or the like.
In general, a light emitting cell is configured in such a manner that an etching process is performed from a P-type semiconductor layer to an N-type semiconductor layer to allow a portion of the N-type semiconductor layer to be exposed to the outside, and electrode structures or electrical contact structures for current application are formed on top surfaces of the P-type semiconductor layer and the N-type semiconductor layer exposed to the outside.
Particularly, since a light emitting region through which light is emitted is formed on top of the P-type semiconductor layer, a transparent electrode layer through which the emission of light is not prevented is required. A Ni/Au layer with a superior electrical property has been employed as such a transparent electrode layer. However, since the Ni/Au layer has very low transmittance for visible light in spite of the superior electrical property, there is a problem in that the light emitting efficiency of a light emitting diode is lowered.
Therefore, there has been suggested a technology in which an ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) layer with a tunnel structure applied thereto for forming an ohmic contact is used as a transparent electrode layer on a P-type semiconductor layer instead of a Ni/Au layer. There is an advantage in that the ITO layer has an excellent transmittance of 90% or more for visible light. However, a further improvement has been required in that the ITO layer has a low electrical property as compared with the existing Ni/Au layer. Particularly, many studies for enhancing a current property between an ITO layer and a contact connection portion such as a contact pad or an end of a wiring have been conducted in the art.

Light emitting diode with ITO layer and method for fabricating the same


Provided is a sputtering target, backing plate or apparatus inside a sputtering device in which an electrical discharge machining mark is formed on the face to which unwanted films during sputtering are deposited, and the electrical discharge machining mark is formed from numerous inclined protrusions having a depression angle of less than 90°. When necessary, chemical etching is further performed to the portions subject to such electrical discharge machining. Thereby, the separation and flying of deposits arising from the face to which unwanted films of the target, backing plate and apparatus inside the sputtering device are deposited can be prevented.

