A method of forming a coated optical element is disclosed herein. The method uses a mold having first and second mold sections that will form front and back surfaces of the optical element, one of the mold sections having a casting face. The method includes the steps of: applying an abrasion resistant coating layer to the casting face of a mold section, the casting face being capable of imparting a desired optical configuration on a surface of the optical element; treating the abrasion resistant coating layer to prevent damage to the layer during subsequent steps; applying a second coating layer to the abrasion resistant coating layer to substantially cover the abrasion resistant coating layer; treating the second coating layer to provide at least weak adhesion of the second coating layer to the abrasion resistant coating layer and to prevent damage to the second layer during subsequent steps; filling the mold with an organic liquid material; and hardening the organic liquid material so as to form the optical element adhered to the second coating layer.

The application of coatings to surfaces has been achieved in a variety of ways, such as by spin coating, dip coating, spray coating, and flow coating techniques. While these techniques have been successful when used to coat smooth surfaces, such as the optical surface of single vision ophthalmic lenses, they have not been entirely satisfactory. For example, such techniques have often resulted in a build-up of a coating material at the outer edge of the lens that causes optical aberrations.
Such techniques have proven to be even less satisfactory when used to coat irregular surfaces, such as those present on multi-vision ophthalmic lenses, particularly those made from plastic. Such lenses generally have segments that project abruptly away from at least one major optical surface of the lens. Coating solutions applied to these optical surfaces by spin, dip, spray, or flow techniques must flow around and over these segments, with the resulting coating generally exhibiting flow marks around the projection and being thick at the intersections of the segment and the optical surface.
A further disadvantage of conventional techniques of applying coatings to optical elements is that they often have high labour and capital requirements. Furthermore, any yield loss at the point of coating results in total loss of a high valued product at the end of its manufacturing cycle.
In response to these difficulties, an 'in-mould' coating technique was developed for manufacturing ophthalmic lenses. The method comprised applying a single coating to a face of a mould, partially curing the coating upon the mould, subsequently assembling the moulds, filling the moulds with a lens monomer, and curing the lens monomer to form a hard lens.
However, a limitation of this in-mould technique is that it does not allow for the provision of a coating that is both highly abrasion resistant and has excellent cross hatch adhesion to the lens substrate. Furthermore, it has not proven to be possible to incorporate other desirable optical properties to the coating produced by this technique.
It is an aim of the present invention to provide an improved in-mould coating technique that is capable of being used to produce coated optical elements such as ophthalmic lenses.

Method of forming a coated optical element

Carl Zeiss Vision Australia Holdings Limited


An apparatus and method for manufacturing a drainage line unit. The apparatus includes a mandrel having an inner cavity. Rear, upper and front openings communicate with the mandrel cavity. Preferably, a controller connected to at least one sensor is operably positioned to control the apparatus. A pipe feeder feeds perforated vent pipe through the inner cavity of the mandrel from the rear opening to the front opening and therethrough. The pipe is positioned within the inner tube cavity so as to define a void space between the pipe and the wall of the mandrel. A hopper assembly has an exit port positioned for feeding a plurality of plastic bodies into the cavity. A blower produces a sufficient air flow through the mandrel cavity for moving the plurality of plastic bodies to substantially fill the void space so that the pipe emerges from the front opening of the mandrel surrounded by the plurality of plastic bodies. A sleeve feeder feeds a continuous sleeve of netting over the plurality of plastic bodies and the vent pipe emerging through the front opening of the mandrel to form a drainage line. A separator is positioned downstream from the front opening for fastening the continuous sleeve of netting to the vent pipe as the pipe emerges through the front opening of the mandrel, so as to substantially encase the plurality of plastic bodies around the vent pipe. Following the fastening operation, the separator cuts the drainage line, thereby forming a completed drainage line unit.

Drainage line units have been available for a number of years. Various U.S. patents describe such units, as well as an apparatus for manufacturing the units, for example, machines for manufacturing drainage lines have been previously described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,543. Also, the drainage line units best suited for production by the apparatus of the present invention are as previously described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,015,123, 5,051,028, 5,154,543, 5,535,499 (the '499 patent ) and 5,657,527 (the '527 patent).
The previously disclosed and patented apparatus for fabricating the drainage line units, shown in the '527 and '499 patents, relied on machines using mechanical means to push an artificial aggregate material through a mandrel into a sleeve of netting to form the drainage units. The preferred artificial aggregate has been polystyrene or other poly-resinous material, however, as described in the '527 patent, these materials exhibit a high coefficient of friction, which makes it difficult to move this material through a conduit in a manufacturing operation. Mechanical means of pushing the aggregate included a hydraulically operated piston device and a screw drive auger, as shown in FIG. 15 of the '527 patent.
Experience with the manufacturing equipment shown in attached FIGS. 13, 14 and 15 of the '527 has shown that when using polystyrene and similar poly-resinous materials for the aggregate 21, the aggregate exhibits a high degree of surface friction when compacted by operation of the reciprocating hydraulic piston 101. To this end, it has been determined that the direction of compaction is not only longitudinally along the length of the mandrel 91, or conduit, but also that the nature of polystyrene and other poly-resinous materials is such as to expand outwardly into a high friction engagement with the inner surface of the conduit (mandrel 91). This problem occurs no only at the exit end of the mandrel 91, but also at intermediate points along its length, as is depicted in the cross-sectional side view of FIG. 18. In order to solve these problems, it was determined that the application of a low friction coating 250 along the inside surface of the mandrel 91, or conduit, substantially reduces the friction produced by the aggregate material inside the mandrel or conduit. Suitable low friction coatings include a silicone lubricant, or a deposited coating of a low friction polyresin such as nylon or Teflon.RTM. (a trademark of the DuPont Company). The use of the low friction coating dramatically increased the speed at which the hydraulic piston of the prior art could be reciprocated, thereby increasing the productivity of each manufacturing machine.
Rather than being directed at mitigating friction, the present invention overcomes the problem altogether through a new process, thereby resulting in much improved production rates and eliminating the need for lubricants or other means of mitigating friction between the poly-resinous material and the manufacturing equipment.

Apparatus for manufacturing drainage line units and associated methods


A tank which has at least one at least partially electrically conductive container, an electric component arranged in the fuel tank, and a cover to close an opening for the electric component, the tank allowing grounding in a simple manner.

In tank systems, there is a requirement to provide grounding of the tank to carry away or prevent a possible static charge in the vehicle. In the case of steel tanks, this grounding is usually achieved either externally by attaching bolts with nuts and/or lugs to the tank. The bolts and/or lugs may be connected to the ground with the aid of an grounding strip, or internally using bolts and/or lugs and an grounding strip which is connected to the ground of an electric built-in component, e.g., a delivery module.
Welding bolts and/or lugs and installing the grounding strip as well as making enquiries to ensure that installation has been carried out leads to increased costs. In the case of a service, there is the risk that a lack of grounding will arise in the absence of a connection with the ground line.
A known fuel supply system with grounding is disclosed in German Patent Publication No. DE 10 2007 021 584 A1. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the known fuel supply system comprises a cover 3, which is mounted on the upper surface of a fuel tank 1 in order to close an opening 4 formed in the upper wall. The cover 3 is produced from a plastic and comprises a tubular section which extends into the interior of the fuel tank container 11. A pump housing 16 is mounted on the lower end of the tubular section. A fuel pump 2 is arranged within the pump housing 16. A control unit 18 to control a motor of the fuel pump 2 is accommodated within a recessed section. The control unit 18 comprises an ground terminal. An electrically conductive wall of the tubular section is electrically connected to the ground terminal of the control unit 18. In this prior art example too, the installation of the grounding and the insertion of the grounding spring is associated with a high outlay. Moreover, an additional, loose component is required to establish the connection between the pump and the tank.


