A method for etching semiconductor wafers in an etching apparatus including an etching bath filled with an etchant and capable of setting liquid temperature and process sequence, comprises selecting a predetermined etching program suitable for etching of the semiconductor wafer, counting the number of the semiconductor wafers to be charged in the etching bath before the etching, calculating a temperature drop of the etchant based on the counted number, setting the liquid temperature of the etchant to an initial temperature B obtained by adding the temperature drop of the etchant to a predetermined etching temperature A, charging the semiconductor wafers in the etching bath at a predetermined timing to etch the semiconductor wafers, and setting the liquid temperature at the predetermined etching temperature A, immediately before or after the liquid temperature reaches the initial temperature B.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an etching method for semiconductor wafers, particularly a method for use in etching a semiconductor substrate on which a fine pattern exists, and to an etching apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a semiconductor device is manufactured, a silicon nitride film (SiN film) is variously used in a step of forming semiconductor devices such as an integrated circuit in a semiconductor device forming region of a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to as a wafer). For example, the film is used as a mask material for use in forming a deep trench to form capacitors in a device forming region of the wafer including a silicon semiconductor substrate. The film is also used as an insulating film which protects gate electrode materials such as polysilicon in patterning a gate electrode, and as a protective film which protects the back surface of the silicon semiconductor substrate from corrosion, damage, and the like during various processes.
Acids such as phosphoric acid are usually used to etch/remove the silicon nitride film (SiN film) deposited on a semiconductor substrate. When phosphoric acid is used, H3PO4 is charged as an etchant at about 140 to 170° C. in an etching bath constituting an etching apparatus, the wafer is charged in the bath to perform etching. Thereafter, pure water cleaning is carried out, and drying is then carried out to end the etching.
A wet etching method and apparatus using phosphoric acid are disclosed, for example, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 11-168081. In the etching apparatus of this document, a plurality of silicon wafers are charged in the etching bath filled with an etchant formed of an H3PO4 solution. The etching bath is connected to a discharge pipe and supply pipe, and these pipes are connected to a circulation system of the etchant, including a pump, filter, line heater, and the like.
The etchant in the etching bath is circulated in the circulation system by the pump, and impurities are removed by the filter. Furthermore, the etchant is heated to the predetermined temperature by the line hater, and returned as clean etchant again to the etching bath.
The solvent of the H3PO4 solution, that is, water easily evaporates. Therefore, pure water is appropriately replenished to keep the etchant at a constant temperature of 155° C. or more. Furthermore, in this apparatus, the top surface of the etching bath is opened in an initial stage of heating, droplets are prevented from dropping into the etchant due to condensation, and this prevents the droplets from being boiled or the temperature of the etchant from dropping. Therefore, the etchant heating can be quickly completed.
On the other hand, a method of managing a concentration of a phosphoric acid etchant is described, for example, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 9-129588, and an example of a phosphoric acid concentration management system by measurement of electric conductivity is described.
Moreover, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-23952, in order to prevent silicon from being dissolved from the semiconductor wafer and to prevent the etching rate from fluctuating, a method is disclosed in which a predetermined amount of etchant is discharged, when a silicon concentration reaches a certain value, and a new etchant is replenished to control the etching rate. In this technique, the etchant is maintained in a boiled state at a predetermined temperature to keep the phosphoric acid concentration in the etchant substantially constant.
Furthermore, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 11-145107, a technique is disclosed in which the etchant is constantly kept in the boiled state, and the pure water is replenished so as to hold the etchant at the predetermined temperature.
Additionally, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 7-230981, a method is described in which a change of the concentration of the phosphoric acid etchant is sensed by a fluctuation in the number of strokes of a stroke pump, and an aqueous phosphoric acid solution is replenished to manage the concentration of the etchant. At this time, the solution is kept at 150° C. by a temperature adjustment unit.
Moreover, it is known that the phosphoric acid etching for the silicon nitride film (SiN) is sensitive at the temperature of H3PO4. Therefore, when the wafer is charged in the etching bath, the temperature of the H3PO4 etchant fluctuates. Furthermore, the fluctuation width also changes with the number of wafers per batch to be charged. Therefore, there is a problem that the SiN etching amount fluctuates, when a certain treatment is performed for an etching time.
Therefore, there has been a demand for realization of an etching method in which the etching is possible with an even etching amount of the SiN film on the wafer and with high precision among batches or in the batch, and an etching apparatus for carrying out the method.

Etching method and apparatus for semiconductor wafers


An improved method of segmenting medical images includes aspects of live wire and active shape models to determine the most likely segmentation given a shape distribution that satisfies boundary location constrains on an item of interest. The method includes a supervised learning portion to train and learn new types of shape instances and a segmentation portion to use the learned model to segment new target images containing instances of the shape. The segmentation portion includes an automated search for an appropriate shape and deformation of the shape to establish a best oriented boundary for the object of interest on a medical image.

Image segmentation is one of the most challenging problems faced by many medical imaging applications despite four decades of advance in the field. Segmentation methods should produce accurate, repeatable, and efficient segmentations of medical images which will lead to more effective visualization, manipulation and analysis of anatomic structures (objects). Segmentation consists of two tightly coupled tasks; recognition and delineation. Recognition is the process of identifying roughly the whereabouts of a particular object of interest and distinguishing it from other objects present in the image. Delineation is the process of specifying the precise spatial extent of the object.
Existing methods to delineate the boundary of objects suffer from several limitations. Purely model-based segmentation methods require that a template shape be placed quite close to the object to segment. Other methods have insufficient accuracy in detecting the border of the object or require many manually placed landmarks. One well known segmentation method is the Active Shape Models (ASM) method.
ASM-based approaches have been used in several segmentation tasks in medical imaging. However, in practice, ASM methods still face four main difficulties: (1) Since the segmentation results are parametric descriptions of the identified shape, they often poorly match the perceptually identifiable boundary in the image. Contour segments between landmarks still need to be determined. These inaccuracies pose problems for the subsequent analysis of medical images. (2) In order to model the shape reasonably well, the ASM needs many landmark points and training samples to represent the shape and its variation. This is costly and time consuming in the training phase. In some cases, sufficient training samples are not available. (3) Due to the local search strategy, ASM segmentation results are sensitive to the search region around each landmark point. If the region is too small, the ASM may not reach the true boundary. If the region is too large, the landmark is misplaced on a similar looking boundary, and part of the contour may be attracted towards a neighboring structure. (4) Also due to the local nature of the search strategy, the ASM approaches are sensitive to inaccurate initialization and may not converge to a correct segmentation. (5) More importantly, by nature, model based matching has to rely on matching (blurred) statistical information in the model to the given image. Therefore the specific information present in the given image cannot be made use of in a specific manner as in purely image based strategies. This affects how best landmark positions can be determined on a given image, and thus has consequences also on items (1)-(4) above. It is desired to realize an approach that can improve on the ASM methods by improving the accuracy of a segmentation process while reducing the total amount of human interaction. The present invention addresses these concerns and others.

Segmentation method using an oriented active shape model

The Trustees Of The University Of Pennsylvania


A controller (130) reads out a voltage value correlated with the ambient temperature of a battery (200) measured by a temperature measurer (110) from a storage device (120), so that a charger (140) charges the battery (200) at the voltage value read out by the controller (130).

In recent years, there has been a growing concern about environmental problems in a variety of fields.
In the field of electrical power supply, among others, power supply by means of, for example, PV (Photo Voltanic) power generation and by the utilization of a secondary battery used in an electric vehicle (EV: Electric Vehicle) or a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV: Hybrid EV) has become a focus of attention. As such a secondary battery, a lithium-ion secondary battery is considered promising. The second battery is expected to replace of lead storage batteries and the like as the battery grows popular in future.
On the other hand, the service life of a lithium secondary battery is dependent on the ambient temperature thereof at the time of charging.
Hence, a study is being made of a technique extending battery life by controlling the ambient temperature of a battery by using a peltiert element (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).


