A hybrid mushroom culture of Agaricus bisporus, designated as strain B14528, includes a representative culture of the strain, which has been deposited under NRRL Accession No. 50900. A method of producing a hybrid mushroom culture of Agaricus bisporus comprising: mating a homokaryotic line J12998-s39 with a homokaryotic line BW-s191. Additionally, mushrooms, parts of the culture and products incorporating the culture are provided.

The edible mushroom Agaricus bisporus (Lange) Imbach var. bisporus, a microorganism belonging to the basidiomycete fungi, is widely cultivated around the world. In Europe and North America, it is the most widely cultivated mushroom species. The value of the annual Agaricus bisporus mushroom crop in the United States was about $1,110,000,000 in 2012-2013, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, Agricultural Statistics Board, U.S. Department of Agriculture (Aug. 20, 2013).
Cultures of Agaricus, like those of other microorganisms, are prepared, maintained, propagated and stored on sterile media using microbiological laboratory methods. Sterile tools and aseptic techniques are used within clean rooms or sterile transfer hoods to manipulate cells of the pure cultures for various purposes including clonal propagation and for the development of new strains using diverse techniques including spore germinations on sterile growth media and controlled matings on sterile growth media. Commercial culture inocula including mushroom 'spawn' and 'casing inoculum' are also prepared using large-scale microbiological production methods, for example by aseptically introducing inoculum of a pure culture of a strain of Agaricus bisporus into from one to 14,000 liters of sterilized growth media under sterile conditions, and are provided to the end user as pure cultures on sterile growth media contained within sterile packaging.
Mushrooms are cultivated commercially within purpose-built structures on dedicated farms. While there are many variations on methods, the following description is typical. Compost prepared from lignocellulosic material such as straw, augmented with nitrogenous material, is finished and pasteurized within a suitable facility. Mushroom spawn, which comprises a sterilized friable 'carrier substrate' onto which a pure culture of one mushroom strain has been aseptically incorporated via inoculum and then propagated, is mixed with the pasteurized compost and is incubated for approximately 13 to about 19 days at a controlled temperature, during which time the mycelium of the mushroom culture colonizes the entire mass of compost and begins to digest it. A non-nutritive 'casing layer' of material such as peat is then placed over the compost to a depth of from about 1.5 to about 2 inches. Additional 'casing inoculum' incorporating the same mushroom culture may be incorporated into the casing layer to accelerate the formation and harvesting of mushrooms, and improve uniformity of the distribution of mycelium and mushrooms in and on the casing surface. Environmental conditions, including temperature and humidity, in the cropping facility are then carefully managed to promote and control the transition of the culture from vegetative to reproductive growth at the casing/air interface. In a further about 13 to about 18 days after casing, mushrooms will have developed to the correct stage for harvest and sale. A flush of mushrooms comprising the original culture will be picked over a 3 to 4 day period. Additional flushes of mushrooms appear at about weekly intervals. Commercially, two or three flushes of mushrooms are produced and harvested before the compost is removed and replaced in the cropping facility.
Generally speaking, strains may be differentiated on the basis of traits associated with the mushroom, such as mushroom size, mushroom shape (e.g., cap roundness, flesh thickness), color (i.e., white cap versus brown cap), surface texture (e.g., cap smoothness), tissue density and/or firmness, delayed maturation, basidial spore number greater than two, sporelessness, increased dry matter content, improved shelf life, and reduced bruising, as well as traits associated with the culture itself, and/or products incorporating the culture, and/or crops incorporating the culture, including increased crop yield, altered distribution of yield over time, decreased spawn to pick interval, resistance to infection by, symptoms of, or transmission of bacterial, viral or fungal diseases, insect resistance, nematode resistance, ease of crop management, suitability of crop for mechanical harvesting, and behavioral responses to environmental conditions including stressors, nutrient substrate composition, seasonal influences, farm practices, self/non-self interactions (compatibility or incompatibility) with various mushroom strains, to give some examples. Strains may also be differentiated based on their genotypic fingerprint (presence of specific alleles at defined marker loci in the nuclear or mitochondrial genome). Strains may have different ancestry, which will be reflected directly by the genotype, and indirectly, in some cases, by the phenotype.
Five to thirty percent of the Agaricus mushrooms cultivated in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere have a brown pileus color, in accordance with consumer preferences for a traditional or 'old-fashioned' product appearance. The 'portabella' mushroom market segment is supplied by the cultivation of brown-capped (=brown) strains. Market requirements for brown mushrooms in the USA and elsewhere are relatively narrow and precise for many observable phenotypic traits such as size, shape, color, color retention, firmness, and related traits such as shelf life. Consequently, genetically different strains of commercially successful brown Agaricus bisporus mushrooms often may not be easily differentiated on the basis of appearance of the mushrooms, which in general must conform to the market requirements.
Circa 1980, the first two white hybrid strains of A. bisporus, developed by a laboratory at Horst, the Netherlands, were introduced into commercial cultivation. These two "Horst" strains, called U1 and U3, are closely related hybrid strains produced by matings between two pre-existing white cultivated strains, as per M. Imbernon et al., Mycologia, 88(5), 749-761 (1996), herein incorporated by reference. The two parents of U1 and U3 are commercial strains belonging to two longstanding categorical types of strains known as the 'smooth-white' (SW) strains and the 'off-white' (OW) strains. The original homokaryons (or 'lines') obtained from the SW and OW strains, and used in the hybridization that produced the U1 strain, were designated H39 and H97 respectively; these cultures may no longer exist (A. Sonnenberg, pers. comm.).
However, a number of laboratories have deheterokaryotized the U1 strain and obtained neohaplont cultures incorporating one or the other nuclear type corresponding to those contributed by H39 or H97, as well as the mitochondrial type of U1. We refer to these two types of neohaplonts of U1 categorically as the SWNC and OWNC lines or homokaryons, respectively. An OWNC line designated 'H97' was deposited in the public culture collection of the Fungal Genetics Stock Center of Kansas, USA, by A. Sonnenberg, under the number 10389, and in the public collection of the American Type Culture Collection of Maryland, USA, under the number MYA-4626. The genome of H97 was sequenced and placed in the public domain by the Joint Genome Institute of California, USA. (See Morin et al. 2012, herein incorporated by reference).
One traditional type of brown-capped strain of A. bisporus mushroom, most often called the 'Old-Fashioned Brown' strain (or 'OFB'; examples of the OFB strain type include Sylvan's SB-65, SB-295, and RWK-2042 strains), originated as a wild strain in Europe and was the leading brown cultivar strain for many decades, even becoming the only brown cultivar in wide use in the last years of the twentieth century. A few different brown-capped hybrid strains have been developed since the 1980s, and some have enjoyed some commercial success. All publically disclosed examples of commercially relevant brown-capped hybrid strains have had both brown-capped and white-capped parents or grandparents. We refer categorically to hybrids having one white-capped parent line and one brown-capped parent line as BW, or BW-type, hybrids. This BW-type of hybrid is heteroallelic at the PPC-1 color-determining locus on Scaffold 8 of the nuclear genome. Sylvan America, Inc. developed and patented the first BW hybrid, the X618 strain (later called SC-600 and marketed as S600), a light brown strain, and later applied for patents on a class of strains including the BW hybrid J10263 strain, which is sporeless. Sylvan has developed numerous breeding lines and hybrid strains from these two, and from many other, BW-type hybrid strains, beginning in the 1980s. Others have developed and patented the BW hybrid Broncoh strain, which is light to medium brown. Yet others have developed and patented the hybrid strain BR06 (ATCC Accession No. PTA-6876, later believed to have been marketed as Heirloom), a dark brown strain that used the BW hybrid 4×29 or 4-29 strain (ATCC Accession No. PTA-6877) as a parent.
Heterokaryotic spores of an initial strain retain the great majority of the parental genotype (this behavior was shown by R. W. Kerrigan et al. in Genetics, 133, 225-236 (1993), herein incorporated by reference). A group of strains developed either by cloning or by spore culture, or by any other method of 'essential derivation' as discussed below, from a single progenitor (as opposed to outbreeding between two different progenitors) is called a derived lineage group. Many commercial mushroom strains developed from the OFB stock meet the criteria for Essentially Derived Varieties (as the term is applied to plant varieties).
Agaricus bisporus has a reproductive syndrome known as amphithallism, in which two distinct life cycles operate concurrently. As in other fungi, the reproductive propagule is a spore. Agaricus produces spores meiotically, on a meiosporangium known as a basidium. In a first life cycle, A. bisporus spores each receive a single haploid postmeiotic nucleus; these spores are competent to mate but not competent to reproduce mushrooms. These haploid spores germinate to produce homokaryotic offspring or lines which can mate with other compatible homokaryons to produce novel hybrid heterokaryons that are competent to produce mushrooms. Heterokaryons generally exhibit much less ability to mate than do homokaryons. This first lifecycle is called heteromixis, or more commonly, outbreeding. This life cycle operates but typically does not predominate in strains of Agaricus bisporus var. bisporus.
A second, inbreeding life cycle called intramixis predominates in most strains of Agaricus bisporus var. bisporus. Most spores receive two post-meiotic nuclei, and most such pairs of nuclei consist of Non-Sister Nuclear Pairs (NSNPs) which have a heteroallelic genotype at most or all centromeric-linked loci including the MAT locus. That MAT genotype determines the heterokaryotic phenotype of these offspring, which are reproductively competent and can produce a crop of mushrooms. Unusually among eukaryotes, relatively little chromosomal crossing-over is observed to have occurred in postmeiotic offspring of A. bisporus; empirically, very little heteroallelism (analogous to heterozygosity) is lost among heterokaryotic offspring of a heterokaryotic strain. Consequently, parental and offspring heterokaryotic genotypes and phenotypes tend to closely resemble each other, as noted above; for this reason, essential derivation, e.g., the methods of production of Essentially Derived Varieties (EDVs), is a familiar strain development technique among commercial mushroom spawn producers.
Strains currently available to the mushroom industry allow growers to produce crops of mushrooms successfully and profitably. Several factors exist that influence the degree of success and profitability achieved. Characteristics of strains that are factors which can improve producer profitability include increased productivity (higher yield or shorter cycle time), accelerated revenue capture (earlier harvest), reduced costs (for example, greater ease and speed of harvesting), reduced shrinkage (pre-sale weight loss), reduced overweighting of product in packages (extra weight of product packaged, due to particular sizes of individual mushrooms), improved consistency of crop performance responses to variations in raw materials, growing conditions and practices, superior crop performance in particular facilities, regions, etc., reduced losses to diseases including viral, bacterial and fungal disease agents, reduced losses to insect and nematode pests of the crop. There also exist improvable properties of the mushroom product that increase consumer and marketer demand in the distribution chain, and thus increase sales volume and/or sales price, such as improved visual appeal (more desirable coloration, shape, size, or surface texture), improved or distinct flavor characteristics, improved keeping qualities (longer persistence of desirable visual attributes), etc. Thus there are many characteristics by which a novel strain might be judged as superior in a particular production facility or sales market, or in the industry regionally or globally. Thus, the need continues to exist for new hybrid strains of Agaricus bisporus mushroom cultures and microorganisms that provide improved characteristics for producer profitability and for improved mushroom products over other previous strains of Agaricus bisporus.
There is also a need for commercially acceptable brown A. bisporus strains with different genotypes, relative to the OFB derived lineage group and to Heirloom, for two reasons. First, strains incompatible with other strains in cultivation (such as the OFB and Heirloom strains) are known to retard the spread of viral diseases between crops of different strains. This is a particular problem for producers of brown mushrooms, which, when grown in the 'portabella' or open-cap style, release spores that can transmit virus infection throughout a facility. Second, it is well understood that when an agricultural crop industry relies extensively on a single genetic lineage (i.e., creates a commercial monoculture as once existed for the OFB lineage of A. bisporus, and which might exist for Heirloom), there is an increased risk of unpredictable, catastrophic crop failure on a facility-wide or industry-wide scale. Industry experiences have shown that mushroom strains, including current brown portabella strains, may be vulnerable to such risks, as discussed by Beyer et al., 2013, "First report of Syzygites megalocarpus (Mucorales) web mold on the commercial portabella button mushroom Agaricus bisporus in North America." Plant Disease 97(1): 142, herein incorporated by reference. Therefore, from a risk management and food security perspective, it is highly desirable to simultaneously provide both genetic diversification and commercially acceptable performance and crop characteristics.