This invention relates to a method of precooling precooled materials such as fruits and vegetables under vacuum, and keeping it in a precooled state for a long time, and to a refrigerating container therefor. Precooling and keeping the precooled state for a long time have been regarded as impossible in the past, but these problems are resolved in this invention even for materials closely stored in the container. This container is formed with ventilating communication conduits of a desired length for providing communication between the inside and outside of the container when the container is closed. As a result, the materials such as the fruits and vegetables can be transported a long distance and stored for a long time with an increased reliability of freshness, yet without deteriorating precooling effects.

A conventional container used for the vacuum-precooling method is constructed, as shown in FIG. 7, of a container body A made of a foamed synthetic resin and a cover B made of a foamed synthetic resin to be fitted gas-tight on the container body A. There is ventilation through hole C, having a diameter of about 10 mm, in proper positions in the container, in the cover B, for example. Thus, fruits and vegetables are put into the container body A of the refrigerating container. The container is closed with the cover and is placed in a vacuum chamber. When the vacuum chamber lowers its inside pressure to about 3 mmHg, air in the container is forcibly evacuated by ventilation through holes C. Thus, moisture contained in the cooled materials is partially evaporated to derive latent heat for gasification, thereby precooling the materials in the container.
The present Applicant has already disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 63-616 this type of container usable for the vacuum precooling method, which has drastically improved the existing technology by forming openings with orifice effects in the vicinity of the fitting portions of the body and the cover.
In the former technology out of the two conventional containers as above mentioned, however, from the instant when the inside of the container is returned to the atmospheric pressure level by causing the inside of the vacuum chamber to restore the original pressure, free air flows are allowed between the inside and outside of the container through the ventilation holes. This is because the ventilation holes have a relatively large diameter. The resulting problems: the temperature of precooled materials gradually approaches the ambient temperature deteriorating the precooling effects and the precooled materials are supplied with oxygen, thereby gradually deteriorating their freshness. In order to solve these problems, therefore, the ventilation holes are sealed from the outside with tape or the like after the precooling operation so that the air flow to and from the inside of the container is blocked. Despite this procedure, however, another problem arises, namely, prolonged working time.
In the latter technology, a great deal of attention in view of potential industrial availability is given since operation without sealing the openings of the container drastically reduces the amount of work. Despite of this advantage, however, the structure may be likely to require "trial-and-error" work to determine orifice shapes. And there is other problem that the orifices acting as the ventilating communication conduits cannot be made longer.

Method for storing fruits and/or vegetables and a refrigerating container therefor

Kanegafuchi Kagaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha


An electronic device receives a voltage from an AC-DC adapter that is separate from the electronic device. The electronic device detects a change in the voltage from the AC-DC adapter. In response to detecting the change, the electronic device determines an amount of current from the AC-DC adapter. The electronic device adjusts a power consumption of a load in the electronic device based on the determined current.

Traditionally, different types of notebook computers used different size and/or types of direct current (DC) plugs. Therefore, connecting a DC source, such as an alternating current (AC) adapter, to the wrong notebook computer was not possible because a connector of the DC source would be physically incapable of mating to the DC plug of the notebook.
However, newer notebook computers now have the same type of DC plugs despite having different power requirements. As a result, the DC source may be connected to the wrong notebook computer. For example, the notebook computer may attempt to draw power beyond a capacity of the DC source. Thus, the notebook computer and/or DC source may malfunction.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A method for fabricating a metal-oxide semiconductor transistor is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: providing a semiconductor substrate; forming a gate structure on the semiconductor substrate; and performing a first ion implantation process to implant a first molecular cluster having carbon, boron, and hydrogen into the semiconductor substrate at two sides of the gate structure for forming a doped region, wherein the molecular weight of the first molecular cluster is greater than 100.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for fabrication metal-oxide semiconductor transistors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With progress in the semiconductor industry, performance and economic factors of integrated circuit design and manufacture have caused a scale of devices in integrated circuits to be drastically reduced to miniaturized sizes, increasing density on a chip. However, a short channel effect, which results in a poor threshold voltage roll-off characteristic, always accompanies miniaturization. To avoid this problem, industries have provided a method for forming lightly doped drains (LDDs) having an ultra shallow junction as a solution.
In a conventional ultra shallow junction formation, a low energy ion implantation process is performed in a shallow surface of a substrate adjacent to two sides of a gate structure, a rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process is then performed to form a junction profile. However, as device scale is reduced to 90-nm and smaller, the conventional ultra shallow junction formation hits a limitation in depth control, and co-implantation performed in cooperation with pre-amorphorization (PAI) and laser annealing seems to be able to satisfy demands down to 65-nm and even 45-nm processes.
Please refer to FIGS. 1-3. FIGS. 1-3 illustrate a method of utilizing pre-amorphorized implantation process for fabricating a p-type metal-oxide semiconductor (PMOS) transistor having ultra-shallow junction according to the prior art. As shown in FIG. 1, a semiconductor substrate 100 having a gate structure 102 thereon is provided, in which the semiconductor substrate 100 can be a semiconductor wafer or a silicon on insulator substrate. The gate structure 102 includes a gate dielectric 104 and a gate 106 disposed on the gate dielectric 104. Next, a pre-amorphorized implantation process is conducted by injecting atoms such as antimony (Sb) or germanium (Ge) into the semiconductor substrate 100. The pre-amorphorized implantation specifically disrupts the lattice structure of the semiconductor substrate 100 and forms an amorphorized region 108 in the semiconductor substrate 100.
Next, as shown in FIG. 2, an ion implantation process is performed by implanting a p-type dopant such as boron (B) or boron fluoride (BF2) into the semiconductor substrate 100 at two sides of the gate structure 102. A rapid thermal annealing process is conducted thereafter to form a lightly doped drain 110 having ultra-shallow junction of a PMOS transistor.
As shown in FIG. 3, a spacer 112 is formed on the sidewall of the gate structure 102. Next, another ion implantation process is performed to inject a p-type dopant with higher concentration into the semiconductor substrate 100 at two sides of the spacer 112. The p-type dopant can be the aforementioned boron or boron fluoride. Another rapid thermal annealing process is performed thereafter by using a temperature between 950 degrees to 1000 degrees to activate the dopants and form a source/drain region 114 in the semiconductor substrate 114.
It should be noted that despite the fact that the conventional pre-amorphorized implantation process can be conducted to achieve ultra-shallow junctions by injecting non-doping ions for inhibiting the diffusion of dopants implanted thereafter, the implantation process also creates significant interstitial defects while using the implanted ions to damage the lattice structure of the silicon substrate. Specifically, the interstitial defects become diffusion paths for dopants such as boron and ultimately causes a transient enhanced diffusion effect. This transient enhanced diffusion effect not only deepens the junction profile but also makes the distribution of the dopant not sheer in the lateral direction, resulting in an end of range dislocation phenomenon and a severe short channel effect.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for fabricating metal-oxide semiconductor transistors


