A direct-current-lighting, ultra-high-pressure mercury lamp that is resistant to loss of transparency even after being lit for a long period, and has little wastage of electrodes and particularly the cathode tip, and also exhibits a long service life. The direct-current ultra-high-pressure mercury lamp includes a cathode and anode of tungsten facing each other within a quartz glass tube, and a cathode coil which is wrapped around the cathode. The cathode is composed of tungsten doped with potassium, and the anode is composed of tungsten having a purity of at least 99.99%. The cathode coil can also be advantageously formed of tungsten having a purity of at least 99.99%.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a direct-current ultra-high-pressure mercury lamp used as a light source for liquid crystal projector equipment and DLP projector equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Light source equipment with a short-arc discharge lamp within a convex reflector mirror made of borosilicate glass is conventionally used for liquid crystal projector equipment and DLP projector equipment. However, because projector equipment is required to project an image evenly and with adequate chromaticity, metal halide lamps that incorporate mercury and metal halides and that have good chromaticity have been used as light source lamps. Smaller and lighter equipment is also highly desirable, and thus, discharge lamps must be made smaller.
Recently, there has been movement toward smaller lamps as point light sources, and there has also been an increase demand for discharge lamps with very short interelectrode distances. However, in metal halide lamps that incorporate a metal with a lower energy of excitation than mercury, if the interelectrode distance is less than a certain amount, there are limits to how much the brightest spot can be concentrated. Accordingly, it becomes difficult to make a smaller point light source. For that reason, short-arc ultra-high-pressure mercury lamps having a very high mercury vapor pressure when lit, for example 20 MPa or higher, have come into use in place of metal halide lamps. In order to have such a high mercury vapor pressure value when lit, at least 0.15 mg/mm3 of mercury is incorporated within the tube. In such an ultra-high-pressure mercury lamp, arc spread is controlled, and it is possible to enhance further the light output and improve chromaticity. Such ultra-high-pressure mercury lamps have been presented in U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,181 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,497,049.
In view of the aforementioned related art problems, there is a requirement for lamps with greater light output, superior chromaticity, and also longer service life. Specifically, it is desirable that, while the lamp is used in projector equipment, the radiant intensity of light from an ultra-high-pressure mercury lamp does not drop or change, but be maintained as stable as possible. As stated above, however, small size is required for a ultra-high-pressure mercury lamp used as a light source for projector equipment, thus, small tubes with volumes not exceeding 300 mm3 are used. Consequently, the load on the tube wall is great, and the temperature within the tube reaches 950xc2x0 C. to 1050xc2x0 C. For that reason, over long hours of use, the quartz glass that is the material of the tube gradually opacities and loses transparency, and because the transparency to light declines, the radiant intensity of the light drops. Moreover, the temperature of the electrode tip reaches 2500xc2x0 K or above; because the temperature is very high, impurities included in the tip of the electrode, which is made of tungsten, evaporate and wastage occurs. Then the vaporized materials adhere to the inner wall of the tube, and darken the tube. This reduces the transparency to light and causes deterioration of the light output, and also reduces the transparency of the quartz glass. In particular, the cathode is smaller than the anode and has a smaller heat capacity, and its sharply pointed tip is liable to wastage.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a direct-current ultra-high-pressure mercury lamp which has a tube that does not lose transparency even during long hours of use, exhibits low waste of the electrodes and particularly the tip of the cathode, and a longer service life than conventional lamps.
These and other objects are achieved by a direct-current, ultra-high-pressure mercury lamp in which a cathode and an anode of tungsten face each other within a quartz glass tube. The cathode is preferably composed of tungsten doped with potassium and includes a cathode coil wrapped around the cathode rod and which is composed of tungsten having a purity of at least 99.99%. The anode is preferably composed of tungsten having a purity of at least 99.99%.
In conventional ultra-high-pressure mercury lamps, the electrodes have been formed of tungsten with a purity of at least 99.9%. Tungsten with a purity of at least 99.9% has metallic impurities including about 60 wt-ppm (hereafter xe2x80x9cppmxe2x80x9d) of K, as well as many others such as Fe, Al, Si, Mo, Ni, Mg, Cu, Mn and Na, for a total of 100 ppm to 1,000 ppm. The lamp is very hot when lit and, as stated previously, these metallic impurities vaporize and adhere to the inner wall of the tube. Not only does the tube darken because of them, but the inventors discovered that when the temperature is raised to 1000xc2x0 C., quartz glass crystallizes with these adhered impurities as nuclei, hastening the loss of transparency. Accordingly, in accordance with the present invention the anode is formed of tungsten with a purity of at least 99.99% including about 5 ppm of potassium and preferably at least 99.999% including about 0.1 ppm of potassium. As a result, the metallic impurities that vaporize from the tip of the anode and adhere to the inner wall of the tube are very scant, and even after long hours of being lit at high temperatures, there is almost no darkening or loss of transparency in the tube, and deterioration of the light output is suppressed.
There is less vaporization of metallic impurities if the cathode is also formed of high-purity tungsten. However, if the purity of the cathode is high and there are very few impurities, the work function of the tip of the cathode is increased, causing an increase of temperature of the cathode tip, which has a small heat capacity, and wastage actually increases. Therefore, in accordance with the present invention, the cathode is composed of tungsten doped with preferably potassium. However, potassium is an alkali metal, and thus, vaporizes yielding positive ions with a valance of 1. The positive ions are attracted to the cathode, which is electrically negative, and create a layer on the surface of the cathode. In other words, when the lamp is lighted stably a certain amount of the potassium with which the cathode is doped vaporizes but does not disperse to the inner surface of the tube; in effect it functions as an emitter. Accordingly, it is possible to suppress wastage of the cathode tip by doping with potassium so the purity of the cathode is not too high.
In addition, the temperature of the cathode coil that is composed of tungsten and wrapped around the cathode from which the arc begins to jump when the lamp is ignited rises quickly. Although the mass of the cathode coil is small, dispersion of the metallic impurities included in the cathode coil would have a deleterious effect. Therefore, it is desirable that the cathode coil, like the anode, be made of tungsten with a purity of at least 99.99%.


