In one example in accordance with the present disclosure, a screen privacy device is described. The screen privacy device includes first bands of a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) compound. These first bands have first light-scattering properties. The screen privacy device also includes second bands of the PDLC compound, the second bands having second light-scattering properties. In this example, the second light-scattering properties are different than the first light-scattering properties and the first bands and the second bands alternate along a dimension of the screen privacy device.

Electronic devices include display screens to present information to a user. Examples of display screens include liquid crystal displays, light-emitting diode displays, video display units, and the like. Such devices are used in many areas of professional and everyday life throughout the world. These electronic devices and corresponding display screens are used to access and display all sorts of information.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements. The figures are not necessarily to scale, and the size of some parts may be exaggerated to more clearly illustrate the example shown. Moreover, the drawings provide examples and/or implementations consistent with the description: however, the description is not limited to the examples and/or implementations provided in the drawings.

Screen privacy devices with alternating polymer-dispersed liquid crystal bands

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A channel layer made of n-type GaAs doped with Si, a hole absorption layer made of InGaAs having a valance band higher in energy level than that of GaAs, and an undoped layer made of GaAs are formed sequentially on a semi-insulating substrate made of GaAs. A gate recess region having a pair of sidewall portions each consisting of an upper sidewall composed of the undoped layer and a lower sidewall composed of the hole absorption layer is formed on the channel region. The channel region is exposed in the gate recess region. An indent having an undercut configuration is formed in the lower sidewall of the gate recess region. A gate electrode is formed to extend over a stepped portion composed of the sidewall portion of the gate recess region closer to a drain electrode.

The present invention relates to a field-effect transistor. More particularly, it relates to a power field-effect transistor of which high voltage operation is required and to a manufacturing method therefor.
For the achievement of diversified means for communication and improved quality thereof, analog signal modulation techniques have been replaced by digital signal modulation techniques. In the field of radio communication, the use of higher frequencies has spread more rapidly than ever. With the recent RF device developments in communication represented by a mobile telephone, there has been greater demand for field-effect transistors using gallium arsenide (GaAs) due to their low-noise and low-distortion properties suitable for digital communication and their high-speed and high-frequency properties superior to those of silicon devices. In particular, a power FET used in a transmission amplifier has been widely utilized to take advantage of GaAs consuming low power.
An important issue for the power FET is higher voltage operation, and consequently higher breakdown voltage. The breakdown voltage of the power FET is determined by the concentration of an impurity in a region immediately below a gate electrode and the distance between the gate and drain electrodes. Naturally, the breakdown voltage is higher as the impurity concentration is lower or the distance between the gate and drain electrodes is larger. With a MESFET (Metal Semiconductor FET) in which a channel region is formed by implanting ions into a substrate and a gate electrode is formed directly on the channel region, high breakdown voltage cannot be achieved due to a high impurity concentration in the region immediately below the gate electrode. With a MESFET in which an undoped layer composed of an epitaxial film containing no impurity is formed immediately under a gate electrode, high breakdown voltage can be achieved due to a low impurity concentration in a region immediately below the gate electrode.
Referring to the drawings, a conventional MESFET comprising an undoped layer between a gate electrode and a channel layer will be described.
FIG. 7 shows a cross-sectional structure of the conventional MESFET using GaAs. As shown in the drawing, a channel layer 92 made of n-type GaAs doped with Si as an impurity and an undoped layer 93 made of GaAs or AlGaAs are formed sequentially on a semi-insulating substrate 91 made of GaAs. A pair of contact layers 94 made of n-type GaAs highly doped with Si as an impurity are formed on the undoped layer 93 to have a given gap therebetween. A source electrode 97 and a drain electrode 98 each made of deposited AuGe or the like are formed on the respective contact layers 94. A gate electrode 99 made of deposited Al or the like is formed on the undoped layer 93 between the source and drain electrodes 97 to make Schottky contact with the undoped layer 93.
Since the undoped layer 93 is provided between the gate electrode 99 and the channel layer 92 in the conventional MESFET, the absolute breakdown voltage thereof is improved. On the other hand, a maximum breakdown voltage for the drain electrode is not considerably improved due to an electric field localized to the region underlying the edge portion of the gate electrode 99 closer to the drain electrode 98. To achieve higher value, therefore, the distance between the gate and drain electrodes should be increased because the maximum breakdown voltage for the drain electrode is dependent only on the distance between the gate and drain electrodes. However, the increased distance between the gate and drain electrodes increases a resistance between the gate and drain electrodes as well as the on-resistance of the FET, which degrades the characteristics of the FET.
Under the circumstances under which the phenomenon of avalanche breakdown that determines the value of breakdown voltage occurs, numerous electron-hole pairs are generated in the region of the channel layer 92 underlying the edge portion of the gate electrode 99 closer to the drain electrode 98 and eventually cause a runaway effect in the FET. Thus, higher breakdown voltage is incompatible with improvements in other electric properties, while stable operation cannot be performed with voltage close to a maximum breakdown value.

Field-effect transistor and method of manufacturing the same

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate transmitting beacon symbols of a beacon message such that a sequence of symbols can satisfy a linear constraint over a field where the field elements can be identified with carriers. In this regard, a coding scheme can be applied to a beacon message; the coding scheme can produce a plurality of beacon symbols to transmit on given subcarriers. A receiving device of the beacon symbols can decode a beacon message by receiving less than the total number of symbols in a beacon message and determining the remaining symbol subcarriers based on the linear constraint. Thus, more efficient decoding of beacons is facilitated as well as resolving beacon ambiguity by figuring out which symbols satisfy linear constraints for the symbols, and resolving time and frequency shift by detecting an offset that would result in satisfaction of the linear constraint.

I. Field
The following description relates generally to wireless communications, and more particularly to encoding beacon symbols for more efficient decoding and resolution thereof in a wireless communication system.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as, for example, voice, data, and so on. Typical wireless communication systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power, . . . ). Examples of such multiple-access systems may include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, and the like.
Generally, wireless multiple-access communication systems may simultaneously support communication for multiple mobile devices. Each mobile device may communicate with one or more base stations via transmissions on forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from base stations to mobile devices, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from mobile devices to base stations. Further, communications between mobile devices and base stations may be established via single-input single-output (SISO) systems, multiple-input single-output (MISO) systems, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, and so forth.
MIMO systems commonly employ multiple (NT) transmit antennas and multiple (NR) receive antennas for data transmission. The antennae can relate to both base stations (e.g. access points) and mobile devices (e.g. access terminals) in one example, where the base station can provide communication channels to the mobile devices. Base stations can transmit beacon signals for interpretation by the mobile devices in an attempt to identify the base station and/or a transmission carrier or sector thereof. The beacon symbols are sent at a given time in a superframe thus giving way to beacon collision as the number of in-range sectors increases beyond a number of available subcarriers. Additionally, as more information is desired to transmit in a beacon and as the number of transmitting devices grows in a given area, mobile devices can become overloaded with beacon messages to decode and can often drop the messages it cannot handle.