An automatic analytical apparatus in which a series of operations ranging from the sampling into a treating receptacle, pretreatment, analysis and discharge of a fluid sample to the preparation for the next analysis are repeated automatically in order, wherein the time-dependent variation of the composition is traced successively. This permits the presence of the composition variation or the course of the composition variation to be confirmed or the composition variation to be controlled, automatically.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for confirming or controlling the presence of composition variation or the variation course by analyzing automatically and frequently the time-dependent variation of the composition of a fluid, which involves a time-dependent variation of composition, in various reactors and stills.
2. Background Art
Continuous detection or analysis of the composition of liquid components, for example, in a reactor for conducting a variety of chemical reactions or in a distillation column, has been practiced to data in a few cases under specific conditions. In one of the cases, for instance, there exists a sensor capable of direct detection of the characters specific to the properties of an intended component, while in another, a specific means of instrumental analysis is available which can analyze reaction liquids successively in a short period of time without any prior treatment, like gas chromatography and liquid chromatography.
However, these available detection procedures are actually limited to only a few choices among a number of analytical techniques. One of the reasons is that the sensor as described above has not been developed yet, or that the troublesome pre- and post-treatments of samples required for the adequate operation of a sensor make it difficult to automate these treatments and hence always need manual help, thus failing in frequent and continuous detection. The second reason is that the analytical method itself is complicated, though established as a procedure for analysts, so that the analytical instrument for effecting the method has not been developed.
In various reactions, particularly in batch reactions, on the other hand, it is desired to detect frequently the time-dependent variation of the reaction rate and thereby to confirm the progress of the reaction. Further, it has become necessary to improve the quality and function of the product by allowing the reaction to follow its predetermined or intended desirable reaction course, if possible. In most of these methods, raw materials necessary for the reaction are fed into the reactor collectively at the beginning or only a part of the raw materials is charged continuously or intermittently during the reaction, but various reaction conditions are maintained constant. In some cases, analytical operations are carried out during a reaction. However, they are only such that the temperature and pressure of the reaction, the revolution speed of a stirrer, etc., are simply caused to vary in accordance with a schedule, or the reaction conditions are controlled according to the data obtained by converting signals from a commercially available sensor through simple processing. For example, the operation procedures are merely to detect the reaction temperature by a temperature sensor to regulate the heating level of a heater or to measure the pH of a liquid by means of a glass electrode so as to add a pH-controlling solution. The cases to which these procedures are applicable are limited entirely to those where adequate detection sensors are available and, in addition, a monitoring system, by which signals are obtained at required intervals, can be employed. In other words, due to the limitation to the monitoring system which does not require various pre- and post-treatments for an object to be treated, the reaction, which is to be conducted under the conditions adjusted according to the momentarily changing properties of a material in the reactor, had to be continued under the conditions estimated based on the past experience and the like.
Further, when analysis has to be carried out during a reaction, 1) sampling, 2) pretreatment, 3) analysis, 4) post-treatment, etc., are generally repeated generally manually. In industrial production sites, research laboratories, etc., however, it is troublesome from the standpoint of manpower to continue the daily analysis repeated at intervals of a few minutes to a few hours, and also errors are unavoidably generated by analytical personnel.
As an auxiliary means to solve these problems, so-called automatic analytical apparatus have anyhow become commercially available in recent years. For example, when set with a sample (to be exact, a receptacle containing a sample liquid having undergone a pretreatment), an automatic titration apparatus starts titration, determines the end point, and prints out the results. Generally, in the apparatus of this kind, a turntable or the like is provided as an adjunct for analyzing a large number of samples in order. However, such mechanism can only analyze, say, eight samples having undergone a pretreatment and setting, and in addition the post-treatment will also have to be dependent on manpower. Moreover, with this apparatus, it is absolutely impossible to feed back the analytical results to the operation conditions of the reactor under reaction. Furthermore, in a batch operation, the amount of the substance to be analyzed varies with the progress of the operation, and therefore the amounts of the substance and analytical reagents to obtain proper analytical results and accuracy are, in general, not irrelevant to the progress of the operation. Hence, the concentration of the substance to be analyzed in the system can vary significantly from the beginning to the end of the reaction. However, in such a case as the above-described samples, there is a serious problem that since the samples taken previously and pretreated are to be arranged on a turntable, it is substantially impossible to take samples successively and regulatively in accordance with the progress of the operation in such a way that the amounts of the samples are optimized with regard to analytical accuracy. These circumstances are exactly applicable to the aforesaid instrumental analytical apparatus including gas chromatography and liquid chromatography.
The present inventors have made intensive investigation into a method whereby tracing of the time-dependent variation of a fluid composition is made possible through high frequency analyses by automating the analytical procedures as described above, which have not been very usable, leading to completion of the present invention.

Method and apparatus for automatic analysis of fluid composition involving a time-dependent variation thereof


A vehicle seat suspension unit has a base frame mountable in a vehicle and seat support frame on which is mounted a vehicle seat. A scissor-arm assembly, with primary links and secondary links, interconnect the frames overlapping cam tracks, with cam profiles engaged by rollers attached to main springs anchored on the base frame. As the frames move towards each other, the main springs are extended as the rollers move along the cam tracks to apply a restoring force to the frames. A preload assembly has rocker arms, pivotally mounted on the cam tracks, with rollers bearing on the seat support frame and provided with preload springs. By adjustment of the cam tracks relative to the base frame, the preload and the main spring rate can be varied to suit the operator's weight.

1. Field of the Invention
THIS INVENTION relates to a vehicle seat suspension unit. The term "vehicle" shall be used to include automobiles, four-wheel-drives (4WD), trucks, prime movers, earthmoving machines (e.g. bulldozers), aircraft and watercraft.
2. Prior Art
A vehicle operator's comfort and efficiency is dependent on providing a suitable suspension unit for his seat to eliminate, or at least reduce, the shocks and vibration transmitted from the vehicle to the operator via his seat.
Many suspension units have been proposed to reduce the shocks and vibration. Generally, most rely on a spring-loaded seat support frame which is damped by a hydraulic or pneumatic damper unit An example is disclosed in AU-B-66509/86 (582031) (D. M. Culley et al). The major problem with these units is that the damping can effectively be so slow that the suspension unit goes out of phase with the vehicle suspension and the damping can apply an additive shock to the operator's seat. In many cases, operators remove the damping effect as it is preferable to have a "floating" undamped suspension unit than a poorly damped one.
One of the reasons for the failure of the existing suspension units has been a basic misunderstanding of seat suspension unit design. The design objective is to provide a unit where the operator's seat follows an almost undisturbed path as the vehicle passes over bumps or depressions. In the past, the designers have worked on the principle of the seat moving relative to the vehicle, whereas they could have been designing for movement of the vehicle relative to the seat. In addition, they have applied damping to the suspension unit which is not required.

Rosdon Engineering and Manufacturing Pty. Ltd.