A method includes calculating a mean of a plurality of pixels of a motion window, calculating a pixel amount of pixels similar to a center pixel, calculating a variance of the pixels, determining whether a difference between the center pixel and the mean is greater than a first predetermined value, determining whether the pixel amount similar to the center pixel is greater than a second predetermined value if the difference between the center pixel and the mean is not greater than the first predetermined value, determining whether the variance is smaller than a threshold value if the pixel amount similar to the center pixel is not greater than the second predetermined value, and filtering the center pixel according to a result of determining whether the variance is smaller than the threshold value. Finally, temporal weighted mean filters involving motion estimation are used for motion compensation in images after spatial filtering.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video noise reduction method, and more particularly, to a video noise reduction method using adaptive spatial and motion-compensation temporal filters.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In an era of multimedia communication, image data is playing an important role. But no images are absolutely perfect no matter how good a camera is, since images are interfered with by the presence of noise. The principal sources of noise in digital images arise during image acquisition (digitization) and/or transmission. The performance of imaging sensors is affected by a variety of factors, such as environmental conditions during image acquisition, and by the quality of the sensing elements themselves. For instance, in acquiring images with a CCD camera, luminosity and sensor temperature are major factors affecting the amount of noise in the generated images. Images are corrupted during transmission principally due to interference in channels used for transmission. For example, an image transmitted by a wireless network might be disturbed as a result of lightning or other atmospheric charged particles. In addition, due to a sensing element with one pixel consisting of a transistor, instability of the transistor will always cause the sensing element a permanent or transient failure. That is so-called transient noise and permanent noise in image sequences.
Image sequences are often corrupted by noise in different production ways, such as a bad reception of television pictures. In the recent years, a number of nonlinear techniques for video processing have been proposed, which are known as superior to linear techniques. These algorithms are necessary, since the presence of noise in an image sequence degrades both its visual quality, as well as, the effectiveness of subsequent processing tasks. For example, the coding efficiency obtained for a particular image sequence is decreased by the presence of noise. This entropy of the image sequence is increased obviously by the noise. Therefore, filtering methods for reducing noise are desired not only to improve the visual quality, but also to increase the performance of subsequent processing tasks such as coding, analysis, or interpretation.
As for discussing temporal noises, noises are divided into three categories which including permanent noise, temporary transient noise, and temporary intermediate noise. Their features are described as follows:
1. Permanent Noise:
This kind of noise arose from the failures of the image sensors. It is generally caused by flaws in the manufacture of transistors, so the permanent noise always appears at the same locations in images.
2. Temporal Transient Noise:
The characteristics of this kind of noise are that pixels are interfered by noise in some frames but are not interfered by noise in some frames. The main reason is due to interferences by external environment or due to instability of sensing elements.
3. Temporal Intermediate Noise:
The characteristics of this kind of noise are that pixels are interfered by noise in the current frame, but are not interfered by noise in the next frame. Then pixels are interfered by noise in the next following frames again. This action is run alternately. The main reason is caused by external environment factors.
Generally, temporal video noise reduction filters are divided into four primary kinds:
1. Non-Motion Compensated Spatiotemporal Filtering:
Many of the non-motion compensated spatiotemporal filtering approaches used in the present day are developed from well-known 2D filtering techniques.
2. Motion Compensated Spatiotemporal Filtering:
To take full advantage of the temporal correlations that exist in an image sequence, explicit motion estimation and compensation have been used in a separate step or simultaneously with the filtering of the image sequence. From a filter design point of view, the addition of motion compensation to a non-motion compensated filter does not result in a new filter. However, it does improve the temporal correlation, which improves performance of the filter.
3. Non-Motion Compensated Temporal Filtering:
Due to the lack of robust motion estimators, early attempts at temporally filtering image sequences were restricted to simple frame average techniques. Although the temporal correlations are considered in this method, but the possibility of object motions are not considered. Therefore, there are residual images or fuzzy phenomenon appeared when an object moves.
4. Motion Compensated Temporal Filtering:
The method can avoid problems associated with non-motion compensated temporal filtering.
In general, higher visibility thresholds will occur in either very dark regions or very bright regions of pictures, and lower visibility thresholds will occur in medium to dark-gray regions. It was found that human visual perception is sensitive to luminance contrast rather than absolute luminance values. The ability of human eyes to detect differences between an object and its background, known as contrast sensitivity, is dependent upon the average value of background luminance. According to Weber's law, if the luminance of a test stimulus is just noticeable from the surrounding luminance, the ratio of just noticeable luminance difference to stimulus luminance, known as Weber fraction, is approximately a constant. However, in a real situation, due to the presence of ambient illumination or TV monitor characteristics, noise in dark areas tends to be less visible than that in regions of high luminance. Therefore, the modification has been made that, as the background luminance is low, the Weber fraction increases as the background luminance decreases.
The just noticeable difference (JND) is the ability of human eyes to distinguish luminance variation. A JND model we quote is presented by Chou and is described by the following expressions:
            JND                    (                  g                                (                          x              ,              y                        )                          )              =          {                                                                                T                  0                                ×                                  (                                      1                    -                                                                                g                                                                                (                                                          x                              ,                              y                                                        )                                                                          127                                                              +                                          h                      1                                                        )                                            ,                                                                          g                                                  (                                      x                    ,                    y                                    )                                            ≤              127                                                                                γ                  ×                                      (                                                                  g                                                                          (                                                      x                            ,                            y                                                    )                                                                    -                      127                                        )                                                  +                                  h                  2                                            ,                                            otherwise                              }        ;where g(x,y) denotes a gray-level value of a pixel located at a position (x,y), and JND(g(x,y)) is its JND value of the pixel. According to experiment data of our present invention, h1=23, h2=23, To=11 and γ=7/128 will be more suitable for human visual perception on a video.
Noise can be added to still images or video sequences in various steps such as image acquisition, recording, and transmission. Then the results of post-processing tasks are also influenced by noise. As a result, noise reduction is important for video processing. For video-noise filtering, it may cause object-overlapped phenomenon in an image frame due to the occlusion problem when the spatial-filtering is only used, excluding the temporal-filtering. Oppositely, the image may be blurred and even the noise cannot be filtered if the temporal-filtering is only performed but spatial characteristics of the image are not utilized. Therefore, for removing noise correctly, a video-noise filter should be able to work on both temporal and spatial domains.
Continuous pictures in temporal domain form a motion of humans or objects. This characteristic is used in motion compensated methods to reduce redundancy in temporal domain. As for the current pictures, image areas that are the same as the corresponding areas in the previous pictures will not be transmitted to decrease data transmission. Searching similar areas between different pictures is so-called "motion estimation". Displacements used for representing motion degree are called "motion vector".
Applications of reducing video noise are already disclosed by some scholars.
For example, two non-motion compensated spatiotemporal filters are provided, a Video α-trimmed mean filter and a K nearest neighbor image sequence filter. Therefore, there are residual images or fuzzy phenomenon appearing when an object moves due to motion estimation not being used to detecting whether an object is moving or not.
In another reference document, a temporal filter (an adaptive motion compensated frame averaging) utilizing motion compensation is provided. This method is based on blocks and switched between simple frame averaging and motion compensated frame averaging to reduce video noise, which is one kind of the motion compensated temporal filters. This may blur outline edges of image after filtering noise due to problems of spatial outline edges of image, permanent noise, and temporary transient noise are not considered.
In addition, a method of adding motion compensation into a non-motion compensated filter is provided. The method includes three steps to reduce video noise: spatial filtering, motion compensation, and temporal filtering. The method of work of the spatial filtering is keeping information of edges and details of each frame and using a data-dependent weighted average filter (DDWA) to accomplish this step. The spatial filtering is added due to noise interference affecting accuracy of motion estimation. However, the output of the front end cannot reduce noise sufficiently, Boyce's detector are used for motion compensation.
In another reference document, only spatial information is used to reduce video noise, noise in temporal domain cannot be reduced.
Thus it can be seen, there is residual image phenomenon appearing when objects move if only spatial filters are used to reduce noise without considering temporal correlations. There is temporary transient noise appearing in outline edges of image and outline edges of an image may be blurred, if only temporal filters are used to reduce noise without considering spatial correlation. In order to reduce noise correctly, a video filter has to work both in the spatial and temporal domains. A method provided in the prior art reference document considers both characteristics in the spatial and temporal domains, but is applied to reduce Gaussian noise only but not to reduce impulse noise effectively.

Video noise reduction method using adaptive spatial and motion-compensation temporal filters


A method of determining a center hole of a material crankshaft, which is obtained through molding with first and second molds, includes: obtaining first shape data of a first portion of the material crankshaft molded by the first mold and second shape data of a second portion of the material crankshaft molded by the second mold; comparing the first and second shape data respectively with first and second designed data corresponding to the first and second molds, respectively, for computing a misalignment amount of each of the first and second portions due to misalignment between the first and second molds; adjusting, based on the misalignment amount, data corresponding to the misalignment amount to reproduce actual shape data; and determining, based on the actual shape data, a position of the center hole in the material crankshaft such that a rotation balance of the material crankshaft is within a predetermined range.