Beacon coding in wireless communications systems


There is disclosed a resist underlayer film composition, the resist underlayer film composition contains a truxene compound having a substituted or an unsubstituted naphthol group as shown by the following general formula (1). There can be provided a resist underlayer film composition to form a resist underlayer film being capable of reducing reflectance and having high etching resistance, heat resistance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a resist underlayer film composition and a patterning process using this.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a recent trend to a higher integration and a higher processing speed of LSI whereby requiring miniaturization of a pattern rule, a lithography using photo-exposure which is currently used as a general-purpose technology is approaching to a limit of resolution inherent to wavelength of a light source.
As to the light source for a lithography used in resist patterning, photo-exposure using a light source of a g-beam (436 nm) or an i-beam (365 nm) of a mercury lamp has been used. As the means for further miniaturization, shift of the exposure light to a shorter wavelength is considered to be effective; and thus, a lithography using as the light source thereof, in place of the i-beam (365 nm), a KrF excimer laser (248 nm), which has a shorter wavelength than the i-beam, especially an ArF excimer laser (193 nm), or further an immersion method using an ArF excimer laser with NA of 1.35 have been used, whereby mass-production using a double patterning process with which the pattern pitch thereby obtained is doubled has been started.
On the other hand, it has been known from the past that a bilayer process is effective to form a pattern having a high aspect ratio on a non-planar substrate; and further, to develop the bilayer resist film by a general alkaline developer solution, a silicone polymer compound having a hydrophilic group such as a hydroxyl group and a carboxyl group is necessary.
As to a chemically amplified positive resist composition of a silicone type, a chemically amplified positive resist composition of a silicone type for a KrF excimer laser using a base resin having a part of a phenolic hydroxyl group of polyhydroxybenzyl silsesquioxane thereof, which is a stable alkaline-soluble silicone polymer, protected with a t-Boc group and being combined with an acid generator was proposed. As for an ArF excimer laser, a positive resist composition based on a silsesquioxane having a cyclohexyl carboxylic acid group thereof substituted with an acid-labile group is proposed. Further, as for an F2 laser, a positive resist composition based on a silsesquioxane having a hexafluoroisopropanol group as a soluble group is proposed. The polymer mentioned above includes in its main chain a polysilsesquioxane moiety including a ladder skeleton formed by polycondensation of a trialkoxy silane or a trihalogenated silane.
As to the resist base polymer having a silicon pendant on its side chain, a silicon-containing (meth)acrylate ester polymer is proposed.
As to the resist underlayer film of the bilayer process, it comprises a hydrocarbon compound capable of being etched with an oxygen gas; and in addition, because it becomes a mask when a substrate thereunder is etched, it needs to have a high etching resistance. In etching by an oxygen gas, it needs to be comprised of only a hydrocarbon, not containing a silicon atom. Further, in order to improve line-width controllability of a silicon-containing resist film in the upper layer and to reduce concavity and convexity of a pattern side wall and pattern fall due to a standing wave, it also needs to have a function as an bottom antirefrective coating; and thus, specifically reflectance from the resist underlayer film to the resist upper layer film needs to be controlled at the level of 1% or lower.
Here, calculation results of the reflectance of film thickness till the maximum of 500 nm are shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4. In FIG. 3, a substrate reflectance when the k-value of the resist underlayer film is fixed at 0.3 while the n-value is changed from 1.0 to 2.0 in the vertical axis and film thickness from 0 to 500 nm in the horizontal axis is shown, based on the assumption that wavelength of the exposure light is 193 nm, and the n-value reflectance and the k-value reflectance of the resist upper layer film are 1.74 and 0.02, respectively. When the resist underlayer film for the bilayer process having film thickness of 300 nm or more is assumed, an optimum value exists in the n-value range of 1.6 to 1.9 to have the reflectance of 1% or less, the range being the same level or a slightly higher as compared with the resist upper layer film.
In FIG. 4, reflectance when the n-value of the resist underlayer film is fixed at 1.5 while the k-value is changed from 0 to 0.8 is shown. When the resist underlayer film for the bilayer process having film thickness of 300 nm or more is assumed, reflectance of 1% or less is possible in the k-value range of 0.24 to 0.15. On the other hand, the optimum k-value of the bottom antirefrective coating for a monolayer resist used in a thin film of about 40 nm is 0.4 to 0.5, which is different from the optimum k-value of the resist underlayer film for the bilayer process used in the film thickness of 300 nm or more. In the resist underlayer film for the bilayer process, it is shown that a resist underlayer film having further lower k-value, namely a further transparent resist underlayer film is necessary.
However, etching resistance of an acrylate ester is lower as compared with a polyhydroxy styrene in substrate etching, and top of it, to lower the k-value, considerable amount of the acrylate ester must be copolymerized; and as a result, the resistance in substrate etching is substantially deteriorated. The etching resistance has an effect not only on etching rate but also on surface roughness after etching. Worsening of surface roughness after etching which is caused by copolymerization of the acrylate ester became a serious problem.
On the other hand, a trilayer process having a laminate comprising a resist upper layer film of a monolayer resist not containing a silicon, a silicon-containing resist intermediate film thereunder, and a resist underlayer film of an organic film thereunder is proposed. Generally, a monolayer resist has better resolution than a silicon-containing resist; and thus, in the trilayer process, the monolayer resist having high resolution can be used as an exposure imaging layer. As to the resist intermediate film, a spin-on-glass (SOG) film is used, whereby many SOG films are proposed.
Here, optimum optical constants of the underlayer film to suppress the substrate reflection in the trilayer process are different from those in the bilayer process. There is no difference between the bilayer process and the trilayer process in the object to suppress the substrate reflection as much as possible, specifically to the level of 1% or lower; but the antireflective effect is afforded to only the resist underlayer film in the bilayer process, while in the trilayer process the antireflective effect can be afforded to any one of the resist intermediate film and the resist underlayer film or both.
A material for a silicon-containing film afforded with the antireflective effect has been proposed. Generally, the antireflective effect is higher in the bottom antirefrective coating of a multilayer than in that of a monolayer; and thus, this is widely used as the bottom antirefrective coating of an optical material in industry. A high antireflective effect can be obtained by affording the antireflective effect to both the resist intermediate film and the resist underlayer film.
If a function of the bottom antirefrective coating can be afforded to the silicon-containing intermediate film in the trilayer process, it is not necessary to afford the highest effect as the bottom antirefrective coating to the resist underlayer film as in the case of the bilayer process. In the trilayer process, the resist underlayer film is required to have a high etching resistance during the substrate processing rather than to have the effect as the bottom antirefrective coating.
Because of this, a novolak resin containing many aromatic groups thereby having a high etching resistance has been used as the resist underlayer film for the trilayer process.
Here, the substrate reflectance is shown in FIG. 5 when the k-value of the resist intermediate film is changed.
When a low value of 0.2 or less is made as the k-value of the resist intermediate film and the film thickness is set appropriately, sufficient antireflective effect with the level of 1% or lower can be obtained.
Usually, to suppress the reflection to the level of 1% or lower in the bottom antirefrective coating with the film thickness of 100 nm or less, k-value needs to be 0.2 or more (see FIG. 4); but in the resist intermediate film of the trilayer process in which a certain degree of reflection can be suppressed by the resist underlayer film, the k-value of less than 0.2 becomes the optimum value.
Next, change of reflectance when both film thicknesses of the resist intermediate film and of the resist underlayer film are changed is shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 for the cases with the k-value of the resist underlayer film being 0.2 and 0.6.
The resist underlayer film having k-value of 0.2 in FIG. 6 assumes the optimum resist underlayer film for the bilayer process, while k-value of 0.6 of the resist underlayer film in FIG. 7 is nearly equal to the k-value of a novolak or a polyhydroxy styrene at 193 nm.
Film thickness of the resist underlayer film changes with topography of the substrate, but film thickness of the resist intermediate film hardly changes so that application thereof for coating may be effected with the predetermined film thickness.
Here, the resist underlayer film having a higher k-value (the case of 0.6) can suppress the reflection to the level of 1% or lower with a thinner film thickness. In the case that k-value of the resist underlayer film is 0.2 with film thickness thereof being 250 nm, film thickness of the resist intermediate film needs to be thicker to obtain reflectance of 1%. However, when film thickness of the resist intermediate film is increased as mentioned above, burden to the uppermost resist film during dry etching at the time of processing of the resist intermediate film is large; and thus, this is not desirable.
FIGS. 6 and FIG. 7, showing reflection in dry photo-exposure with NA of the exposure instrument's lens being 0.85, show that reflectance of 1% or less can be obtained regardless of k-value of the resist underlayer film by optimizing n-value, k-value, and film thickness of the resist intermediate film for the trilayer process. However, NA of the projection lens is beyond 1.0 due to an immersion lithography so that angle of an incident light not only to the resist but also to the bottom antirefrective coating under the resist becomes shallower. The bottom antirefrective coating suppresses reflection not only by absorption by the film itself but also by compensation action due to a light interference effect. A slant light has a smaller light interference effect thereby leading to larger reflection. Among the films in the trilayer process, a film playing an antireflection role by using the light interference is the resist intermediate film. The resist underlayer film is too thick to use the interference action so that there is no antireflective effect by compensation action due to the light interference effect. Reflection from the resist underlayer film surface needs to be suppressed; and for this, k-value of the resist underlayer film needs to be less than 0.6 and n-value thereof needs to be nearly equal to that of the upper resist intermediate film. Excessively high transparency due to excessively small k-value generates reflection from the substrate; and thus, optimum value of k-value is in the range of about 0.25 to about 0.48 in the case of NA of the immersion exposure being 1.3. As to the re-value, the target value thereof in both the intermediate film and the underlayer film is nearly equal to 1.7 of the resist n-value.
A benzene ring has strong absorption; and thus, k-value of a cresol novolak and a polyhydroxy styrene is more than 0.6. A naphthalene ring is one example among those having higher transparency at 193 nm and higher etching resistance than a benzene ring. For example, resist underlayer films having a naphthalene ring and an anthracene ring are proposed in the Patent literature 1. According to our measurement, k-values of the naphthol-cocondensed novolak resin and of the polyvinyl naphthalene resin are in the range of 0.3 to 0.4. In addition, n-values of the naphthol-cocondensed novolak resin and of the polyvinyl naphthalene resin at 193 nm are low; n-value of the naphthol-cocondensed novolak is 1.4, while that of the polyvinyl naphthalene resin is even as low as 1.2. For example, an acenaphthylene polymer shown in the Patent literature 2 and the Patent literature 3 has n-value of 1.5 and k-value of 0.4 at 193 nm, which are nearly equal to the target value. An underlayer film having a high n-value and a low k-value thereby having low transparency, while having a high etching resistance, is wanted.
A resist underlayer film composition having a bisnaphthol group is proposed in the Patent literature 4. This has both n-value and k-value nearly equal to the target values whereby having characteristic of excellent etching resistance.
In the case that there is a level difference on the founding substrate to be processed, this different level needs to be made flattened by the resist underlayer film. By flattening the resist underlayer film, variance of film thickness of the resist intermediate film formed thereon and of the photoresist film, which is the resist upper layer film, can be suppressed so that a focus margin in lithography can be made larger.
However, in the amorphous carbon underlayer film formed by a CVD method using such a raw material as a methane gas, an ethane gas, and an acetylene gas, to fill up the different level so as to make it flat is difficult. On the other hand, formation of the resist underlayer film by a spin coating method has a merit that concavity and convexity of the substrate can be filled up. Further, in order to improve a fill-up property of an application-type material, a method in which a novolak having a low molecular weight and a wide molecular weight distribution and a method in which a low-molecular weight compound having a low-melting point is blended to a base polymer are proposed.
It is well known that a novolak resin is cured by crosslinking intermolecularly only by heating. Here, a crosslinking mechanism, in which a phenoxy radical is generated in the hydroxyl group of a cresol novolak by heating and this radical is then migrated to the methylene connecting group in the novolak resin by resonance whereby these methylene groups are crosslinked therebetween by radical coupling, is reported. In the P Patent literature 5, a patterning process using the underlayer film whose carbon density is increased by a dehydrogenation reaction or a dehydration condensation reaction of a polycyclic aromatic compound such as a polyarylene, a naphthol novolak, and a hydroxyl anthracene by heating is reported.
A glass-like carbon film is formed by heating at temperature of 800° C. or higher (nonpatent literature 1). However, in view of the effect to device damage and wafer deformation, upper temperature limit of heating in lithography wafer process is 600° C. or lower, or preferably 500° C. or lower.
As the process line width narrows further, a phenomenon that the resist underlayer film twists or bends during the time of etching of the substrate to be processed by using the resist underlayer film as a mask is reported (nonpatent literature 2). A phenomenon that a hydrogen atom of the resist underlayer film is displaced with a fluorine atom during the time of substrate etching by a fluorocarbon gas is shown. It may be supposed that surface of the resist underlayer film is changed to a sort of Teflon (registered trade name) so that the underlayer film swells due to increase of its volume and the glass transition temperature thereof is lowered to cause twisting of a finer pattern. In the foregoing reference literature, it is shown that twisting can be avoided by using a resist underlayer film having low hydrogen content. The amorphous carbon film formed by a CVD method is very effective to avoid twisting because hydrogen atoms in the film can be made extremely small. However, because the CVD method is poor in a fill-up property of the level difference as mentioned before, and in addition, in view of cost of the CVD instrument and the footprint thereof, introduction thereof is sometimes difficult. If the twisting problem can be solved by the underlayer film composition which can form a film by coating, especially by a spin coating method, it has a large merit in simplification of the process and the instrument thereof.
A study of a multilayer process to form a hard mask on the resist underlayer film by a CVD method is underway. In a silicon hard mask (silicon oxide film, silicon nitride film, and silicon oxynitride film) too, an inorganic hard mask formed by a CVD method and so on has higher etching resistance than a hard mask formed by a spin coating method. In addition, there is a case that a substrate to be processed is of a low dielectric film thereby polluting the photoresist (poisoning); in this case, the CVD film has a higher effect as a shielding film to avoid the poisoning.
In view of the above, a study is underway as to the process in which the resist underlayer film is formed by spin coating to make it flat and then an inorganic hard mask intermediate film as the resist intermediate film is formed thereon by a CVD method. When the inorganic hard mask intermediate film is formed by a CVD method, heating of the substrate at the lowest temperature of 300° C., or usually at 400° C., is considered to be necessary especially to form a nitride film. Accordingly, when the resist underlayer film is formed by a spin coating method, heat resistance of 400° C. is necessary; however, not only a usual cresol novolak and naphthol novolak but also a highly heat-resistant fluorene bisphenol cannot withstand the heating at 400° C., whereby resulting in large film loss after heating. In view of the above, a resist underlayer film which can withstand high temperature heating during formation of the inorganic hard mask intermediate film by a CVD method is wanted.
Because of problems of film loss and resin deterioration after heating caused by poor heat resistance as mentioned above, in the past, heat treatment of the resist underlayer film composition has been carried out usually at 300° C. or lower (preferably in the range of 80 to 300° C.). However, problems of film loss after treatment by a solvent and of pattern twist during the time of substrate etching have not been solved yet.
As discussed above, a material to form a resist underlayer film having optimum n-value and k-value as the bottom antirefrective coating, an excellent fill-up property, excellent etching resistance and solvent resistance, and heat resistance to withstand high temperature during formation of the inorganic hard mask intermediate film by a CVD method and so forth, while not twisting during the time of substrate etching is wanted; and wanted also is a patterning process for it.
A positive resist having a truxene structure is proposed (Patent literature 6). A resist based on a truxene having a hydroxyl group thereof substituted with an acid-labile group is introduced as an EB resist and an EUV resist having an excellent etching resistance. Among underlayer-forming materials having a plurality of etching resistant bisphenols, a truxene bisphenol compound is shown (Patent literature 7); and thus, a truxene compound is receiving an attention.    [Patent literature 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-14474.    [Patent literature 2] Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-40293    [Patent literature 3] Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-214777    [Patent literature 4] Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-199653    [Patent literature 5] Japanese Patent No. 3504247    [Patent literature 6] Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-76850    [Patent literature 7] Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-285075    [nonpatent literature 1] Glass Carbon Bull. Chem. Soc. JPN., 41(12), 3023-3024 (1968)    [nonpatent literature 2] Proc. of Symp. Dry Process (2005), p 11.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Resist underlayer film composition and patterning process using the same