In a metal base substrate with a low-temperature sintering ceramic layer located on a copper substrate, bonding reliability is increased between the copper substrate and the low-temperature sintering ceramic layer. A raw laminated body is prepared by stacking, on a surface of a copper substrate, a low-temperature sintering ceramic green layer including a low-temperature sintering ceramic material containing about 10 mol % to about 40 mol % of barium in terms of BaO and about 40 mol % to about 80 mol % of silicon in terms of SiO2, and this raw laminated body is subjected to firing at a temperature at which the low-temperature sintering ceramic green layer is sintered. In the thus obtained metal base substrate, a glass layer composed of Cu—Ba—Si based glass with a thickness of about 1 μm to about 5 μm is formed between the metal substrate and the low-temperature sintering ceramic layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a metal base substrate which includes a semiconductor element and other elements mounted thereon and also provides a heat release function, and a method for manufacturing the metal base substrate, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a metal base substrate which has a metal substrate combined with a ceramic layer configured with the use of a low-temperature sintering ceramic material, and a method for manufacturing the metal base substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Metal base substrates have a relatively high heat release function, and have been used advantageously for mounting electronic components which require heat release, such as, for example, a semiconductor element. In the case of these metal base substrates, ceramic materials are used as a material constituting a substrate layer combined with a metal substrate.
For example, a low-temperature sintering ceramic material is a ceramic material which can be sintered at a temperature of 1050° C. or less. Therefore, as long as a metal base substrate has a ceramic layer configured with the use of the low-temperature sintering ceramic material and formed on a metal substrate, the raw low-temperature sintering ceramic layer and the metal substrate can be subjected to co-firing without using a metal substrate composed of a metal which has a very high melting point.
However, in the case of the metal base substrate as described above, it is important to keep the low-temperature sintering ceramic layer and the metal substrate from peeling during firing. Therefore, a joining glass layer is formed between the low-temperature sintering ceramic layer and the metal substrate. For example, Japanese Patent Unexamined Application Publication No. 5-270934, Japanese Translation of PCT International Application Publication No. 11-514627, and Japanese Translation of PCT International Application Publication No. 11-511719 disclose inventions which relate to a metal base substrate which is obtained by forming a joining glass layer on a metal substrate, and forming a low-temperature sintering ceramic layer thereon, and applying co-firing.
For the configuration according to the prior art, there is a need to form the joining glass layer in advance between the metal substrate and the low-temperature sintering ceramic layer. In the case of forming the joining glass layer in advance as just described, the joining glass layer has to be formed thickly in order to bind the metal substrate and the low-temperature sintering ceramic layer, and for example, Japanese Patent Unexamined Application Publication No. 5-270934 discloses the joining glass layer formed with a thickness of approximately 25 μm, whereas Japanese Translation of PCT International Application Publication No. 11-514627 discloses the joining glass layer formed with a thickness of approximately 35 μm. It is to be noted that Japanese Translation of PCT International Application Publication No. 11-511719 fails to disclose any specific thickness.
On the other hand, this joining glass layer is intended to function as a joining material, and thus a very weak layer in terms of flexure strength.
Moreover, when the joining glass layer is thick as described previously, flexure makes cracking more and more likely to be caused. This is because when the joining glass layer undergoes a deflection, the difference is further increased between stress caused on one principal surface side of the joining glass layer and stress caused on the other principal surface side thereof as the joining glass layer is thicker.
In addition, the prior art requires two firing steps including a firing step for forming the joining glass layer on the metal substrate; and a firing step after forming the low-temperature sintering ceramic green layer thereon, thereby resulting in a complicated process, and also requires a lot of energy for heating.

Metal base substrate and manufacturing method thereof


An image processing apparatus in which a color identifier identifies the color of an input image based on an input color-image signal. A luminance detector detects luminance information in the input color-image signal. An image generator generates a predetermined pattern which is indicative of the color identified by the color identifier. A measurement device measures the luminance distribution of the detected luminance signal which is outside an area in which color is identified by the color identifier. The output density of the input color-image signal is set in accordance with the measured luminance distribution, and an output monochromatic image is produced in which colors of the input image are identified by the predetermined patterns.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image processing method and apparatus. More particularly, the invention relates to an image processing method and apparatus for reading a color original, for example, and expressing differences in color by a black-and-white output in conformity with the particular color.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional method of expressing a difference in color by a difference in a pattern is described in the specification of Japanese Patent Publication No. 63-59303. According to this disclosure, colors in an original document are identified, patterns corresponding to the identified colors are selected from a memory storing a plurality of patterns, and the patterns are output in a single color. As a result, chromatic portions contained in the image of the original are reproduced in the form of corresponding patterns and all other portions are output in the form of luminance information.
In the example of the prior art described above, however, when the luminance distribution of the entire document is sampled in the usual manner also when AE (automatic exposure) is applied, even areas (chromatic portions) of the document at which luminance information is not output are sampled. As a consequence, AE cannot be performed accurately.
Further, in a case where a document has a background or base color, it is desired that this background-color portion not be converted into a pattern. In the prior art, however, the background-color is replaced by a pattern and printed when it is judged that the background of the document is chromatic.

Image processor in which colors in an original color image are identified as predetermined patterns on a monochromatic copy of the original


An electrical connector (1) includes an insulative member (10) defining two rows of slanted cavities (30) along a longitudinal direction thereof, two rows of conductive contacts (12) obliquely received in corresponding slanted cavities and two grounding plates (32) with over-molded insulative inserts (34) attached to the insulative member. Each grounding plate electrically contacts some selected conductive contacts via ribs (39) thereof, which are therefore grounding contacts, and is isolated from the other conductive contacts, which are therefore signal contacts. Each grounding plate has a number of enlarged tails (38) for elastically engaging with corresponding plated holes (54) in a mother board (46) that the electrical connector is adapted to be mounted on. The conductive contacts slide along the mother board upon insertion of a daughter board (52) to the electrical connector.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card edge connector, and particularly to a high-speed card edge connector which has improved grounding feature to enhance the signal transmitting quality of the connector, and contacts which can perform wiping action on conductive pads of a mother board which the connector mounts on.
2. Description of the Related Art
The needs of today""s electronic industry require higher speed electronic equipment such as computers and the like. Since many of the electrical interconnections within this type of equipment use circuit boards, it is desirable to provide high-speed card edge connectors having a controlled impedance that will essentially match the impedance of the circuit boards. A high-speed connector is one that can pass fast rise time signals without distorting or degrading that rise time. It is desirable, therefore, to control the impedance of the connector to reduce signal reflection caused by changes in impedance in the pathways conducting the digital pulse. Impedance control includes controlled spacing of ground and signal traces and interconnections. With the closer spacing of the conductors, it is also necessary to prevent cross talk between adjacent conductors.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,024,609, issued to Burndy Corporation on Jun. 18, 1991 and 5,820,392, issued to Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd., on Oct. 13, 1998 each disclose a high-speed card edge connector having a housing and first and second types of conductive contacts. The housing defines a plurality of contact receiving chambers each receiving a first and a second types of conductive contacts at respective upper and lower locations, wherein the first and the second types of the conductive contacts are isolated from each other. Due to the locations of the first and the second types of conductive contacts, the connector has an advantage that pitches between two adjacent conductive contacts of a same row are double of that of a connector having the same number of conductive contacts which are arranged in a single row. So the connector disclosed above has a better electronic performance than other connectors. However, the connector disclosed above is relatively higher than the other connectors, which is undesirable for certain applications.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,095,821 and 6,015,299, both issued to Molex Incorporated respectively on Aug. 1, 2000 and Jan. 18, 2000, 5,921,784 and 5,919,049, both issued to Framatome Connectors respectively on Jul. 13, 1999 and Jul. 6, 1999, each disclose a high-speed card edge connector. The connectors disclosed in the above patents each have an insulative housing, a plurality of conductive contacts assembled to the insulative housing, wherein some of the conductive contacts function as grounding members to reduce cross-talk between adjacent signal contacts, thereby improving electronic performances of the connector. The conductive contacts for signal transmitting purpose have a different configuration from the conductive contacts for grounding purpose and contact receiving cavities of the insulative housing have two different configurations to accommodate the conductive contacts of different configurations, respectively. These connectors are complex both in manufacturing and assembly. Further, these connectors are unable to meet the requirement of changing the location of the grounding contacts or the number of the grounding contacts without changing the insulative housing. Also, these connectors do not have shielding means for protecting the signals transmitting therethrough from external magnetic field fluctuations.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,631, issued to Burndy Corporation on Jul. 30, 1991, discloses a ground shielded card edge connector having an insulative housing, a plurality of conductive contacts fitted to the insulative housing and a pair of ground shields attaching to opposite side faces of the insulative housing. The ground shields are electrically connected to grounding means on an inserted daughter card via conductive members attached to the grounding means of the daughter card. The conductive members are exposed out of the connector which does not provide ease of assembly of the connector and the daughter card. Hence, an improved electrical connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
A first objective of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector having grounding plates for protecting signals transmitting through conductive contacts thereof; and
A second objective of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector having grounding plates that are electrically connected with some desired conductive contacts to improve electrical performance of the electrical connector.
To fulfill the above objectives, an electrical connector includes an insulative member defining two rows of slanted cavities along a longitudinal direction thereof, two rows of conductive contacts obliquely received in corresponding slanted cavities and two grounding plates, with over-molded insulative inserts, attached to the insulative member and being near the rows of conductive contacts to shield the conductive contacts. Each grounding plate electrically contacts some selected conductive contacts, which are therefore grounding contacts, and is isolated from the other conductive contacts, which are therefore signal contacts. Each grounding plate has a number of enlarged tails for elastically engaging with corresponding plated holes in a mother board which the electrical connector is adapted to be mounted on. A daughter board is able to be inserted to the electrical connector in a direction perpendicular to the mother board. Upon the insertion of the daughter board to the electrical connector, the conductive contacts are forced by the daughter board to slide along the daughter and mother boards in perpendicular directions.
Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


A NOR/inverter logic gate circuit and a flip flop circuit implemented with superconducting flux flow transistors (SFFTs). Both circuits comprise two SFFTs with feedback lines. They have extremely low power dissipation, very high switching speeds, and the ability to interface between Josephson junction superconductor circuits and conventional microelectronics.