In recent years, the sputtering method capable of easily controlling the film thickness and components is being widely used as one of the deposition methods of materials for electronic and electric components.
This sputtering method makes a substrate, which is formed of a positive electrode and a negative electrode, and a target face each other and applies a high voltage between such substrate and target under an inert gas atmosphere in order to generate an electric field, and employs the fundamental principle in which plasma is formed upon the atoms ionized at such time colliding with the inert gas, the positive ions within this plasma colliding with the target (negative electrode) surface and discharging the atoms structuring the target, whereby the film is formed by the discharged atoms adhering to the opposing substrate surface.
Upon forming a thin film with this sputtering method, the problem of the production of particles has been attracting attention. In terms of particles caused by the target during the sputtering method, for example, the thin film is deposited within the walls of the thin film forming device and all over the materials and the like therein, in addition to the substrate, when a target is sputtered.
Faces and side faces other than the erosion portion of the target are no exceptions, and the deposits of sputtered particles have been observed.
And, flakes separating from such materials and the like within the thin film forming device directly flying on the substrate surface is considered to be one of the major causes for the production of particles.
Recently, while the degree of integration of LSI semiconductor devices has increased (64 MB, 256 MB and even 1 GB) on the one hand, it is also becoming miniaturized with the wiring width rule being less than 0.2 μm in some cases, and problems such as the disconnection and short circuit of wiring due to the foregoing particles now occur more frequently.
As described above, the production of particles is now even a larger problem pursuant to the advancement of high integration and miniaturization of electronic device circuits.
Generally, a sputtering target is connected to a backing plate having a larger measurement with such means as welding, diffusion bonding or soldering. From the perspective of the stabilization of sputtering, however, the side face of the sputtering target to be connected to the backing plate is usually formed to have an inclined face broadening toward such backing plate.
As publicly known, a backing plate plays the role of cooling the target by the back face thereof contacting a coolant, and materials such as aluminum or copper or the alloys thereof having a favorable thermal conductivity are used.
The side face of the foregoing sputtering target is not the portion which will erode (become subject to wear) from sputtering. Nonetheless, since it is close to the erosion face of the target, there is a trend toward the sputtered particles flying during the sputtering operation further adhering and depositing thereto.
In general, the erosion face of a sputtering target has a smooth surface from the turning process, and the foregoing inclined side face is similarly subject to the turning process. Whereas, it has become known that the sputtered particles (deposits) once adhered to the inclined side face are separated therefrom once again, float, and cause the production of particles.
In light of the demands of the high integration and miniaturization of electronic device circuits as described above, and in order to overcome the foregoing problems, a proposal has been made of roughening the surface of the target, backing plate as well as the apparatus inside the sputtering device through blast processing (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H9-176843), formation of spray coating film (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H9-176842), knurling processing (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H10-330971), etching processing, electrical discharge machining (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H11-131224) and so on in order to improve the adhesiveness, and to prevent the re-separation of the deposited sputtered particles.
Nevertheless, when performing blast processing to the surface of the target, backing plate as well as the apparatus inside the sputtering device, for instance, in order to improve the adhesiveness with the anchor effect, problems such as the contamination of goods due to the remnants of the blast materials would arise. For example, beads of alumina, zirconia and SiC or the like generally used as the blast material have inferior electrical conduction, and may cause abnormal discharge by a charge-up, and the beads themselves may fall out and contaminate the goods.
Further, there is an additional problem in that the adhesiveness of the adhered particles deposited on the residual blast materials would deteriorate and would become easy to separate, and separation of the adhered film caused by the selective and uneven growth thereof would newly arise, and the fundamental issues could not be resolved.
In view of the above, the present inventors previously proposed a sputtering target producing few particles comprising a sprayed coating having a central line surface roughness of Ra 10 to 20 μm at the side face or the like of the sputtering target (Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-314778).
This technology in itself yielded an effect of preventing the separation of the adhered film and suppressing the generation of particles far superior in comparison to conventional methods. Nevertheless, in the case of such surface processing employing spray coating, there are problems in that it is difficult to control the thickness of the spray deposit, and the spray coated film may separate from the processes and contaminate the goods.
Moreover, in the case of surface roughening with knurling, there are problems in that metal contamination may occur from the knurling tools, and that device components cannot be reused since it is difficult to re-perform knurling processing to components that have already been subjected to knurling processing.
Further, in the case of roughening processing with etching, although a very rough surface can be obtained, there are problems in that the application to complex three-dimensional shapes is difficult, and that the formation of a depression angle to be a solid anchor is difficult in principle.
Meanwhile, there is a possibility that roughening processing with electrical discharge machining may mostly overcome the foregoing problems. Nevertheless, the number one problem with the roughening processing with electrical discharge machining is that the separability resistance of the deposited film with ordinary electrical discharge machining is insufficient.

Sputtering target producing very few particles, backing plate or apparatus within sputtering device and roughening method by electric discharge machining


The present invention is a liquid seasoning containing the following (A), (B), and (C):                (A) 0.4 to 8% by mass of sodium        (B) 0.01 to 4% by mass of flavonoid        (C) 1 to 10% by mass of ethanol        wherein, the flavonoid (B) satisfies the formula (1) and/or has one or more OH groups on the A-ring or B-ring in a molecule and no OH group at the position adjacent to the OH group (ortho position).Y/(X+Y)=0.05 to 1  formula (1)        wherein, X and Y represent the following numbers, respectively:        X; the number of OH group bonded to benzene rings in a molecule of the flavonoid,        Y; the number of OCH3 group bonded to benzene rings in a molecule of the flavonoid.