An acoustic wave device includes a piezoelectric substrate, a first dielectric film formed on the piezoelectric substrate, and electrodes that are provided on the first dielectric film and excite an acoustic wave, the electrodes including electrode fingers. At least a part of the first dielectric film is cut out between adjacent electrode fingers among the electrode fingers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to acoustic wave devices and filters, and more particularly, to an acoustic wave filter having a high controllability of the electromechanical coupling constant and a filter using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
An exemplary acoustic wave device that utilizes an acoustic wave is a surface acoustic wave (SAW) device equipped with a piezoelectric substrate on which there are formed comb electrodes that form an interdigital transducer (IDT) and reflection electrodes. When electric power is applied across the comb electrodes, a surface acoustic wave is excited. Hereinafter, such a SAW device is referred to as a first prior art. The SAW device advantageously has a compact size, light weight and a high attenuation, and is widely applied to a variety of mobile equipment such as transmission/reception filters and an antenna duplexer of a cellular phone.
FIG. 1A is a plan view of a SAW device of the first prior art, and FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view taken along a line A-A shown in FIG. 1A. The SAW device has a piezoelectric substrate made of, for example, lithium tantalate (LiTaO3) on which comb electrodes 14 and reflection electrodes 16, which electrodes may be formed of aluminum, are provided. For the sake of simplicity, only a small number of fingers of the comb electrodes 14 and the reflection electrodes are illustrated in FIG. 1A. However, in practice, a large number of fingers is used to form the electrodes 14 and 16.
A variation of the first prior art has been developed (hereinafter such a variation is referred to as second prior art). As shown in FIG. 2, a protection form 18 made of silicon oxide (SiO2) covers the comb electrodes 14 and the reflection electrodes 16. The protection film 18 has a thickness as thin as only a few percent of the period λ of the comb electrodes 14.
Another variation of the first prior art has been developed. This variation also has the protection film 18. However, the present variation differs from the second prior art in that the protection film 18 is thicker than the comb electrodes 14. Examples of this type of acoustic wave devices are a Love wave device (hereinafter referred to as a third prior art) and a boundary wave (fourth prior art). An acoustic wave called Love wave is propagated in the Love wave device. An acoustic wave called boundary wave is propagated in the boundary wave device. In the Love wave device and the boundary wave devices, the protection film 18 may be made of a substance having a temperature coefficient of a sign opposite to that of the temperature coefficient of the substrate of the piezoelectric substrate 12. It is thus possible to compensate for the temperature characteristic of frequency (frequently abbreviated as TCF). Particularly, the boundary wave device has an advantage that foreign particle at the interface between the two media does not cause frequency variation and does not increase the electrical loss.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a Love wave device of the third prior art. Referring to this figure, there are provided the comb electrodes 14 and the reflection electrodes 16 on the piezoelectric substrate 12. A silicon oxide film 20 is provided so as to cover the comb electrodes 14 and the reflection electrodes 16.
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a boundary wave device of the fourth prior art. Referring to this figure, the boundary wave device differs from the Love wave device in which an aluminum oxide (Al2O3) film 22 is provided on the silicon oxide film 20 of the Love wave device of the third prior art. The boundary wave device has an essential feature such that energy of the acoustic wave is confined in the surface of the piezoelectric substrate 12 and the silicon oxide film 20.
In the acoustic wave devices described above, the interval between the resonance frequency and the anti-resonance frequency depends on the electromechanical coupling coefficient. Thus, the width of the pass band of a ladder filter and a double-mode filter using the above acoustic wave devices depends on the electromechanical coupling coefficient. It is thus necessary to make the piezoelectric substrate of a piezoelectric material having an electromechanical coupling coefficient that matches a desired pass band. However, various types of piezoelectric material are not available in practice. In view of the above circumstance, there have been proposed various methods for controlling the electromechanical coupling coefficient. The electromechanical coupling coefficient is the conversion efficiency from electrical energy to piezoelectric or acoustic energy. As the electromechanical coupling coefficient is greater, the acoustic wave by the electric signal is excited more easily.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 52-16146 (hereinafter Document 1) discloses the use of a titanium oxide (TiO2) film between the comb electrodes and the piezoelectric substrate. Thickening the titanium oxide film can reduce the electromechanical coupling coefficient. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 6-303073 (Document 2) discloses a method for controlling the piezoelectricity by implanting ions such as argon (Ar) on the surface of the piezoelectric substrate. This ion implantation reduces the electromechanical coupling coefficient. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-31942 (document 3) discloses a technique to use a piezoelectric thin film that is provided between the comb electrodes and the piezoelectric substrate and has a greater electromechanical coupling coefficient than that of the piezoelectric substrate.
The method for controlling the electromechanical coupling coefficient disclosed in Document 1 uses a specific thickness of the titanium oxide film that ranges from 0.00016λ to 0.047λ. However, the above specific thickness is too thin to form filters for cellular phones in practice. For example, the acoustic wave device used for the cellular phones generally employs a piezoelectric substrate made of 36° Y-cut X-propagation lithium tantalate. When this piezoelectric substrate is used to form a filter in the 1.9 GHz band, the comb electrodes have a period λ of 2 μm. For this period, 0.00016λ is equal to 0.32 nm, which is too thin to practically form the electrodes in terms of the fabrication process. In addition, the electromechanical coupling coefficient is changed greatly as the thickness of the titanium oxide film is changed. It is thus difficult to control the electromechanical coupling coefficient well.
The method for controlling the electromechanical coupling coefficient described in Document 2 requires a large scale of facility such as ion implantation. In addition, there is a difficulty in control of the depth of ion implantation. For these reasons, the controllability of the electromechanical coupling coefficient is not good.
The control method described in Document 3 has a difficulty in controlling of the thickness of the piezoelectric thin film.
In short, all of the methods described in Documents 1 through 3 have difficulty in controlling the electromechanical coupling coefficient.


A magnetic head according to one embodiment includes a first module having a flat profile tape bearing surface, a second module having a flat profile tape bearing surface, and a third module having a flat profile tape bearing surface. The third module is positioned on an opposite side of the second module than the first module. The tape bearing surfaces of the first, second and third modules may lie along substantially parallel planes, may be configured in a tangent (angled) configuration, or may be configured in an overwrap configuration. Data writing and reading functions are usually performed by different modules at a given time.

Business, science and entertainment applications depend upon computers to process and record data, often with large volumes of the data being stored or transferred to nonvolatile storage media, such as magnetic discs, magnetic tape cartridges, optical disk cartridges, floppy diskettes, or floptical diskettes. Typically, magnetic tape is the most economical and convenient means of storing or archiving the data. Storage technology is continually pushed to increase storage capacity and storage reliability. Improvement in data storage densities in magnetic storage media, for example, has resulted from improved medium materials, improved magnetic read/write heads, improved error correction techniques and decreased areal bit sizes. The data capacity of half-inch magnetic tape, for example, is now measured in hundreds of gigabytes on 512 or more data tracks.
FIG. 1 illustrates a traditional flat-lapped bi-directional, two-module magnetic tape head 100, in accordance with the prior art. As shown, the head includes a pair of bases 102, each equipped with a module 104. The bases are typically "U-beams" that are adhesively coupled together. Each module 104 includes a substrate 104A and a closure 104B with readers and writers 106 situated therebetween. In use, a tape 108 is moved over the modules 104 along a tape bearing surface 109 in the manner shown for reading and writing data on the tape 108 using the readers and writers 106. Conventionally, a partial vacuum is formed between the tape 108 and the tape bearing surface 109 for maintaining the tape 108 in close proximity with the readers and writers 106.
Two common parameters are associated with heads of such design. One parameter includes the tape wrap angles αi, αo defined between the tape 108 and a plane 111 in which the upper surface of the tape bearing surface 109 resides. It should be noted that the tape wrap angles αi, αo includes an inner wrap angle αi which is often similar in degree to an external, or outer, wrap angle αo. The tape bearing surfaces 109 of the modules 104 are set at a predetermined angle from each other such that the desired inner wrap angle αi is achieved at the facing edges. Moreover, a tape bearing surface length 112 is defined as the distance (in the direction of tape travel) between edges of the tape bearing surface 109. The wrap angles αi, αo and tape bearing surface length 112 are often adjusted to deal with various operational aspects of heads such as that of Prior Art FIG. 1, in a manner that will soon become apparent.
During use of the head of FIG. 1, various effects traditionally occur. FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the area encircled in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 illustrates a first known effect associated with the use of the head 100 of FIG. 1. When the tape 108 moves across the head as shown, air is skived from below the tape 108 by a skiving edge 204 of the substrate 104A, and instead of the tape 108 lifting from the tape bearing surface 109 of the module (as intuitively it should), the reduced air pressure in the area between the tape 108 and the tape bearing surface 109 allows atmospheric pressure to urge the tape towards the tape bearing surface 109.
As data density increases, gap-to-gap distance between the modules (gaps being where the elements are located) becomes more important. For example, in read-while-write operation, the readers on the trailing module read the data that was just written by the leading module so that the system can verify that the data was written correctly. If the data is not written correctly, the system will recognize the error and can rewrite the data. However, the tape does not move across the tape bearing surfaces perfectly linearly. Rather, the tape may shift back and forth, or "wobble," as it crosses the tape bearing surfaces, resulting in dynamic skew, or misalignment of the trailing readers with the leading writers. The effects of wobble are exacerbated as track density increases. The farther the readers are behind the writers, the more chance that track misregistration will occur. If it does occur, the system may incorrectly believe that a write error has occurred.
Additionally, there is an ongoing need to increase the number of active channels in the head for maintaining data rate as the number of tracks on the tape and thus cartridge capacity increases. For instance, a jump from 16 to 32 channels results in double the wiring, and so requires cabling comprising more than 128 leads, for modules with a reader/writer pair for each of the 32 channels plus servo readers and other connections. Such cabling is complex and bulky.
Further, a typical substrate to closure gap length is 25-35 microns for a piggyback reader/writer pair. The tape irregularities tend to droop slightly into this gap and erode the elements. This produces head-tape spacing problems, such as declining signal resolution.
There is accordingly a clearly-felt need in the art for a tape head assembly in which the gap-to-gap spacing between opposing modules is minimized. There is also a need for a tape head assembly that minimizes the substrate-to-closure gap length. There is a further need for a tape head assembly that allows the use of cables having a minimum number of I/O wires. These unresolved problems and deficiencies are clearly felt in the art and are solved by this invention in the manner described below.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention is directed to a vehicle motion control system for maintaining vehicle stability, even in the case where the vehicle is tilted when the vehicle is in turning motion, wherein a braking force control unit is provided for controlling a braking force applied to each of front and rear wheels of the vehicle. The system includes a tilt detection unit which detects a tilt of a normal axis of the vehicle to its vertical axis, and a turn determination unit which determines a turning condition of the vehicle including a turning direction thereof. A yaw moment control unit is provided for controlling the braking force controlling unit to produce a yaw moment in a direction opposite to the turning direction of the vehicle in response to the tilt detected by the tilt detection unit when the turn determination unit determines that the vehicle is turning.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle motion control system for controlling motion of a vehicle in accordance with a tilt of the vehicle when the vehicle is in turning motion.
2. Description of the Related Arts
Recently, a vehicle is provided with an active control suspension system which automatically controls the vehicle's position and comfort. The active control suspension system is adapted to control a hydraulic pressure responsive actuator operatively mounted on each wheel of the vehicle, in response to a driving condition of the vehicle, a road condition and so on, as disclosed for example in a shop manual for a Japanese automobile "Toyota Soarer", issued in May 1991, on pages 3-54 to 3-59.
According to the active control suspension system, the vehicle's position control is performed by determining the vehicle's position on the basis of output signals of various sensors, and controlling pressure control valves so as to keep the vehicle's position substantially stable in any driving conditions. For example, when the vehicle is in turning motion, an anti-roll control is performed by operating an actuator for controlling right and left pressure cylinders, in response to a lateral acceleration of the vehicle which is detected by a lateral acceleration sensor. Consequently, the turning motion of the vehicle is made in such a stable condition that the vehicle's position is kept substantially horizontal.
According to the above-described active control suspension system, however, the actuator and the pressure cylinder controlled thereby are to be provided for each wheel, and the control system will be complicated. Comparing with conventional suspension systems, therefore, number of parts needed for the active control suspension system will be increased, and the system as a whole will become large in scale and high in cost.