Novel compounds are described. The compounds generally comprise an acidic group, a basic group, a substituted amino or N-acyl and a group having an optionally hydroxylated alkane moiety. Pharmaceutical compositions comprising the inhibitors of the invention are also described. Methods of inhibiting neuraminidase in samples suspected of containing neuraminidase are also described. Antigenic materials, polymers, antibodies, conjugates of the compounds of the invention with labels, and assay methods for detecting neuraminidase activity are also described.

1. Field of the Invention
Neuraminidase (also known as sialidase, acylneuraminyl hydrolase, and EC 188.8.131.52) is an enzyme common among animals and a number of microorganisms. It is a glycohydrolase that cleaves terminal alpha-ketosidically linked sialic acids from glycoproteins, glycolipids and oligiosaccharides. Many of the microorganisms containing neuraminidase are pathogenic to man and other animals including fowl, horses, swine and seals. Organisms having N-acetylneuraminidases include bacteria such as Vibrio cholerae, C. perfringens and Streptococcus sp. and viruses such as influenza virus, and parainfluenza virus.
Influenza neuraminidase has been implicated in the pathogenicity of influenza viruses. It is thought to help the elution of newly synthesized virons from infected cells and assist in the movement of the virus (through its hydrolase activity) through the mucus of the respiratory tract.