The crankshaft is normally used when installed in an engine. When the rotational imbalance occurs in the crankshaft, a variety of troubles occur (e.g., generation of vibration in the engine revolution). Therefore, the amount of the rotational imbalance (hereinafter simply referred to as "an imbalance value") of a crankshaft is required to be in a predetermined allowable value range. A position of a center hole, used as a reference for working the crankshaft, is important for setting the imbalance value of the crankshaft to be in the allowable value range.
For example, a center hole is formed as follows. First, a balance center axis of a crankshaft of a material state (i.e., a material crankshaft) is found. Specifically, a balance meter measures the balance of the material while the material crankshaft is actually revolved. Then, center holes are bored in both end surfaces of the crankshaft, on the obtained center axis. Further, the balance meter measures balance about the center axis again in the final working phase. When imbalance is found, the balance adjustment is executed by boring a hole in a counterweight.
When the crankshaft in a material state (i.e., the material crankshaft) is finished in an ideal shape, matching the design data, it is possible to easily achieve the imbalance value to be in the allowable value range by boring a center hole in the center of a main journal. Even if balance disruption occurs in the subsequent working steps, balance adjustment can be easily executed by boring a hole in the counterweight at the end.
However, thickness of the material crankshaft could be formed unevenly due to a variety of factors including e.g., failure of casting molds, failure of forging molds, impact in trimming and mold stripping. Most of the steps of working the material crankshaft are herein executed for a cylindrical part of a main journal and a cylindrical part of a pin journal. Therefore, the drawback of uneven thickness is resolved for the respective cylindrical parts. However, the thickness of the counterweight remains to be uneven because working is hardly executed for the counterweight. Consequently, the imbalance remains in the entire material crankshaft.
Imbalance accordingly exists in the entire crankshaft even when a hole is bored in the counterweight in the final balance adjustment. Further, when the balance adjustment cannot be completed within a predetermined cycle time, such a crankshaft is regarded as an inferior product. In this case, there is a limitation for the number of holes allowed to be bored in the balance adjustment. Therefore, an imbalance value within the allowable value range cannot be achieved in some cases.
Further, an essential portion could be required to be removed from the crankshaft in order to achieve the balance value within the allowable value range.
When the imbalance value of the crankshaft cannot be finally achieved within the allowable value range as described above, modification is required for treatment in the center hole boring processing. Specifically, the misalignment amount of the center hole boring position is computed based on the balance measurement. The misalignment amount is then fed back to the center hole boring processing. Treatment in the center hole boring processing is modified based on the feedback. When a center hole is herein bored in a material crankshaft before the feedback of the misalignment amount, the material crankshaft is regarded as an inferior product due to misalignment of the center hole. Additionally, feedback of the misalignment amount is required every time a product lot of the material is changed. In this case, there is a drawback that a great number of processing steps are required.
Japan Laid-open Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-H09-174382 describes a method as a technique for determining a position of a center hole in a crankshaft. In the method, sampling is performed for a plurality of materials, and statistic processing is executed for factors (e.g., a difference between an axial center in working of a center hole and a position of a bored center hole) affecting the imbalance amount after execution of a finishing work. Accordingly, the correction amount is obtained for determining the position of a center hole.
Further, Japan Laid-open Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-S51-076682 describes a technique for determining a position of a center hole in a crankshaft. In the method, a dynamic balance point is obtained for the respective end surfaces of a material crankshaft through a dynamic balance test. Subsequently, shapes of a journal section and the like in the material crankshaft are measured. Imbalance, possibly occurring after working, is arithmetically computed based on the result of the measurement. A center hole is then bored in a corrected position displaced from the dynamic balance point by the imbalance amount.

Method and device for determining center hole of crankshaft


A vehicular lamp used in an automobile, includes: a light source module for generating light; and an optical member for directing the light generated by the light source module forward. The light source module includes: a semiconductor light-emitting element or device for generating light; a fluorescent member for emitting light in accordance with the light generated by the semiconductor light-emitting element, the fluorescent member covering a surface of the semiconductor light-emitting element; and a light-blocking member, formed to be opposed to the semiconductor light-emitting element with the fluorescent member sandwiched therebetween and cover a side of the semiconductor light-emitting element and a part of the fluorescent member, for blocking a part of the light generated by the semiconductor light-emitting element and a part of the light emitted by the fluorescent member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp and a light source module. More particularly, the present invention relates to a vehicular lamp and a light source module for use in a vehicle such as an automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
A vehicular lamp such as a headlight of an automobile is required to form a light distribution pattern with high accuracy for safety reasons. This light distribution pattern is formed by an optical system using a reflector or lens as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Publication (Laid-Open) No. 6-89601.
In optical design of the light distribution pattern of the vehicular lamp, it is necessary to consider a shape of a light source or the like, in some cases. Moreover, in a case of using a semiconductor light-emitting element or device in the vehicular lamp, the semiconductor light-emitting element generates light from a light source on its entire surface that has a predetermined width on its entire surface. Thus, in this case, the optical design may become complicated, resulting in difficulty informing an appropriate light distribution pattern.


A method for processing an olefin-containing product stream that contains dimethyl ether as a by-product is described. Such a product stream arises, for example, in the synthesis of olefin from methanol. For separation of the dimethyl ether from the product stream, it is proposed that at least a partial stream chiefly containing C3 hydrocarbons is separated from the product stream by fractionation, and is sent to a rectification column (C3 splitter) (16) for separation of propylene and propane. The dimethyl ether goes together with the propane into the bottom of the rectification column in the rectification process and can be withdrawn (42). A substantially pure propylene product (41), which contains at most only traces of dimethyl ether, can be removed from the top of the rectification column.

An interesting alternative to olefin production from petroleum is olefin synthesis from methanol. Methanol is considered to be a readily storable and manageable intermediate product for utilization of hitherto unused natural gas. Thus, the increasing demand for olefin could also be served through the use of very cheap methane. For this reason, processes are being developed that obtain short-chain olefins from methanol. Such processes operate, for example, catalytically according to the overall equation 2CH3OH→C2H4+2H2O. Besides the desired olefins, ethylene and propylene, undesired by-products also arise in the catalytic process. One undesired by-product is dimethyl ether. The problem of removing dimethyl ether from the product stream has not been satisfactorily solved up to now. Special absorber materials that are supposed to remove the dimethyl ether from the product stream have already been considered. However, it is difficult to find a suitable absorber or adsorber material for this purpose.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for separating dimethyl ether from an olefin-containing product stream


The present disclosure relates to a dielectric substrate that may include a polymer based core film, and a fluoropolymer based adhesive layer. The polymer based core film may include a resin matrix component, and a ceramic filler component. The ceramic filler component may include a first filler material. The particle size distribution of the first filler material may have a D10 of at least about 1.0 microns and not greater than about 1.7, a D50 of at least about 1.0 microns and not greater than about 3.5 microns, and a D90 of at least about 2.7 microns and not greater than about 6 microns.

Copper-clad laminates (CCLs) include a dielectric material laminated onto or between two layers of conductive copper foil. Subsequent operations transform such CCLs into printed circuit boards (PCBs). When used to form PCBs, the conductive copper foil is selectively etched to form circuitry with through holes that are drilled between layers and metalized, i.e. plated, to establish conductivity between layers in multilayer PCBs. CCLs must therefore exhibit excellence thermomechanical stability. PCBs are also routinely exposed to excessively high temperatures during manufacturing operations, such as soldering, as well as in service. Consequently, they must function at continuous temperatures above 200° C. without deforming and withstand dramatic temperature fluctuations while resisting moisture absorption. The dielectric layer of a CCL serves as a spacer between the conductive layers and can minimize electrical signal loss and crosstalk by blocking electrical conductivity. The lower the dielectric constant (permittivity) of the dielectric layer is, the higher the speed of the electrical signal through the layer will be. A low dissipation factor, which is dependent upon temperature and frequency, as well as the polarizability of the material, is therefore very critical for high-frequency applications. Accordingly, improved dielectric materials and dielectric layers that can be used in PCBs and other high-frequency applications are desired.

Dielectric substrate and method of forming the same

SAINT-GOBAIN PERFORMANCE PLASTICS CORPORATION


A single system merges primary data storage, data protection, and intelligence. Intelligence is provided through in-line data analytics, and data intelligence and analytics are gathered on protected data and prior analytics, and stored in discovery points, all without impacting performance of primary storage. As data is written it is automatically mirrored for data protection as part of a High Availability (HA) process. Real-time analysis is done in-line with the HA processing, enabling a variety of data analytics. Data content can mined from within files or blocks. The gathered intelligence is used to tag objects with extended metadata, enabling both valuable search options and rapid restore options. Data recovery begins with metadata restoration, followed by near-instantaneous access to “hot” regions of data being restored, allowing site operation to continue or resume while a restore is ongoing.