A vehicle storage assembly includes a storage compartment having an opening to permit access to the compartment. A door adjacent the opening is moveable between a closed position that covers the opening and an open position that permits access to the compartment through the opening. The storage assembly further includes a controllable damper coupled to the door and actuable between high and low damping states, such that the door is maintained in one of the closed position, the open position, or any position therebetween when the controllable damper is in the high damping state. To move the door to a new position, the controllable damper is actuated from the high damping state to the low damping state whereby the door can then be freely moved to the desired position. The controllable damper may then be actuated from the low damping state to the high damping state to retain the door in the selected position.

Vehicle interiors include various accessories to improve the comfort and convenience of the vehicle. For example, vehicle interiors are often provided with various compartments adapted to store items such as maps, coins, compact discs and tapes, and other personal items of the vehicle occupants. A storage compartment in a vehicle interior may be provided on a center console or mounted to a dashboard as a glove box, for example. An access door or lid is typically provided to cover an opening to the storage compartment so that items may be secured and hidden from view. The door of the storage compartment is typically maintained in a closed position by a latch associated with the storage assembly, and a spring is often used to bias the door toward an open position when the latch is released. Vehicle storage compartments may further include a damper to control the motion of the door between the closed and open positions. Because the damper and latch are usually provided as separate mechanisms, increased costs and manufacturing time are required to assemble conventional vehicle storage assemblies. Moreover, the dampers are not typically tunable to permit optimization of the motion and speed of door movement between the closed an open positions.
A need therefore exists for a vehicle storage assembly that addresses these and other drawbacks of the prior art.

Vehicle storage assembly with adjustable door


A method includes obtaining data associated with operation of an industrial process controller and identifying impacts of operational problems of the industrial process controller. The method also includes generating a graphical display for a user, where the graphical display presents one or more recommended actions to reduce or eliminate at least one of the impacts of at least one of the operational problems. The method further includes triggering at least one of the one or more recommended actions based on input from the user. The method could also include executing one or more analytic algorithms to process the obtained data and identify the operational problems of the industrial process controller. Each of the one or more analytic algorithms could be instantiated as a container, and multiple containers could be instantiated and executed as needed. Results of executing the one or more analytic algorithms could be transformed into a standard format.

Industrial process control and automation systems are often used to automate large and complex industrial processes. These types of control and automation systems routinely include process controllers and field devices like sensors and actuators. Some of the process controllers typically receive measurements from the sensors and generate control signals for the actuators.
Model-based industrial process controllers are one type of process controller routinely used to control the operations of industrial processes. Model-based process controllers typically use one or more models to mathematically represent how one or more properties within an industrial process respond to changes made to the industrial process. Unfortunately, the benefits that can be obtained using model-based controllers often decline over time. This can be due to a number of factors, such as inaccurate models, misconfiguration, or operator actions. In some extreme cases, the benefits that could be obtained using model-based controllers can be reduced by up to fifty percent or even more over time.

Apparatus and method for identifying, visualizing, and triggering workflows from auto-suggested actions to reclaim lost benefits of model-based industrial process controllers


A method of fabricating a ferroelectric memory transistor includes preparing a substrate, including isolating an active region; forming a gate region; depositing an electrode plug in the gate region; depositing an oxide side wall about the electrode plug; implanting ions to form a source region and a drain region; annealing the structure to diffuse the implanted ions; depositing an intermediate oxide layer over the structure; removing the electrode plug; depositing a bottom electrode in place of the electrode plug; depositing a ferroelectric layer over the bottom electrode; depositing a top electrode over the ferroelectric layer; depositing a protective layer; depositing a passivation oxide layer over the structure; and metallizing the structure.

This invention relates to the manufacture of transistors incorporating ferroelectric thin films therein, and specifically to fabrication of a metal/ferro metal oxide semiconductor (MFMOS) and metal/ferro metal semiconductor (MFMS) transistors using a nitride replacement technique.
Ferroelectric thin films are used in nonvolatile memories. Metal-ferroelectric-metal-silicon semi-conductors, also referred to herein as ferroelectric memory (FEM) cells are particularly useful as memory transistors. Known ferroelectric random access memories (FRAM) are constructed with one transistor (1T) and one capacitor (1C). The capacitor is generally made by sandwiching a thin ferroelectric film between two conductive electrodes, which electrodes are usually made of platinum. The circuit configuration and the read/write sequence of this type of memory are similar to that of conventional dynamic random access memories (DRAM), except that no data refreshing is necessary in a FRAM.
Another known use of ferroelectric thin films in memory applications is to form a ferroelectric-gate-controlled field effect transistor (FET) by depositing the ferroelectric thin film directly onto the gate area of the FET. Such ferroelectric-gate controlled devices have been known for some time and include devices known as metal-ferroelectric-silicon (MFS) FETs. FRAMs incorporating the MFS FET structure have two major advantages over the transistor-capacitor configuration: (1) The MFS FET occupies less surface area, and (2) provides a nondestructive readout (NDR). The latter feature enables a MFS FET device to be read thousands of times without switching the ferroelectric polarization. Various forms of MFS FET structures may be constructed, such as metal ferroelectric insulators in silicon (MFIS) FET, metal ferroelectric metal semiconductor (MFMS) FET, and metal ferroelectric metal oxide semiconductor (MFMOS) FET.
It is critically important that, during etching of the gate stack of MFMOS and MFMS memory transistors, the etching does not extend significantly into the silicon. The thickness of the gate oxide of a MFMOS memory transistor is very thin, and it is exceptionally difficult to stop the gate stack etching process at the level of the gate oxide. Large source/drain series resistances may occurs if excessive amounts of silicon are consumed by the gate stack etching process. In the case of MFMS memory transistors, the surface channel is very shallow. This channel may be completely removed by etching during the gate stack etching process if proper controls are not maintained.
A method of fabricating a ferroelectric memory transistor includes preparing a substrate, including isolating an active region; forming a gate region; depositing an electrode plug in the gate region, depositing an oxide side wall about the electrode plug; implanting Arsenic ions to form a source region and a drain region; annealing the structure to diffuse the implanted ions; depositing an intermediate oxide layer over the structure; removing the electrode plug; depositing a bottom electrode in place of the electrode plug; depositing a ferroelectric layer over the bottom electrode; depositing a top electrode over the ferroelectric layer; depositing a protective layer; depositing a passivation oxide layer over the structure, and metallizing the structure.
It is an object of the invention to provide a method of fabricating MFMOS memory transistors and MFMS memory transistors which does not require exceptionally precise etching procedures.
Another object of the invention to provide a method of fabricating MFMOS memory transistors and MFMS memory transistors which will reduce fabrication cost and increase production output.
This summary and objectives of the invention are provided to enable quick comprehension of the nature of the invention. A more thorough understanding of the invention may be obtained by reference to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention in connection with the drawings.