An illumination system of a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus comprises a light modulator which includes a modulator substrate and an array of mirrors that are supported by the modulator substrate. At least some adjacent mirrors partly overlap. The light modulator further comprises a plurality of actuators that are supported by the modulator substrate and are configured to tilt the mirrors individually.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a light modulator comprising an array of mirrors and more specifically to an illumination system of a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus comprising such a light modulator.
2. Description of Related Art
Microlithography (also referred to as photolithography or simply lithography) is a technology for the fabrication of integrated circuits, liquid crystal displays and other microstructured devices. The process of microlithography, in conjunction with the process of etching, is used to pattern features in thin film stacks that have been formed on a substrate, for example a silicon wafer. At each layer of the fabrication, the wafer is first coated with a photoresist which is a material that is sensitive to light of a certain wavelength. Next, the wafer with the photoresist on top is exposed to projection light through a mask in a projection exposure apparatus. The mask contains a circuit pattern to be imaged onto the photoresist. After exposure the photoresist is developed to produce an image that corresponds to the circuit pattern contained in the mask. Then an etch process transfers the circuit pattern into the thin film stacks on the wafer. Finally, the photoresist is removed. Repetition of this process with different masks results in a multi-layered microstructured component.
A projection exposure apparatus typically includes an illumination system that illuminates a field on the mask that may have the shape of a rectangular or curved slit, for example. The apparatus further comprises a mask stage for aligning the mask, a projection objective (sometimes also referred to as 'the lens') that images the illuminated field on the mask onto the photoresist, and a wafer alignment stage for aligning the wafer coated with the photoresist.
One of the essential aims in the development of projection exposure apparatus is to be able to lithographically define structures with smaller and smaller dimensions on the wafer. Small structures lead to a high integration density, which generally has a favorable effect on the performance of the microstructured components produced with the aid of such apparatus.
Various approaches have been pursued in the past to achieve this aim. One approach has been to reduce the wavelength of the projection light used to image the circuit pattern onto the photoresist. This exploits that fact that the minimum size of the features that can be lithographically defined is approximately proportional to the wavelength of the projection light. Therefore the manufacturers of such apparatus strive to use projection light having shorter and shorter wavelengths. The shortest wavelengths currently used are 248 nm, 193 nm and 157 nm and thus lie in the deep (DUV) or vacuum (VUV) ultraviolet spectral range. The next generation of commercially available apparatus will use projection light having an even shorter wavelength of about 13.5 nm which is in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectral range. An EUV apparatus contains mirrors instead of lenses because the latter absorb nearly all EUV light.
Another approach is to improve the illumination of the mask. Ideally, the illumination system of a projection exposure apparatus illuminates each point of the field illuminated on the mask with projection light having a well defined spatial and angular irradiance distribution. The term angular irradiance distribution describes how the total light energy of a light bundle, which converges towards a particular point on the mask, is distributed among the various directions of the rays that constitute the light bundle.
The angular irradiance distribution of the projection light impinging on the mask is usually adapted to the kind of pattern to be imaged onto the photoresist. For example, relatively large sized features may require a different angular irradiance distribution than small sized features. The most commonly used angular irradiance distributions are referred to as conventional, annular, dipole and quadrupole illumination settings. These terms refer to the irradiance distribution in a pupil surface of the illumination system. With an annular illumination setting, for example, only an annular region is illuminated in the pupil surface. Thus there is only a small range of angles present in the angular irradiance distribution of the projection light, and all light rays impinge obliquely with similar angles onto the mask.
Different mechanisms are known in the art to modify the angular irradiance distribution of the projection light in the mask plane so as to achieve the desired illumination setting. For achieving maximum flexibility in producing different angular irradiance distribution in the mask plane, it has been proposed to use mirror arrays that determine the irradiance distribution in the pupil surface.
In EP 1 262 836 A1 the mirror array is realized as a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) comprising more than 1000 microscopic mirrors. Each of the mirrors can be tilted about two orthogonal tilt axes. Thus radiation incident on such a mirror device can be reflected into almost any desired direction of a hemisphere. A condenser lens arranged between the mirror array and a pupil surface translates the reflection angles produced by the mirrors into locations in the pupil surface. This illumination system makes it possible to illuminate the pupil surface with a plurality of spots, wherein each spot is associated with one particular mirror and is freely movable across the pupil surface by tilting this mirror.
Similar illumination systems using mirror arrays are known from US 2006/0087634 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 7,061,582 B2 and WO 2005/026843 A2.
In one embodiment described in the aforementioned EP 1 262 836 A1 concentration optics comprising a plurality of parabolic reflective surfaces that divide the impinging projection light beam into a plurality of sub-beams that are directed individually towards the mirrors. This ensures that no projection light propagates through gaps that are formed between adjacent mirrors. Thus not only light losses are reduced, but this also ensures that the sensitive electronic components and actuators arranged underneath the mirrors are not heated up or damaged by projection light propagating through the gaps. However, such a concentrating optics adds to the complexity and costs of the illumination system.
US 2006/0209386 A1 describes a digital micromirror device (DMD) comprising anti-reflective coatings to reduce the effects of stray radiation on the performance of the device. The anti-reflective coating is arranged directly on top of a CMOS substrate of the DMD which is typically reflective for visible light.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,167,297 B2 discloses an array of micromirrors having a non-rectangular circumferential shape so as to minimize light diffraction.

Light modulator and illumination system of a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus


Disclosed is a digital radio-frequency transmitter, which includes a digital logic mixer, a digital power amplifier and an antenna, wherein an output terminal of the digital logic mixer is connected with an input terminal of the digital power amplifier; an output terminal of the digital power amplifier is connected to the antenna; the digital logic mixer is configured to perform logic mixing on baseband data and a radio-frequency local oscillator clock signal which are input into the digital radio-frequency transmitter to generate radio-frequency data; the digital power amplifier is configured to convert the radio-frequency data into an analog power signal; and the antenna is configured to transmit the analog power signal out. According to the digital radio-frequency transmitter of the present application, the circuit layout area and the circuit operation consumption can be effectively reduced.

Wireless radio-frequency communication has been applied more and more extensively in daily life. The implementation of radio-frequency protocols such as wifi, bluetooth, ultra-wideband (UWB), etc., used in different applications, depends on a receiving and transmitting chip for radio frequency signals. As shown in FIG. 1, the traditional wireless radio-frequency transmitter chip architecture includes a digital-to-analog conversion circuit (DAC) 101, a low-pass filter (LPF) 102, a mixer 103, a power amplifier 104, an antenna 105, etc.; and the respective modules are generally implemented by an analog circuit. The circuit structure is complex, a desired layout area is large, and the power consumption during operation is relatively large. In addition, the noise generated by the analog circuit and the leakage of a radio-frequency clock at an input terminal of the mixer to the output of the mixer will affect the quality of a transmission signal output by a radio-frequency transmitter.
The disclosure of the above background art is only used to assist in understanding the concept and the technical solution of the present application, and does not necessarily belong to the prior art of the present application. In the absence of a clear evidence indicating that the above content has been disclosed on the filing date of the present application, the above background art should not be used to evaluate the novelty and inventiveness of the present application.

Shenzhen Giant Microelectronics Company Limited


A vehicle dynamics control system for an automotive vehicle with a parallel split layout of brake circuits comprises a tandem master cylinder, a hydraulic pump fluidly disposed in one brake circuit, a selector valve for selecting a brake-fluid pressure to be fed to a first brake line from between the fluid pressure generated from the pump and the master-cylinder pressure, a plurality of pressure control valves for regulating a fluid pressure in each individual wheel-brake cylinder, vehicle sensors for detecting a vehicle's cornering behavior, and a control unit being responsive to the sensor's input information for controlling the respective control valves associated with the front wheel-brake cylinders. The control unit operates to supply the fluid pressure generated from the pump to an inner front wheel-brake cylinder in the vehicle understeer on turns. The control unit also operates to supply the fluid pressure generated from the pump to an outer front wheel-brake cylinder in the vehicle oversteer on turns.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle dynamics control system, and specifically to a system which is capable of automatically controlling or compensating for the vehicle's cornering behavior or vehicle's turning behavior or steer characteristics such as understeer or oversteer on turns by automatically properly controlling or regulating the hydraulic brake pressure applied to the individual wheel-brake cylinders.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is generally known, an automotive vehicle has front-left, front-right, rear-left and rear-right wheel-brake cylinders respectively connected to a master cylinder where hydraulic pressure is developed by depression of a brake pedal. In recent years, the hydraulic brake system has been split into two independent sections, so that, if one brake section fails owing to damage or brake-fluid leakage, the other section will provide braking. Such a hydraulic brake system is called a "dual brake system". A dual-brake system master cylinder has two pistons, set in tandem. The brake pedal (the foot pedal) actuates the two master-cylinder pistons and forces brake fluid along respective piping systems to individual wheel-brake cylinders (operating cylinders). Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive (FR) vehicles, generally use a so-called parallel split layout of brake circuits, in which one part of the tandem master cylinder output is connected via a first brake pipeline system to front-left and front-right wheel-brake cylinders and the other part is connected via a second brake pipeline system to rear-left and rear-right wheel-brake cylinders. In automobiles with such a parallel split layout of brake circuits, when the brake pedal is depressed by the driver and thus primary and secondary master-cylinder pistons are pushed, the brake-fluid pressure generated from one part of the master cylinder output and the brake-fluid pressure generated from the other part are supplied respectively via the first and second brake pipeline systems to front and rear wheel-brake cylinders, with the result that the negative wheel torque (resulting in a braking force) is applied to the individual wheels. As is generally known, when a vehicle is rounding a curve, owing to road surface conditions (so-called low-.mu. or high-.mu. roads), changes in the vehicle velocity, throttle-on or throttle-off conditions, or the like, the vehicle may often exhibit undesired steer characteristics, namely oversteer tendencies in which the actual radius of turn is less than the intended radius of turn or understeer tendencies in which the actual radius of turn is greater than the intended radius of turn. Oversteer is generally known as an under-response to steering input as by generation of excessive slip angle on rear road wheels, whereas understeer is generally known as an over-response to steering input as by generation of excessive slip angle on front road wheels. The driver must have a great deal of skill to avoid undesired understeer or oversteer by adjusting increase or decrease in steer angle only by way of the driver's braking or steering action. For the reasons set forth above, in recent years, there have been developed and proposed various active steer-characteristics control systems in which the vehicle's cornering behavior is automatically controlled or regulated by adjusting the brake-fluid pressure applied to each individual wheel-brake cylinder by means of an electronic control unit (ECU) or an electronic control module (ECM). One such vehicle's cornering behavior controller (simply a vehicle controller) has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 8-133039. In the vehicle controller disclosed in the Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 8-133039, when the vehicle experiences understeer during turns, the vehicle controller operates to reduce the brake-fluid pressure in the wheel-brake cylinder of the front road wheel rotating on the outside and simultaneously to build up the brake-fluid pressure in the wheel-brake cylinder of the rear road wheel rotating on the inside, by way of an automatic control, thereby avoiding understeer. On the contrary, when the vehicle experiences oversteer on turns, the vehicle controller operates to build up the brake-fluid pressure in the wheel-brake cylinder of the front road wheel rotating on the outside and at the same time to reduce the brake-fluid pressure in the wheel-brake cylinder of the rear road wheel rotating on the inside, by way of an automatic control, thereby avoiding oversteer. As previously discussed, the Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 8-133039 teaches the increase in brake-fluid pressure in the rear wheel-brake cylinder on the inside to avoid understeer during turns. However, on turns, the car weight is usually transferred to the outside front wheel. Thus, the magnitude of wheel load acting on the inner rear wheel tends to become the minimum value during turns, as compared with the other road wheels. For the reasons discussed above, even if, on turns, the brake-fluid pressure in the rear wheel-brake cylinder on the inside is built up by means of the conventional vehicle controller, it may be impossible to carry out adequate braking effect, and thus it may be difficult to effectively avoid understeer tendencies owing to load transfer to the outer front wheel during turns. Additionally, in front-engine, rear-wheel-drive (FR) vehicles, a so-called parallel split layout of brake circuits is generally used. Assuming that the system disclosed in the previously-noted Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 8-133039 is applied to a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicle with a parallel-split layout of brake circuits, the front-section brake pipeline system and the rear-section brake pipeline system must be both disconnected from the dual master cylinder once and in lieu thereof the two brake pipeline systems must be connected to the respective hydraulic pumps serving as an external fluid-pressure source, while the automatic control is executed with regard to both the outer front road wheel and the diagonally-opposed inner rear road wheel under the understeer or oversteer state condition on turns. Therefore, while the automatic control is actually executed to avoid understeer or oversteer on turns, the master-cylinder pressure cannot be directed to the respective wheel-brake cylinder, and thus the vehicle cannot be decelerated according to the driver's wishes (or the magnitude of the driver's foot pedal depression).