This invention relates to digital logic circuits implemented with flux flow transistors made from high temperature superconducting materials.
There are at least two other superconducting technologies that can be used for logic circuits. Modified Variable Threshold Logic (MVTL) and Single Flux Quantum (SFQ) are both based on small Josephson junctions. MVTL uses hysteretic Josephson junctions in a latching mode. While on the same order of speed as the flux flow logic circuits disclosed in this application, they have difficulty in interfacing directly to conventional electronics. The MVTL technology is explained in the reference by S. Hasuo, S. Kotani, A. Inoue and N. Fujimaki, "High Speed Josephson Processor Technology" IEEE Trans. on Mag. MAG-27, 2602 (1991). SFQ uses non-hysteretic junctions and circuit topologies that operate on individual vortices. This family is faster than flux flow logic, but certain combinational functions are more difficult to implement. Additionally, they suffer from noise immunity and cross-talk problems and have difficulty in interfacing to conventional electronics. The SFQ logic is explained in the reference by K. K. Likharev and V. K. Semenov, "RSFQ Logic/Memory Family: A New Josephson-Junction Technology for Sub-Terahertz-Clock-Frequency Digital Systems" IEEE Trans. on Appl. Supercond. 1, 3 (1991). Memories have also been difficult to implement in these two technologies because of standby power dissipation and coupling problems.
The flux flow logic described herein has important advantages. The flux flow flip flop and inverter have very low power dissipation in all static states, and the devices can couple trivially to each other and to conventional circuitry. Compared to conventional logic circuits, generally FET-based, the flux flow circuits have major advantages in power dissipation (by orders of magnitude) and speed. For the same linewidth lithography, it is estimated that flux flow logic is more than an order of magnitude faster than GaAs-based FET logic. Because the flux flow signal levels are reasonable, they can couple effectively to conventional circuitry. The basic operation of the SFFT is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,721 for "Active Superconducting Devices Formed of Thin Films" issued on May 28, 1991 to J. S. Martens et al. This patent is incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Superconducting flux flow digital circuits

The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy


The object of the present invention is to produce cycloalkanol and/or cycloalkanone with good selectivity by oxidizing cycloalkane with molecular oxygen. The method of the present invention contains the step of oxidizing cycloalkane with molecular oxygen in the presence of cobalt salt of carboxylic acid and cobalt complex with porphyrin as a ligand, the cobalt complex with porphyrin as a ligand being a compound represented by the formula (1):

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for producing cycloalkanol and/or cycloalkanone by oxidizing cycloalkane with molecular oxygen.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a method for oxidizing hydrocarbon such as alkane, cycloalkane and alkene with molecular oxygen, there has been known a method utilizing cobalt salt of carboxylic acid as a catalyst (e.g., see U.S. Pat. No. 3,957,876). In addition, recently, a method utilizing porphyrin complex as a catalyst has been proposed. As a such catalyst, for instance, EP 0 471 501 A discloses a complex of iron, chromium, manganese, ruthenium or copper with perhalogenated porphyrin as a ligand; EP 0 532 327 A discloses a complex of iron, chromium, manganese, ruthenium, cobalt or copper with cyanated porphyrin as a ligand; EP 0 532 326 A discloses a complex of iron, chromium, manganese, ruthenium, cobalt or copper with nitrated porphyrin as a ligand; and EP 0 704 447 A discloses a complex of iron with halogenated porphyrin as a ligand.

Process for producing cycloalkanol and/or cycloalkanone

Abstract: wherein each of X1 to X8 independently represents a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, a nitro group, a cyano group, a hydrocarbon group, a halogenated hydrocarbon group or a sulfonyl group, and each of R1 to R4 independently represents a hydrogen atom, a nitro group, a cyano group, a hydrocarbon group or a halogenated hydrocarbon group.


A competitive sport, and a facility for playing the same, the facility having a raised planar playing field formed of a plurality of rectangular trampoline-like channels held together edgewise by supporting cables with all of the adjacent edges and cables being covered by padding. The rectangular planar field is preferably circumscribed by additional similar panels angled upwardly and outwardly from the edges of the planar field with goals being provided in each of the end angled panels. The playing field may be divided and marked in predetermined ways depending upon the rules of the game. In one form, the game may involve two teams; one provided for each half of the field, with each team taking turns for prescribed periods in attempting to project a ball into a goal at the angled panels projecting upwardly from the end of the opponents' side of the field, while the defendant's attempt to thwart the defensive team's attempts to make a goal. The total number of goals scored by each team are totaled after the expiration of allowed play periods to determine the winning team.

spectator sports, such as football, baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer, have become so extensively promoted as spectator sports that the team owners have been enabled to pay very lucrative salaries to the team members and team conquests, through professional leagues, have become major business activities, both in the United States and in certain foreign countries.
Each of these sports, however, suffers from various periods of boredom for spectators, even during what may be considered "action". Also, even when "action" occurs, it may be routine and unexciting. Examples would be free throws in basketball, unproductive ground plays in football, catching a fly ball in baseball, and much movement in both soccer and hockey.
In addition, action of the players is generally limited to body movements on stable surfaces, such as ground, wood floor or ice rinks, which movements may be limited by the normal physical capabilities of the players as human beings. An exception may be the sport of water polo, but actually the water in which the game is played, tends to limit quick movements of the participants.