Method of fabricating ferroelectric memory transistors


Techniques are disclosed for managing assets, such as virtual assets, in a computing system implemented with distributed virtual infrastructure. In one example, a method comprises the following steps. Operational information associated with a plurality of virtual assets in a data center is obtained in a trusted manner. The data center is implemented via a distributed virtual infrastructure. At least a portion of the operational information for at least a portion of the plurality of virtual assets in the data center is reported. The operational information reported is operational information pertaining to one or more virtual assets that the data center provides for a tenant of the data center. The obtaining and reporting steps are performed by at least one processing device operating as a virtual asset manager operatively coupled to the distributed virtual infrastructure.

As is known, many companies track their physical assets (e.g., physical machines including, by way of example, servers) over the course of a fiscal year. However, such a tracking process can be time-consuming. To mitigate this issue, radio frequency identification (RFID) techniques have been employed. For example, in a data center scenario, each physical machine is typically equipped with an RFID tag. When the tracking process begins, personnel use RFID readers to scan and identify all the physical machines in the data center via the RFID tags.
However, more and more companies have adopted the approach of having nearly no physical assets, and rather have turned to the new information technology (IT) computing model known as cloud computing. With the prevalence of cloud computing, small companies can rent resources (e.g., computing, storage, network) from cloud providers to build their business services. Moreover, companies prefer renting virtual machines from so-called Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers as a basic computing container due to its flexibility. Then, those companies will not possess physical assets (e.g., servers) but rather they will utilize virtual assets such as virtual machines. However, a company's ability to know that it is getting what it is paying for with regard to virtual machines that it rents from a cloud provider has proven to be a problem in existing data centers.


A golf club putter head including an elongated body formed of a first metal and having an upright front portion defining a ball striking face, enlarged heel and toe portions symmetrically shaped about a vertical central axis of said body, and a horizontal bottom portion defining outer portions of beveled bottom surfaces. The front and bottom portions have a thickness at each central portion thereof which is substantially less than a width and a height, respectively, of the heel and toe portions. A slanted elongated cavity having a longitudinal axis receives and secures a lower distal end of a golf club shaft. A sole plate formed of a second metal is secured within a mating slot formed into only a central portion of the bottom surface. A front edge of the sole plate also forms a lower central portion of the ball striking face while a bottom surface of the sole plate is continuous with the bottom surfaces of the body. A balance weight formed of a third metal denser than that of the first metal is positioned and secured into a mating cavity formed into the bottom surface of the heel portion to cause the putter head to be balanced about the longitudinal axis of the golf club shaft.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of golf club design and construction, and more particularly to a unique golf club putter head design formed of multiple metals.
2. Description of Related Art
The field of golf has enjoyed perhaps the greatest proliferation of equipment improvements available to its avid participants of any hobby or pastime. The popularity of professional golf has heightened not only participation by tremendously increasing numbers of golfers, but has also consequently spurred the development and introduction of very sophisticated equipment designs and materials.
The golf club putter in general has been the recipient of great inventive effort directed toward the achievement of the ultimate putter design. One such effort is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,393,089 invented by Bonneau which teaches an inverted mass relieved putter head in the form of a general block of metal having a conventional striking face with mass relieved portions behind the face of the putter head club. A plug of heavy metal is centered at the center of gravity to add stiffness with emphasis on the use of exotic materials for proper head weight.
A customizable golf putter head with a face insert is taught by Anderson in U.S. Pat. No. 6,478,694. The face member has a cavity formed in its rear surface to receive a weighted face insert. In a very recent U.S. Pat. No. 6,679,782, Tang discloses a putter head having a body preferably formed of stainless steel, the body including a face portion, a crown portion, a sole portion and an aft mass portion to achieve novel inertial properties. An alignment means for aiming a golf ball during putting is also provided.
A golf club with interchangeable sole is taught by Lu in U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,540. This allows for customizing the club head with selected ground-engaging sole plates to more closely match ground and grass conditions. An adjustable golf putter is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,652 by Westbrook teaching a novel energy transmitting head composition which transmits vibrational energy upon contact with a golf ball. A unique layered design of high density elastomer, PVDF, carbon fiber, polyester resin and aluminum is disclosed.
Another golf putter head design is disclosed by Caiozzo in U.S. Pat. No. 5,916,035. This golf putter head includes an arcuate cavity extending from the back surface of the hitting face and a semi-circular rear section attached to and extending back from the front section. A keyhole-shaped cutout formed into the semi-circular lip for weight/balance redistribution is also provided. Still another golf putter head is disclosed by Bolanos in U.S. Pat. No. 5,571,052 teaching a club head body having a center of mass, the center of effort located on the striking face in axial alignment with the center of mass to define an axis of effort extending through the club head body.
A balanced putter with top spin facility is disclosed by Baker in U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,290. This club head includes a member securable to the exterior surface of the club head formed of a material different from the material constituting the club head itself, the member having an arcuate configuration for striking the ball.
Hettinger, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,095,931 teaches a bimetallic golf club head having a weighted body for lowering the center of gravity of the club head itself in order to achieve an increase in the vertical gear effect upon impact with a golf ball. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,290,035, a balanced golf club putter taught by Hannon includes two chambers that increase the proportion of heel and toe mass relative to the center mass and decreases the cross sectional area of head material to increase vibration transmitted upon the shaft upon ball impact.
Another golf club head design disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,857 as taught by Cochran includes a golf club head having a high radius of gyration formed of steel and having tungsten embedded inserts added to the heel and toe areas of the club head itself. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,871, Fisher teaches a golf putter head design with interchangeable rebound control inserts which are readily interchangeable to provide higher or lower rebound factors depending upon the speed of the green.
Colucci, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,692,372 teaches a putter head which includes three long plastic insert sighting lines to assist a golfer in lining up the club head with the intended target. The patent to White, U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,913, teaches a golf club putter head having a removable blade forming a front striking surface in a fashion such that the blade may be adjustably positioned longitudinally with respect to the body of the putter head. Two protrusions are provided on the bottom surface which position the blade above the grass surface.


The present invention relates to a vacuum storage bag for daily use. The vacuum storage bag comprises a sealable body with an opening at one end and a pressed and sealed end at the other end; the sealable body is formed by two layers and each layer is made of two layers; the inner surfaces of the opening are coated with a layer of adhesive material; and the sealed and pressed end has a tubular opening at its bottom. It is convenient to use and of simple construction. It is suitable for storing articles in a vacuum state with limited space and preventing the articles from mildewing.

The present invention relates to storage bags and more particularly pertains to a vacuum storage bag for daily use.
The available vacuum storage bags in the marketplace have one or mare rubber or plastic seals or fastening tape available under the VELCRO trademark which consists of a strip of nylon with a surface of minute hooks that fasten to a corresponding strip with a surface of uncut pile at the bag openings. Some of these bags have openings in the bag bodies and the openings are covered by caps of construction similar to that of soft drink bottle caps. The method of usage is to first open the seals or VELCRO, put articles such as a cotton-padded quilt into the bag and then close the seals or VELCRO and thereafter, open the cap and insert the hose of a vacuum cleaner to suck away all the air inside the bag, then remove the hose and close the opening with the cap, thereby creating a vacuum state inside the bag and preventing air from entering the beg.
There are some storage bags of smaller size which can achieve the vacuum effect without the assistance of vacuum cleaners. The method is to hot press two strips at the opening at the other end of the bag and the strips are a bit shorter in length than the opening of the bag. In the same manner, it is to first open the seals or VELCRO, put articles such as clothes into the bag and then close the seals or VELCRO securely, and thereafter, push by hands the air out of the bag from the end with the seals or VELCRO to the other end with the strips and thus create a vacuum state inside the bag and prevent air from entering the bag.
However, gas or liquid usually enters the vacuum storage bag through the gaps on it that are hardly perceivable by human eyes, or the gaps of the seals or VELCRO, or the gaps between the cap and the opening, or through the opening of the strips. As a result, the vacuum effect is destroyed. In order to maintain the vacuum state inside the bag, manufacturers have suggested users to suck away the air once every several months. This practice is troublesome and time consuming, and cannot solve the problem once and for all. In addition, the opening with the cap of construction similar to that of a soft drink bottle cap is generally made of hard plastics. If the user Is not careful, the opening with the cap will easily damage the neighboring articles or the vacuum storage bag itself or the articles of clothing inside the bag.