Saltiness is closely connected to palatability of foods. Sodium and chlorine are essential nutrients for the human body. Common salt therefore plays an important role in seasoning, preservation, and processing of foods, and is one of the essential seasonings in the food industry. However, an excess intake of common salt is thought as a risk factor for high blood pressure and heart disease. An intake of common salt is thus strongly desired to be reduced. Reduction in intake of common salt can be achieved by reducing the content of common salt in food and drink. However, reduction of the content of common salt in food by 10% or more generally results in a bad taste.
Under such circumstances, salty taste-enhancing substances have been proposed, that can enhance the salty taste of common salt and result in satisfactory salty taste with a reduced amount of common salt used. There have been known salty taste-enhancing substances, including, for example, peptides and saturated aliphatic monocarboxylic acids having 3 to 8 carbon atoms (JP-A-63-3766, JP-A-5-184326, Biosci. Biotech. Biochem. 63, 555 (1999)).
There has been also increasing interest in physiological functions of a variety of ingredients contained in foods. Flavonoids are one kind of materials having physiological functions. Flavonoids, which are contained in vegetable foods, are known to have actions such as hypotensive, lipid metabolism improving, and allergy inhibiting actions (JP-A-8-283154, JP-A-2001-240539, JP-A-2002-47196, JP-A-2005-225847).
Flavonoids have useful physiological functions, but also have problems of low solubility in water and of producing abnormal tastes such as bitter, astringent, and harsh tastes. To address these problems, there have been known techniques of enhancing the solubility of flavonoids (JP-A-3-27293, JP-A-2000-327692, JP-A-2004-238336) and of improving tastes derived from flavonoids (JP-A-2001-309764, JP-A-2005-245291, JP-A-2005-145933). Further, techniques of applying flavonoids to foods have been proposed. For example, techniques of applying flavonoids to seasonings have been disclosed (WO 98/18348, JP-A-2000-78955, JP-A-2000-78956, JP-A-2002-291441, JP-A-2004-290129, JP-A-2005-168458). Among flavonoids, flavone, which has many methoxy residues, is known to have actions of reducing the salty taste, suppressing residual sweet taste, and the like. An action of flavonoids to enhance salty taste retention is however not known. For flavonoids, there have been disclosed actions of improving a sweet taste, reducing a strong taste of vegetable juice and an herbal drug, reducing the astringent taste and sour taste, and reducing an unfavorable taste (WO 93/10677, U.S. Pat. No. 4,031,265, U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,862, JP-A-6-335362, JP-A-8-256725, JP-A-11-318379, JP-A-2004-49186).
Liquid seasonings such as Men-tsuyu (a soup for noodles) and Ponzu (sauce that blended soy sauce and vinegar with fruit juice) are produced from soy sauce and Dashi (soup stock) as main raw materials. These have a problem that the stronger flavor of soy sauce negates the taste of Dashi and the stronger taste of Dashi brings a fishy taste derived from Dashi to spoil the flavor of the liquid seasoning. To bring out a milder flavor of a liquid seasoning, a high skill is required. To do so, a well-established Soba (buckwheat noodle) restaurant blends "Kaeshi" from soy sauce and sugar, etc., ripens it for a given time ("Nekase") to impart a mild ripened taste, and uses it in production of a liquid seasoning. However, when a packaged men-tsuyu is industrially produced, it is actually difficult from the points of productivity and quality control that "Kaeshi" is produced and then the liquid seasoning is produced by blending "Kaeshi" and "Dashi", followed by "Nekase" as in a well-established Soba restaurant.
To address this, soy sauces having less taste of soy sauce and suitable for Tsuyu (a soup for noodles) have been proposed (JP-A-5-115261, JP-A-9-271351, JP-A-2004-141014).
In addition, in industrial production of packaged Ponzu and the like containing highly acidic vinegar and citrus fruits juice, there are problems that less contents of vinegar and citrus fruits juice leads the stronger taste of soy sauce to kill the characteristic refreshing flavor of vinegar and citrus fruits juice and that storage stability decreases. There are also problems that excessive content of vinegar and citrus fruits juice contained leads to a stronger sour taste and/or the generation of a stuffy smell to kill the flavor of the liquid seasoning and that cost becomes high. To address this, a technique of masking an unfavorable flavor of an acidic seasoning containing citrus fruits juice and soy sauce has been disclosed (JP-A-2001-78700). The technique however has a disadvantage of reducing the sour taste as well as the unfavorable flavor of the acidic seasoning, resulting in a reduced refreshing flavor.
The present inventors have investigated flavonoids for use in liquid seasonings, and found that color tone in foods cooked with a liquid seasoning often changes in some use conditions. The present inventors have then studied for a relationship between the kind of flavonoids and color change in foods, and have found that use of a seasoning containing rutin in dishes with egg result in dishes having badly damaged appearance due to the color change of egg from natural yellow to brown.