1. Field of Technology
This disclosure relates to computer storage systems, and more particularly to methods and systems unifying primary storage, data protection, and data analytics.
2. Background
Data storage solutions are large business and in large demand for many enterprises. Storage solutions are often designed for specific purposes, and companies often utilize separate systems as data silos dedicated to such purposes, such as primary storage (block and file), backup storage, and storage for analytics. These three copies of storage are generally kept on different devices and managed separately. The movement of data between these three silos can be difficult because there is time involved in determining what changed between the primary silo and backup or analytics silo. This leads to complex backup strategies that attempt to compensate for the length of time required to move the data to the backup and analytics silos. The involved timing covers both determination of what has changed since the last time the data was captured, and moving the data to the new silos typically over a network of some type. This process is usually resource intensive on the primary storage system, consuming critical primary storage resources such as processor cycles, memory, disk operations, and network bandwidth. For this reason, the data move to backup and analytics is often scheduled for off hours and carefully managed to not interfere with daily operations. In addition to processing and timing complications in moving data to backup and analytics systems, restore operations required in the case of failure or loss of primary data can also be time consuming. Further, while the restore operation is occurring primary data is generally not accessible.
In addition to the above timing and computation issues, analytics systems today, such as those using Hadoop, are independent of the primary storage system in terms of security and user account context. This complicates protection to data access, and generally loses context of when the changes occurred and who made the changes. Many systems also require multiple layers of additional third-party software to extract any information from the data.
Backup systems traditionally focus on recovery point objective (RPO) and recovery time objective (RTO). RPO represents the maximum time period of acceptable risk of data loss—for example, an RPO of 24 hours means on failure of primary storage, up to 24 hours of data might be lost and unrecoverable. RTO represents the maximum acceptable time for recovery after a failure before operation can resume—for example, an RTO of 24 hours mean on failure of primary storage, restoration from backup will take up to 24 hours before the primary system is restored and can resume normal operation.
Recovering or restoring from a backup system is generally a difficult and time-consuming process. Recovering from backup generally requires identifying a file (or set of files) and a timestamp (date). If the date or file is unknown, the already time-intensive restoration process becomes greatly more complex. Searching data within a backup system to identify a desired restoration without knowledge of the file and date is generally a trial-and-error process, such as picking a date, restoring the backup from that date, searching the restored data to identify if the data includes the desired item, and repeating the process until the desired item is found.
Once a desired file is identified, a restore process starts. Access to the file is typically not granted until the entire restore process is completed. This might result in many minutes or even hours of wait time before users can start using the restored data. This time can be significantly extended due to storage optimization techniques used when storing backup data. For example, to maximize backup capacity backups may be compressed, requiring intensive (and often complete-site) restoration to recover a single file.
There is some movement to merge backup and analytics systems into a single system which uses the backup data for analytics. This has encountered additional problems, as typically backup systems do not keep data in the same format as primary storage. Even if the format is not a problem, issues remain with moving the data and breaking the connection between the primary storage and change insights. Additionally, applying analytics to backup data has not overcome the problems around determining time and authorship of changes.
3. Description of Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 7,412,577 "SHARED DATA MIRRORING APPARATUS, METHOD, AND SYSTEM" (Boyd et al., Aug. 12, 2008) discloses, in the Abstract, "A network component is useful in tracking write activity by writing logs containing write address information is described. The tracking component may be used in networked systems employing data mirroring to record data block addresses written to a primary storage volume during the time a data mirror is unavailable . . . . At the time a data mirror is reconstructed, the log written may be used to construct a list of block addresses pointing to locations on a primary storage volume wherein data differs from a secondary storage volume member of the mirror." This solution improves data mirroring within a storage network.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,756,837 "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SEARCHING BACKUP DATA BASED ON CONTENT AND ATTRIBUTES" (Williams et al., Jul. 13, 2010) discloses, in the Abstract, "Methods and apparatus are disclosed that permit the transparent bridging of a broad range of backup storage devices, such that backup software will identify an intermediate device as a one of those storage devices and will transparently send their backup data-stream thereto as part of the existing standard backup process. Upon receipt of a backup data-stream from the backup software, the methods and apparatus provide for analysis of the data elements in the data-stream, collection of management information about those data elements, and storage of the management information in an easily accessible format for subsequent review and query by users and administrators of the original data." This solution provides indexing and search capabilities to backup data.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,937,365 "METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SEARCHING STORED DATA" (Prahlad et al., May 3, 2011) discloses, in the Abstract, "Systems and methods for managing data associated with a data storage component coupled to multiple computers over a network are further disclosed. Additionally, systems and methods for accessing documents available through a network, wherein the documents are stored on one or more data storage devices coupled to the network, are disclosed." This solution provides indexing, search, and access to data across multiple repositories including secondary storage.
United States Patent Application Publication 2009/0083336 "SEARCH BASED DATA MANAGEMENT" (Srinivasan, Mar. 26, 2009) discloses, in the Abstract, "The invention includes a system including one or more storage devices including the data items a metadata tagging component for associating metadata to each data item, a policy component defining one or more data management policies as a function of the metadata, a search engine for generating a list of data items satisfying the data management policy, and a data management application for applying the data management policy to each data item in the list of data items generated by the search engine." This solution creates metadata for "a priority . . . , a owner . . . , a group . . . , a last accessed time . . . , a last modified time . . . , a created time . . . , an archival time . . . , a logical location . . . , and a physical location of the data item." A search is performed of the metadata, and backup, retention, and archiving rules are applied to the search results.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,055,745 "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ACCESSING DATA FROM A PRIMARY DATA STORAGE SYSTEM FOR SECONDARY STORAGE" (Atluri, Nov. 8, 2011) discloses, in the Abstract, "A system for providing secondary data storage and recovery services for one or more networked host nodes includes a server application for facilitating data backup and recovery services; a first data storage medium accessible to the server application, a second data storage medium accessible to the server application; at least one client application for mapping write locations allocated by the first data storage medium to write locations representing a logical view of the first data storage medium; and at least one machine instruction enabling direct read capability of the first data storage medium by the server application for purposes of subsequent time-based storage of the read data into the secondary data medium." This solution splits (mirrors) data between primary and backup storage, providing continuous backup rather than discrete (backup-window) backups. Metadata including "source address, destination address, LUN, frame sequence number, offset location, length of payload, and time received" specific to every data frame is tracked, details of which are used in verification and compression.
None of the above provides a storage solution with 1) integrated primary storage, data protection, and data analytics; 2) in-line data analytics tracking data access and data modifications; 3) RPO based on data analytics rather than fixed time; 4) extendible metadata generation including content analytics; and 5) RTO minimized to restoration of metadata rather than complete site restoration, all without requiring separate backup data streams, or additional servers and software to coordinate operations between multiple systems. What is needed, therefore, is a solution that overcomes the above-mentioned limitations and that includes the features enumerated above.


At a time Tp when a wafer W is transferred into either a load lock chamber LL1 or LL2, periods PSL for the load lock chambers LL1 and LL2 to get ready to permit a transfer of a next wafer W thereinto are calculated based on a timing for exchange of wafers W between the load lock chamber LL1 or LL2 and a loader module LM. When the periods PSL are calculated, a loader arm LA1 or LA2 selects a next wafer W having the shortest period to get ready to be transferable into the load lock chamber LL1 or LL2, from load ports LP1 to LP3. This improves transfer delay in a cluster tool provided with the load lock chambers.

In a conventional cluster tool, processing residual periods for wafers which are being processed at present in process chambers are calculated respectively, and selection of a wafer to be taken out of a load port is made in such a manner that the next wafer is transferred to a process chamber having the shortest processing residual period.
However, in a cluster tool provided with load lock chambers, transfer to each of the process chambers is performed via the load lock chamber. In the load lock chamber, a wafer is delivered between a loader module and the load lock chamber and a wafer is delivered between the load lock chamber and the process chamber, and therefore supply and exhaust of air responding to the degree of vacuum in the loader module or the process chamber are repeated. For this reason, selection of a wafer to be taken out of the load port in consideration only of the processing residual period in the process chamber may rather increase a delay in transfer because there occurs waiting for transfer due to processing such as supply or exhaust of air in the load lock chamber.
Further, in the case in which transfers of wafers having different recipe execution periods are performed, when selection of a wafer is made in consideration only of their processing residual periods, a transfer of one having a shorter recipe execution period may be kept waiting, bringing about a problem that the throughput as a whole system is decreased.