Disclosed herein is a Digitally Controlled Cavity Length Control System comprising, in a preferred embodiment, an adaptive servo-loop for cavity length, modulation depth and amplitude control, and of the multioscillator ring laser gyroscope; thereby, permitting the simultaneous control of these elements. The cavity length control of the multioscillator, by including a variable RF detector gain, allows the operation of the gyroscope in a slightly detuned fashion to minimize magnetic sensitivity. In this manner, the multioscillator gyroscope may be maintained at a stable operating point suitable for modeling.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to cavity length control systems for ring laser gyroscopes, and more particularly, to a cavity or pathlength control which digitally provides adaptive control of the ring laser gyroscope cavity length.
2. Description of Related Art
The planar ring laser gyroscope was a first attempt at a non-mechanical truly strap-down inertial navigation sensor. At low rotation rates, the retroscatter from the mirrors couples energy from one of the oscillating beams into the oppositely propagating beam which locks the oscillating frequencies together yielding zero rotation information at low rotation rates. Current operational ring laser gyroscopes having a planar configuration use mechanical dithering schemes to bias the rate sensor to avoid this well known lock-in phenomenon. Mechanical dither is very effective in reducing the effects of lock-in and makes the ring laser gyroscope a viable navigational gyroscope. However, an effective mechanically dithered ring laser gyroscope adds a noise component to the output of the ring laser which in turn reduces its ultimate accuracy. Also, the presence of mechanical dither, either in the mirrors or full body dither, detracts from the desired goal of a fully strapped down inertial navigational unit.
With these problems in mind, alternative biasing techniques have been developed using the nonreciprocal Faraday effect by either applying a magnetic field to a magnetic mirror (using the Kerr effect) or directly to the gain medium (using the Zeeman effect), or to a solid glass element known as a Faraday rotator, which when used in combination with the magnetic field, provides a Faraday effect phase shift for one beam that is opposite the phase shift of the oppositely directed beam whereby two counter rotating beams are split in frequency. To achieve actual phase shifts instead of simple polarization rotation, two pairs of oppositely directed circularly polarized beams are optimally present within a single optical path to achieve a desired result. An example of this theory of multioscillator ring laser gyroscope may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,818,087 entitled "ORTHOHEDRAL RING LASER GYRO" issued Apr. 4, 1989 to Raytheon Corporation (Terry A. Dorschner, inventor). The nonplanar ray path produced in a multioscillator ring laser gyroscope ensures circular polarized reciprocally split light. The nonplanar ray path reciprocally rotates the polarizations by many degrees yielding the necessary circular polarization. The nonplanar reciprocal phase shift also achieves two Faraday bias gyroscopes, the gain curve 10 of which is illustrated in FIGS. 1A through 1C. FIGS. 1A through 1C show graphical representations of the power gain curve 10 of a multioscillator ring laser gyroscope (and any variations of these gain curves are shown at 10'). The nonplanar ray path splits the light through its geometry into two separate gyroscopes, one being left circularly polarized (LCP) and the other right circularly polarized (RCP). This splitting is known as reciprocal splitting and typically is in the range of 100's of MHz. By placing a Faraday element in the beam path of a nonplanar ring laser gyroscope, when the proper magnetic field is applied to the Faraday element, nonreciprocal splitting of each gyroscope is achieved.
An integral number of wavelengths around the light beam cavity path of the gyroscope is required to support resonant operation. As shown in FIG. 1A, at least four modes are produced: a left circularly polarized anti-clockwise beam (W.sub.LA), having an amplitude (A.sub.LA), a left circularly polarized clockwise beam (W.sub.LC), having an amplitude (A.sub.LC), a right circularly polarized clockwise beam (W.sub.RC), having an amplitude (A.sub.RC), and a right circularly polarized anti-clockwise beam (W.sub.RA), having an amplitude (A.sub.RA). FIG. 1A is a graphical representation of the power gain curve 10 of a multioscillator ring laser gyroscope. An integral number of wavelengths around the light beam cavity path of the inertial system is required to produce oscillation W.sub.LA, W.sub.LC, W.sub.RA, and W.sub.RC. The Faraday (nonreciprocal) splitting between clockwise and anti-clockwise modes is about 1 MHz. At least four mirrors form the ring resonator path, which contains the two gyroscopes, left and right circularly polarized. One of the mirrors is slightly transmissive to allow light to leave the resonator and impinge upon a photo detector for signal processing. When the signals are processed electronically to remove the Faraday bias, the scale factor of the gyroscope is doubled over the conventional ring laser gyroscope. The nonplanar geometry multioscillator ring laser gyroscope using a Faraday element is currently manufactured using a gas discharge pump to provide the active medium, which occupies a portion of the light beam path. The multioscillator ring laser gyroscope produces two signals which are optically biased (due to the Faraday cell). One signal frequency is the Faraday frequency plus one half the rate frequency; the other is the Faraday frequency minus one half the rate frequency. The gyroscope outputs the phase (integrated frequency) of these two signals. Their difference represents a rotation angle increment. However, the output signals are quantized at discrete levels separated by 2.pi. of the gyroscope phase (i.e., an interference fringe).
The two output signals from the multioscillator are produced by heterodyning the like-polarized counterpropagating optical signal beams. Such signals are called heterodyne signals. One or more heterodyne signal is created for the left hand circularly polarized gyroscope and one or more is created for the right hand circularly polarized gyroscope. This can be accomplished either with an optical polarizer or other signal processing scheme. The heterodyne signals represent intensity fringes.
Optical signal fringes are produced by the heterodyne signals and detected by a pair of photo sensors. The curve 10 of FIG. 1A will hereinafter be assumed to be symmetrical about a central axis frequency (W.sub.C), W.sub.C located at the center of maximum gain. Thus, the power amplitudes A.sub.LA and A.sub.LC corresponding to the frequencies W.sub.LA and W.sub.LC are respectively symmetrical to the power amplitudes A.sub.RA and A.sub.RC with respect to the central axis. As will be described later in greater detail, the cavity length control apparatus of the present invention causes the inertial sensor to operate at a substantially maximum power gain, and maintains this maximum gain condition. In this regard, and for the purpose of retaining a maximum overall output power gain for the inertial sensor, the clockwise propagating beams corresponding to the frequencies W.sub.LC and W.sub.RC are mixed and processed. It should be understood, however, that the counter-clockwise propagating beams corresponding to the frequency W.sub.LA and W.sub.RA can be alternatively mixed and processed. However, it has heretofore been known that only two modes are needed to accurately control the cavity length of the inertial sensor.
Heretofore, in a two mode ring laser gyroscope, portions of the counterpropagating beams are superimposed against each other to produce interference fringes which are counted as measures of angular displacement and velocity of the ring laser about a sensing axis. In such gyroscopes, to achieve a consistent calibration of the gyroscope, it is essential that the physical lengths of the paths be maintained. This is also true for multioscilators. To maintain the physical lengths, the ring laser cavity is preferably imbedded in a dimensionally stable laser block. A set of mirrors, ( numbering four or more in non-planar multioscillators) are positioned at the intersection of the bores or cavities defining the optical path and such mirrors may be called, "corner mirrors." For convenience of explanation, the ring laser is described with four mirrors and four bores, cavities, or legs.
A ring laser gyroscope is here described with a ring laser having at least two sets of counterpropagating beams (forming at least two independent gyroscopes) traveling around the laser path in the same physical bore space. At least one of the corner mirrors transmits a very small amount of the counterpropagating laser beams to an optical system which usually uses prisms to collect and superimpose them. A sensor senses the interference fringes produced by the superimposed beams, and electronics apparatus responsive to the detected signals counts the fringes and computes the fringe rate, angular displacement, and angular velocity of the laser about a predetermined axis.
One significant problem in any ring laser gyroscope arises in tuning the ring laser cavity to the correct length to support the resonant modes of the counterpropagating beams. The inward-outward position of at least one of the corner mirrors is adjustable to control the cavity length of the ring laser. Although only one adjustable mirror is needed, the apparatus for controlling cavity length described herein may use two adjustable mirrors which increases the range of adjustment of the cavity length.
The partially transparent corner mirror may be any mirror, but it is preferably not one of the movable mirrors. The beams extracted through the partially transparent mirror produce an optical output signal whose count is a measure of the angular displacement sensed by the instrument and whose amplitude is a measure of laser intensity. If desired, intensity and angular information can both be derived from the signal through a single partially transmissive mirror. Alternatively, two different partially transparent mirrors may be used.
A transducer, preferably a piezoelectric transducer having driving electrodes, forces the movable mirror or mirrors inwardly or outwardly, and the amount of inward or outward motion depends upon the voltage delivered to the electrodes.
The scale factor between the amount of voltage applied to the transducer electrodes and the excursion of travel of the mirror attached to the transducer, varies with many factors including but not limited to temperature of the mirror and the transducer, the compliance of the flexure springs supporting the transducer, and the bonding of those flexures. As the transducer scale factor varies, the ratio of its applied control voltage to the corresponding excursion of its attached movable mirror varies, and the amount of voltage change to move the movable mirror inwardly and outwardly to change the cavity length by one laser beam wavelength also varies.
Heretofore, a computer, usually the system computer used for the ring laser, generates digital words or bytes, converts them into an analog signal, and delivers them to control the inward and outward position of the piezoelectric transducer and its attached movable corner mirror. The lasing intensity peaks at inward-outward positions of the movable corner mirror corresponding to cavity lengths that are separated by a distance of one wavelength of the laser beam.
Cavity length control (in a two mode gyroscope) historically was achieved using a "hill climbing" servo which employed analog modulation of the mirror transducer drive voltage followed by analog demodulation of the intensity signal. The modulation/demodulation took place at a fairly high frequency (e.g. six kilohertz). The servo could then be closed via an analog loop which fed back a control voltage which was dependent on the output of the demodulator. A stable operating condition was achieved when the demodulator output was zero on average.
Later, the servo operations were performed by the system computer. An analog-to-digital converter was used to allow the computer to command the control voltage. The apparatus still relied upon the basic six kilohertz (or equivalent) analog modulation and demodulation to produce an error signal for operation of the control loop.
A study revealed that, because of variations in the sensitivity of piezoelectric transducers and of other mirror and gyroscope parameters, such servo loops exhibited very large loop gain variations, thereby leading to inconsistent controller performance and often long convergence times. To solve this problem, two of the applicants hereto, have filed a co-pending patent application, (assigned to the common assignee of this application) entitled "COMPUTER GENERATED CAVITY LENGTH CONTROL WITH AUTOMATIC GAIN CONTROL FOR RING LASER GYROS" on Nov. 1, 1991, Ser. No. 07/640,179. In this co-pending application a primary ("hill-climbing" servo-loop) and secondary (modulation control) servo-loop provide fine tuned control of the cavity length for a two mode ring laser gyroscope. In particular, with reference to FIG. 1B, the 07/640,179 case taught the need to adjust modulation control over a widely varying temperature range, thereby controlling the temperature sensitivity of the cavity length of the ring laser gyroscope. This second harmonic demodulation allowed the cavity length control system to accommodate gain curves like 10' (FIG. 1B) which are characterized by PZT (piezo-transducer) gain changes. By controlling modulation gain and depth, one can accommodate the changing curvature of the intensity gain curve 10' of FIG. 1B over a widely varying temperature range.
Heretofore, the applicant's assignee is also owner of an issued U.S. Pat. No. 4,963,026 (granted Oct. 16, 1990) entitled "CAVITY LENGTH CONTROL APPARATUS FOR A MULTIOSCILLATOR" which teaches an analog primary "hill-climbing" servo-loop subjected to an RF amplitude modulated signal in the range of 1-10 KHz. It is the applicant's desire to take the teaching from the co-pending 07/640,179 case and apply it to the multioscillator situation contemplated in the 4,963,026 patent and improve upon it.