A method and system for providing an accurate service record to communication devices seeking modem-based services. The system includes a phone line detector capable of detecting whether a properly working phone line connection exists. This can be accomplished by detecting whether a phone line is actually plugged into a phone jack connected to a modem of a communication device. If a proper phone line connection exists, then the communication device generates a service record identifying, among other services, all modem-based services that the communication device can offer to other communication devices in search of a modem or modem-based service.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communications systems and, more particularly, a method and system for providing an accurate service record to a communication device using a phone line detector.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Bluetooth technology is a well-known technology developed to standardize data communication between disparate communication devices. This technology allows communication devices having Bluetooth devices therein to communicate with each other without the use of cables or connectors. The communication devices can be laptops, desktops, handhelds, PDAs (personal digital assistants), mobile phones, two-way pagers, etc. The Bluetooth communication that occurs between the communication devices is short-range wireless communication and does not require the use of a wireless cellular network A typical Bluetooth device includes both hardware (e.g., antenna, transmitter, receiver, etc.) and software for implementing the short-range wireless communication. Each Bluetooth device is configured according to predetermined Bluetooth standards and protocols so that short-range wireless communication between two selected communication devices and/or multiple selected communication devices is possible. Further information regarding the Bluetooth standards, protocols and technology is available at the website of http://www.Bluetooth.com.
One of the unique features that is offered by Bluetooth technology is that a particular communication device that does not have a modem or does not want to use its own modem (if it has the modem), is able to "borrow" the use of a modem in another communication device through the Bluetooth devices in these communication devices. This borrowing is facilitated by the operation of a Service Discovery Protocol installed on the Bluetooth devices of these communication devices. The Service Discovery Protocol is a required part of the software installed in a conventional Bluetooth device.
The conventional Bluetooth device is also installed with different application programs, one of which utilizes the Service Discovery Protocol to configure the communication device to keep a list of all services which that communication device can offer to other communication devices that may need to utilize such services. This list of services is known as a "service record". The services identified in the service record can include modem-based services (i.e., services that utilize a modem), such as a Dial-up Networking Gateway service, a fax service, etc., and non-modem based services such as a LAN (Local Area Network) access service, a synchronization service, a file transfer service, etc. A detailed discussion of each of these services is provided at the website of http:/www.palowireless.com/infotooth/tutorial/profiles.asp. If a particular communication device does not include a modem and is in need of a modem-based service, or if the particular device includes a modem but the use of its own modem may not be allowed or desired (e.g., the use of its own modem may be costly if the communication device is a mobile phone), then the Service Discovery Protocol installed in that communication device initiates communication with other communication devices within the Bluetooth range, and requests the service record from these other communication devices. The communication device receiving the service records then may select and use, if allowed, the modem-based services offered by these other communication devices through the use of the modem in these other communication devices.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional communication system 50 in which a communication device provides its service record to another communication device through Bluetooth devices according to known techniques. As shown in FIG. 1, the system 50 includes a first communication device 10 including a Bluetooth device 12 and a processor 11, operatively coupled. The first communication device 10 may or may not include a modem therein. The system 50 further includes a least one second communication device 20 including a Bluetooth device 22, a modem 13, a phone jack 14, and a phone line 15 inserted into the phone jack 14, all operatively coupled. Each of the first and second communication devices 10 and 20 can be a PDA, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a mobile phone, etc., and includes components that are typically found in these devices such as a display unit, an input unit such as a keyboard or keypad, memory, processor, etc. Each of the Bluetooth devices 12 and 22 includes a Service Discovery Protocol and an application program that utilizes the Service Discovery Protocol as discussed above.
The Service Discovery Protocol in the Bluetooth device 22 of the second communication device 20 stores a service record identifying a list of all services, including modem-based services, that the second communication device 20 can offer to other communication devices in need of modem-based services. In some conventional systems, a communication device generates a service record after it verifies that a modem exists in that communication device.
When the first communication device 10 is in need of a modem that provides a modem-based service such as the Dial-up Networking Gateway service for dialing-out to the Internet (e.g., because the device 10 does not have its own modem, or if it has, the use of its own modem is not allowed or desired), the Service Discovery Protocol in the Bluetooth device 12 of the first communication device 10 initiates short-range wireless communication 30 with any of the communication devices located within the appropriate range to determine if any of the neighboring communication devices is capable of providing modem-based services. In response to this request from the first communication device 10, the Bluetooth device 22 in the nearby second communication device 20 transmits a message back to the first communication device 10. This message contains the appropriate service record of the second communication device 20.
The Bluetooth device 12 receives this message and sends the service record to the processor 11. The processor 11 then displays the service record on an associated display unit for viewing by the user of the first communication device 10. The user views the service record, including a list of modem-based services that are offered by the second communication device 20. The user can select one of the listed modem-based services, or the first communication device 10 can be configured to select automatically a particular service according to some predetermined criteria. If multiple communication devices respond to the first communication device 10's request for the service record and the first communication device 10 receives multiple service records, then the user may select one of the received service records and further select a particular modem-based service from the selected service record.
If the user selects one of the modem-based services offered by the second communication device 20, the Bluetooth device 12 of the first communication device 10 communicates this selection to the Bluetooth device 22 of the second communication device 20. Then, through the Bluetooth devices 12 and 22, the first communication device 10 initiates the selected service using the modem 13 of the second communication device 20 according to known techniques (e.g., using AT commands). In this manner, a communication device in need of a modem is able to connect to a network such as the Internet through a modem of another communication device via Bluetooth short-range wireless communication, and access any of the modem-based services offered by the communication device having the modem.
A problem exists, however, with the conventional method of providing a service record to communication devices. A conventional Bluetooth device is configured to generate a service record either automatically or only when it determines that a modem is present in the communication device. But, even if the modem is present, the modem may not be actually connected to a working phone line, in which case the communication device is not at that time capable of providing the modem-based services listed on the service record. Thus, the conventional Bluetooth device often provides the service record to other communication devices when in fact it is not capable of actually performing the services identified on the service record. Relying on this information, the first communication device will attempt to dial out using the modem of the second communication device. But, since a working phone line is not actually connected to the modem in the second communication device, this attempt will fail and the first communication device will need to look for another device capable of providing the modem-based services. Therefore, the conventional communication system can result in a waste of time and resources.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved communication system and method for providing accurate service records to communication devices, which overcomes the problems of the conventional communication devices and methods for providing service records.

Method and system for providing accurate service record using phone line detector


Structures and methods for fabricating high speed digital, analog, and combined digital/analog systems using planarized relaxed SiGe as the materials platform. The relaxed SiGe allows for a plethora of strained Si layers that possess enhanced electronic properties. By allowing the MOSFET channel to be either at the surface or buried, one can create high-speed digital and/or analog circuits. The planarization before the device epitaxial layers are deposited ensures a flat surface for state-of-the-art lithography.