Cluster tool and transfer control method


A deformable pad (100) for pad printing has an initially flat side (105) and an opposite bulged side (110). An ink image (610) is applied to the flat side of the pad using an inkjet head (605) or other ink image source. The pad is then distorted using a ram (600) or hydrostatic or pneumatic source applied to a chamber (1300) so that the initially bulged side is flattened and the initially flat side bulges. After distortion, the now bulged side with the ink image is pressed against a receiving surface for transfer of the ink image to the surface. An alternative embodiment starts by deforming a pad to produce a flat surface, inking the surface with an image, then allowing the pad to relax, rendering the previously flat, image-bearing surface newly bulged. The newly-bulged surface is then temporarily urged against a receiving surface for transfer of the ink image.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to printing, and in particular to printing with a deformable pad.
2. Prior Art
Pad printing has long been used to apply images to surfaces. This printing technology is especially useful for applying images to uneven, non-flat surfaces of virtually any size. These include products ranging from bottles to cellular telephones to home and industrial appliance panels.
The concept of a deformable pad for printing is taught in our U.S. Pat. No. 6,840,167 (2005). The pad comprises a flat sheet of flexible pad material, such as silicone rubber. It is preferably square, 10 cm on a side, and 1.5 cm thick. The pad can be smaller or larger. The size of the pad is determined by the area and shape of the final receiving surface.
The pad is initially flat and its edges are restrained by a holding bracket. An inkjet head deposits an image on the flat front pad surface. The pad is then forcibly deformed by a ram applied to the opposite side of the pad. The ram preferably has a curved frontal shape. Since the edges of the pad are restrained, the ram forces the pad into a bulged shape. The bulged pad is then brought into contact with the final receiving surface. The previously-applied inkjet image transfers from the pad to the receiving surface. A printed or decorated receiving surface results. The principal advantage of this system is the ability to transfer multi-color images in a single step. This system has been shown to work well, however operation of its pad can be improved for use in certain machine configurations.


A grating structure includes slit regions (4) and light blocking regions (5) that are alternately distributed in a first direction. The slit regions (4) and the light blocking regions (5) extend in a second direction, and the first direction is perpendicular to the second direction. The grating structure further includes two electrode plates (10, 20) disposed oppositely, and a plurality of support columns (3) disposed between the two electrode plates (10, 20) and supporting them. At least two of the support columns (3) are spaced apart in the first direction are arranged in each of the slit regions (4).

One implementation of naked-eye 3D technology is the light barrier technology. According to the light barrier technology, a grating is disposed on the light-emitting side of a display panel, and enables the left eye and the right eye of a person to see different views by means of the light blocking and transmission of the grating, thereby realizing a 3D stereoscopic effect.
The grating generally comprises two transparent electrode plates, and a dielectric layer (e.g., a liquid crystal layer) disposed between the two electrode plates. In such a case, light blocking regions and slit regions may be formed on the entire grating by changing the voltage applied to different regions of the two electrode plates. At this time, a plurality of support columns is needed between the two electrode plates to support a space formed for accommodating the dielectric layer.
However, when the above-described grating is used, there is a large difference in the number of support columns that human eyes see from different angles. Due to this difference in the number of support columns seen at different viewing angles, there will also be a huge difference in the brightness of the display screen perceived by the human eyes at different positions, thereby forming a periodically changing moiré pattern.
It should be explained that the information presented in the above Background section is only for facilitating the understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and thus may include information that does not constitute relevant technologies that are well-known to those ordinarily skilled in the art.


Compositions and methods of manufacture for producing a medicament composition capable of absorption through the mucosal tissues of the mouth, pharynx, and esophagus. The present invention relates to such compositions and methods which are useful in administering lipophilic and nonlipophilic drugs in a dose-to-effect manner that sufficient drug is administered to produce precisely a desired effect. The invention also relates to a manufacturing technique that enables a therapeutic agent or drug to be incorporated into a flavored dissolvable matrix. An appliance or holder is preferably attached to the dissolvable matrix. Employing the present invention the drug may be introduced into the patient's bloodstream almost as fast as through injection, and much faster than using the oral administration route, while avoiding the negative aspects of both of these methods. The present invention achieves these advantages by incorporating the drug into a carbohydrate, fat, protein, wax, or other dissolvable matrix composition. The dissolvable matrix may include permeation enhancers to increase the drug absorption by the mucosal tissues of the mouth. The matrix composition may also include pH buffering agents to modify the salival pH thereby increasing the absorption of the drug through the mucosal tissue.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to compositions and methods of manufacture of oral dissolvable matrixes for medicaments used in the buccal, sublingual, pharyngeal, and esophageal transmucosal delivery of the medicaments. More particularly, the present invention is directed to compositions, and methods and apparatus for producing such compositions, for noninvasive administration of dose-to-effect amounts of medicaments through the mucosal tissues of the mouth, pharynx, and esophagus.
2. Related Applications
That application and patent are incorporated herein by specific reference.

Compositions of oral dissolvable medicaments


Disclosed are embodiments for determining a location of a wireless terminal. The wireless terminal measures signal strength of a plurality of wireless transmitters. Based on this information, a plurality of location probability surfaces are generated. Each location probability surface indicates a plurality of probabilities that the wireless terminal is in each of a corresponding plurality of geographic regions. These probability surfaces are then averaged to determine a composite location probability surface. A motion probability surface is also determined, which stores a plurality of probabilities indicating variations of motion of the wireless terminal. The composite location probability surface is then updated based on the motion probability surface. A location estimate of the wireless terminal is then determined based on the updated composite location probability surface.

Estimation of location of a wireless terminal is essential in many fields such as navigation and location of moving objects, identifying location of client experiencing performance degradation, etc.
The location of a wireless terminal can be estimated by two distinct methods. One method is based on strengths of signals received by the wireless terminal from multiple radio transmitters located in a well-known location. In accordance with this method the wireless terminal measures the signal strengths of each transmitter and reports the signal strengths to a location engine. The location engine infers the attenuation of the received signals along the path from the transmitter to the receiver. The attenuation of the transmitted signals is used to determine the distance from each transmitter to the receiver. The location engine then uses the known location of the transmitters to determine the location of the wireless terminal.
In accordance with a second method the wireless terminal transmits a signal which is received by multiple receivers located in well-known locations. Similarly, the receivers convey the respective signal strength information to the location engine which estimates the distance of the wireless terminal from the fixed receivers. The location engine then uses the well-known locations of the receivers to determine the location of the wireless terminal.
Measured signal strengths are prone to error due to noise and multi-path and as such may be inaccurate. For example, when estimating the location of a device based on three transmitters, the location information based on any two transmitters may conflict (be different) than the location inferred based on the information from the third transmitter.
What is needed is a method that compensates for the distorted signal strength measurements and provides consistent location estimation for the wireless terminal.

Multi-layer statistical wireless terminal location determination


A device for binding a boot to a sports article. The device includes a base adapted to be fixed onto the sports article, a member for connecting to the boot, the member including an anchoring element on a front zone of the boot, a rocker bar for connecting the connecting member to the base, the rocker bar being journalled on the base, on the one hand, and on the connecting member, on the other hand, the journal axle of the rocker bar on the base being arranged at the rear of the journal axle of the connecting member on the rocker bar.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for a journal binding of a boot to a sports article, in particular a gliding sport, such as ice skating, roller skating, cross-country skiing, etc.
2. Description of Background and Relevant Information
It is already known from FR 2 659 534 to have a journalled linkage of a boot to a sports article such as a roller skate, ice skate, so as to increase the impulse torque during the sporting activity. The document provides either a journal of the boot on the sports article in the location of the big toe in the boot so as to enable a maximum rotation of the boot, or a journal in the metatarsophalangeal articulation zone of the foot so as to guarantee a good foot movement.
In the first case, the maximum rotation of the boot makes it possible to maximize the impulse torque of the leg during the motive phase, but this occurs to the detriment of precision and guiding of the boot, in particular with a flexible sole that is necessary for a good foot movement.
In the second case, the journal in the metatarsophalangeal journal axis makes it possible to improve the guiding to the detriment, however, of the foot movement and the impulse torque.
The document WO 96/37269 aims to resolve the same problem, namely, maximizing the thrust force or impulse torque during the sporting activity by proposing a multiple frame construction in which the frames are adapted to pivot and to translate one with respect to the other.
The preferred embodiments of this document WO 96/37269 include at least four connecting rods that are journalled and which can translate with respect to one another. As a result, it is an extremely complicated, heavy, expensive, difficult to implement and fragile construction, especially if the sport must be practiced in an aggressive environment (cold, snow, dust, etc.).
The document WO 96/37269 also proposes another construction which uses meshings and, therefore, is also extremely complicated and expensive to make, and is also very sensitive to dirt, cold, snow, etc.
Furthermore, each of the constructions of the document WO 96/37269 can only allow movements of the boot that are limited and comprised between 20xc2x0 and 48xc2x0, these small movements being detrimental to a good practice of the sporting activity.
An object of the present invention is to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages and to provide an improved binding device that makes it possible, in particular, to maximize the impulse torque transmitted by the leg, while being compatible with proper guiding of the boot, large displacement and good precision of the movement.
Another object is also to provide a binding device whose construction is simple, inexpensive, compact, and which is insensitive to external conditions, in particular cold and snow.
This object is achieved in the device for binding a boot to a sports article according to the invention, due to the fact that it comprises a base adapted to be fixed to the sports article, a member for connecting to the boot comprising an anchoring means or element on a front zone of the boot, a rocker bar for connecting the connecting member to the base, the rocker bar being journalled on the base, on the one hand, and on the connecting member, on the other hand, the journal axis of the rocker bar on the base being arranged at the rear of the journal axis of the connecting member on the rocker bar.
Indeed, the connecting member, fixed on a front zone of the boot, stiffens the latter and therefore makes it possible to maintain the desired precision of movement, whereas a construction having a single rocker bar is simple, minimum, compact, and inexpensive.
Furthermore, such a construction is insensitive to cold and snow.