An anti-lift tab of a roller assembly that rides along a fixed rail in use. The anti-lift tab protrudes from the bottom of a face plate having keys molded onto the back face of the face plate which interface with keyways of a castellated nut and shaft component having internal screw threads. A threaded rod is inserted through a bearing seated in the roller assembly. The rod is screwed into the castellated nut and shaft component. A screw attaches the face plate to the castellated nut shaft component and to the roller assembly.

The present invention is directed to an improved roller assembly for a rolling door system—specifically for a glass shower door enclosure system. The improved roller assembly features a circular face plate with an anti-lift tab locked into place with keys on the inner face of the circular face plate which mate with keyways in a castellated nut and shaft component. The anti-lift tab protrudes from the bottom of the circular face plate into a channel located below the fixed rail on which the roller assembly rides. The improved roller assembly comes into contact with roller assembly stops at both ends of the fixed rail on which the roller assembly rides.
The prior art discloses anti lift tabs without the anti-torque locking mechanism taught by the present invention. As such, the prior art anti-lift tabs are free to index around the central bolt holding the anti lift tab in place on the roller assembly. The result of this indexing is that the anti-lift tab eventually rubs against the channel in which it rides or adjusts out of position in a way that effects its usefulness as an anti-lift tab.
Additionally, the prior art discloses various mechanical barriers either molded into the parts which make up the roller assembly or added as separate mechanical items to prevent a door suspended from a roller assembly from lifting off of the rails on which it rides. U.S. Pat. Nos. 890,950; 2,197,385; 2,940,113; 4,769,949; 6,381,904; 7,346,939; US 2009/0145039; US 2016/0206157 and EP 3 078 795. U.S. Pat. No. 8,375,638 discloses a decelerator attachment mechanical item which mounts to the top portion of the inner race which acts as a clasp and a bumper to catch the roller assembly when it gets to the end of the race. U.S. Pat. No. 8,915,019 teaches a receiver lock mechanism attached to the outside of a cylindrical race on which the wheel assembly rides. Connected to the outside of the wheel assembly is a device which is fashioned to be received into the lock mechanism attached to the outside of the cylindrical race.

Shower door system having anti-torque back plate device


An in-ground installed pipe system that has flexible plastic-like wrapping at the pipe joints which consists of sealant backing on the underside of a flexible plastic-like cover material, this wrapping being of varying width and thickness, depending on need. The application of this system is quite simple: laying a pipe section in a trench to connect to an awaiting pipe end section. Once the two-pipe sections are connected, the wrapping is then placed around the pipe joint. Following this, tape is applied to the overlap of the wrapping. Once this is done, the pipe is ready and back filled. If there is movement at the joint, it will be accommodated by the flexible plastic-like sealant, which simultaneously maintains its function. The application of this flexible plastic-like wrapping, with sealant backing at the pipe joint, will allow for protection of the pipe joint should the primary joint fail. In some cases, this system can be used as the primary seal. This flexible plastic-like wrapping with the sealant backing system is mainly designed to give the pipe network greater longevity, liquid-tight integrity even if the primary seal fails, and nearly eliminates repair cost. The use of this flexible pipe joint seal system protects the pipe from infiltration of the surrounding groundwater into the pipe network, which process may overwhelm the wastewater treatment plant, possibly resulting in untreated sewage that will be dumped in rivers or oceans. Also, infiltration of contaminated fluid from the pipe network can infiltrate the surrounding soil and groundwater table, a serious consequence.