The invention relates to the field of relaxed SiGe platforms for high speed CMOS electronics and high speed analog circuits.
Si CMOS as a platform for digital integrated circuits has progressed predictably through the industry roadmap. The progress is created through device miniaturization, leading to higher performance, greater reliability, and lower cost. However, new bottlenecks in data flow are appearing as the interconnection hierarchy is expanded. Although digital integrated circuits have progressed at unprecedented rates, analog circuitry has hardly progressed at all. Furthermore, it appears that in the near future, serious economic and technological issues will confront the progress of digital integrated circuits.
The digital and communication chip markets need an enhancement to Si CMOS and the maturing roadmap. One promising candidate material that improves digital integrated circuit technology and introduces new analog integrated circuit possibilities is relaxed SiGe material on Si substrates. Relaxed SiGe alloys on Si can have thin layers of Si deposited on them, creating tension in the thin Si layers. Tensile Si layers have many advantageous properties for the basic device in integrated circuits, the metal-oxide field effect transistor (MOSFET). First, placing Si in tension increases the mobility of electrons moving parallel to the surface of the wafer, thus increasing the frequency of operation of the MOSFET and the associated circuit. Second, the band offset between the relaxed SiGe and the tensile Si will confine electrons in the Si layer. Therefore, in an electron channel device (n-channel), the channel can be removed from the surface or 'buried'. This ability to spatially separate the charge carriers from scattering centers such as ionized impurities and the 'rough' oxide interface enables the production of low noise, high performance analog devices and circuits.
A key development in this field was the invention of relaxed SiGe buffers with low threading dislocation densities. The key background inventions in this area are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,205 issued to Brasen et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,107,653 issued to Fitzgerald. These patents define the current best methods of fabricating high quality relaxed SiGe.
Novel device structures in research laboratories have been fabricated on early, primitive versions of the relaxed buffer. For example, strained Si, surface channel nMOSFETs have been created that show enhancements of over 60% in intrinsic gm with electron mobility increases of over 75% (Rim et al, IEDM 98 Tech. Dig. p. 707). Strained Si, buried channel devices demonstrating high transconductance and high mobility have also been fabricated (U. Konig, MRS Symposium Proceedings 533, 3 (1998)). Unfortunately, these devices possess a variety of problems with respect to commercialization. First, the material quality that is generally available is insufficient for practical utilization, since the surface of SiGe on Si becomes very rough as the material is relaxed via dislocation introduction. These dislocations are essential in the growth of relaxed SiGe layers on Si since they compensate for the stress induced by the lattice mismatch between the materials. For more than 10 years, researchers have tried to intrinsically control the surface morphology through epitaxial growth, but since the stress fields from the misfit dislocations affect the growth front, no intrinsic epitaxial solution is possible. The invention describes a method of planarization and regrowth that allows all devices on relaxed SiGe to possess a significantly flatter surface. This reduction in surface roughness increases the yield for fine-line lithography, thus enabling the manufacture of strained Si devices.
A second problem with the strained Si devices made to date is that researchers have been concentrating on devices optimized for very different applications. The surface channel devices have been explored to enhance conventional MOSFET devices, whereas the buried channel devices have been constructed in ways that mimic the buried channel devices previously available only in III–V materials systems, like AlGaAs/GaAs. Recognizing that the Si manufacturing infrastructure needs a materials platform that is compatible with Si, scalable, and capable of being used in the plethora of Si integrated circuit applications, the disclosed invention provides a platform that allows both the enhancement of circuits based on Si CMOS, as well as the fabrication of analog circuits. Thus, high performance analog or digital systems can be designed with this platform. An additional advantage is that both types of circuits can be fabricated in the CMOS process, and therefore a combined, integrated digital/analog system can be designed as a single-chip solution.
With these advanced SiGe material platforms, it is now possible to provide a variety of device and circuit topologies that take advantage of this new materials system. Exemplary embodiments of the invention describe structures and methods to fabricate advanced strained-layer Si devices, and structures and methods to create circuits based on a multiplicity of devices, all fabricated from the same starting material platform. Starting from the same material platform is key to minimizing cost as well as to allowing as many circuit topologies to be built on this platform as possible.

Relaxed SiGe platform for high speed CMOS electronics and high speed analog circuits


A processor is operable to generate a graphics data representation (GDR) for a graphic created at a first resolution and including two or more separated objects. The processor decomposes the objects into contours and determines features and control points along the contours. Additionally, the processor determines constraints for imposition upon the features and control points during scaling, where the constraints include spatial relationships between the control points. The processor stores the constraints, identifications of the features and control points, contour descriptions, and information identifying the first resolution to produce the GDR. Upon acquiring the GDR, a displaying device's processor determines a scaling value based on the first resolution and a second resolution at which the graphic will be displayed, adjusts features and control points of the contours based on the scaling value and the GDR constraints to produce a scaled graphic, and displays the scaled graphic at the second resolution.

Electronic products, such as laptop computers, tablet computers, smartphones, cellular phones, multimedia players, handheld gaming devices, and other devices, and software applications that run on them, typically use large numbers of bitmap images for displaying user interface (UI) icons, logos, symbols, images and other graphics. If a device is configured to support bitmap images at a variety of sizes or across a spectrum of device resolutions, then the bitmaps generally must be created and stored for each of the target sizes and device resolutions. For example, vector images of desired graphics are typically created and hand-tuned separately for each targeted resolution using a bitmap editing tool. In the Android graphics environment, hand-tuned bitmaps are typically created for every icon, every background (especially if non-rectangular, bordered, shaded, or textured), every button shape, and so forth at low density resolution (LDPI), medium density resolution (MDPI), high density resolution (HDPI), and extra high density resolution (XHDPI). Many of these icons are relatively simple shapes, having a handful of contours which would be under several hundred bytes when represented as vector-graphic objects, but their bitmap representations are several thousand bytes. As a result, use of multiple resolution-specific bitmaps for each graphic poses asset management issues in the display/production environment and storage issues on the device.
A more efficient use of device memory and processing resources could be achieved by creating and storing icons or other graphics as vector graphics and scaling them to the target resolution. However, conventional vector graphics scaling techniques often produce undesirable quality, especially where the scaling is between resolutions that do not have an integer relationship. As a result, many icons are initially created using a vector graphics design tool and are then manually converted to resolution-specific bitmaps and hand-tuned to achieve a desired quality for a target screen resolution.
To illustrate errors typically introduced through conventional vector graphics scaling, reference is made to FIG. 1, which illustrates non-integer, high-to-low resolution scaling of an exemplary graphic 101 in accordance with conventional graphics scaling techniques. More particularly, FIG. 1 illustrates conventional scaling between screen resolutions having a ratio of 1.33:1, such as would be the case when scaling from MDPI to LDPI or from XHDPI to HDPI. In such a case, the pixel grid of the target resolution does not align with the pixel grid of the source resolution.
As can be observed from FIG. 1, the exemplary graphic 101 includes a generally rectangular border 103 surrounding five progressive-height, common-width, equally-spaced bars 105-109. The exemplary graphic 101 may be used to visually indicate received signal strength for a wireless network to which the electronic device is connected. After scaling the graphic 101 according to conventional techniques, the scaled graphic 111 is distorted relative to the original graphic 101. For example, the rectangular border 113 of the scaled graphic 111 does not maintain the same thickness in proportion to the widths of the bars 115-119 of the scaled graphic 111. Additionally, the bars 115-119 of the scaled graphic 111 no longer have the same widths or equal spacing. As a result, while the scaled graphic 111 has the same general arrangement as the original graphic 101, the quality of the scaled graphic 111 is significantly degraded.
In the early 1990's, font developers recognized that additional processing was needed to display fonts on electronic displays and the 240-300 dots per inch (dpi) printers of that era. So, the developers created a specialized service, referred to as "font hinting," to improve the quality of fonts as displayed on the various displays and printers. According to font hinting, critical features and control points of font glyph contours are identified and pixel-grid-related positioning adjustments are made to the features and/or control points to improve the appearance of the contours when imaged or displayed on a target pixel grid. For example, positions of the control points of a font glyph are adjusted so that the font glyph is ideally registered to (aligned with) the pixel grid of the target display or printer. The pixel-grid adjustments are defined by constraints or rules applied to individual control points, sets of control points, and/or the relationships (e.g., distances) between two or more control points of a font glyph. The features, control points, and constraints for font glyphs of a particular font are embedded in the font formats and font engine for the font.
While font hinting provides high quality display scalability for fonts, it is insufficient for general graphics containing. Importantly, font hinting does not address shadows of multiple shapes/objects or relations of objects to one another (such as abutting or co-aligned portions of adjacent contours as opposed to relationships purely between control points within a single object as occurs in a font glyph). Additionally, font hinting does not address uniformity/progressions of spacing between two or more objects. Spatial relationships between font glyphs, such as in a displayed sentence, are handled by separate processes, such as kerning and justification, outside of the font format itself. Additionally, font hinting has been generally ignored by the graphics community, which maintains a belief that adjusting the outline of an object is unnecessary. Instead, the graphics industry relies upon anti-aliasing, gamma curve adjustments, and dithering to address scaling-related issues. Furthermore, because graphic authoring tools do not typically support intelligent scaling, graphic designers have not considered the algorithmic scaling of vector graphics to be adequate and, therefore, have deferred to creating individual bitmaps at targeted display resolutions.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated alone or relative to other elements to help improve the understanding of the various exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

Method and apparatus for creating a graphics data representation and scaling a graphic represented thereby


Electrostatic latent image developing toner includes at least a binder resin and a releasing agent. In the electrostatic latent image developing toner, a maximum thermal expansion coefficient difference (Swmax−Srmax), which is a difference between a maximum value (Swmax) of a thermal expansion coefficient of the releasing agent and a maximum value (Srmax) of a thermal expansion coefficient of the binder resin, is 1 or more, and a temperature at which the thermal expansion coefficient of the releasing agent reaches a maximum is 60° C. or more to 75° C. or less.