A method for configuring a large hybrid memory subsystem having a large cache size in a computing system where one or more performance metrics of the computing system are expressed as an explicit function of configuration parameters of the memory subsystem and workload parameters of the memory subsystem. The computing system hosts applications that utilize the memory subsystem, and the performance metrics cover the use of the memory subsystem by the applications. A performance goal containing values for the performance metric is identified for the computing system. These values for the performance metrics are used in the explicit function of performance metrics, configuration parameters and workload parameters to calculate values for the configuration parameters that achieve the identified performance goal. The calculated values of the configuration parameters are implemented in the memory subsystem.

As processor performance continues to outgrow memory capacity and bandwidth, system and application performance has become constrained by the memory subsystem. As the processor community has moved to parallelism to stay on the performance curve, memory capacity and bandwidth are key to keeping the parallel processors and their cores operating efficiently. Promising new technologies, e.g., Phase Change Memory and Flash, have emerged that add capacity at a cheaper cost than conventional DRAM. These new technologies, however, result in added latency and exhibit poor endurance. Systems leveraging these new memory technologies in the memory subsystem will require innovative memory system architectures to gain the benefit of added capacity while mitigating the costs of latency and potential device wear-out.
These sophisticated, high capacity memory systems require long-term application knowledge to effectively evaluate the trade-offs in architecture design decisions. One common method for obtaining the desired application knowledge uses system trace data from a running application to determine read and write patterns of the application. However, these traces can be prohibitively large for even the smallest time scale and often impact the running of the application itself. Furthermore, to understand how an application would leverage a large memory system, the system needs to be monitored or traced for a long time as the application runs. Some designers use modeling and simulation with synthetic memory access patterns to evaluate design decisions. These methods run the risk of not being as accurate as needed.
Traditionally, the architecture design or memory configuration was fixed for a given system. There have not been sufficient capabilities to merit the complexities likely introduced by dynamically reconfiguring the operation of the memory. However, with recent developments enabling more diverse memory subsystems that integrate memory components of different nature into the memory subsystem in combination with more diverse behavior of application workloads, different architectures and memory configurations are now viewed as beneficial. These different architectures include larger memory caches. Technology trends are enabling last level caches that are significantly larger than those that currently exist.
The performance of the memory subsystem directly affects the performance of applications utilizing the memory subsystem. Memory subsystem performance depends on workload parameters and configuration parameters, i.e., architecture, of the memory subsystem. The memory subsystem configuration parameters include e.g., cache size, memory size, line size, block size and associativity. Identifying and quantifying this dependence using performance models helps in understanding the performance of memory subsystem and application performance dependence on memory subsystem configuration parameters. This understanding of dependence and performance provides guidelines for setting memory subsystem configuration parameters for a target application or set of applications.
Traditionally, cache effectiveness has been modeled through trace-driven simulation tools. In addition to the shortcomings of trace-driven simulations as described above, these tools are not up to the task of simulating very large caches. Typical cache sizes modeled using trace driven simulations are of the order of MBytes. Because of the limited length of available traces, the tools cannot capture behavior across long enough periods of time. Apart from the limitations of trace-driven simulations, the performance models that connect memory subsystem performance to configuration parameters are quite limited. These performance models lack an explicit functional characterization and only make available some observations from experiments. Extrapolation from empirical data based on these observations produces a variety of problems including limited extrapolation, usually with respect to single configuration parameter, the requirement for a large number of runs with several different configuration parameters, difficulty in capturing the inter-dependence of different performance metrics, difficulty in capturing fine grained sensitivity of performance metrics to changes in configuration parameters and difficulty in characterizing the robustness of performance to configuration parameter settings.

Method and apparatus for optimal cache sizing and configuration for large memory systems


A dosage form is disclosed comprising an antiemetic and antinausea drug for treating vomiting and nausea.

The emesis-nausea complex is one of the most frequent symptoms of disease. The emesis-nausea complex is induced often in a patient by chemotherapeutic agents such as cisplatin, dacarbazine, dactinomycin, mechlorethamine, and cyclophosphamide, by radiation therapy, in gastrointestinal carcinoma, during pregnancy, and as a result of certain types of motion in hypersensitive persons.
Drugs, such as antiemetics-antinauseants, are known in Conn's Current Therapy, pages 5 to 9, (1986), for treating emesis and nausea; however, there are serious disadvantages associated with their use. For example, these drug frequently are poorly soluble in aqueous fluids and accordingly they do not lend themselves for formulation into a drug delivery device. That is, the medical-dispensing art presently lacks a dosage form that can administer these drugs in a known amount per unit time for a predetermined length of time to produce the desired therapeutic effect.
In light of the above presentation, it will be appreciated by those versed in the dispensing art to which this invention pertains, that a pressing need exists for a dosage form that can deliver the valuable antiemetic-antinausea drugs to a patient in need of antiemetic-antinausea therapy. The pressing need exists also for an oral dosage form that can deliver these drugs at a controlled rate in a constant dose per unit time over a prolonged period of time for its beneficial effects. It will be appreciated further by those versed in the dispensing art that such a novel and unique dosage form that can administer an antiemetic-antinausea drug that is difficult to deliver, in a rate controlled dose over time, and simultaneously provide anti(emesis-nausea) therapy, would represent an advancement and a valuable contribution to the drug dispensing art.


Systems and methods to detect and warn proximate entities of interest are described herein. An example signal generation system for a vehicle capable of different modes of movement includes a detector to determine at least one property of vehicle movement and an output representative of that at least one property and a selectively variable signal generator includes an input to receive the at least one output representative of the at least one property of vehicle movement and, responsively, generates a selected signal based on the received output. In some examples, a detector on a pedestrian detects the selected signal from the signal generator and, responsively, provides an output indicative of a vehicle in proximity to the pedestrian. In some examples, a trajectory vector is generated for at least two entities of interest based on at least one characteristic of movement of each entity. Each entity's trajectory vector is expanded and each entity's expanded trajectory vector is analyzed for overlap with the other entity's expanded trajectory vector to assess the possibility of a collision between them.