Field of the invention: in-ground pipe system network having flexible, sealant backed plastic-like wrapping applied around the outer circumference, at each pipe joint.
Currently, there are methods used in the attempt to provide a seal for in ground pipe system networks. In most cases, there is the pipe manufactures seal, which is designed to fit at the pipe ends, within the connection area. Some pipe ends have only offsets within the ends, to insure alignment, and cement mortar is applied to the joint. One present joint seal is an elaborate elastomeric band, designed to conform to the exterior shape configuration and pipe circumference. This type is expensive and time demanding, to obtain and install. Of the present methods used, generally there is the manufacturer's seal, usually a rubber gasket, designed to fit within the joint connection. There is also the mortared type joint on the outside, and, in case of large diameter pipe, mortared type on the inside. All of these type designs might be used as a single seal design or a combination of seals. This present invention is one of an outside-applied seal, over the pipe joint connection, and can be the only seal, or a seal secondary to that of the original design. The fluid-tight integrity of pipe joints is critical in pipe systems such as those employed in sewage treatment, water and storm pipe networks, for two main reasons. First, if the surrounding soil has a high water table relative to the pipe and/or a soil aquifer leading from surface storm water, infiltration from this outside source into the pipe increases demand on the treatment plant designed capacity. If the treatment plant is overloaded, then the untreated combination surge will have to be dumped directly into the river or ocean. Second, if the water table is lower than the pipe, then infiltration from the pipe network out into the surrounding soil and into the lower water table occurs. In the case of a sanitary or chemical sewer system this contamination is a serious problem.


Compositions and methods are disclosed that exploit the unprecedented modification of double-stranded DNA virus DNA-packaging motor protein connector polypeptides to render them capable of stable incorporation into lipid membranes as a self-assembled homodocamer that forms an aperture through which conductance can occur when an electrical potential is applied across the membrane. The aperture permits use of the modified protein as a biosensor, for dsDNA sequencing, SNP detection and highly sensitive affinity capture and fingerprinting of analytes, and also finds use in electropotential-driven solute translocation, such as for liposomal loading to form therapeutic nanoparticles (e.g., gene delivery) and bioreactors, and for other uses. The aperture can further be used in optical detection of dsDNA or other acceptor labeled analytes in a fluorophore donor labeled single pore channel.