Hybrid mushroom strain B14528 and descendants thereof


Nucleic acid hybridization probes having at least one nucleic acid strand which has at least two separate target specific regions that hybridize to a target nucleic acid sequence, and at least two distinct arm regions that do not hybridize with the target nucleic acid but possess complementary regions that are capable of hybridizing with one another. These regions are designed such that, under appropriate hybridization conditions, the complementary arm regions will not hybridize to one another in the absence of the target nucleic acid; but, in the presence of target nucleic acid the target-specific regions of the probe will anneal to the target nucleic acid, and the complementary arm regions will anneal to one another, thereby forming a branched nucleic acid structure.

Nucleic acid is formed from nucleotide bases, e.g., uracil (U) cytidine (C), adenine (A), thymine (T) and guanine (G), formed as a single stranded linear molecule. Such a linear molecule can form a hybrid complex, or double stranded molecule (also called a duplex), with another linear molecule by forming specific base pairs, e.g., between A and T, A and U, or G and C. Such paired molecules are called complementary molecules.
Nucleic acid hybridization is a method in which two single stranded complementary molecules form a double stranded molecule. This method is commonly used to detect the presence of one single stranded molecule in a sample (the target nucleic acid) by use of a labelled probe formed of a complementary single stranded molecule. For example, Muran et al., WO 87/04165, published Jul. 16, 1987, describe a probe having a single stranded region complementary to the nucleic acid to be detected, and a double stranded region having a non-radioactive label. The general uses and design of nucleic acid probes are well known in the art, see e.g., Mifflin 35 Clin. Chem. 1819, 1989, and Matthews and Kricka, 169 Anal. Blochem. 1, 1988.


A multi-switch processing methodology and a multi-channel time-division plasma chopping device (10) for in-situ plasma-assisted semiconductor wafer processing associated with a plasma and/or photochemical processing equipment. The device (10) comprises a main transfer channel (72) associated with the processing reactor for transferring process gas and activated plasma mixtures into the reactor. A plurality of gas discharge channels (18, 22, 26, and 30) associate with the main transfer channel (72) for independently directing various gases and activated plasma combinations to main transfer channel (72). Process excitation sources (16, 20, 24 and 28) associate with at least one of said gas discharge or activation channels to independently and selectively activate process gases and to control gas activation and flow from the discharge channels to the main transfer channel (72). The method of the present invention performs multi-channel time-division plasma chopping by independently and selectively generating plasma or activated species using a plurality of remote plasma generation process energy sources (16, 20, 24, and 28) associated with the semiconductor wafer fabrication reactor.