There are many environments where enhancing worker safety is desirable. Examples of such environments include loading dock areas, warehouses, distribution centers, and similar facilities. In addition to such places usually being crowded, noisy and full of activity and other distractions, the juxtaposition of people and vehicles (fork trucks, pallet jacks, etc.) greatly increases the potential dangers. People and heavy, moving vehicles do not consistently interact this way in other environments (e.g. on the street with defined lanes/roads for vehicles, sidewalks and crosswalks for pedestrians, stop signs, stoplights, etc.), but it is currently the status quo in the enumerated environments. As a result, accidents in which individuals are struck by forktrucks, and similar and related accidents, are all too common.
Several factors can increase the likelihood of such accidents occurring. One factor is the crowded, busy, noisy, distracting environment referred to above. The presence of such distractions can prevent an endangered individual from realizing and reacting to a dangerous situation. Ironically, one source of such distractions are the myriad lights, strobes, horns and/or buzzers intended to warn against such dangers. Another factor is the presence of blind spots. An individual walking down an aisle in such a facility is not able to see potential dangers around the corner at the end of the aisle, or at a mid-aisle break. The way forktrucks are used to load and unload trucks parked at a loading dock also create blind spots for a driver of the forktruck. Typically, a fork truck is driven forward into a trailer, and then driven in reverse to depart the trailer. While swiveling seats and/or fork truck mounted mirrors are used in attempts to minimize this problem, these attempted solutions are not completely satisfactory. Indeed, an individual that spends any significant amount of time in such a facility typically adopts the practice of stopping and looking into each trailer parked at a loading dock as he traverses from dock to dock—for fear of being struck by an inattentive or blind-spotted backing fork truck.
The current mechanisms for preventing or minimizing the severity of these kinds of accidents generally fall into two categories. The first category is personal safety items—typically some sort of apparel. Common examples include hard hats, safety glasses, steel-toed shoes or boots and safety vests. Most of these apparel items are intended to minimize the effect of such an accident. A hard hat, for example, can cushion but not prevent a blow to the head. Some safety vests are intended to help in preventing accidents, as they can be made of highly reflective or brightly-colored fluorescent material to increase the visibility of the wearer so they can be seen by a fork truck driver or other source of hazard. In general, these safety items are limited in their effectiveness in that they are passive. On the other hand, they do provide the benefit of being worn by and traveling with the person being protected.
Besides such personal safety or apparel items, the other category of devices intended to prevent or minimize these kinds of industrial accidents are warning systems. Typically, some kind of warning/signaling device (a red light, a flashing light, a strobe light, a horn, a bell, a buzzer, etc.) is activated in response to the detection or sensing of a dangerous condition. Such sensor-responsive signaling may include a light being illuminated when a piece of equipment is turned on. Other signaling might be activated by the detection or sensing of a dangerous operational condition of a piece of equipment, such as the signaling of movement of a piece of equipment representing a hazard (e.g. a backup beeper for forktrucks). Another example loading dock safety device known as a vehicle restraint is intended to engage the Rear Impact Guard (RIG) of a trailer parked and being un/loaded at the loading dock to prevent the dangerous condition of the trailer departing from the dock while being un/loaded. In such loading dock safety devices, a sensing mechanism is employed in an attempt to determine if the RIG had indeed been captured by the restraint. If so, a light inside the dock is illuminated green to indicate that the trailer is restrained and can be safely un/loaded. If, however, the sensor does not detect capture of the RIG, and inside red warning light is illuminated and/or a horn sounds to signal that it is unsafe to un/load the trailer. Other forms of vehicle restraints are designed to engage other structure on the vehicle such as the wheels, the chassis, the bogey rail, etc.
Systems also exist to attempt to warn either pedestrians or proximate fork trucks of imminent collisions between the two. While a variety of sensing technologies have been coupled with warning signaling, such systems do not fully or effectively address the situation. For example, the warnings they provide may suffer from a lack of specificity. This lack of specificity may be in regard to what the hazard is. A given facility can have so many lights, horns and sirens that it may be difficult for an endangered individual to properly associate a given warning with a given threat. The lack of specificity may also relate to who is in danger. If, for example, a sensing system is intended to detect when a person has entered into a large, designated area, several people in close proximity to the area may hear or see a warning and may all be under apprehension of danger based on that warning signal, even though only one of them has actually breached the area. Given this example, a more likely result is that all of the individuals will ignore the warning as it is unable to specify who is in danger. The lack of specificity may also apply to the location, direction, or distance (in either physical distance or temporal distance) of the impending hazard. Relatedly, the timing of the hazard may be imprecisely conveyed by the warning used—with the endangered individual not knowing if there is a generalized threat that may occur at any time, or if a given threatened harm is imminent. This unduly limits the opportunity for the threatened individual to take appropriate avoiding or remedial action relative to the threat. Additionally, an imprecise and/or constant apprehension of danger may result in the loss of productivity of the affected personnel.

Methods and apparatus to detect and warn proximate entities of interest


The invention concerns a piston arrangement having a piston with a piston head and a piston skirt and a connecting rod, which is connected with the piston via a ball joint arrangement comprising a ball, the ball being held in the piston by means of a safety element.

Such a piston arrangement is known from U.S. Pat. No. 2,451,216. Here, the piston head has an axially inwards extending projection with a spherical recess, in which the ball is supported. In an alternative embodiment, the spherical design is formed by a sheet metal element, which is inserted in the piston. Such a piston must be usable for a domestic refrigerator.
The connection between a piston and a connecting rod by means of a ball joint is also known from DE 25 10 957 A1. Here, the ball is held in the piston by a ball cup, which is made of a plastic material, which is sprayed or moulded onto the ball head.
JP 01-141274 A shows a further ball joint connection in a piston of a compressor, in which the ball is located in a recess in the piston head. The ball is held by a spring, which has passage openings for the entry of lubricating oil into the bearing surfaces.
JP 63-029075 A2 shows a similar embodiment, in which the piston head is made to be relatively thick. The piston head has a spherical recess, in which the ball is supported. The ball is held in the piston by a spring, which engages behind a circumferential projection.
When using such a piston arrangement in compressors, which are used for refrigeration units, it is endeavoured to keep the costs of manufacturing small.
It is an object of the present invention to improve upon or overcome the problems associated with the prior art.


A small and inexpensive planar dielectric line that can be easily connected to electronic parts, such as ICs, and has smaller conduction losses. The planar dielectric line includes a dielectric substrate having first and second surfaces opposedly facing each other. A first slot having a predetermined width is interposed between first and second electrodes on the first surface of the dielectric substrate. A second slot having the same width as the first slot is disposed between third and fourth electrodes on the second surface of the dielectric substrate. The first and second slots opposedly face each other. The permittivity and the thickness of the dielectric substrate are determined so that a planar electromagnetic wave can propagate in a propagation region of the substrate interposed between the first and second slots while being substantially totally reflected on the first surface of the substrate adjacent to the first slot and the second surface of the substrate near the second slot. When the permittivity and the thickness of the dielectric substrate are determined to meet the following conditions, 80% or more of the total electric field energy is confined within a region which is small enough to substantially eliminate interference with an adjacent line:. (relative permittivity of dielectric substrate).gtoreq.10 (thickness "t" of dielectric substrate).gtoreq.0.3 mm. When the relative permittivity is at least 18, 90% or more of the total electric field energy is confined.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a planar dielectric line for use in a microwave or a millimeter-wave band. The invention also relates to an integrated circuit using the dielectric line.
2. Description of the Related Art
Microwaves and millimeter-waves, which are electromagnetic waves in a very wide frequency band ranging from 300 MHz to 300 GHz, are used in various types of radar, terrestrial long-distance telephone transmission, television broadcasting relays, satellite communications, etc. Such waves are also coming into a wide use in the field of mobile communications. Meanwhile, research is being actively carried out in the development of MMICs, and progress is being made in the downsizing of equipment utilizing electromagnetic waves in a band including microwaves and millimeter-waves. Accordingly, the microwaves and millimeter-waves are increasingly coming into a wider range of uses.
Hitherto, the following type of transmission lines have been largely used in this band range of microwave and millimeter-waves: transmission lines, such as waveguides, coaxial lines, microstrip lines, coplanar lines, slotted lines, and so on. These types of lines are constructed by forming predetermined electrodes on a dielectric substrate. Waveguides are for use in portions where conduction losses should be inhibited to a low level. Coaxial lines are widely used as connecting cables between equipment. Also, microstrip lines, slotted lines, etc. are largely employed for the connection between electronic parts, such as ICs, since they are easily connected thereto.
A slotted line is, as shown in FIG. 19, constructed in such a manner that electrodes 421a and 421b are disposed across a predetermined spacing on the top surface of a dielectric substrate 423 having a predetermined thickness h400. This achieves the formation of a slot 424 having a predetermined width W400 sandwiched between the electrodes 421a and 421b. In the slotted line constructed as described above, an electromagnetic wave forms a mode having an electric field E400 in parallel to the width of the slot 424 and a magnetic field H400 in parallel to the longitudinal direction of the slot 424, thereby propagating in the longitudinal direction of the slot 424.
Further, in addition to the above-described transmission lines, nonradiative dielectric waveguides (NRD) are used. An NRD is constructed in such a manner that a rectangular-prism dielectric is interposed between conductive plates and has a low level of conduction losses.
Waveguides, which are of large size, cannot however achieve downsizing and weight reduction and are difficult to connect with electronic parts, such as ICs. On the other hand, in coaxial lines, an unnecessary high-order mode is generated at a frequency higher than a specific frequency determined by the cross sectional configuration of the coaxial lines so as to increase conduction losses, thus rendering the lines inoperable. In order to avoid this problem, it is necessary to reduce the diameter of the coaxial line to approximately 1 mm when the line is used at a frequency in a millimeter-wave band range of as high as 60 GHz, which makes it difficult to manufacture. Microstrip lines, coplanar lines and slotted lines exhibit extremely large conduction losses. Additionally, NRD lines are difficult to connect to electronic parts, such as ICs.

Planar dielectric line and integrated circuit using the same line


A non-volatile memory device includes a plurality of bit lines; a plurality of page buffers corresponding to the bit lines, respectively, and configured to each store a write data; and a control circuit configured to control at least one page buffer of the plurality of page buffers to store the write data of a first logic level and control other ones of the plurality of page buffers to store the write data of a second logic level, wherein the control circuit is further configured to select the at least one page buffer based on an address inputted to the control circuit. Since write data of diverse patterns may be generated within a non-volatile memory device by using a portion of the bits of the address, a test operation of the non-volatile memory device may be performed within a short time.