Multioscillator ring laser gyroscope adaptive digitally controlled cavity length control system


A seal arrangement having a sealing flange (1) with at least one first seal (2) and a carrier flange (3) with a holder (4) for a sensor (5). The sealing flange (1) and the carrier flange (3) are each produced separately, are made of a metallic material, and are connected with one another with a non-positive and/or a positive lock.

The present invention relates to a seal arrangement. In particular, the present invention relates to a seal arrangement including a sealing flange with at least one first seal and a carrier flange with a holder for a sensor.
A similar seal arrangement is known from German Patent 43 12 424 C2. The seal arrangement disclosed in that patent includes a housing closure lid with a device to set the speed of rotation, and a dynamic sealing ring. The sealing flange and the carrier flange are formed in one piece and are made of a light metal. The holder for the sensor must be cut into the carrier flange after the flange is formed. A significant effort in production is required to eliminate the possibility that the placement of the sensor is subject to undesirably great tolerances due to production conditions. This is not very satisfactory from an economic point of view. The tolerances of the sensor placement result from the sum of the tolerances of the clamping mechanisms for the flange while it is being cut, and the tolerances in guidance of the machining tool. The consequences can be, for example, incorrect measurement values concerning the angle of rotation of a shaft of an internal combustion engine. These values are provided to the engine management system.
After the holder for the previously known seal arrangement has been cut into the carrier flange, it is necessary to clean it to remove chips. This further increases the production effort.
If the flange is made of a light metal, for example, complicated injection molding dies are required. These injections molding dies are very expensive. They therefore can only be economically justified if very high numbers of pieces are made.
An object of the present invention is to develop a seal arrangement that can be produced in a simple and inexpensive manner, in terms of production technology and economics. Another object of the invention is to develop a seal arrangement that can be recycled in a problem-free way. Yet another object is to develop a seal arrangement such that positioning of the sensor holder is subject only to tolerances that are small enough to be ignored.
To achieve these objects, a seal arrangement is provided with a sealing flange and a carrier flange. The sealing flange and the carrier flange are each produced separately. Both flanges are made of a metallic material, and are connected with each other with a non-positive and/or a positive lock. Because the sealing flange and the carrier flange are each produced separately, they can be produced with particular accuracy and inexpensively (i.e. with a relatively small amount of production effort). Preferably, the same metallic material is used for the sealing flange and the carrier flange. Both parts will then demonstrate heat expansion. This assures secure contact of the parts against one another and uniformly good usage properties over the entire period of use. With a view to separation of materials for recycling, the fact that the materials of the sealing flange and the carrier flange are the same is an advantage that must be emphasized. Joining methods using a non-positive and/or positive lock are simple to carry out and are characterized by good durability. The durability is particularly good if the parts that are connected with one another are made of the same material and therefore demonstrate the same behavior in operation.
In accordance with an advantageous further development, the first seal can be structured as a radial shaft seal and surrounds a shaft that is to be sealed, under pre-stress, forming a seal. In this connection, it is preferred if the radial shaft sealing ring is vulcanized directly onto the sealing flange. The geometry of the sealing lips of the first seal is dependent on the application, in each instance, and different materials can also be used for the sealing lips.
The sensor can be structured as a speed of rotation sensor, to determine the speed of rotation of the shaft to be scaled. If necessary, the sensor can also detect the angle of rotation and/or quiet running of the shaft to be sealed. Such sensors for determination of operational data are used, for example, in order to determine the operational data of the crank shaft of an internal combustion engine. In such a case, the operational data are used to meter the fuel in an optimum manner, via the engine management system, to minimize harmful combustion products, and to detect possible engine misfires.
In addition to the first seal, the sealing flange can have a second seal that acts in the axial direction and/or a third seal that acts in the radial direction. The first seal can surround the crank shaft of an internal combustion engine, where the second seal rests against the engine block and the third seal rests against the oil pan of the internal combustion engine, forming a seal. By means of such a so-called complete flange with an integrated sensor, installation and handling of the seal arrangement is significantly simplified. The sealing flange and the carrier flange form a pre-assembled unit, where the pre-assembled unit includes all the seals arranged on the sealing flange and the sensor arranged on the holder of the carrier flange.
With an view to inexpensive production, the sealing flange and the carrier flange can each be made of a metallic material and be structured in sheet-metal form. The sealing flange and the carrier flange can each be shaped without cutting, and thereby brought into their ready-to-use shape. The holder is an integral part of the carrier flange, and is produced by shaping without cutting. Metallic materials are particularly advantageous for the application described above because they retain their shape even at high temperatures and do not demonstrate any relaxation phenomena, even during a long period of use.
Because the holder is an integral part of carrier flange, the assignment of holder and carrier flange to one another is determined in production. The risk of assembly errors and disadvantageous usage properties that might result from them is therefore limited to a minimum.
The sealing flange or the carrier flange can have recesses, where the carrier flange or the sealing flange have projections and where the recesses and the projections are structured to be congruent and are connected with one another. Preferably, the sealing flange and the carrier flange can be held together by the recesses and the projections. To hold the two parts in place relative to one another, the projections are inserted into the recesses, and subsequently shaped without cutting, in such a way that the projections have a larger size and/or a different shape from the recesses. Separation of the sealing flange and the carrier flange is then no longer possible without deforming the linked projections and/or destroying the join. The sealing flange and the carrier flange also may be glued together.
Because of the method of production, which does not involve any cutting, contamination of the seal arrangement by metal chips, for example, which could result in damage/destruction of the seal, is precluded. There cannot be any adhering light metal chips, as is frequently an objection for flanges made of light metal that are produced with cutting steps involved.