Manufacturers of microelectronic devices use a variety of wafer processing techniques to fabricate semiconductor integrated circuits. One technique that has many important applications is known as plasma processing. In plasma processing, a substantially ionized gas, usually produced by a radio-frequency (RF) or microwave electromagnetic gas discharge, provides activated neutral and ionic species that chemically react to deposit or to etch material layers on semiconductor wafers in plasma processing equipment.
Applications of plasma-assisted processing techniques for semiconductor device manufacturing include reactive-ion etching (RIE) of polysilicon, aluminum, oxide and polyimides; plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition (PECVD) of dielectrics, metals, and other materials; low-temperature dielectric chemical-vapor deposition for planarized inter-level dielectric formation; and low-temperature growth of epitaxial semiconductor layers. Additional applications of plasma processing include plasma surface cleaning and physical-vapor deposition (PVD) of various material layers.
In plasma-assisted deposition and etching, a process "activation switch" acts on the electromagnetic process energy source and begins the plasma-assisted fabrication process. Although not necessarily a tangible "ON/OFF" switch, an activation switch performs the process on/off function by starting a fabrication process by its activation of a process energy source (e.g., RF power source) and stopping the process by its removal of the energy source. An activation switch for a plasma-assisted process may, for example, be the presence of a radio-frequency electromagnetic gas discharge source or some other process energy source without which the process cannot occur.
Semiconductor device fabrication processes including etch and deposition techniques use a process activation switch in order to drive the desired process. In plasma processing, the particular type of plasma-assisted process to be performed affects the process activation switch choice. The choice of activation switch for any device fabrication process, regardless of whether the process is a deposition or etch process, also may significantly affect the final semiconductor device properties.
For example, J. Gibbons et al., "Limited Reaction Processing: Silicon Epitaxy," Applied Physic Letters, 47(7), 1 Oct. 1985, pp. 721-23, describes a material layer deposition process known as limited-reaction processing or "LRP" that uses a thermal process activation switch (wafer temperature). On the other hand, K. Tanjimoto, et a l., "A New Side Wall Protection Technique in Microwave Plasma Etching Using a Chopping Method," Extended Abstracts of the 18th (1986 International) Conference on Solid State Devices and Materials, Tokyo, 1986, pp. 229-32, describes a process known as "time-division gas chopping" that uses a reactive process gas flow as the process activation switch. Although these processes represent the most advanced known uses of single activation switches for material layer deposition and etch processes, respectively, each of these techniques have significant limitations.
LRP provides a capability for multilayer processing by using wafer temperature cycling as the only available process activation switch. Process environment for deposition of a subsequent layer is stabilized while the thermal switch is off. In LRP, a semiconductor wafer is placed within a single-wafer reaction process chamber filled with a desired process gas (e.g. for epitaxial silicon growth or polysilicon deposition). By only using a single thermal process activation switch, usually a heating lamp, LRP can deposit multiple material layers on a semiconductor wafer. To begin the process, first the process ambient is established by starting the desired process gas flows while the thermal activation switch is off (cold wafer). Then, the semiconductor wafer is heated to the desired process temperature by activating the process energy source (heating lamp). Once the wafer reaches the process temperature, a layer of material (e.g., epitaxial silicon) is deposited on the wafer to a desired thickness. Once the layer reaches the desired thickness, the heat source, which is the main process energy source, is turned off. The next step is to evacuate the process gases from the reactor process chamber and to establish the process environment for the next in-situ deposition step while the process activation switch (heating source) remains off. The semiconductor wafer is then restored to a high temperature by activating the heating source in preparation for a next elevated-temperature material layer growth or deposition step. An example of an LRP sequence may be as follows: a first layer may be an epitaxial silicon layer, a second layer may be an SiO.sub.2 layer, a third layer may be a polysilicon layer, followed by another oxidation step.
Because LRP uses only one process activation switch, it provides limited flexibility in depositing multiple layers by in-situ multiprocessing. Additionally, temperature activation switching used in LRP and other multiprocessing techniques can cause thermally-induced defects and stresses, both within the semiconductor substance and between the deposited or grown layers. The thermally-induced stresses and defects such as slip dislocations can arise from rapid cooling and heating that occurs between fabrication process steps. Since thermal energy is the only available process activation energy source, the process temperatures in LRP are rather high (e.g., 650.degree.-1200.degree. C. ) which can further increase the thermally-induced defect generation problem.
Consequently, there is need for semiconductor wafer multiprocessing techniques that permit in-situ deposition and/or etching of multiple layers on a semiconductor substrate with more than one process activation switch and multiple process energy sources.
There is also a need for a semiconductor wafer fabrication process that eliminates excessive thermal stresses and substrate defects caused by repetitive semiconductor wafer heating and cooling cycles between multiple layer depositions.
Time-division gas chopping eliminates some problems or limitations associated with conventional etching techniques. For example, some conventional plasma-assisted anisotropic etching techniques use a mixture of at least two process gases within a process chamber to generate a mixed gas plasma. The mixed process medium usually consists of a sidewall passivation gas and an etch gas. Using a composite process medium, however, gas discharge characteristics can become complex and many different activated species are produced within the process chamber. Sometimes the discharge characteristics are predictable; other times there are interactive gas-phase reaction effects between different activated species that are neither easily predictable nor desireable. For example, using a combination of two or more gases in the process chamber, gas discharge can produce a composite plasma medium that yields unwanted gas-phase reactions and nucleations. Gas-phase nucleations are caused by reactions between different activated plasma species, resulting in generation of particles and reduction of the semiconductor device fabrication yield. Thus, it is preferred to avoid those possible gas-phase reactions by reducing the number of different gases present within the activated plasma environments at the same time.
Anisotropic etching processes are expected to produce well-defined and near-vertical patterned layer sidewalls on semiconductor wafers following the removal of the etched portions. These near-vertical or vertical pattern sidewalls with minimal undercut are essential to the design and performance of the resulting integrated circuit. Particles from gas-phase nucleations within a composite plasma environment can produce defects on semiconductor devices. However, the use of multiple process gases and composite plasmas are essential in some anisotropic etch processes in order to prevent lateral etching or etch undercut and to increase the degree of plasma etch anisotropy. This is due to the fact that at least one gas in the mixed plasma environment forms a passivation layer on pattern sidewalls and prevents lateral etch or undercut.
Time-division gas chopping attempts to solve these problems of conventional plasma-assisted anisotropic etch processes by periodically switching between two different process gases. The first gas is usually a reactive etch gas (e.g. a halogen-containing compound) which can remove any exposed material layers; the second gas is a sidewall passivation gas which is supposed to prevent pattern lateral sidewall etch. The etch gas serves to etch the exposed material layer on a semiconductor wafer according to a pre-specified pattern design transferred to a photoresist or a hard-mask layer by microlithography. The sidewall passivation gas deposits a thin etch passivation layer on the substrate surface including etched pattern sidewalls. The thin sidewall passivation layer prevents lateral etching or undercutting of the sidewalls that could occur by the etch gas during a subsequent material etch step. This protects the pattern sidewalls during an anisotropic etching process following the surface passivation step. The passivation layer is sufficiently thin that during a subsequent anisotropic etching step, the directional and energetic ions in plasma can remove it from flat horizontal surfaces and form the desired circuit pattern by anisotropic etching. Sequentially depositing a passivation layer and performing an anisotropic etch step significantly reduces lateral sidewall etching. This results in an overall fabrication process yield improvement.
Time-division gas chopping also minimizes composite discharge effects and gas-phase nucleations and particle generation by using only one plasma process gas at a time. Using only one gas at a time also yields more predictable and reproducible etch results from one semiconductor wafer to another (wafer-to-wafer process repeatability).
Although time-division gas chopping results in some improvements over conventional mixed-gas composite plasma-assisted anisotropic etching techniques, significant limitations also exist in that process. By cyclicly or sequentially introducing the etch gas followed by the passivation gas, a throughput or etch rate degradation occurs, because of the rather slow gas flow transient times and the need to pump out the process chamber after each etch or passivation cycle and to reestablish the process environment for the subsequent passivation or etch process step at the end of each preceding process step. This requires a completely new volume of process gas to perform each etching or passivation step in a multi-step anisotropic etch process.
Another problem of time-division gas flow chopping also relates to the repeated etch process gas/passivation gas cycling. By starting and stopping gas flows through gas lines connected to the fabrication reactor, particulates from the gas lines and valves may enter the process chamber and contaminate the semiconductor wafer. Each sudden surge of gas flow, whether opening or closing the gas valves or mass-flow controllers, can introduce particulates into the process chamber. This particulate contamination degrades the semiconductor device manufacturing yield.
Yet another limitation associated with the time-division gas chopping technique relates to long gas flow transient times required for stabilizing the process chamber for sequential etch and passivation plasma environments between adjacent cycles. With each cycle, time delays on the order of several seconds to tens of seconds may be necessary to pump out the preceding process gas ambient and to stabilize the new process environment. For a given anisotropic etch process, it may be necessary to use a number of etch-passivation cycles in order to complete the etch process. As a result, the gas on/off cycles and process stabilization periods may contribute significantly to the total etch process time for each semiconductor wafer.
Thus, there is a need for a plasma-assisted semiconductor device fabrication technique that eliminates the need for composite mixed-gas discharge and minimizes any gas-phase nucleations and particulate contamination without reducing the overall wafer processing throughout.
There is a need for plasma-assisted semiconductor device fabrication etch and deposition techniques that allow the use of various process gases without the transient flow surges and particulate contamination from the gas flow lines and valves that may contaminate the semiconductor wafer.
There is yet a need for a plasma-assisted device fabrication technique that permits the use of alternating etch gas/passivation plasma processing cycles without having to deal with the long transient times associated with the time-division gas flow cycling method.

Method and apparatus for time-division plasma chopping in a multi-channel plasma processing equipment