Device for fixing a shoe to a sports article


An articulating lighting system and lamp frame (1) with many configurations in use and installation by rotation of frame components (2, 3) about a central axis (4).

Of late, heightened consciousness of energy conservation has resulted in low power consumer lamps or light bulbs which are fluorescent rather than incandescent. Although these are more efficient than standard bulbs and generate less heat they typically are perceived as providing less light and often require closed shades to soften the harshness of the fluorescent light. A similar situation occurs with other types of energy efficient light bulbs.
Such bulbs are not always consistent with traditional lamp frames of a specific shape and configuration or where light output is restricted as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,734,837. Further, the high initial cost of these bulbs adds to the increasing high cost of lighting fixtures.
The process of designing a light fixture, apart from aesthetic considerations, takes into account the light's intended function, including positioning and lighting direction, and safety issues. The latter arise from the high heat of traditional incandescent bulbs which require adequate ventilation. This is often provided with an open-ended shade. A base of heavy non-flammable material also protects the user. The result is often single purpose lighting fixtures that fall into wall, table, floor or ceiling categories with little or no flexibility.

Articulating lighting system and lamp frame


A manufacturing method for porous resin microparticles comprising steps of: heating a polyester thermoplastic resin having biodegradability to a temperature of 80° C. or higher and 200° C. or lower in a glycol ether solvent to obtain a solution, and cooling the solution to precipitate the polyester thermoplastic resin as porous resin microparticles.

To modify and improve quality of various materials, thermoplastic resin particles are used that have a large specific surface and a structure of their own. The materials are mainly used for, for example, compounding agents for cosmetics such as foundation, antiperspirants, and skin scrubs; various agents such as matte coating agents to be used in paints, rheological modifying agents, antiblocking agents, lubricating additives, light diffusing agents, and medical diagnostic testing agents; and additives used for molded articles such as automobile materials and construction materials.
While environmental concerns have been mounting in recent years, materials derived from non-petroleum resources are desired in various fields where use resins so as to reduce burdens on the environment. Of the fields, a field where uses resin particles to be contained in cosmetics, paints and the like also desires such materials.
To manufacture traditional thermoplastic resin particles, various methods have been known. For example, Patent Literature 1 (Japanese Patent Number 5110225) suggests a process of producing small-particle-diameter, highly oil-absorbing, porous, polylactic acid-based resin microparticles by dissolving a polylactic acid and several kinds of resins in an ether-based solvent and then subjecting a mixture to a shearing force to obtain an emulsion, and afterwards making the emulsion contact with a poor solvent. Patent Literature 2 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Number 2007-246718) suggests a method for manufacturing resin powder by dispersing amorphous thermoplastic resin powder in a mixture of a polyalcohol and hydrophobic silica microparticles and then heating and stirring the resultant mixture, and afterwards cooling the mixture. Patent Literature (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Number 2015-67616) suggests a method for precipitating polylactic acid microparticles by dissolving a polylactic acid in a first solvent to obtain a solution and then adding a second solvent, which is lower solubility of the polylactic acid than the first solvent, to the solution. Patent Literature 4 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Number Hei 2(1990)-215838) suggests a method for making particles by heating a mixture of a partially-crystallized polyester and an intermediate solvent and then cooling the mixture under conditions allowing a solid phase/liquid phase separation.
As the materials derived from the non-petroleum resources, polylactic acids, which are biodegradable resins, are widely known. A variety of documents describe polylactic acid-containing particles.
Known biodegradable resins other than the polylactic acids are polybutylene succinates, polyhydroxyalkanoates, and the like. Not so many documents describe particles containing any of these resins. One document describing such particles is Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Number 2002-302567 (Patent Literature 5).
Patent Literature 5 describes pre-expanded particles obtained by cutting a strand of a polybutylene succinate extruded from an extruder.

Porous resin microparticles and manufacturing method for same


An electrical supply device configured to deliver energy to a structure that includes at least two electrodes and a space containing a gas intended to be excited. The device includes a voltage generator, an inductor connected to the generator and connected to the structure to supply the two electrodes with a periodic voltage of given frequency, and a resonance mechanism for fixing the frequency at substantially the resonant frequency of the system of the structure and the inductor.

1. Field of the Invention
The subject of the invention is an electrical supply device intended to deliver energy to a structure that includes at least two electrodes and a space containing a gas, the device comprising a voltage generator and an inductor connected to the generator and connected to the structure in order to supply the two electrodes with a periodic voltage of given frequency.
The invention will be described more particularly in the case of an electrical supply for a light source of the flat lamp type, but it may relate to any electrical supply for a structure having at least two electrodes and a gas intended to be excited, the electrodes having to be supplied with energy so as to create between them an electric field that ionizes the gas.
2. Related Art
Flat lamps are generally used for the manufacture of backlit screen devices. They consist of two glass substrates held slightly apart one with respect to the other, generally separated by less than a few millimetres, and hermetically sealed so as to contain a gas under reduced pressure, in which an electrical discharge produces radiation generally in the ultraviolet range, which excites a phosphor substance, which then emits visible light.
In a standard flat lamp structure, a glass substrate carries, on one and the same face, two screen-printed coatings, especially made of silver, in the form of interpenetrated cones constituting a cathode and an anode. This face is turned toward the space containing the plasma gas. Another glass substrate is held at a certain distance from the first by means of discretely positioned spacers and possibly a peripheral frame. A discharge (an electric field) said to be coplanar is produced between the anode and the cathode, that is to say in a direction along the main surface of the glass substrate, which discharge excites the surrounding plasma gas.
The electrodes are protected by a dielectric coating intended, by capacitively limiting the current, to prevent loss of material of the electrodes by ion bombardment near the glass substrate. At least one of the faces of the glass substrates turned toward the space containing the gas also carries a coating of phosphor material, which is excited by the ionization of the gas and thus emits light.
However, in such a structure, the electrical connectors for supplying the electrodes must pass through the sealed enclosure containing the gas, thereby requiring a complex connection system.
One solution to this connection problem is described in French patent application FR 02/10020 which discloses quite another flat lamp structure for which the electrodes are no longer placed inside the enclosure and in a co-planar manner, but on the outside and intended to generate an electric field transverse to the surface of the electrodes.
The electrodes are, for example, placed on the external face of the glass substrates opposite the gas and therefore in two separate planes. Furthermore, at least one of the electrodes is a translucent conductive element, the face that supports this electrode forming an illuminating face for the flat lamp.
Thus, placing the electrodes on the outside of the enclosure means, on the one hand, that the electrical connection is facilitated and, on the other hand, the glass substrates provide the electrodes with capacitive protection against ion bombardment of the gas.
In addition, the above structure proposes a flat illuminating element capable of providing novel options in terms of decoration, display and/or architecture.
This patent application FR 02/10020 does not describe by which means the electrodes are supplied.
One device that can be used is, for example, that given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,604,410. That supply device comprises a voltage supply source delivering a voltage in the form of a train of pulses, that is to say a voltage that periodically drops to substantially zero during a certain lapse of time. This device furthermore includes a voltage amplifier connected to the voltage source and a transformer whose primary winding is connected to the amplifier and whose secondary winding is connected to the electrodes in order to supply them.
The electrical power needed for the device of this United States patent would, especially with lamp areas close to or greater than one m2, be much too high to be delivered and also requires much too bulky a device.

Electric power supply for at least two electrodes


A semiconductor device having good switching characteristics even metallic CNTs are included and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The semiconductor device includes a source electrode; a drain electrode; and a channel layer formed between the source electrode and the drain electrode and including a carbon nanotube group. The carbon nanotube group includes conductive carbon nanotubes having a characteristic of a conductive material and semiconductive carbon nanotubes having a characteristic of a semiconductive material. The density of the carbon nanotube group is the density where the source electrode and the drain electrode are connected to each other through all of the carbon nanotube group and not connected to each other only through the conductive carbon nanotubes.