The present application relates to electrostatic latent image developing toner.
Regarding toner used for electrophotography, a toner having excellent low temperature fixability is desired for achieving energy saving, compactness in device size, or the like. The toner having excellent low temperature fixability can be fixed by heating a fixing roller to a minimum. However, in many cases, the toner having excellent low temperature fixability includes a binder resin having a low melting point and a low glass transition point, and a releasing agent having a low melting point. Therefore, generally, the toner having excellent low temperature fixability has a problem of being likely to aggregate when stored at high temperature or to cause high temperature offset caused by the toner which sticks by melting to the heated fixing roller.
To solve the problem as described above, the toner with at least resin and wax is suggested. The resin included in this toner is a condensed resin. Then, the wax is included in each toner particle and is localized in the vicinity of a surface of the toner particles.


An active implanted medical device, particularly an active implantable medical device, and its external programmer having a bi-directional synchronous transmission of data. The active implanted medical device (10) includes a timing clock (18) and circuits for the emission/reception of signals operating under the temporal control of the timing clock of the active implanted medical device. The programmer (24) includes a timing clock (42) and circuits for the emission/reception of signals, operating under the temporal control of the programmer timing clock. The device (10) and programmer (24) exchange data there-between using a bi-directional synchronous serial connection, in which the programmer timing clock (42) is a programmable clock, adjustable in phase, and the programmer has a synchronization control circuit (32, 36, 38, 40) cooperating with its programmable timing clock, to analyze a signal received from the active implanted medical device and to lock in phase the programmer programmable timing clock on the timing clock of the active implanted medical device.

Active implanted medical devices comprise particularly cardiac pacemakers, defibrillators, neurological devices, pumps for the delivery of medical substance (so-called diffusion pumps) and cochlear implants. These devices, once put in place, are programmed from the exterior by use of a remote or distant console called a "programmer". The invention, however, is not limited to active implanted medical devices. Indeed, although the invention is described with reference to active implanted medical devices, the invention also applies to medical devices that are not implanted (for example, devices carried by the patient), and to non-active medical devices (for example, devices, whether or not implanted, that are without a source of energy (e.g., a battery) and which use for the emission of signals to the exterior a portion of the energy of an interrogating signal that is applied to the device), and to autonomous devices other than medical devices. The reference to an "implant" in the description is, therefore, not in itself restrictive to implanted medical devices and should be construed synonymous with autonomous device (except when used as an adverb to a medical device).
The verification of parameters of the implant or the transmission of information to be recorded (stored) by the implant is realized by electromagnetic inductive coupling, called "telemetry" in the technique in question. Thus, a programmer communicates with an autonomous device by telemetry.
Each programmer is provided with a receiver head that is placed in face of, that is in the proximity to the site of, the implant. The head comprises a coil (also called an antenna) that collects the magnetic field generated from or by the implanted device. The programmer also is configured to send information to the implant by electromagnetic means. This is typically done by causing a current in the programmer coil to oscillate, which current will provoke a voltage at the output of the reception coil of the implant, and produce a voltage on the implant coil leads. These voltages are collected (sensed) and decoded by the implant.
Signals emitted by the implant are collected by the programmer coil, amplified, filtered, digitized and decoded by the programmer circuits. This allows one to realize a transmission in two directions between the implant and the programmer (i.e., bi-directional telemetry). It is noted that for each of the programmer and the autonomous device, the coil used for receiving signals can also be used to transmit signals, although different coils or different combinations of coils may be used for receiving and sending.
It has been previously proposed to operate data transmission in a synchronous mode between an implant and a programmer. In the known technique, the programmer possesses a clock that defines the rhythm (rate) of data transmission, which rate is imposed on the implant when the implant has data to emit in the direction of the programmer. This technique, if it is able to benefit from the advantages of a synchronous transmission, is nevertheless limited in its possibilities of implementation because it presupposes that the implant is able to measure, establish, and maintain the cadence of the transmission rate imposed by the programmer.
In practice, it is indispensable to limit the transmission rate if this condition is to be satisfied in a quasi-certain manner, independent of the type of implant that is interrogated by the programmer. In others words, it is desirable, if not necessary, to find a compromise between the speed of the synchronous transmission and the security of transmission. Too high a speed will present a risk of losing the synchronism during the transmission, and, therefore, result in the erroneous interpretation by the programmer of the transmitted data.

Synchronous telemetry transmission between a programmer and an autonomous device


A voltage controlled oscillator amplitude control circuit has a voltage controlled oscillator circuit to output an oscillating signal having a controlled amplitude. It also has a control circuit to control the amplitude of the oscillating signal by providing a dominant pole, a filtering function, rectification, and a gain at a single node of the circuit.

Very accurate or spectrally pure signals are needed in many applications in modern integrated circuit design. The spectral purity and the timing accuracy are just two ways of looking at the same characteristic of the signal. Spectral purity is a frequency domain measurement and jitter is a time domain measurement, however, these terms are often used interchangeably. One way to produce a low jitter signal on chip is to use an on chip LC (inductor-capacitor) tank oscillator.
The basic oscillator consists of a LC tank that sets the operating frequency of the signal, and an amplifier to make up for signal losses in the LC tank and to drive the signal to-the next stage. The frequency and the phase of the oscillator are maintained with a Phase Locked Loop (PLL), where the phase and frequency of the signal output by the oscillator is compared to an external reference signal. Adjustments to drifts in phase or frequency of the oscillator may be made by the PLL through a voltage control pin. This structure is known as a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO).
Desirable characteristics of the VCO are often wide frequency tuning range, low power dissipation, low phase noise or jitter, low sensitivity to the power supply voltage, stable output voltage, low harmonic content, small physical size, and a relatively simple design.
The frequency of the oscillator may be tuned with a device such as a voltage variable capacitor (varactor), that may be included as part of the capacitance of the tank. The oscillation is started by noise in the amplifier, or the LC tank being amplified by the amplifier, and filtered by the tank to cause an exponentially growing sinusoidal oscillation at the tank frequency.
Oscillation occurs when the amplifier characteristics (gain in units of transconductance−Iout/Vin), in consort with the tank impedance, produce a gain greater than unity. The amplitude of the oscillation is limited either by the amplifier running out of voltage swing room or current drive to the tank. In the interest of maintaining the lowest harmonic content, the least sensitivity to the power supply voltage, and the lowest possible power dissipation practical with on-chip inductor values, the amplitude is usually limited by the available drive current of the amplifier. It can be shown that the equivalent impedance of the tank varies with the square of the frequency. For a given drive current, the amplitude of the steady state sine wave varies with the square of the tuning range. In addition, the effective gain of the loop varies with the square of the tuning range. For wide tuning range VCOs, this causes numerous problems.
For example, if the gain (transconductance) of the amplifier is set high enough to ensure that the oscillation will build up at the lowest frequency, the power dissipation at higher frequencies is higher than desired. Also, the amplitude to frequency conversion process converts amplitude noise either from thermal sources or supply induced to phase noise and jitter.
In addition, the sensitivity of the frequency to the control voltage (Kvco) varies. The range of the variation of capacitance of the varactor is fixed by the design of the device. The range of control voltage that the capacitance variation occurs over is a function of the voltage swing of the sinusoid. This occurs because the varactor is a two terminal device referenced to the tank voltage. The voltage on the varactor is the difference between the control voltage and the instantaneous value of the tank voltage. It's effect on the frequency is the product of highly nonlinear control function of the varactor and the signal integrated over a cycle of the oscillation. Thus a larger swing of the sinusoid causes a smaller Kvco. This conventional design for the control device greatly complicates the design of the PLL due to its impact on the stability of the loop.