A desired pattern of elements, including an element having a slant side intersecting a recording track, is depicted on a resist layer on a disc-like substrate. The element is depicted by causing an electron beam whose beam diameter is smaller than the minimum width of the element to scan the resist layer so that the trajectory of the beam center of the electron beam on the resist layer draws a periodic waveform traveling along an axis parallel to the recording track. The periodic waveform is drawn from a starting point which is on a valley or a peak of the waveform. Angles θ3, θ1 and θ2 satisfy the relation θ1<θ3<θ2.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of depicting a desired pattern of elements with an electron beam on a resist layer formed on a disc-like substrate, a disc-like substrate for a high-density recording such as a master information carrier for magnetic transfer, an optical disc stamper and a patterned medium for high-density magnetic recording and a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been known magnetic transfer where the surface of a master information carrier having thereon a fine irregularity pattern of magnetic material representing information to be transferred is brought into close contact with a surface of a slave medium (a magnetic recording medium) having a magnetic layer to which the information is transferred and a transfer magnetic field is applied to the slave medium and the master information carrier in this state, thereby recording on the slave medium a magnetization pattern representing the information (e.g., a servo signal) on the master information carrier. See, for instance, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 63(1988)-183623 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,016.
The master information carrier generally comprises a substrate and an irregularity pattern (a pattern of protruding portions and recessed portions) of magnetic material formed on the substrate.
It has been expected that the master information carrier for magnetic transfer can be produced by the use of a method of producing an optical disc stamper, for producing optical discs, on the basis of a matrix carrying thereon an irregularity pattern of resist representing information to be transferred. (See, for instance, in U.S. Patent Laid-Open No. 20010028964.)
Further, it is conceivable that the irregularity pattern of resist corresponding to the irregularity pattern on the substrate of the master information carrier for magnetic transfer can be depicted on the resist layer formed on a disc-like matrix by exposing the resist layer to a laser beam modulated according to information to be transferred while rotating the matrix in the same manner as the production of the optical disc matrix.
However, as the track width is narrowed (e.g., to not larger than 0.3 μm), for instance, to meet a demand for a higher recording density, the drawing diameter of a laser beam (the diameter at which a laser beam draws an image on the resist layer) comes not to be able to be thinned to draw a pattern of lands (protruding portions) and grooves (recessed portions) in such a narrow tracks. As a result, elements of the irregularity pattern of resist come to have arcuate end portions and cannot be rectangular in shape. The element of the irregularity pattern on the master information carrier conforms to the element of the irregularity pattern of resist on the matrix in shape, especially in shape of the upper surface of the element. Accordingly, when the element of the irregularity pattern of resist on the matrix has end portions which are arcuate and not rectangular, the element of the irregularity pattern on the master information carrier also has end portions which are arcuate and not rectangular. Arcuate end portions of the lands of the irregularity pattern on the master information carrier result in incorrect formation of a magnetization pattern on the slave medium.
We, this applicant has proposed, in Japanese Patent Application 2002-202629, a method of depicting a pattern on the resist layer of the matrix by the use of an electron beam which is smaller in beam diameter than the laser beam.
In the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application 2002-202629, an irregularity pattern is depicted on the resist layer with an electron beam whose diameter is smaller than the minimum width of the elements (such as the upper surfaces of the protruding portions or the openings of the recessed portions) of the irregularity pattern, and the shape of each element is drawn by causing the electron beam to scan the resist layer a plurality of times. For example, in the case where an element of the irregularity pattern is of a rectangle perpendicular to the direction of recording tracks (the circumferential direction), the matrix is slightly rotated each time the electron beam scans the matrix in the direction perpendicular to the direction of recording tracks. The one scanning of the electron beam and the fine rotation of the matrix are alternately repeated a plurality of times, thereby depicting one element.
However, the method involving causing an electron beam to scan in radial directions a plurality of times is disadvantageous in that, when the irregularity pattern includes an element which is a parallelogram having a slant side obliquely intersecting the direction of recording tracks in its shape as well as an element the shape of which is of a rectangle perpendicular to the direction of recording tracks extending vertically to the same (e.g., a phase servo pattern), the slant side is zigzagged and cannot be precisely formed. The slant side of the element which is a parallelogram in shape corresponds to a magnetization transition zone, and the linearity thereof is very important upon reproduction of the signal. Further, it is required to precisely control the inclination of the slant side to the recording tracks.
It is conceivable to meet demands described above by a method in which elements are depicted by causing an electron beam to scan back and forth a plurality of times in a direction of the slant side. However, these inventors have found that even if the electron beam is caused to scan to trace a trajectory inclined by the same angle as the desired inclination of the slant side, a slant side inclined by the desired angle cannot be actually obtained since the area exposed to an electron beam depends upon overlapping of the trajectory of the electron beam, the exposure time and/or the like and overlapping of the trajectory of the electron beam differs according to the part where the electron beam overlaps, near the peak or the valley or at an intermediate portion.
Accordingly, there has been a demand for a method which can easily depict an element having a desired slant side with an electron beam.
Also in the field of optical discs, it will become necessary to depict a pattern with an electron beam upon making a stamper in order to obtain a higher recording density.
It has been proposed to depict a pattern with an electron beam in production of a patterned medium realization of which has been expected as a high density magnetic recording medium which can be small in size and light in weight. See, for instance, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-110050. However, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-110050, though use of an electron beam has been disclosed, how to depict a pattern with an electron beam has not been disclosed in detail.
With an increase in information quantity, there is a demand for a magnetic recording medium which is high in memory capacity, low in cost and preferably requires a short time to read out a necessary part of data (a magnetic recording medium which allows so-called high-speed access). As an example of such a magnetic recording medium, there has been known a high recording density magnetic medium such as a hard disc, a zip (Iomega) and the like. In such a high recording density magnetic medium, the recording area is formed by narrow data tracks. In order to cause a magnetic head to accurately trace such narrow data tracks and reproduce the data at a high S/N ratio, the so-called servo tracking technique has been employed.
In order to perform the servo tracking, it is necessary to write servo information such as servo tracking signals for positioning the data tracks, address signals for the data tracks and reproduction clock signals on the magnetic recording medium as a preformat upon production thereof. At the present, such preformat recording is performed by the use of a specialized servo recording apparatus (a servo track writer). However, the preformat recording by the conventional servo recording apparatus is disadvantageous in that it takes a long time since the servo information must be recorded on the magnetic recording medium one by one by the use of a magnetic head, which deteriorates the productivity.
As a method of recording the preformat accurately and efficiently, there has been proposed, for instance, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 63(1988)-183623 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,016, a magnetic transfer method in which a pattern which is formed on a master information carrier and represents servo information is copied to a magnetic recording medium (a slave medium) by magnetic transfer.
In the magnetic transfer, the magnetization pattern representing the information (e.g., servo information) carried by a master information carrier is magnetically transferred from the master information carrier to a slave medium by applying a transfer magnetic field to the slave medium and the master information in close contact with each other, and accordingly, the information carried by the master information carrier can be statically recorded on the slave medium with the relative position between the master information carrier and the slave medium kept constant. Thus, according to the magnetic transfer, the preformat recording can be performed accurately and the time required for the preformat recording is very short.
The conventional servo writing by the use of a servo track writer can suppress the azimuth loss since it records the servo signal by the use of the same magnetic head. However, when a signal represented by a magnetization pattern of a magnetic disc on which the magnetization pattern is formed by the magnetic transfer employing the master information carrier is to be reproduced by a magnetic head of a recording and reproducing system, the azimuth loss can become large since recording and reproduction are effected in quite different systems. Increase in the azimuth loss results in deterioration of the quality of the reproduced signal. Especially, when the transferred signal is a servo signal, increase in the azimuth loss results in deterioration of accuracy of the tracking servo.
Production of any one of the master information carrier, the optical disc stamper and the patterned medium involves depicting a desired pattern of elements on a resist layer formed on a disc-like substrate, and forming an irregularity pattern corresponding to the desired pattern of elements.

Method of depicting a pattern with electron beam and disc-like substrate and magnetic recording medium


A road vehicle turn signal assist system and method are described for a road vehicle having turn indicators, a positioning system having access to map data, one or more sensors for monitoring the road vehicle surroundings, and one or more gears for selectively travelling forward or in reverse. Current positioning information and map data for the current position is used to determine if parking of the road vehicle is in progress when a reverse gear is selected. If it is determined that parking of the road vehicle is in progress and the one or more sensors for monitoring the road vehicle surroundings detect a moving object, a right hand side or a left hand side road vehicle turn indicator is activated, if not already manually activated, to indicate the ongoing parking operation.

It is known that users of road vehicles such as cars, lorries, buses or trucks, do not always enable the turn indicator when a parking spot is identified and about to be entered. The absence of an activated turn signal increases the risk that other motor vehicle drivers, pedestrians and cyclists will not perceive or misunderstand the parking intentions of such road vehicle users. Such lack of perception or misunderstanding may cause stressful and potentially dangerous situations and potentially also accidents.
The reasons why such road vehicle users fail to activate the turns signal are diverse. For instance, they may simply forget to do so due to a hectic and stressful traffic environment, e.g. city traffic. In some instances the road vehicle user may have activated the turn signal, but then unintentionally deactivated it, e.g. due to spinning of the steering wheel and the automatic release of the turn signal indicator when the steering wheel is returned to the neutral position or due to hand movements causing unintentional contact with a turn signal activation/deactivation lever, which usually is situated in the vicinity of the steering wheel.
Activation of the turn signal may in some cases also have been intentionally ignored, e.g. due to laziness on the part of the road vehicle user or due to the road vehicle user being unable to observe any other motor vehicles, pedestrians or cyclists, and therefore assuming that no other motor vehicle drivers, pedestrians and cyclists will be affected by the lack of an activated turn indicator.
An automated method for providing an indication, with the aid of a turn signal indicator, that a vehicle is leaving a parking space is previously known from US 2011128140 A1, in which a vehicle control system detects initially whether an executed driving maneuver is a maneuver related to leaving a parking space, in which case the maneuvering out of a parking space is indicated by activating the turn signal indicator, and the turn signal indicator is kept activated until the process of maneuvering out of the parking space has been concluded. An executed driving maneuver is e.g. detected as pull-out maneuver when the distance sensors detect stationary objects in front of and/or behind the vehicle or when a first driving movement in a first direction is followed by a second driving movement in a second direction opposite the first direction, and when a steering movement takes place during at least one of these maneuvers.
Furthermore, through US 2014214260 A1 is known an assistance system that particularly uses a top view system to perform an autonomous or semi-autonomous driving maneuver, especially an assistance system that serves to perform an autonomous or semi-autonomous maneuver in order to get into or out of a parking space. In the assistance system an overall image of the surroundings of the vehicle made up of several individual images is processed. Image data are generated from the surroundings of a vehicle, such as by means of several cameras directed toward different regions of the surroundings of the vehicle. The image data is suitably processed by means of image processing devices in order to perform the driving maneuver, e.g., in such a manner that objects, such as other vehicles and obstacles, are detected from the image data, the distances to the detected objects are determined, the length and the depth of a parking space is calculated, and the necessary driving maneuver including the required steering angles are derived on the basis of this information. In addition to the camera system, further sensors, such as ultrasonic, radar, lidar, and laser sensors, may be used to detect objects and obstacles and to calculate the length and the depth of the parking space. At least one direction in which the vehicle moves when performing the autonomous or semi-autonomous driving maneuver is indicated by means of at least one light signal device, whereby passengers and other road users, in particular, people in the vicinity of the vehicle, can be informed about the direction of movement intended by the assistance system and/or about the exact movement trajectory, driving path, of the vehicle. By indicating the at least one direction of movement, it is stated that accidents can be avoided or the potential of danger to people can be reduced.
Although the above mentioned previously known methods and arrangements are useful in reducing cases of lack of activated turn signals during road vehicle parking maneuvers, there is still room for further improvement in this field.