1. Technical Field
The present invention embodiments relate generally to the field of biosensors. More specifically, the compositions and methods described herein relate to an engineered viral DNA-packaging motor protein connector that can be incorporated into a lipid membrane to form an electroconductive aperture (or to form a fluorescence excitation aperture), for use in DNA sequencing and other applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Highly sensitive detection and characterization of minute quantities of chemicals and biochemicals represent desirable goals of modern analytical technologies. Robust molecular sensing devices would find uses in a wide range of biomedical, industrial, environmental, forensic, security and other contexts, for example, in the detection and identification of pathogens and chemicals at extremely low concentrations for disease diagnosis and environmental monitoring, in high throughput DNA sequencing and other genomics applications, and elsewhere.
Analytical methodologies have been described that employ intermolecular affinity binding interactions, typically non-covalent in nature, to detect binding or "capture" of an analyte of interest by a specific affinity ligand, for instance, including detection of bacterial, viral, parasitic or other microbial pathogens or pathogen-associated antigens, and detection of antibodies, cancer markers, and other analytes (e.g., Kittigul et al., Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1998 September; 59(3):352-6; Cordiano et al., J Immunol Methods. 1995 Jan. 13; 178(1):121-30; Olson et al., J Immunol Methods. 1990 Nov. 6; 134(1):71-9; Nerurkar et al., J Clin Microbiol. 1984 July; 20(1):109-14; Jia et al., J Virol Methods. 2009 October; 161(1):38-43; He et al., Clin Vaccine Immunol. 2007 May; 14(5):617-23; Xu et al., J Clin Microbiol. 2006 August; 44(8):2872-8; Che et al., J Clin Microbiol. 2004 June; 42(6):2629-35; Hunt et al., Brown et al., Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2001 September; 65(3):208-13; Loa et al., Avian Dis. 2000 July-September; 44(3):498-506; Lubenko et al., Transfus Med. 2000 September; 10(3):213-8; Chanteau et al., Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2000 April; 4(4):377-83; Brinker et al., J Clin Microbiol. 1998 April; 36(4):1064-9; Vyse et al., J Virol Methods. 1997 January; 63(1-2):93-101; Peterson et al., J Clin Microbiol. 1997 January; 35(1):208-12; Lairmore et al., AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 1993 June; 9(6):565-71; Heller et al., Vet Microbiol. 1993 October; 37(1-2):127-33; van Loon et al., Epidemiol Infect. 1992 February; 108(1):165-74; Wolf-Rogers et al., J Immunol Methods. 1990 Oct. 19; 133(2):191-8; Barsoum et al., Exp Parasitol. 1990 July; 71(1):107-13; Hierholzer et al., J Clin Microbiol. 1989 June; 27(6):1243-9; Hurley et al., J Immunoassay. 1986; 7(4):309-36; Wolff et al., Cancer Res. 53:2560-65 (1993); see generally, e.g., Harlow and Lane, Antibodies: A Laboratory Manual, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1988; Weir, D. M., Handbook of Experimental Immunology, 1986, Blackwell Scientific, Boston, Mass.).
Beyond detection of the presence of an analyte following its involvement in an affinity binding interaction, sophisticated technologies are emerging that permit characterization of the analyte, often by comparing a single- or multiparameter physicochemical profile of the analyte to type-characteristic profiles generated using one or more known reference standards, and hence referred to as "fingerprinting" techniques. (e.g., Li et al., Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom. 2009 23(22):3533-3542; Ali et al., J Agric Food Chem. 2009; Leski et al., Appl Environ Microbiol. Sep. 18, 2009; Weinkopff et al., J Parasitol. Jun. 18, 2009; Song et al., Proteomics. 2009 9(11):3090-9; Ortea et al., J Agric Food Chem. 2009 57(13):5665-72; Amini, Pharmeur Sci Notes. 2009(1):11-6; Shi et al., Biol Pharm Bull. 2009 32(1):142-6; Sun et al., J Chromatogr A. 2009 1216(5):830-6; Yin et al., Phytopathology. 2003 93(8):1006-13; Roy et al., Clin Cancer Res. 2008 14(20):6610-7; Pei et al., Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi. 2008 33(14):1662-8; Arthur, Methods Mol Med. 2008, 141:257-70; Zhao et al., Se Pu 2008 26(1):43-9; Woo et al., Anal Chem. 2008 80(7):2419-25; Damodaran et al., Genomics Proteomics Bioinformatics. 2007 5(3-4):152-7; Fellström et al., J Microbiol Methods. 2008 72(2):133-40; Song et al., Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2006 1:4556-9; De Vuyst et al., Int J Food Microbiol. 2008 125(1):79-90).
The use of transmembrane channels has been demonstrated in stochastic analyte detection (Bayley et al., 2001 Nature 13:225-230), an electrochemical approach relying on the real-time observation of individual binding events between single substrate molecules and a receptor, as evidenced by altered (e.g., decreased or increased in a statistically significant manner) electrical conductance by the channel (receptor) as a result of substrate (analyte) binding. A wide range of processes, such as the transport of DNA, RNA, pharmaceutical agents, peptides, proteins, and polymers, have been studied by such approaches, for example, using electrophysiological measurements of individual membrane channels (Thieffry et al., 1988 EMBO J 7:1449; Hinnah et al., 2002 Biophys J 83:899; Alcayaga et al., 1992 FEBS Lett. 311:246-50; Benz et al., 1986 J Bacteriol 165:978; Movileanu et al., 2000 Nat. Biotechnol. 18:1091).