Semiconductor devices in which the carbon nanotube (hereinafter referred to as the CNT) is used as a channel layer are being researched. The CNT is a carbon material made from a graphite sheet forming a seamless tubular structure. The CNT is about 0.7 nm in thickness at the minimum, and the length thereof ranges normally 1 to several tens μm. Some CNTs are relatively longer, the lengths of which exceed 1 mm. The CNT having the thickness about 5 nm or more exhibits a metallic characteristic, whereas some CNTs having the thickness about 5 nm or less exhibit semiconductor characteristic depending on the way of winding (chirality, helicity) of the graphite sheet. Researches have been proceeding for applications of the CNT exhibiting the semiconductor characteristic to semiconductor devices.
The CNT has electron (positive hole) mobility higher than that of silicon used in semiconductor devices currently in general (for instance, 1,000 to 10,000 cm2/Vs). Such property is highly expected for serving as a switching device such as a field-effect transistor (FET), in particular as switching devices for use in, for example, an image display device to which high response speed is required.
The CNT is also advantageous in view of methods of manufacturing semiconductor devices. A semiconductor device using the CNT can be manufactured by producing the CNT by means of bulk growth methods such as the laser ablation method, the arc plasma method, or the chemical-vapor deposition method, and then depositing the produced CNT on a substrate. Manufacturing the semiconductor device using the CNT does not require a high process temperature, and a transistor with high mobility is thus easily produced.
The advantage that a high process temperature is not required in manufacturing is particularly suitable for satisfying requirements for flat screen image display devices. In requirements for an image display device, the weight reduction of the device itself and the realization of the flexibility which means the ability of being bent or rounded are included. In an active matrix type image display device, polycrystalline silicon is typically implemented as the TFT for driving elements. In a case where polycrystalline silicon is implemented, however, a high temperature (for instance, at or above 300° C.) anneal process is required to increase the electron mobility. Thereby, the process temperature cannot be lowered. In order to use a plastic substrate having excellent flexibility, it is required to lower the process temperature to approximately 200° C. at the highest, and preferably to 120° C. or less. Therefore, for the substrate of an active matrix type display device, not a plastic substrate but a glass substrate, which is heavy and fragile, is currently used. Under such a background, the CNT, which may be almost only one semiconducting material available at a very low process temperature, is expected as a semiconducting material which does not require the high-temperature anneal process.
In addition, active matrix type image display devices using liquid crystal elements or EL elements involve another problem regarding the suppression of the photo leak current. If a light beam enters into a silicon TFT portion of a pixel from a backlight (about 105 lx), the photo leak current increases. In order to suppress this phenomenon, it is necessary to cover a pixel transistor portion with a shielding film made of a metal thin film. However, the aperture ratio is limited by the area occupied by the pixel transistor. This results in reduction of the maximum intensity and the dynamic range of brightness due to the limitation of the pixel aperture ratio, and decrease of the energy efficiency due to the loss of the light in the image display device. Further, a cost-performance ratio is deteriorated by adding the process for producing the metal shielding film.
On the other hand, the semiconductor device using the CNT has a property that the photo leak current is very small (for example, Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, No. 44, Vol. 4A, p. 1592, 2005). Therefore, the CNT is expected as means to solve the problems regarding the cost and the leak current.
In the contexts of those described above, the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application JP-P2005-93472A discloses a method for manufacturing a field effect semiconductor device using carbon nanotubes as a current path. This method includes the steps of: adjusting the suspension of carbon nanotube; depositing the suspension on a predetermined pattern; and drying the suspension to form a current path including the carbon nanotubes. The Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application JP-P2005-93472A refers to the use of carbon nanotube having the length from 0.1 μm to 10 μm.
When the CNT is applied to a semiconductor device, however, it should be considered that both CNTs having a conductor characteristic and CNTs having a semiconductor characteristic are produced at the same time when manufacturing CNTs. When the produced CNTs are directly used to produce a transistor, the switching characteristics such as the on/off ratio are deteriorated by even only one metallic CNT causing the leak current between the source and the drain (S-D).
Thus, the following attempts have been made: to remove the metallic CNTs from grown CNTs; and to grow only semimetallic CNTs selectively. But, in reality, it is now difficult to remove all metallic CNTs.
For example, when it is attempted to separate metallic CNTs and semimetallic CNTs after their growth, it is difficult to separate them after an aggregation condensation because the CNT is easily condensed by static electricity or physisorption and has very thin and long structure. In addition, it is also difficult to selectively produce the metallic CNT and the semimetallic CNT during their growth. One of the reasons is that the chirality of the CNT, which means the conductiveness or semiconductiveness thereof, is easily changed, even the grain size of the metallic catalyst used for the growth of the CNT is adjusted such that the variation is under 0.1 nm.
Therefore, it is desired to produce a semiconductor device which includes the CNT as a material thereof and having a high on/off ratio even if the CNT contains both of the metallic CNT and the semimetallic CNT.
The selective burning-out technique is known as a method for enhancing a semiconductor device implementing the CNT containing both of the metallic CNT and the semimetallic CNT (Science, No. 292 (2001), p. 706). This technique, however, requires a relatively large current flow for the burning out compared to the operating current of the semiconductor device, which becomes a heavy stress on the whole semiconductor device. Further, it is difficult to process the semiconductor devices individually to achieve stable characteristics. Furthermore, by the selectively burning out, the onstate current of the transistor is unfavorably reduced. Because of these problems, the burning-out technique is not realistic method on industry now.

Semiconductor device having carbon nanotubes and method for manufacturing the same


A motor control apparatus includes a error calculation unit which calculates a error between a first position detection value of a movable part and a second position detection value of a driven part, a storage unit which stores the errors when the movable part engages with the driven part in a first and second drive direction, as a first initial error and a second initial error, respectively, and a compensation calculation unit which calculates the amount of compensation to correct backlash and an elastic deformation. The compensation calculation unit calculates a command error based on the first initial error and the second initial error and a predetermined constant which is larger than 0 and not greater than 1 and calculates the amount of compensation by subtracting the current error calculated by the error calculation unit from the command error.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a motor control apparatus for controlling a motor connected to a feed shaft of a machine tool or an industrial machine or an arm of an industrial robot.
2. Description of Related Art
A servo motor is connected to a shaft (mechanical movable part) such as a feed shaft of a machine tool or an industrial machine or an arm of an industrial robot. The rotation of the servo motor is converted to a linear motion of a table, etc., by means of a ball-screw, etc., or the transmission speed of the servo motor is reduced by a speed reducer.
There are cases where a stop position with respect to a certain position of the ball screw or the speed reducer in the positive direction is different from a stop position thereof in the negative direction. In general, this difference is referred to as a backlash which causes a reduction in the positional precision.
FIGS. 8A to 8C are explanatory views of backlash. FIG. 8A illustrates a movable part WA which is moved by a motor (not shown) and a driven part WB which is driven by the movable part WA. The movable part WA is provided, at both ends thereof, with projections A1, and A2, and the driven part WB is provided at its central portion, with a projection B. Therefore, when the movable part WA is moved, for example, in the right direction, the inner end of the projection A1 of the projections A1 and A2 of the movable part WA abuts against one end of the projection B of the driven part WB. As a result, the movable part WA and the driven part WB are moved together in the right direction.
Moreover, when the motor is reversed, the movable part WA is moved in the left direction from the right direction, as shown in FIG. 8B. Consequently, when the inner end of the other projection A2 of the movable part WA abuts against the other end of the projection B of the driven part WB, as shown in FIG. 8C, the movable part WA and the driven part WB are moved together in the left direction.
As may be understood from the foregoing, when the movement is reversed, it is necessary for the movable part WA to move by a predetermined displacement called backlash before the movable part WA abuts against the driven part WB. The backlash C shown in FIGS. 8A and 8C may be a cause of reduction of the positional precision. To prevent this, preparing an amount of compensation corresponding to the backlash C and adding the same to the position command of the motor have been practiced upon reversing the movement.
A semi-closed control device performs a position control of the driven part WB based on the position information of the motor without obtaining the position information of the driven part WB. In such a semi-closed control device, a corrected position command which is obtained by adding a backlash length to the movement command after reversing of the speed command is supplied to the motor, whereby the driven part WB is moved by the displacement corresponding to the movement command.
Moreover, in a device in which both the position information of the motor and the position information of the driven part WB can be obtained, i.e., in a full-closed control device, it is sufficient that a desired value is given as the movement command, because a sensor for the driven part WB is provided. In such a full-closed control device, when the speed command is reversed, the driven part WB begins moving after the motor is moved by a displacement corresponding to the backlash length, and accordingly, a delay in the movement occurs. Therefore, the full-closed control device may have a speed command correcting function to accelerate the motor after the speed command is reversed.
In the two types of control mentioned above, an appropriate compensation is made at an appropriate timing, wherein the amount of compensation and the compensation timing are determined in advance. Therefore, these two types of control both correspond to a feed-forward control.
In contrast thereto, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2014-054001, the position of the motor with backlash is obtained and an amount of compensation of backlash is determined based thereon. In this case, since the amount of compensation of backlash is determined based on the current position of the motor with backlash, the control disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2014-054001 is a feed-back control. In Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2014-054001, a positional deviation between the movable part and the driven part when the movable part engages with the driven part is referred to as an initial deviation. The amount of compensation is calculated by subtracting the positional deviation between the current positions of the movable part and the driven part from the initial deviation.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2014-054001, the backlash is interpreted to be merely a gap between tooth surfaces. However, in conventional machines, lost motion occurs due to an elastic deformation caused by a force acting between a movable part and a driven part, in addition to backlash defined merely as a gap. Furthermore, such an elastic deformation could include a linear deformation and a non-linear deformation.
If the lost motion includes an elastic deformation, when the initial deviation is obtained in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2014-054001, the magnitude of the force applied to the backlash end and the magnitude of the force required when the motor is reversed differ from one another, and consequently, there is a possibility that the calculated amount of compensation is different from the required amount of compensation.
If the amount of compensation is too small, the workpiece tends to be insufficiently cut. Conversely, if the amount of compensation is excessively large, the workpiece tends to be cut excessively, thus resulting in the formation of over milled. In particular, when the amount of compensation is excessively large, the over milling on the cut surface of the workpiece appears to be a flaw, and consequently, it is highly likely that the workpiece will be judged to have failed to cut, which is often viewed as a problem.
The present invention has been completed in view of the foregoing, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a motor control apparatus which can prevent an excess amount of compensation from being formed, by taking elastic deformation into account.