Road vehicle turn signal assist system and method


The present invention provides nanoporous α-alumina powders comprising powder comprising interconnected α-alumina primary particles having an average particle size of less than about 100 nm and an interpenetrated array of pores or voids. The invention also provides nanosized α-alumina powders comprising α-alumina particles having an average particle size of less than about 100 nm and slurries, particularly aqueous slurries, which comprise nanosized α-alumina powders of the invention. The invention further provides methods of manufacturing nanoporous α-alumina powders and nanosized α-alumina powders of the invention and methods of polishing using slurries of the invention.

Ultra-fine alumina (aluminum oxide) powder is one of the most widely used ceramic materials in a variety of industries. Applications of fine alumina powders include use as abrasives for polishing semiconductor and precision optical components, catalyst supports including the support structure in automobile catalytic converters, fillers for polymers, and pigment for painting, and the like. Alumina has over twelve (12) different crystalline phases, each of which has a different lattice structure and physical properties. However, the most well known and commonly used alumina powders are γ-alumina and α-alumina. The low temperature phase, γ-alumina, is thermodynamically metastable and transforms to the thermodynamically stable phase, α-alumina, at temperatures in excess of about 1100° C. or about 1200° C. depending on various conditions. With a defective spinel structure, γ-alumina powder can have very small particle sizes, e.g., particle sizes of less than about 20 nm, and extremely high surface area, e.g., greater than about 300 m2/g. Moreover, γ-alumina can be processed via both vapor and liquid phase processing techniques. Ultrafine γ-alumina having an average particle size of less than 40 nm and a polishing slurry with γ-alumina are commercially available. Ultrafine γ-alumina having an average particle size of less than 40 nm and a polishing slurry with γ-alumina are commercially available.
The density of α-alumina is about 20% higher than the density of γ-alumina and more chemically and mechanically durable than γ-alumina. Thus, nanosized α-alumina particles should be suitable for a greater range of applications than nanosized γ-alumina. However, during the phase transformation, due to the reorganization of oxygen in the crystal lattice, the alumina particle size increases drastically such that α-alumina prepared from γ-alumina normally has a particle size of greater than 100 nm.
To make nanosized α-alumina, e.g., α-alumina particles of less than about 100 nm, has been a challenge for an extended period of time. To prevent the particle from rapid grain growth is the key. It is well known that fine α-alumina powders having an average particle size of greater than 100 nm can be prepared via a seeded sol-gel process. In the process, boehmite is first peptized in acidic aqueous solution, containing nitric acid or acetic acid and then a couple of weight percent of α-alumina seeds, usually fine α-alumina particles, are added to the solution during the peptization to allow phase transformation to occur at lower temperature. The sol is oven dried at about 100° C. and converted to a dry gel. After crushing to micron sized granules, they are fired at a high temperature, normally over about 1000° C. to the produce of α-alumina particles. The temperature must be well controlled to prevent particle growth. However, in this process micron sized grains remain intact during the phase transformation process and result in mechanically strong hard grains of α-alumina after completion of the transformation. To make nanoalumina particles, high mechanical energy is required to crush or break down the grain into primary particles which typically have an average particle size of more than 100 nm. Moreover, the grinding process frequently results in high levels of impurity contamination.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,791 recites a modified approach to prepare alumina grains and fibers. The starting material is boehmite that is peptized and then dispersed in water to generate an alumina sol. The sol is rapidly cooled in liquid nitrogen or, alternatively slowly cooled by freeze drying. Water is sublimed under vacuum from the sol to form a gel composed of flakes having a thickness of between 1 and 3 μm. By the process recited in '791 patent, finer alumina powders, flakes, fibers, and grains can be made having micron-sized smallest dimensions. However, as the powders themselves have no porosity, they require high mechanical energy grinding to form smaller particles which introduces high levels of impurities into the α-alumina product.
Given these and other deficiencies observed in the art, it would be highly desirable to develop smaller and more homogeneous α-alumina powders of higher purity and methods for the production thereof.

Process for making nanoporous ultrafine alpha-alumina powder


To reduce damage to surrounding tissue while fragmenting some tissue such as for example not damaging the capsular wall while removing the lens during cataract removal surgery or not damaging artery or vein walls during bypass surgery while freeing the artery or vein to be transplanted, an incision is made for the insertion of surface--a handpiece tip. The tip is rotated and reciprocated ultrasonically at the same time so that tissue is fragmented by the combined motion of a fragmenting surface perpendicular to the surface and at an angle to the surface many times during a single revolution or part of a revolution.

This invention relates to the removal of tissue from the body such as for example removal of cataracts from the eye.
It is known to remove diseased tissue from the body by fragmenting, crushing or otherwise making the tissue flowable while in the body and then aspirating it. In one known class of surgical techniques of this type specifically intended for the removal of cataracts: (1) an incision is made along the superior corneal margin from about 10 to 2 o'clock (12 o'clock is the location closest to the top of the head of the patient) approximately 10 mm in chord length; (2) an incision is made in the capsular wall; and (3) the cataract is removed. The anterior chamber is maintained substantially formed during the operation by means of a continuous inflow of irrigating solution.
In one prior art technique of this class for removing a cataract, the nucleus is expressed out of the eye and the cortex is removed by a process of irrigation and aspiration. In another prior art technique of this class for removing the cataract, the nucleus is removed with a vectis and about 0.1 milliliter of viscoelastic compound or irrigating fluid is introduced into the capsular bag to separate the capsular walls. With the capsular walls separated, a wedge of the cortex is engaged in the aspiration port of a cannula and peeled toward the center and then aspirated to remove it. This process is repeated so that the layers of the cortex are peeled and then aspirated inwardly through the cannula, layer by layer, until the intact capsular bag (except for the horizontal incision) is completely empty and clean.
This technique of removing the cataract is disclosed by Anis, Aziz Y., "Illustrated Step-by-Step Description of the Anis Dry Extra Capsular Cataract Extraction Technique With In-the-Bag Lens Implementation"; Seminars in Opthalmology, v. 1, N. 2 (June), 1986, pp. 113-129 and the technique is compared with other such techniques of this class.
Two prior art types of instruments which aid in the fragmentation and aspiration of the lens nucleus to permit extraction through a small incision are machines disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,589,363 to Anton Banko et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,902,495 to Steven N. Weiss; U.S. Pat. No. 3,693,613 to Charles Kelman et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,041,947 to Steven N. Weiss et al. These machines are intended in the prior art to fragment a lens nucleus using ultrasonic vibrations to aid the irrigation/aspiration of the lens. The ultrasonic vibrations laterally reciprocate the tip of an instrument to fracture the cataract after which it can be aspirated.
A further type of machine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,015 issued to Anis on Mar. 13, 1990. This patent describes a machine that rotates a solid member having blades extending from it to grind the lens.
These tissue removal techniques have several disadvantages, such as: (1) the machines used in the techniques risk tearing the capsular wall with the reciprocating ultrasonic vibration tools or with the rotating blades; (2) under some circumstances, they require large incisions in or removal of parts of the capsular wall; and (3) they may require the use of several different instruments and/or machines.
Still another type of prior art technique for removing cataracts uses a machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,996,935 to Banko issued Dec. 14, 1976. This type of machine has cooperating jaw-like members, one of which rotates inside the other to break up the lens by shearing sections of it. It aspirates fragments through the instrument. This type of instrument has a disadvantage in that it can break the capsular wall and is relatively complex. Part of the disadvantage comes from the teaching that it may be rotated manually or mechanically without a corresponding teaching of the rate of rotation required for efficient use.
Still another prior art instrument includes a small rotary magnetic cutter that is injected through the capsular wall and a means for applying magnetic fields that control the magnetic cutter in position. The small magnetic cutter is rotated as it moves from position to position in the capsular bag and to abrade or cut the lens that is to be removed.
This instrument has several disadvantages, such as: (1) it is relatively complicated and expensive because of the need to remotely control the small cutter; and (2) does not incorporate any mechanism for aspirating the lens particles as they are abraded from the lens.
In still another prior art device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,002,169, small retractable wires are rotated in a range of 5 rpm to 16,000 rpm. There is no teaching of selecting the speed for surface discrimination and the device relies on blunt surfaces to avoid damage to the capsular wall instead. This device has the disadvantages of: (1) providing a relatively slow cutting velocity range with blades not shaped for cavitation or turbulance; (2) not providing a range of velocities sufficient to form small particles that can be aspirated through a small hole; and (3) not providing for aspiration during fragmenting, thus blocking visibility with particles.
Each of these prior art types of instruments includes a handpiece and a console. The handpiece is held by the surgeon and includes an operative tip that, at one point in time, enters the capsular sac to fragment and remove the cataract. The console includes controls for the handpiece such as those that control the direction of movement and speed of movement of the tip, rate of flow of liquids, the suction or aspiration pressure and the drivers that apply power to the hand-piece at the appropriate values. Generally, the consoles are designed together with a particular type of hand-piece used in a specialized technique of ocular surgery.
A still further type of instrument is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,264 to Kelman issued Mar. 12, 1985. This patent discloses an instrument that reciprocates a cutting tip ultrasonically and oscillates it rotationally about its longitudinal axis at a rate of one hertz through an angle of between five degrees to 60 degrees.
A similar United States patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,176,677 to Wuchinich describes oscillation through a larger arc and states that the rotational motion is not limited as to direction or speed. It describes a device in which rotation of a beveled tip cuts tissue with reversal accommodating asymmetrical morphology to cut tissue that is more easily separated from one side than the other. This patent teaches that rotation from 61 to 360 degrees is sufficient for most purposes but rotation through any arc is possible through appropriate control but does not teach any mechanism or range that is preferable other than the motor being capable of operating from zero to 200 r.p.m. but as much as 3,000 r.p.m. with an appropriate bearing.
Because of dwell time at each change of rotational direction, the repeated changes of direction and speed limitations inherent in the direction changes, these two instruments do not provide the advantage of positive breaking of the tissue into particles small enough to not cause plugging of the tip nor impede visibility.
The prior art arrangement has several disadvantages, such as for example: (1) it is difficult for the surgeon to use the most modern techniques without investing substantial amounts of money in purchasing additional consoles for the newer instruments; (2) for each new handpiece designed for a particular technique, the surgeon must adapt to different controls in the console itsseff rather than relying upon controls with which he is already familiar; (3) the handpieces are subject to plugging, poor visibility into the eye and excessive pressure on the capsular wall from movement of large particles; (4) different equipment is necessary to remove vitreous liquids; (5) the aspirating force pulls large masses of tissue when the tip is normal to the tissue, thus occluding the opening; (6) deep coring is not possible to break the tissue into particles; and (7) vitreous liquids and semisolids are not absorbed but pull back when aspirating pressure is released.