1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a non-volatile memory device.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the integration degree of a non-volatile memory device, such as a flash memory device, increases, additional costs and time are spent in testing a non-volatile memory device.
An exemplary operation of programming a test data in a memory cell (not shown) during a test operation of a non-volatile memory device is performed as follows. For illustration purposes, it is assumed that a non-volatile memory device includes N page buffers and N bit lines.
Each of the N page buffers receives and stores a test data that is inputted from an external device. The test data stored in the respective N page buffers are loaded onto N bit lines, respectively, and programmed in N memory cells that are coupled with the N bit lines. When a test operation is performed in the general program operation, the test data is inputted from an external device and thus, the test operation takes additional time.
To reduce the test time, the process of receiving a test data from an external device may be obviated, by generating a test data internally and storing the test data in a page buffer. This method will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional non-volatile memory device. The non-volatile memory device may include N bit lines BL1 to BLN, N page buffers 10_1 to 10_N, and N data controllers 20_1 to 20_N.
Each of the N page buffers 10_1 to 10_N stores a write data, which means a data to be programmed in a memory cell (not shown).
Each of the N data controllers 20_1 to 20_N corresponds to the N page buffers 10_1 to 10_N, respectively. When a reset signal RST is activated, each of the N data controllers 20_1 to 20_N controls the corresponding page buffer to store the write data of a logic high level. When a set signal SET is activated, each of the N data controllers 20_1 to 20_N controls the corresponding page buffer to store the write data of a logic low level.
During the test operation of the non-volatile memory device illustrated in FIG. 1, an operation of generating write data of a pattern and programming the write data in memory cells (not shown) is performed as follows.
The reset signal RST is enabled to a logic high level in the initial duration of the test operation. Each of the N data controllers 20_1 to 20_N controls the corresponding page buffer to store the write data of a logic high level in response to the reset signal RST of a logic high level. As a result, a high level write data is loaded on the latch node QC of each of the N page buffers 10_1 to 10_N. The write data loaded on the latch node QC of each of the N page buffers 10_1 to 10_N is applied to a memory cell (not shown) through a bit line. According to an example, a data of '11111111 . . . ' is programmed in N memory cells (not shown).
Meanwhile, when the set signal SET is enabled to a logic high level in the initial duration of the test operation, a write data of a logic low level is loaded on the latch node QC of each of the N page buffers 10_1 to 10_N. According to an example, a data of '00000000. . . ' is programmed in N memory cells (not shown).
However, when the test operation is performed as described above, the pattern of the test data that are programmed in memory cells (not shown) is limited to '11111111. . . ' or '00000000 . . . '.

Non-volatile memory device for storing write data having different logic levels


A support platform for enabling a worker to service an oil well next to a wellhead having a valve tree includes:                a) a platform having an upper floor, a lower floor and a cellar in between the floors;        b) a platform having a periphery, a central opening and radially extending beams;        c) a plurality of walls attached to the periphery of the platform, said beams connecting to said walls below said upper floor;        d) a drain that enables fluid to drain from the upper floor to the lower floor;        e) a coupler that spans between the floors for enabling a connection to be made between the platform and valve tree; and        f) a liquid guard or other provision that disallows the escape of fluid from a floor via the central opening.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the servicing of oil and gas wells. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved work platform that can be removably fitted to the wellhead area of an oil and gas well.
2. General Background of the Invention
The wellhead area of an oil and gas well typically provides a valve tree or "Christmas" tree. This wellhead valve tree is an assembly of pipes, valves and/or fittings. It is typically positioned at the location of the entry of the well into the earth or seabed.
Many types of remedial actions are carried out by positioning workers at or near a wellhead area or valve tree. Thus, there exists a need for a platform that can be positioned next to or upon a valve tree for supporting one or more workers that are engaged in remedial activity.
The following U.S. Patents are incorporated herein by reference:
TABLEPat. No.TITLEISSUE DATE4,085,796Well Tubing Handling SystemApr. 25, 19784,085,798Method for Investigating the Front Apr. 25, 1978Profile During Flooding of Formations4,515,220Apparatus and Method for Rotating CoilMay 7, 1985Tubing in a Well4,842,446Offshore Support Structure Methods andJun. 27, 1989Apparatus5,094,568Offshore Support Structure Method andMar. 10, 1992Apparatus5,181,799Offshore Support Structure ApparatusJan. 26, 19935,203,410Blowout Safety System for Snubbing Apr. 20, 1993Equipment5,295,557Utility Construction Safety and Work Mar. 22, 1994Platform5,498,107Apparatus and Method for Installing Mar. 12, 1996Cabled Guyed Caissons5,954,305Adaptable Antenna Mounting Platform Sep. 21, 1999for Fixed Securement to an Elongated Mast Pole6,226,955Method and Apparatus for Handling May 8, 2001Building Materials and Implements6,681,894Portable Well Head Work PlatformJan. 27, 20046,779,614System and Method for Transferring Aug. 24, 2004Pipe6,830,127Pipeline Construction Safety PlatformDec. 14, 20046,848,539Work Platform for Blowout Preventer Feb. 1, 2005Stacks2005/0129464Motion Compensation System and Jun. 16, 2005Method

Containment work platform with protruding connection


The present invention relates to the discovery of a new bacteria of the genus Alteromonas which has been found to attract oyster larvae by the production of compounds involved in melanin synthesis. More specifically, the present invention contemplates a method for inducing the settlement and metamorphosis of Crassostrea virginica larvae by induction with certain metabolic substances produced by the present bacteria and its altered variants. Furthermore, the present invention is directed to other and derivative metabolic products which can be employed for their desired utility and application. In accordance with the present invention, it has been discovered that ammonia (NH.sub.3) initiates settlement and metamorphosis of the oyster larvae in the same manner as the natural phenomena.

The present invention relates to the discovery of a new bacterium which has been found to attract oyster larvae by the production of compounds involved in metabolism and melanin synthesis. More specifically, the present invention contemplates a method for inducing the settlement and metamorphosis of Crassostrea virginica larvae by induction with certain metabolic substances produced by the present bacterium and its mutagenically altered variants. Furthermore, the present invention is directed to other and derivative metabolic products which can be employed for their desired utility and application.
The formation of pioneer microbial communities on submerged surfaces appears to be beneficial to subsequent attachment and development of many invertebrate larvae. A number of investigations have established a general pattern of periphytic succession for colonization of clean surfaces immersed in seawater. In the initial phase after possible coating by organic matter, bacteria attach to such a surface and begin to grow, forming microcolonies within several hours. Subsequently, diatoms, fungi, protozoans, micro-algae and other microorganisms attach to the surface, forming what has been termed the primary slime layer. This primary microbial colonization appears to be a prerequisite for the final stage of succession in which microorganisms, viz., invertebrates, attach and grow on the surface. Although most surfaces are eventually colonized, the rapidity and extent of the process.
In both the natural environment and in oyster mariculture operations, the setting process, whereby planktonic oyster larvae alight on an oyster shell or plastic sheet and undergo metamorphosis to form attached oyster spat, is crucial to successful oyster development. It is also known that the larvae of Ostrea edulis, the European oyster, prefer setting on surfaces covered with a film of bacteria and diatoms. Natural periphytic microbial populations are, therefore, significant in successful oyster setting. The same situation is likely to be true of oyster mariculture, since a rich source of bacterial flora has been associated with oyster larvae and larval food sources in hatcheries. In some cases, bacteria have also been implicated in the death of oyster larvae. Since the presence of microorganisms significantly affects oyster development, improved knowledge of the biology of these microorganisms and particularly an understanding of their beneficial and/or deleterious effects on developing oysters, will further improve oyster setting and development in both natural and artificial settings.
Oyster larvae display three characteristic patterns toward organic compounds and microorganisms, i.e., positive, inactive and negative chemotaxis. In one particular study, a marine pseudomonad was attractive to larvae while a marine yeast elicited no response. It has also been suggested that an alga, Isochrysis, may produce extracellular oyster attractant. Conversely, it is known that oyster larvae do not set preferentially on surfaces to which a marine isolate, Hyphomonas neptunium, is affixed. It is believed that H. neptunium does not antagonize settlement, but rather that it competitively establishes itself on surfaces and excludes bacterial species which would be beneficial to oyster settlement.
The question, however, of which of the periphytic microorganisms and which of their products specifically attract or promote the setting and subsequent development of oyster larvae has not been answered heretofore. Free swimming larvae, shortly after spawning, seek a suitable place to settle and attach themselves. A number of environmental conditions are involved in settlement, salinity and nutritional availability are probably the most important. But once larvae are satisfied with these initial conditions, they appear to respond to a biochemical cue to settle and attach themselves. That biochemical cue is released by a pigmented bacterium which adheres strongly to surfaces such as oyster shells and which is the subject of this invention.