Voltage controlled oscillator amplitude control circuit


The linear motion rolling guide unit of this invention makes the total lengths of the retainer plates, which support the cylindrical rolls, longer than that of the casing so that the retainer plates can be inserted into the end caps for assembly. This simplifies the construction and reduces manufacturing costs. The retainer plates each comprise retaining portion formed with two or more rows of slots that support the cylindrical rolls in such a way as to allow the rotating motion of the rolls, a bent portion which is bent away from the track rail, and locking portions projecting from both ends of the bent portion. The locking portions fit into recesses in the end caps, the bent portion fits into grooves in the end caps, and the upper end portion of the retainer fits into grooves in the end caps.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a linear motion rolling guide unit which is applied to sliding portions and rotating portions of machining tools, various precision machining equipments and testing equipments.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional linear motion rolling guide units include a track rail formed with two or more raceway surfaces extending longitudinally on both side walls thereof; a slider having raceway surfaces facing those of the track rail and straddling the track rail; and a number of rolling elements that travel rolling between the facing raceway surfaces. In such rolling guide units, various kinds of retainers have been developed that support the rolling elements on a loaded area of the raceway surfaces. Many retainers consist of a flat plate member which is formed, when the rolling elements are balls, with a slit a slightly narrower than the ball diameter so that the balls can be supported by the slit.
The slider that slides on the track rail has a casing and end caps secured to the ends of the casing. It also has end seals attached to the ends of the end caps and an under seal attached to the underside of the slider. Further, the conventional linear motion rolling guide unit also has a number of rolls that travel rolling along the raceway formed between the raceway surface on the track rail and the raceway surface on the casing, and a retainer plate secured to the casing to hold the rolls in the casing.
Among such rolling guide units there is a four-raceway endless linear motion rolling guide unit. The four-raceway endless linear motion rolling guide unit will be explained by referring to FIG. 10, 11 and 12.
The four-raceway endless linear motion rolling guide unit has a track rail 1 almost I-shaped in cross section; a slider 2 mounted astride on the track rail 1 so that it is slidable on the rail; and a number of cylindrical rolls 3 rollably interpoped between the track rail 1 and the slider 2 so that the center axes of the adjacent rolls in the loaded area are parallel to each other. The track rail 1 is formed with recessed grooves 8 extending longitudinally on both side walls 18 thereof, the grooves 8 constituting the raceway surfaces 5, 6. Upper and lower edge portions of the grooves 8 of the track rail 1 are formed as inclined surfaces constituting an upper raceway surface 5 and a lower raceway surface 6. The slider 2 has a casing 4 which is formed with a recessed portion 10 so that the casing can straddle the track rail 1, and end caps 7 attached to both longitudinal ends of the casing 4. To seal the boundary between the track rail 1 and the slider 2 when the slider 2 slides on the track rail 1, the ends of the end caps 7 are each provided with an end seal 20 (FIG. 11) and the underside of the slider 2 with an under seal 22.
The recessed portion 10 of the casing 4 is formed with an upper raceway surface 11 and a lower raceway surface 12 at positions corresponding to the upper raceway surface 5 and the lower raceway surface 6 of the track rail 1. Between the upper raceway surface 11 and the lower raceway surface 12 of the casing 4 is formed an engagement groove 15, which engages with an engagement projection 16 formed on a retainer plate 9. The retainer plate 9 is loosely fitted in part in the recessed groove 8 of the track rail 1 and also fixed to the casing 4 by bolts 17.
In the above construction of the 4-raceway endless linear motion rolling guide unit, two raceways are formed on each side of the track rail 1 by the upper and lower raceway surfaces 5, 6 on the track rail 1 and the upper and lower raceway surfaces 11, 12 on the casing 4. Hence, a total of four raceways are formed on both sides of the track rail 1. In these loaded roller raceways, a number of cylindrical rolls 3 rotate in contact with the facing raceway surfaces 5 and 11 and with the facing raceway surfaces 6 and 12. The casing 4 is formed with return passages 13, 14, and the end caps 7 are formed with direction changing passages 32, 36 (FIG. 11) that connect the loaded roller raceways and the return passages 13, 14 . Hence, the loaded roller raceways, the direction changing passages 32, 36, and return passages 13, 14 form two endless circulating paths on one side. One of the endless circulating paths is, for example, disposed inside the other. That is, the two endless circulating paths have different lengths, with the shorter one placed inside the loop of the longer one in such attitudes that they cross but do not interfere with each other. The longer endless circulating path and the shorter endless circulating path have the same lengths of the loaded raceways. When the slider 2 slides on the track rail 1, a number of cylindrical rolls 3 circulate through the longer endless circulating path and another group of cylindrical rolls 3 circulate through the shorter endless circulating path. Though not shown, it is possible to form the two endless circulating paths in the same lengths by making them cross each other or to form them in upper and lower parallel paths.
Examples of such four-raceway endless linear motion rolling guide units include those of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 175564/1989 and Japanese Patent Application Nos. 106311/1990 and 166326/1991.
In the conventional four-raceway endless linear motion rolling guide unit, the mounting of the end caps 7 to the casing 4 requires precise positioning of the end caps 7 to correctly form two endless circulating paths with the loaded roller raceways, the direction changing passages 32, 36 and the return passages 13, 14 and thereby allow smooth rotating motion of the rolls 3 through the endless paths. It is also necessary to form an appropriate sliding surface at the boundary between the track rail 1 and the slider 2 to ensure a good seal.
When the retainer plate 9 is to be mounted to the casing 4, it is a common practice to pass the bolt 17 through a hole 23 in the casing 4 and screw it into a threaded hole in the retainer plate 9 to secure the retainer plate 9 to the casing 4. Further, the retainer plate 9 is required to have an engagement projection 16 that snugly fits in the engagement groove 15 formed in the casing 4. This in turn requires high machining precision not only for the retainer plate 9 but for the casing 4, raising the manufacturing cost.


A circuit for controlling precharge in a semiconductor memory apparatus includes a read clock driver configured to drive an internal clock signal and generate a read burst clock signal; a read precharge control unit configured to generate a read auto precharge signal in response to the read burst clock signal, a burst end signal, and a read write mode signal; a write clock driver configured to drive the internal clock signal and generate a write burst clock signal in response to the read write mode signal and a data input off signal; a write precharge control unit configured to generate a write auto precharge signal in response to the write burst clock signal, the burst end signal, a write latency signal, and a write address combination signal; and a precharge signal generation unit configured to combine the read and write auto precharge signals and generate an auto precharge signal.

1. Technical Field
Various aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to a semiconductor memory apparatus, and more particularly, to a circuit and a method for controlling precharge in a semiconductor memory apparatus.
2. Related Art
A semiconductor memory apparatus typically receives an external command and performs active and precharge operations. The semiconductor memory apparatus performs a read operation or a write operation in the active operation. In the read operation, data is outputted from memory cells, and in the write operation, data is inputted to memory cells. When one active operation is completed, charges remain in bit lines and data input/output lines on which data input and output operations have been performed. Only when these signal lines are precharged to a preset level, the next active operation can be properly performed. Therefore, the semiconductor memory apparatus has a precharge control circuit which precharges the respective signal lines between active intervals.
In a semiconductor memory apparatus, one precharge control circuit may be provided for each memory bank and is configured to generate auto precharge signals in precharge operations for read operations (hereafter referred to as "read precharge operation") and in precharge operations for write operations (hereafter referred to as "write precharge operation"). To achieve this, the precharge control circuit may have a read precharge control unit and a write precharge control unit. The precharge control circuit generates a burst clock signal using an internal clock signal and generates a read auto precharge signal through the read precharge control unit by using the burst clock signal and burst length information in a read operation. The precharge control circuit generates a write auto precharge signal through the write precharge control unit by using the burst clock signal, the burst length information, and write latency information in a write operation. The precharge control circuit may combine the read auto precharge signal, the write auto precharge signal, and bank information to generate an auto precharge signal, and transmits the generated auto precharge signal to a corresponding memory bank.
FIG. 1 shows waveforms of a read write mode signal rdwt which distinguishes a read operation and a write operation, a data input off signal dioff which indicates an interval during which data is not inputted, and a burst clock signal bclk. The read write mode signal rdwt indicates a read operation mode at a low level and a write operation mode at a high level. The data input off signal dioff is enabled to a high level during an interval in which data is not inputted to the memory bank, that is, in an all bank idle mode or a refresh mode. The burst clock signal bclk is a clock signal that is inputted to the read precharge control unit and the write precharge control unit.
During an interval in which the read write mode signal rdwt has a low level, that is, in the read operation mode, the write precharge control unit need not be activated. Also, the write precharge control unit need not be activated during an interval in which the data input off signal dioff is enabled since a data input operation is not actually performed during that time. As shown in the drawing, however, the burst clock signal bclk is implemented to constantly toggle and such constant toggling configuration makes the activated burst clock signal bclk resulting from such constant toggling implementation makes the write precharge control unit be activated as well.
In this way, the precharge control circuit of a related art semiconductor memory apparatus is configured such that the write precharge control unit is activated even under situations where a write operation mode is not performed, thereby increasing power consumption. In addition, since precharge control circuits are provided in a number corresponding to the number of memory banks, the increased power consumption lowers power utilization efficiency of the entire semiconductor memory apparatus. In order to reduce power consumption in a semiconductor memory apparatus, it is necessary to reduce meaningless current flow in the precharge control circuit. For this reason, a novel technical solution for reducing power consumption is needed in the art.

Circuit and method for controlling precharge in semiconductor memory apparatus