Similar to a paddle wheel, a rotary magazine for storing and conveying articles is mounted to turn about a horizontal axis and has radially extending vanes spaced around and fixed to the periphery of a central cylinder. At an accessible region an article is loaded axially into the space between an adjacent pair of vanes. It is kept from falling out by support from a cylindrical surface separate from the magazine and spaced slightly beyond the outermost tips of the vanes. The surface partially encircles the magazine from its lowermost region up to the level where the article will not fall out. A single ejector ejects in the axial direction each article in turn as rotation of the magazine carries it from the loading region to an ejection location.. Optionally, an article can be treated, e.g. cooled, heated, irradiated, etc. in a treating chamber located on the path between loading region and ejection location. A sensor examining the treated article detects whether treatment was satisfactory or not and then either permits or prevents continued travel of the article to its final destination. A typical use is for conveying and pre-heating ingots destined to supply a melting furnace.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus for conveying with facility a variety of types of articles in a magazine rotatable about a generally horizontal axis from a region where they are loaded into the magazine to a location where they are dispensed from the magazine. Optionally, while they are being conveyed from the loading region to the dispensing location they can be subjected to treatment such as cooling, heating, irradiation, spray coating etc.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 2,762,094 of A. B. Vieth shows an automatic casting machine having a polygonal cage rotatable about a horizontal axis and carrying a mold block attached to each side of the polygon. When a mold block is in a horizontal position at the top of the polygon molten metal is poured into the block to form a casting. Simultaneously another mold block with a solidified casting is horizontal at the bottom of the cage and the casting is ejected from it. The cage is adapted to convey only mold blocks and the castings in them. Unlike the present invention, the Vieth machine cannot convey a variety of types of articles. Also there is no suggestion in Vieth of subjecting the castings to treatment while they are being carried from the loading region to the ejection location.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,312 to Robert B. Green shows a machine with a conventional endless belt conveyor on which are mounted molds spaced along its length. At a first station molten metal is poured into the molds and the conveyor moves the molds to a second station where the ingots are ejected from the molds. The refractory linings of the molds are electrically heated to maintain the exterior side surfaces of the ingots in the molds at a desired temperature as the molds travel between the two stations. Because of the belt conveyor this machine occupies a large amount of floor space compared to the present invention. When articles conveyed by the present invention are optionally heated as they travel between loading and dispensing locations the invention avoids the need to supply and maintain separate heating elements for the containment structure for each article as Green must do.

Apparatus for conveying, optionally treating, and dispensing articles


In order to inhibit defective connection between a bump of a semiconductor chip and an electrode pad of a substrate, a semiconductor device includes a substrate provided on a surface with a plurality of electrode pads 15, a semiconductor chip 20 provided on a surface with a plurality of bumps 21 substantially equal in size, and an anisotropic conductive film 30 interposed between the plurality of bumps 21 and the plurality of electrode pads 15 and electrically connecting each of the bumps 21 and corresponding one of the electrode pads 15. The plurality of electrode pads 15 includes a plurality of first electrode pads 15A positioned closest to an end 25 of the semiconductor chip 20, and a plurality of second electrode pads 15B positioned inside the plurality of first electrode pads 15A on the semiconductor chip 20. Each of the second electrode pads 15B is larger in area than each of the first electrode pads 15A.

There has been known a technique (chip on glass (COG)) of mounting a semiconductor chip having a lower surface provided with a plurality of bumps, on a substrate with an anisotropic conductive film interposed therebetween.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a configuration in which a plurality of bumps provided on a semiconductor chip includes first bumps arrayed close to a chip end surface and connected to first terminals provided on a substrate, and second bumps arrayed far from the chip end surface (closer to the innermost portion of the chip) and connected to second terminals provided on the substrate. In the configuration disclosed in Patent Literature 1, the second bumps are larger in area than the first bumps and the second terminals are larger in area than the first terminals. This configuration allows, upon mounting in accordance with the COG technique, conductive particles captured by the first bumps arrayed close to the chip end surface and the first terminals to be substantially equal in number to conductive particles captured by the second bumps arrayed far from the chip end surface and the second terminals, to inhibit defective connection between the second bumps and terminal areas connected thereto.


An ultraviolet absorber having an acidic group is further added to an ink composition for inkjet recording which contains a colorant, a humectant, water, and a water-soluble substance that is condensation-polymerized in the absence of the water. A radical trapping agent having an acidic group is further added to an ink composition for inkjet recording which contains a colorant, a humectant, water, and a water-soluble substance that is condensation-polymerized in the absence of the water.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention falls within the technical field that relates to an ink composition for inkjet recording, an ink cartridge and a recording apparatus which are suitable for inkjet recording.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, ink containing a colorant (dye or pigment), a humectant and water has been well known as ink used for inkjet recording. However, in the case of forming an image with the ink on a recording medium, the water-resistivity of the image is a matter of concern, i.e., there is a problem such that the colorant exudes into water when the image is exposed to water. Especially when an image is recorded on plain paper, the water-resistivity of the image is very poor. (The "plain paper" herein refers to paper which is one of various types of commercially-available paper, which is especially used for an electrophotographic copying machine, and which is produced without an intention to have an optimum structure, composition, properties, or the like, for inkjet recording.)
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-212439, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11-293167, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11-315231, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-178494, adding a hydrolyzable silane compound (organic silicon compound) to ink in order to improve the water-resistivity of an image formed with the ink on a recording medium has been proposed. When a drop of such ink containing a silane compound is adhered on a recording medium, and a water content (solvent) of the ink drop evaporates or permeates into the recording medium, the silane compound remaining on the recording medium is condensation-polymerized, and this condensation-polymerized silane compound encloses a colorant. As a result, even when the image formed on the recording medium is exposed to water, the colorant is prevented from exuding into the water.
The water-resistant ink disclosed in each of the above publications provides a beneficial effect-of improving the water-resistivity. However, if an image formed with such water-resistant ink is stored for a long time, the color of the image fades away. It is estimated that this problem is caused by the following mechanism. When the image formed with the water-resistant ink on the recording medium is exposed to light (ultraviolet light) from the sun or a fluorescent lamp, the energy of the light attacks the azo group (—N═N—) of the colorant. As a result, a double bond of the azo group is changed into a single bond, or the double bond is cleaved, whereby the structure of the colorant is decomposed. The decomposition of the colorant structure causes a change in hue of the image and/or a decrease in color depth of the image (i.e., fading of color of the image).
Furthermore, in the case where an image formed on a recording medium with the water-resistant ink disclosed in the above publications is stored for a long time, the color of the image fades away even in the case where it is not exposed to ultraviolet light. It is estimated that this problem is caused by the following mechanism. The azo group (—N═N—) of the colorant is attacked by peroxyradical or ozone which is generated during the process of thermal oxidation caused by heat, moisture, and/or a chemical substance, etc., whereby the structure of the colorant is decomposed.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-240778 proposes adding thiocyanate to commonly-employed ink which does not have water-resistivity (i.e., ink not containing an organic silicon compound) in order to improve the ozone-resistance of the ink. Such a proposition suggests adding the thiocyanate to the above water-resistant ink for the purpose of improving the weatherability of the ink.
However, it was confirmed that only adding thiocyanate to the water-resistant ink does not much improve the weatherability of an image formed with the ink. Furthermore, it was also confirmed that if the image formed with the ink is once exposed to water, the weatherability of the image significantly deteriorates.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Ink composition for inkjet recording, ink cartridge, and recording apparatus