Motor control apparatus for controlling motor


A Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (TOF-MS) is configured to improve resolution and sensitivity performance. The TOF-MS includes an arrangement of electrodes comprising an ion accelerator with two stages of homogeneous electric fields, an ion reflector with a single stage of a homogeneous electric field, accelerator and reflector being separated by a first drift space, and an ion detector which is separated from the reflector by a second drift space. Contrary to known TOF-MS of similar configuration, the set of electric potentials which must be applied to said electrodes is predetermined for a given geometry in such a way that a spatial distribution of ions initially at rest in the first gap of the said accelerator is compressed at the location of the detector in the longitudinal direction to a focus of first and second order in the initial axial coordinate. Therefore, mass resolution is enhanced over a TOF-MS that provides only for longitudinal focusing of first order, while the number of passages through grid electrodes along the flight path is reduced, and hence ion transmission and instrument sensitivity are improved.

In a Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (TOF-MS) it is advantageous if the ions of a specific mass to charge ratio are accelerated by means of suitable electric fields in such a way that their initial distribution in space is compressed to a thin sheet at the location of the ion detector. The larger initial package contains more ions, while the thin sheets of ions with different mass to charge ratios become well separated, hence sensitivity and resolution are enhanced.
It is taught by Wiley and U.S. Pat. No. 2,685,035 that such a compression can be facilitated by a linear TOF-MS comprising an ion accelerator with one or two stages of homogeneous electric fields, and a drift space which is terminated by the ion detector. Ions that start from a position further back in the accelerator of such a TOF-MS gain more kinetic energy and catch up with those ions that started from a point further forward in the accelerator when they reach the end of the drift space. The compression of the initial spatial distribution in the direction of the axial or longitudinal coordinate is called space focusing or longitudinal focusing.
The focusing achieved by the linear instrument of U.S. Pat. No. 2,685,035 is of first order in the initial longitudinal coordinate, which means, that the flight time is only a quadratic function of the starting position with a minimum or maximum for the middle or reference position. It was found, however, that the mass resolution that can be realized with a linear TOF-MS is limited by the fact, that the ions are not initially at rest but have an initial positive or negative velocity components in the acceleration direction, which results in a dispersion of the ion packages.
Ion reflectors are devices, that can turn around the direction of motion of ions by means of electric fields. Ions penetrate into these fields according to their velocity or energy component in the direction of the reflector field. Ions with higher kinetic energy penetrate deeper and need more time to pass through the reflector. It is therefore possible to achieve energy focusing, which means that the flight times of ions of one mass to charge ratio become largely independent of their initial axial energy.
Traditionally, a high resolution Reflector-TOF-MS is set up in the following way: At first, a primary longitudinal focus is formed close to the beginning of a field free drift space by means of an accelerator with one or two stages. The ions form a thin sheet at the primary longitudinal focus, but have a substantial distribution of axial energies reflecting mainly their different starting position. Then, this primary longitudinal focus is transferred to a secondary longitudinal focus at the location of the ion detector by means of the ion reflector. Ideally, the width of the ion package at the primary focal point is preserved, while the flight path is extended, hence the mass resolution can be higher in a Reflector-TOF-MS.
In a typical system as it was described e.g. by Mamyrin in U.S. Pat. No. 4,072,862, the ion accelerator merely acts as the input stage to the reflector. The geometrical dimensions and the electrical potentials that are required to achieve the primary and secondary longitudinal focus are set up separately for accelerator and reflector, while the individual parts of the Reflector-TOF-MS are connected by the common primary focus.
This route of designing a high resolution Reflector-TOF-MS was modified e.g. by Leisner, who described a TOF-MS comprising a two stage ion accelerator and a two stage ion reflector, which achieved a conceptual longitudinal focusing of first, second and third order. Here, all the electric potentials were determined directly from the equation for the total flight time and the longitudinal focusing conditions.
The two stage Mamyrin ion reflector with homogeneous electric fields provides energy focusing of first and second order, and thus facilitates the highly undistorted transfer of an ion package from the primary to the secondary longitudinal focus. In the design of Leisner a Mamyrin-reflector was used to allow for complete third order space focus at the location of the detector. However, it has the disadvantage, that ions must pass through the meshes of the reflector four times. These meshes reduce the ion transmission and hence the sensitivity of the instrument. They also reduce the mass resolution of the instrument due to scattering of the ions (Bergmann).
On the other hand, the energy focusing boundary condition for a single stage ion reflector requires, that the total field free drift space between the primary and secondary longitudinal focus is four times as long as the mean penetration depth of the ions into the reflector. This results in rather long reflectors, whenever a long flight path is required for high mass resolution. Furthermore, the energy focusing achieved with a single stage mirror is only of first order, thus transfer of the primary focus is less perfect and the overall mass resolution that can be achieved in the conventional way is limited. Ions pass through a single mesh twice on entering and leaving the a single stage reflector. This reduces the ion losses due to scattering, resulting in improved sensitivity when compared to a two stage reflector.

Time-of-flight mass spectrometer with first and second order longitudinal focusing


A method and apparatus for blind alignment of electronic circuit boards. A receptacle with two vertical flanges and one horizontal flange is positioned relative to an electrical connection. A circuit board having a notch on a leading edge is proximally positioned to the receptacle. As the notched edge is moved toward the receptacle, the flanges guide the board into a registered position relative to the electrical connection. The method and apparatus may be used in any number of alignment situations including those as disparate as robotic assembly operations and assembly by untrained consumers and end-users.

This invention relates to alignment and connection systems and mechanisms. More particularly, the present invention relates to a pre-alignment system and mechanism for electrical connectors that permits self-alignment and connection of a one printed wire board (PWB) to another.
There is a recognized need for modularization of PWB's. Commonly, modularization takes the form of isolating functions on separate PWB's. One PWB, referred to as the motherboard, frequently carries, and provides electrical interconnection for, other PWB's or daughter boards. The goal is for the daughter boards to be easily removable from the motherboard for inspection, upgrade, repair, or replacement.
As the functions performed by daughter boards become more complex, the number and type of electrical connections to the motherboard likewise become more complex. Electrical connectors on the market today are constructed so that their parts are easily mated so long as there is something that brings them into an initial registration or pre-alignment. Complex electrical connections may be jeopardized by tolerance build-up. Presently available pre-alignment systems tend to be expensive, inaccurate, and require assembly time. In fact, some pre-alignment systems may involve parts which increase the likelihood of erroneous assembly.
The invention provides advantages over prior art by utilizing pre-existing fabrication technologies to provide the basis of a pre-alignment guidance system. That is, the invention makes alignment detail integral to the daughter board PWB, thus obviating many of the assembly problems common to the prior art.

Blind alignment method and apparatus for circuit boards