For instance, the transient blockade of ionic current through the Staphylococcus aureus alpha-hemolysin (α-HL) channel, a bacterial transmembrane pore-forming protein, has been used to measure the length of single-stranded DNA or RNA (Kasianowicz et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 13770-13773 (1996)). Subsequently, DNA hairpin molecules have been used to decelerate the DNA translocation rate through the alpha-hemolysin (α-HL) pore, to demonstrate the ability of a transmembrane ion channel to discriminate between single nucleotide polymorphisms (Vercoutere et al., 2001 Nat. Biotechnol. 19:248). Detection of base pair stacking and strand orientation within the pore have also been investigated (Vercoutere et al., 2003 Nucl Ac. Res. 31:1311; Howorka et al., 2001 Nat. Biotechnol. 19:636; deGuzman et al., 2006 Nucl. Ac. Res. 34:6425). The channel of α-HL with a covalently attached adapter molecule has been shown to discriminate the nucleotides A, T, G, and C (Clarke et al., 2009 Nat. Nanotechnol. 4:265).
Other protein channels that have been investigated include alamethicin for detection of polyethylene glycol (Bezrukov, 2000 J Membr Biol. 174:1-13), and the reengineered MspA protein from M. smegmatis for translocation of ssDNA (Butler et al., 2008 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 105:20647). Most studies involving nucleic acid transport through nanopores have focused on α-HL. However, the limiting lumen diameter of α-HL (1.5 nm) and other channels has restricted their DNA and RNA applications to translocation of single-stranded nucleic acid (Song, 1996 Science 274:1859). A similar limitation was also reported for the MspA nanopore (Butler et al., 2008).
In a small number of other membrane pore systems, evidence of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) transport across the membrane has been presented (Szabo et al., 2002 Cell Physiol Biochem 12:127; Mobasheri et al. 2002 Eur J Bipohys 31:389; Carneiro et al., 2003 Biochim Biophys Acta 1612:144), but these systems are not robust and represent poor candidates for widespread use such as biomedical applications, due to their undesirable voltage gating properties and the associated signal fluctuation. For this reason, their potential is considered limited and researchers have switched instead to fabricating synthetic metal or silicon nanopores for potential use in DNA sequencing (Smeets et al, 2006 Nano Lett 6:89; Wang et al., 2001 Nat. Biotechnol. 19:622; Iqbal et al., 2007 Nat. Nano 2:243). Such synthetic nanopores, however, suffer from shortcomings due to difficulties in reliably producing replicated structures having consistent properties from batch to batch, and also lack versatility with regard to the ability to engineer modifications to pore structures and/or to serve as substrates for modification by a wide range of chemical conjugation. As a result, the search for superior alternatives to currently available protein nanopores is still ongoing.
Clearly there is a need for improved compositions and methods that would provide a versatile membrane conductive channel platform for sensitively detecting and characterizing a wide range of analytes, having a lumen capable of accommodating dsDNA, that can be reliably and reproducibly assembled, that is not susceptible to voltage gating under working conditions, and that can be readily modified to feature a wide variety of specific affinity receptors for use in the detection and characterization of different analytes. The presently disclosed invention embodiments fulfill such a need, and offer other related advantages.
With regards to optical detection based DNA sequence or other applications within membrane integrated biosensors, current procedures also have their limitations. For example, batch DNA sequencing using fluorescent dyes have been developed by different labs (Shendure J A, et al Curr. Protoc. Mol. Biol. 2008 January; Chapter 7: Unit 7.1; Bayley H. Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 2006 December; 10(6):628-37; Korlach J, et al Nucleosides Nucleotides Nucleic Acids 2008 September; 27(9):1072-83. PMCID:PMC2582155; Soni G V, Meller A. Clin. Chem. 2007 November; 53(11):1996-2001). The traditional optical detection for DNA sequencing normally uses fluorescent 2′,3′-dedeoxy nucleotide as the chain terminator; therefore, the traditional approach is limited by the number of base pairs one procedure can achieve.
An improved composition and methods that would provide a membrane integrated reaction pore for high throughput, optical detection based application is in need. This disclosure further presents embodiments that fulfill the concept of a single pore based optical biosensor system.