A recycled paper for electrophotography has a fine class pulp containing a fine class waste paper pulp. The fine class pulp is in a content of not less than 90% by weight based on the weight of the whole pulp. The recycled paper has a waste paper pulp content of more than 70% by weight based on the weight of the whole pulp.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recycled paper for electrophotography, mixed with waste paper pulp, and an image forming method making use of the recycled paper for electrophotography. More particularly, it relates to a recycled paper for electrophotography that is preferable for use in electrophotographic apparatus having a photosensitive member cleaning system in which a cleaning member is brought into contact with a photosensitive member to clean the photosensitive member and/or a fixing cleaning system in which a cleaning member is brought into contact with a fixing roller to clean the fixing roller, and an image forming method that forms an image using the recycled paper for electrophotography in an electrophotographic apparatus having such a system or systems.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, recycled paper is used as paper for electrophotography from the viewpoint of environmental conservation such as saving of natural resources and saving of energy. Such recycled paper comprises deinked waste paper pulp (hereinafter "DIP") made from waste paper comprised of a mixture of a fine class paper and a middle class paper, which waste paper is exemplified by old newspapers, old magazines and waste leaflets commonly released from homes and papers having been used for line printing in computers.
As for copying machines making use of electrophotography, for example, a photosensitive member having photoconductive characteristics is electrostatically charged by means of a primary corona assembly, followed by exposure to light to form an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive member, and the latent image is converted to a visible image by the use of a toner of a developer according to a one-component or two-component development system to form a toner image. Thereafter, the toner image formed on the photosensitive member is transferred to recording paper separately transported to that portion, by means of a transfer corona assembly, and then the toner image is, as shown in FIG. 9, fixed to recording paper 4 by the action of heat or pressure, or the both, by means of a fixing assembly 13 comprised of a pair of rollers 9 and 10 (or a roller and a belt). A final copied image is thus obtained. In the course of the transfer step, any paper dust generated from the recording paper 4 and the toner having not been transferred to the recording paper are removed at a cleaner zone 1 shown in FIG. 10, provided at the part posterior to the transfer step to carry out cleaning. By means of a cleaning member 2 (e.g., a cleaning blade) brought into contact with a photosensitive member 3, the surface of the photosensitive member is cleaned, and thereafter the step of charging and so forth is repeated. In the fixing assembly (FIG. 9), the toner having not been transferred to the recording paper and the paper dust generated from the recording paper are also cleaned by means of a cleaning member 11 brought into contact with the fixing roller 9, and a release agent such as silicone oil is applied to the roller.
In such a copying machine, recycled paper which is R-paper containing 25 to 30 by weight of middle class waste paper pulp has been used as the recording paper to carry out various tests to obtain the results as shown in Table 1 below.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ R-paper ______________________________________ Fine class pulp (joshitu kei pulp): 75% by weight Middle class waste paper pulp 25-30% by weight (tyushitu kei koshi pulp): Waste paper pulp content: 70% by weight Scratches/wear on photosensitive X1 member: Scratches/wear on fixing roller: X2 Full-color copied image quality: X3 Brightness: 71.2 Dimensional change due to humidity X4 variations: Occurrence of curl: X5 Runnability: X6 ______________________________________ X1: Visual check on the photosensitive member found conspicuous scratches occurred thereon, which were so serious as to cause faulty images. X2: Visual check on the fixing roller found conspicuous scratches occurre thereon, which were so serious as to cause faulty images. X3: Faulty tint and coloring were seen. X4: Dimensional variations greatly occurred. X5: Curl greatly occurred. X6: Faulty paper transport occurred.
That is, as a result of running tests on a copying machine, the R-paper caused scratches on the photosensitive member, and caused faulty images ascribable to the scratches on the photosensitive member. As for the scratches on the fixing roller, they occurred so seriously as to become visible on the roller after running on about 10,000 sheets, and became so deep as to cause faulty images after running on about 20,000 sheets.
FIG. 8 illustrates how scratches have occurred on the fixing roller. The surface of the fixing roller 9 brought into contact with the cleaning member 11 has been scraped at a zone a because of paper dust having adhered to the cleaning member 11. The paper dust 12 having adhered to the position corresponding to the scratched zone a of the cleaning member 11 has been analyzed to reveal that fibers of middle class waste paper pulp are present. It has been confirmed that this is due to the recycled paper made from middle class waste paper pulp, i.e., the recycled paper made from middle class waste paper such as old newspapers and old magazines.
Similarly, fibers of the middle class waste paper pulp have been also found at the zone where the photosensitive member is scraped.
Also in full-color copied images, the R-paper has caused a poor tint and coloring compared with fine class paper, resulting in a remarkable darkness and tone dullness. This is greatly ascribable to the brightness of the recording paper.
In a further experiment, the amount of a filler in the R-paper was varied to obtain the results as shown in Table 2.
TABLE 2 ______________________________________ Small Large amount amount ______________________________________ Occurrence and directionality of curl: C A-B Lifetime of paper feed roller: Long Short Quantity of paper dust: A C Faulty image due to recording paper: A C Rz (.mu.m): 25.1 17.4 Image density unevenness: C A ______________________________________ (transfer efficiency) A: Good B: A little poor C: Poor (faulty images and paper run)
That is, the larger the amount of the filler is, the less the curl tends to occur and also the curl directionality tends to be improved. What is herein meant by the curl directionality is whether several ten sheets of the same kind of paper having been passed through the fixing assembly have curled in a uniform direction or some of them have curled in various directions. The former is deemed to have a directionality, and the latter, no directionality. In this experiment, paper with a smaller amount of filler shows no directionality.
As shown in Table 2, with an increase in the amount of the filler, the paper dust quantity increases and faulty images due to blank area caused by poor transfer may occur. In particular, it has been confirmed that, with an increase in the amount of a filler of a certain type as in the case of, e.g., calcium carbonate, the lifetime of rollers belonging to a paper feed system becomes shorter because of the wear of paper feed rollers, also resulting in an extremely poor paper runnability.
Namely, the use of a filler in a smaller content brings about an advantage for the recording paper used in electrophotography.
Table 2 also shows the relationship between a surface roughness Rz according to 10-point average roughness of the recording paper and an image density unevenness based on transfer efficiency. With a decrease in the content of the filler, the surface roughness Rz increases and the image density unevenness remarkably occurs. As a result of further detailed studies, the image density unevenness due to a decrease in the transfer efficiency during the transfer step has been found to occur as follows: As shown in FIG. 6 showing a result of simulation analysis, an air gap between paper and a toner layer on the surface of a photosensitive member broadens in accordance with the unevenness of the paper surface, i.e., with an increase in the surface roughness, so that equipotential lines at a convex part (a) and a concave part (b) are formed as shown in FIG. 7, an enlarged view of a region-A in FIG. 6, where the potential at a point i in a given toner layer is lower at the concave part (b) than at the convex part (a). Because of this decrease in potential, the toner layer to be transferred to the recording paper becomes thinner at the concave part (b) than at the convex part (a). In other words, the efficiency of the transfer of toner from the photosensitive member to the recording paper decreases to cause a density unevenness.
In addition to the problems as discussed above, there is a demand for high-quality recycled paper that promises a good runnability of recording paper in copying machines and does not cause any irregularity of sheets in sorters which is due to heat curl.
As also disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 63-6867, waste paper pulp is commonly mixed in a content of about 70% by weight from the viewpoint of the properties required for recycled paper, i.e., dimensional stability against humidity variations and low heat-curl properties and the viewpoint of making paper runnability stable against an increase in stiffness, and also in view of the suitability as recycled paper for existing electrophotography. From another viewpoint of environmental conservation by less disposal, there is a demand for recycled paper mixed with waste paper pulp in a higher content.
The problems discussed above can be summarized as follows:
1. Some kind of paper dust generated causes a photosensitive member to be-scraped by the cleaning member of a developing assembly, causing a remarkable wear, bringing about faulty images and also resulting in a short lifetime of the photosensitive member.
2. Some kind of paper dust generated causes fixing rollers to be scraped at the cleaning zone of a fixing assembly, causing a remarkable wear, bringing about faulty images and also resulting in a short lifetime of the fixing Pollers.
3. Dimensional variations tend to occur with changes in humidity. PA1 4. The heat generated during fixing has influence on an increase in the occurrence of curl. PA1 5. The stiffness of paper is relatively too low to achieve a stable runnability of copy sheets. PA1 6. Because of faulty running of recording paper, no directionality of the heat curl due to fixing may be ensured to increase the occurrence of curl itself, causing irregularity of sheets in sorters. PA1 7. In the case when a filler is contained in a large amount, paper feed rollers may be remarkably scraped and worn to bring about a faulty runnability of paper in copying machines, also resulting in a short lifetime of the paper feed rollers. PA1 8. The paper dust generated from recording paper increases with an increase in the content of a filler; resulting in an increase in paper dust adhering to each corona assembly, and causing faulty charging such as leakage to give faulty images in some instances. PA1 developing an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive member through a developing means having a toner; PA1 transferring a toner image formed on the photosensitive member by the development using the toner, to a recording material through a transfer means; and PA1 fixing the toner image transferred to and formed on the recording material, through a fixing means capable of applying the action of heat, pressure or the both of them; PA1 wherein said image forming method has at least one of a photosensitive member cleaning means to clean the photosensitive member by bringing a cleaning member into contact with the photosensitive member after the step of transfer and a fixing member cleaning means to clean the fixing member by bringing a cleaning member into contact with the fixing member; PA1 said recording material comprising a recycled paper comprising a fine class pulp containing a fine class waste paper pulp, wherein said fine class pulp is in a content of not less than 90% by weight based on the weight of the whole pulp, and said recycled paper has a waste paper pulp content of more than 70% by weight based on the weight of the whole pulp.