Induction of settlement and metamorphosis in crassostrea virginica by melanin-synthesizing bacteria and ammonia, and metabolic products of said bacteria


A tire pressure and temperature measurement system (100) includes an oxygen sensing subsystem (140) that detects the oxygen concentration in the tire and presents an alarm condition (152) indicative of a potentially hazardous inflation gas mixture. The. oxygen sensing subsystem is mounted on or within the tire and may be implemented standalone or as a part of the temperature and pressure system. A xe2x80x9cgo no-goxe2x80x9d indication is telemetered to the truck operator or to a remote measurement system (80) for monitoring and initiation of corrective action.

This invention relates to pressure, temperature, and oxygen measurements and more particularly to systems for measuring truck and mining tire inflation gas oxygen concentrations, temperatures, and pressures and for predicting inflation pressure changes required to achieve targeted operating pressures.
Giant off-the-road tires, particularly those employed by earth moving and mining ore vehicles, are subjected to very heavy loads that make them susceptible to premature failure unless proper inflation gas pressures are maintained. Such tires are even subject to dangerous explosive failure if the inflation gas includes an oxygen concentration exceeding certain limits. For this reason, many mine truck operators are now using dry nitrogen as an inflation gas. Even so, trapped gases, air leaks, hydrocarbon out-gassing, and osmosis can cause a dangerous oxygen buildup inside the tires.
FIG. 1 represents a mining ore truck 10, which can weigh up to 550 tons when loaded and carries its heavy loads on only two axles. A front axle 12 has two single tires 14 mounted thereon and a rear axle 16 has two dual tires 18 (only one xe2x80x9cdualxe2x80x9d shown) mounted thereon, resulting in loads of about 50 tons per tire. A typical tire is inflated through a conventional valve stem 20 (only two shown) to an operating pressure ranging from about 85 to 185 pounds per square inch of gauge pressure (xe2x80x9cpsigxe2x80x9d) and, when operating, may have an operating temperature ranging from about 100 to 255 degrees Fahrenheit (xe2x80x9cxc2x0 F.xe2x80x9d). If the tire pressure is too high, a failure mode (explosion) may occur. However, if the tire pressure is too low, the excess heat generated may cause separation of some of the 18 to 22 tire layers after as few as 300 hours of operation, whereas such tires normally have at least a 1,000 hour operating life. Giant off-the-road tires cost about $25,000 to $30,000 each, and vehicle downtime costs at least about $500 per hour. Clearly, maintaining proper tire operating pressure is an economic and safety imperative.
Unfortunately, conventional tire pressure measurement methods require allowing the tires to cool for about eight hours before an accurate tire pressure measurement and inflation pressure adjustment can be made. The resulting costly downtime often leads to infrequent tire pressure measurements. To make matters worse, tires inflated by conventional air compressors often add water vapor and compression heating of the inflation air, causing errors between the measured and operating air pressures in the tires. Of course, conventional compressed air also includes oxygen. Moreover, off-the-road vehicle operators often add fluids to tires to inhibit rim rust and scale that otherwise makes tire removal difficult. Also, new tires are stored outdoors where they can collect rainwater, some of which inevitably remains in the tire when it is installed on a vehicle. Unfortunately, such fluids have vapor pressures that contribute to pressure measurement errors. Tires operating under these conditions are referred to as xe2x80x9cwetxe2x80x9d tires. Finally, many off-the-road vehicles operate in cold climates but are maintained in heated facilities, further complicating the tire inflation pressure problem. Unfortunately, conventional gas law equations do not provide solutions to these problems.
There are previously known apparatus and methods for solving some of the above-described problems. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,608 for PRESSURE AND TEMPERATURE MONITORING VEHICLE TIRE PROBE WITH RIM ANCHOR MOUNTING describes a tire rim mounted sensor probe and conductor terminal apparatus for sensing the air pressure and temperature inside a tire. When the vehicle stops, a conventional electronic measuring device is electrically connected to the conductor terminal to convert the sensor probe data into pressure and temperature measurements. Unfortunately, the sensor probe is separately mounted through a hole in the rim, a disadvantage that weakens the rim and requires a relatively expensive field retrofit to every rim. If a new rim is required, it similarly has to be retrofitted, adding to the downtime of vehicle. Of course, a tire cool down period may be required to obtain usable readings.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,540 for TIRE MONITORING APPARATUS AND METHOD describes a tire pressure and temperature sensing apparatus that employs radio telemetry to continuously monitor tire pressure and temperature while the vehicle is a operating. However, as in the above-described patent, the pressure and temperature sensing probe is separately mounted to the rim, which has many of the above-described disadvantages. Moreover, every vehicle must carry a telemeter receiver by which the vehicle driver monitors the tire operating pressures and temperatures.
There are many other patents describing tire pressure and temperature monitoring apparatuses and methods. Some describe sensors embedded in the tires, others describe wheel hub mounted slip rings for conducting sensor data to a vehicle data processor, and still others describe complex systems for inflating and deflating tires while the vehicle is operating. However, there is no known prior method or apparatus that measures oxygen concentration or accounts for pressure measurement errors caused by air compressors, water vapor pressure, and temperature changes.
What is needed, therefore, is an accurate tire pressure, temperature, and oxygen concentration measuring system that does not require a cool down time, does not require expensive retrofitting or weakening of tire rims, accounts for sources of measurement errors, is readily transferred among tires and vehicles, and is usable on a wide variety of tire and wheel combinations.
An object of this invention is, therefore, to provide an apparatus and a method for measuring tire pressure and predicting inflation pressure changes that account for many sources of measurement errors without requiring a tire cool down period.
Another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus and a method for measuring tire pressure and temperature without resorting to expensive retrofitting or weakening of tire rims.
A further object of this invention is to provide a tire pressure and temperature measuring apparatus and a method that is readily transferable among tires and vehicles and is usable with a wide variety of tire and rim combinations.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus and a method for measuring oxygen concentration in the inflation gas of a tire.
A first embodiment of a tire pressure and temperature measurement system of this invention adapts a Y-block to an existing valve stem. One branch of the Y-block accepts a conventional valve core and the other branch of the Y-block accepts a flexible tubular temperature sensor that leads xe2x80x9cdown the throatxe2x80x9d of the existing valve stem and into the interior of the tire. Making a measurement entails stopping the vehicle and, without a cool down period, attaching a pressure sensor to the conventional valve stem and attaching a hand-held processor to the pressure and temperature sensors. The hand-held processor reads the current tire pressure and temperature and executes a program that accounts for measured and target temperatures, vapor pressures, and gas compressibility and indicates how much pressure to add or subtract to the tire to achieve an accurate final tire operating pressure.
A second embodiment of the tire pressure and temperature measurement system employs a modified Y-block that adapts to an existing rim, angle adaptor, and extension hose of an inside dual tire. The modified Y-block receives an elongated temperature sensor with sufficient flexibility for feeding down the throat of the extension hose, bending around the corner of the angle adaptor, and protruding into the interior of the tire. Making a measurement is carried out as in the first embodiment.
A third embodiment of the tire pressure and temperature measurement system encloses pressure and temperature sensors and a battery powered telemetry transmitter inside a generally oblate protective housing, all of which is simply placed loosely within the interior of a tire when it is mounted to a rim. The telemetry transmitter battery capacity is sufficient for one year of continuous operation, which exceeds the expected tire life. In this embodiment, a telemetry receiver receives pressure and temperature data transmitted from inside the tire and conveys the data to a processor that executes the program described in the first embodiment. The telemetry receiver can be tuned to receive data from multiple tires while the vehicle is moving. Alternatively, the telemetry receiver can be adapted to receive data only from a closely adjacent tire.
A fourth embodiment of the tire pressure and temperature measurement system encloses the pressure and temperature sensors and the battery powered telemetry transmitter inside a protective U-shaped channel housing that is magnetically attached to the rim inside the tire. As in the third embodiment, the telemetry receiver receives pressure and temperature data transmitted from inside the tire and conveys the data to a processor that executes the program described in the first embodiment. The telemetry receiver can be tuned to receive data from multiple tires while the vehicle is moving. Alternatively, the telemetry receiver can be adapted to receive data only from a closely adjacent tire.
A fifth embodiment of this invention includes an oxygen sensing subsystem that detects the presence of oxygen in the tire interior and presents an alarm condition indicative of a potentially hazardous oxygen concentration. The oxygen sensing subsystem is mounted on or within the tire is preferably implemented as a part of the above described temperature and pressure monitoring embodiments. The oxygen sensing subsystem includes an oxygen sensor that generates an analog voltage corresponding to an oxygen concentration in the tire. A sensor amplifier conditions the oxygen sensor signal for presentation to a comparator that is coupled to a controller in the tire pressure and temperature measuring system. To conserve battery power, oxygen measurements are sampled on demand and/or pulsed on, sampled, and then turned off for a predetermined time period.
Additional objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments thereof that proceed with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Tire inflation gas temperature, pressure, and oxygen monitoring system