Membrane-integrated viral DNA-packaging motor protein connector biosensor for DNA sequencing and other uses


The nail tray hoist structure for coil nailer includes: several positioning slots spaced through out the side wall of the central column of the coil nailer base; a positioning through hole, placed on the vertical sleeve of the nail tray; a positioning body, placed in the positioning through hole actively; a braking tube, placed on the outside of the vertical sleeve; and an upper elastic component, having a top blocked by the limit component used by the vertical sleeve. The bottom of the elastic component stops the balance block of the braking tube, so that it can push down the braking tube. By so doing, the hoist structure of the nail tray only needs pushing and pulling movements on the braking tube, which gives the users more convenience and ensures the strength of the structure.

The nail row that is used on the coil nailer is placed in the coil nailer base preserved in the body, and there is a nail tray inside the coil nailer base for the nail tray. Because there is a difference in length when the nail row is used, the industry makes the nail tray move up and down. Therefore, the objective of the present invention is to make the hoist structure of the nail tray adjustable and improve the positioning structure.
The conventional hoist structure of the nail tray mentioned above is shown in FIG. 1, and it places a horizontal through space 12 in the central column 11 of the coil nailer base 10, and places a positioning groove 13 in the upper and lower space in the through space. Moreover, a horizontal positioning button 20 is made, and a press-control end 21 protrudes out of the through hole 32 corresponding to the central protruding tube 31 of the nail tray 30. A wedge 22 in the middle of the positioning button 20 can be locked in the positioning groove 13 mentioned above, and on the other end of the positioning button 20 has an axial peg 23 that goes through the axial hole 33 on the other side of central protruding tube 31. The outside of the axial peg 23 has a spring 24 for the wedge 22 of the positioning button 20 pushing towards the direction of positioning groove 13, and by so doing positioning the nail tray. When the conventional structure needs to adjust the height of the nail tray 30 as shown in FIG. 2, it must press the press-control end 21 of the positioning button 20 inward, and further makes the wedge 22 come off the positioning groove 13, and in so doing to release nail tray 22 to achieve the purpose of going up and down. The following issues still exist in the conventional structure in practical use.
1. So as to assemble the positioning button 20, the central column 11 of the coil nailer base 10 must form the horizontal through space 12 that is empty inside, because by doing so, the material of the column becomes thin, which obviously weakens the structure of the central column 11, and affects the endurance.
2. So as to avoid being bumped by the nail row, the press-control end 21 of the positioning button 20 does not have sufficient length, therefore, it takes much effort when pressing the press-control end 21, and further causes the inconvenience.
Thus, to overcome the aforementioned problems of the prior art, it would be an advancement in the art to provide an improved nail tray hoist structure for a coil nailer with an innovative structure.

Nail tray hoist structure for a coil nailer


Apparatus and method for providing contextual recommendations based on user state are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, sensor data corresponding to at least one sensor included in an item worn by a user is received. A user state is determined based on the received sensor data. In response to a state change being satisfied by at least the user state, a recommendation is determined based on the user state and a profile associated with the user. The recommendation may be presented on an electronic mobile device associated with the user.

Mobile communication devices, such as smartphones, enjoy widespread popularity due to their ability to perform a variety of functions, with new functionalities becoming available on a regular basis. A mobile communication device may include one or more sensors (e.g., gyroscope, accelerometer) to capture environment or state information associated with the device—often considered as a proxy for a user. However, because such sensors capture information based on actions taken on or to the device, the user may be required to carry the device, move the device, and/or interact with the device in a particular manner in order for the sensors to capture information. If the user places the device on a nearby table, for example, the device is unable to detect the user's activities.
Nevertheless, even when the device is not in use by the user, the device's processor capabilities, display capabilities, and/or ability to communicate with other processors, databases, or other resources are valuable, especially to other types of devices that do not have such capabilities.
The headings provided herein are for convenience only and do not necessarily affect the scope or meaning of the terms used.

System, method, and computer readable medium for recommendations based on wearable sensors