Recycled paper for electrophotography and image forming method making use of the same


The antenna-integrated module contains a circuit board 1 on which a high frequency circuit is provided, a cover 2 that is composed of a metal plate and is mounted to the circuit board 1 so as to cover almost the entire surface of the circuit board 1, and a dedicated shield case 3 that is composed of a metal plate and is mounted to the circuit board 1 so as to cover a specific region on the circuit board 1. The high frequency circuit comprises a wiring pattern 4 and a ground pattern 5, and electronic parts 6, and the dedicated shield case 3 covers a portion of the high frequency circuit. Leg pieces 2b and 2c of the cover 2 are connected to the wiring pattern 4 and the ground pattern 5. In the cover 2, an upper plate 2a corresponding to a radiation conductor portion functions as both an inverted F-type antenna and a shield case.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an antenna-integrated module suitable for a small-sized transmitter-receiver used for communication and broadcasting.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, accompanying with the development of wireless communication techniques, various electronic apparatuses or wireless cards in which small-sized transmitter-receiver units are mounted have been proposed. This kind of transmitter-receiver unit is an antenna-integrated high frequency module in which an antenna element is mounted on a circuit board with a high frequency circuit. In the conventional antenna-integrated module, in general, a shield case composed of a metal plate covers a specific region of the circuit board on which the main parts of the high frequency circuit are arranged. An antenna element, such as a chip antenna or a pattern antenna, is provided on the other regions of the circuit board, which is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-232221 (see pages 4 to 6 and FIG. 1).
In such a conventional antenna-integrated module, the high frequency circuit comprises a wiring pattern that is formed on the upper surface, etc., of the circuit board, various electronic parts, such as chip parts and ICs that are connected to the wiring pattern, and a ground pattern that is formed on the lower surface or in an inner layer of the circuit board. A part of the wiring pattern extends toward the outside of the shield case to be connected to a feeding portion of the antenna element. In addition, the ground pattern is connected to a ground portion of the antenna element through a via hole provided in the circuit board and is also connected to the shield case. Since the shield case is mounted to the circuit board in a state in which it covers the main parts of the high frequency circuit, the high frequency circuit is maintained in a state in which it is almost shielded from an electromagnetic field.
As described above, in the conventional antenna-integrated module, both the antenna element and the shield case are provided on the circuit board, and the shield case covers the main parts of the high frequency circuit. Therefore, although the shield case and the antenna element are arranged as close to each other as possible, the entire size of the module is a little large in plan view. Thus, it is difficult to decrease the size of the module. In addition, in the conventional antenna-integrated module, since the antenna element must be provided in limited space on the circuit board, the size of the antenna element itself is strictly restricted, and thus it is difficult to achieve an antenna-integrated module having a high gain. Furthermore, in the conventional antenna-integrated module, a space for the antenna element is small. Therefore, in order to obtain the desired electric field in the radiation conductor portion, an additional antenna element, such as a chip antenna, has to be mounted on the circuit board. As a result, the number of parts and manufacturing costs of the module are increased.

Small-sized and high-gained antenna-integrated module


Provided is a keyword presenting system based on a sematic depth structure, including: a communication unit connected with a client via a network; an interface unit configured to receive keyword information inputted from the client and to provide a search interface presenting multiple candidate keywords; a search database configured to save multiple search results and multiple candidate keywords constituting the search interface; a semantic depth database configured to save a semantic depth structure representing a semantic distance between keywords for each candidate keyword; and a semantic depth engine configured to derive multiple associated keywords based on the search database regarding the keyword inputted from the client, and to support a function of gradationally presenting recommended keyword lists for each semantic depth level according to the selection of a user by forming recommended keyword groups for each semantic depth level based on the multiple associated keywords using the semantic depth database.

The present invention relates, in general, to a system and a method for presenting recommended keywords upon using a search service and, more particularly, to a system and a method for gradationally presenting multiple recommended keywords associated with a keyword according to a semantic depth structure with regard to the keyword inputted in a search window upon carrying out a search.
Generally, a search service system intended for providing search services provides a user with search results (for example, websites including a search word, articles including the search word, images having file names including the search word and the like) corresponding to a search word when the search word (or a keyword or a query) is inputted by the user.
In particular, when receiving a search request from the user, recent search service systems carry out an integrated search according to the search request and provides the user with results of the integrated search which are arranged in order of regular search channels.
Also, according to the development of an associated model-based keyword providing technology which provides keywords associated with a keyword inputted by a user as well as information regarding the inputted keyword, as a conventional art, there is a method of providing keywords mainly inputted by users as associated keywords regarding specific keywords which have been inputted by the users. Also, there is a method of providing, as associated keywords, words having high association with keywords inputted by the users after measuring the association between words based on documents present on the web such as webpages and saving the words having a high association with regard to a specific word.
An associated model refers to a modeling data structure based on an associated relation between words, and a representative example thereof is an ontology. Ontology refers to the subject of existence in a specific area of knowledge and a work model of an interaction between objects, and an ontological approach hierarchically expresses words related to a specific domain according to a certain inference rule. That is, the ontology of a word may refer to collection of the concepts of objects, events, relations and the like defined in a specific natural language in order to create vocabularies agreed upon for information interchange. The ontology of a word enables web-based knowledge processing or knowledge sharing and reuse among application programs.
In general, a conventional portal site and a search site have been provided with a keyword presenting function via the auto complete of input keywords in order to provide search convenience. This function is intended to show many keywords containing an inputted keyword via an expanding menu, even when a user inputs only a part of the keyword. The associated keywords are presented in order of similarity and frequency. This function is advantageous in that search users can select their desired keywords from among multiple keywords presented by a search apparatus even though the search users know only a part of the keyword required by each of them, and an input time for the keyword can be reduced, thereby providing the users with search convenience.
However, the first conventional art is intended to simply show user search patterns by simply exposing keywords which have been continuously frequently searched, and the second conventional art is intended to simply provide the user with keywords having a high association with an inputted keyword based on association between words. Thus, these conventional arts only simply provide other keywords related to the keyword inputted by the user and substantially have a limit in providing keywords according to various issues which may be derived from the corresponding keyword.
Also, according to the function of auto complete of the keywords, since only keywords containing a word inputted by the search user are presented, it is problematic in that keywords consistent with a purport of the search intended by the search user are neither secured nor presented when the inputted keyword is different from a keyword having a concept actually required by the search user with respect to the constitution of the word thereof.

Keyword presenting system and method based on semantic depth structure


A handheld device that has a modifiable handgrip configuration. The modifiable handgrip configuration allows the form of the handheld device to be changed depending on a user's preference. A user may change the handgrip configuration of the device to a form optimized for gripping by a particular manner according to needs. In an embodiment, the handheld device comprises substantially parallel sides configured to allow attachment and removal of alternative handgrips.

Handheld devices, such as remote controllers, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and cellular phones, have become increasingly popular as technology has advanced. Most of these handheld devices can be held and operated in one hand, or held in one hand and operated with the other hand.
Many users of handheld devices prefer to grip the device by its sides using their fingers or to cradle the device in the palm of their hand. Most handheld devices are designed and formed best for use while either gripped by the sides or cradled in the palm of the hand, but are not formed best for use both ways. For example, PDAs, which are generally rectangular with concave sides, may be gripped easily by the sides. However, a PDA having convex sides may be better fitted to the palm of the hand for a user preferring to operate the device cradled in the palm of the hand. The same situation may apply to other handheld devices, in that the handheld device may be better configured for a handheld use not preferable to the user of the device.

Handheld device having modifiable handgrip configuration