Seal arrangement with a sealing flange and a carrier flange


Provided is a method of controlling and adjusting at least one body feature of a subject using electronic mobile devices worked by a person in need thereof and measuring devices interconnected thereto.

Health costs are soaring word wide and high personal and economical costs result in General Motors spending more in recent years on their worker's health than in metal. Adopting healthy behaviors can greatly contribute to general health and reduce the extensive financial and mental costs to the person, the employer and the state. The primary motivation underlying the proposed system is to increase adherence to health behavior among users who suffer from a variety of symptoms and health conditions requiring improvement (e.g., diabetes, hypertension, asthma, chronic pain, stress, etc.) through the digital devices the user use around the day (computers, tablets, mobiles, etc.)
Monitoring user's physiological indicators can reflect quantitatively the mental and emotional state accurately and in real time allow adaption and use of correcting health behaviors. The current technology is not being mass used because the main arena for those treatments (e.g. treatment of anxiety, depression, chronic pain, lung disease, etc.) is a dedicated clinic (e.g. psychologic clinic, pain clinic, etc.). This arena contributes to the creation of many obstacles ranging from financial barriers to space and time barriers. Moreover, from adoption of many health behaviors (such as: smoking cessation, healthy eating, exercise, breathing physiotherapy) till the result is achieved requires weeks, months or even years of practice. It is not enough to devote a concerted effort once a week for a few minutes; rather these techniques have to be implemented in daily life, and practiced every day (like brushing your teeth twice a day).
Adherence to medical care (e.g., drugs, physiotherapy) is estimated to only happen in about 30% of cases. This adherence level is very disturbing especially in the context of preventive health behavior adoption that has the capability to save substantial time and resources. Research has proven the huge health importance of physiological monitoring of various metrics (such as HRV) because they can give an indication of various health problems (e.g. HRV is a good indicator of lung function).
Currently, most software developed to encourage the adoption of health behavior requires dedicated and separate software (e.g. biofeedback games). This situation necessitated the increased development of new content (screens, games, sound clips, logs etc.) in order to maintain the high level of interest among users and motivate them time and again to adopt this behavior by using the software.
The separate treatment environment (e.g. clinic) creates a sterile environment which is disconnected from the user's daily life (this is the difference between brushing your teeth in your private bathroom compared with a dental appointment). Such an environment will not only put more obstacles for the user but impedes the ability to implement the desired behavior anytime and anywhere (e.g. there is a real difficulty applying tools successfully used to control anxiety in the clinic when taken into real life, such as during an actual test with test anxiety). Even in recent years as the technology has progressed and health programs have reached both PC and smartphone, these programs remain separate from the regular programs used throughout the day (e.g. a biofeedback relaxation application compared to the very frequent use of e-mail, web browser, or a video player). Not only does the user need to remember and choose to launch a separate application, but the user is asked to put aside all current tasks and open a separate dedicated application that requires his entire focus. This situation brings back the question of adherence to treatment which is in the heart of this discussion and highlights the acute need to find smart solutions to this complex problem.
The present invention provides a system and a method that can become an integral part of the usage of any IT device (e.g. computer, tablet, mobile . . . ), eliminating the need for a separate "sterile" treatment (for example in a clinic) and the "real world" where the human subject is working and functioning (and also suffering from a condition to be treated). In addition, the solution presented in the present application allows follow-up on the adherence to desired health behaviors. This innovative development gives a good answer to the challenges mentioned above—overcoming barriers of time, geography and economic resources along with a dramatic increase in the adoption of healthy behaviors in daily life of users, who are already interacting with technology which can now be programmed to help increase health.

Methods and systems of controlling a subject's body feature having a periodic wave function


An apparatus for and a method of preventing a car from coming into collision with an object car running ahead or behind, by monitoring car running conditions in the front and rear of the car by the provision of front and rear sensors to give an alarm to the front and rear object cars when an emergency situation has monitored, sensing a slope of a road surface on which the car runs to remove an error caused by an inclination of the car, sensing a handle rotation of the car to enable the car to follow the front object car on a curved road and to be informed of situations in the front and rear of the car on the curved road, establishing a sufficient safety distance, and sensing an emergency situation occurring in the rear of the car to inform a driver of the rear object car of the emergency situation by the provision of a display. When a rotation of the handle is detected, the front and rear sensors are rotated in a direction corresponding to that of the rotation of the handle by an amount corresponding to a rotation angle of the handle, while when a slope of a road surface on which the car runs is detected, the front and rear sensors are rotated in a direction reverse to that of the road surface slope by an amount corresponding to a gradient of the slope at a point of an estimated slope beginning time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for and a method of preventing a car from coming into collision with an object car running ahead or behind by measuring a car-to-object distance utilizing a pulse laser, comparing data indicative of the measured car-to-object distance with reference data, and controlling a speed of the car and giving an alarm to a driver.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, most existing car collision prevention systems are adapted to recognize a distance between a car and an object car running ahead or behind in a non-contact manner utilizing a light beam. When the car-to-object distance is not more than a predetermined safety distance, such a car collision prevention system performs an automatic braking of the car or gives an alarm to the driver to prevent a car accident.
In such a car collision prevention system, the safety distance is predetermined, taking into consideration various conditions such as the speed of the car, the speed of the object car, the car-to-object distance, the braking distance of the car, the response time of the driver, etc. The car collision prevention system analyses the above-mentioned conditions to recognize a point of time when the car-to-object distance is not more than the predetermined safety distance. Upon recognizing the car-to-object distance being not more than the predetermined safety distance, the car collision prevention system gives an alarm to the driver or brakes the car automatically.
In the case of such a conventional car collision prevention system, however, the safety distance predetermined as a reference value is based on data associated with a normal road condition. For this reason, an insufficient safety distance may be established when the car runs on a curved road or on a sloped road. In such a situation, the light beam reflected by the object may be irregular. In these cases, the car collision prevention system has difficulty in appropriately coping with the road condition. As a result, there is a problem that the accident prevention function of the conventional car collision prevention system is degraded.

Apparatus for and method of preventing car collision utilizing laser

Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd.


An apparatus for bonding a semiconductor device onto a substrate (e.g., a printed circuit board) such that solder elements on the device are connected, respectively, to circuit elements on the substrate. The solder elements are heated by passing hot gas onto an opposing surface of the device such that, by heat transference, the solder elements become partially molten to form the desired connections. Pressure is also applied onto the device during this formation to assure planarity at the connection sites. Following formation, cooling of the connections is accomplished. By directing heated gas onto only the semiconductor device and not onto the solder element-circuit member locations (and thus onto the substrate), direct semiconductor device bonding to lower melting point temperature substrates (e.g., those circuit boards containing fiberglass reinforced epoxy resin as a dielectric) may be achieved.

The present invention, as defined, involves the bonding of a semiconductor device (chip) to a circuitized substrate, the substrate preferably a printed circuit board. Typically, such boards are comprised of dielectric material such as epoxy resin reinforced with fiberglass, and include a plurality of conductive layers (referred to as signal, power and/or ground planes) as part thereof. One particular advantage of directly bonding a semiconductor chip onto a printed circuit board is the elimination of an interim substrate as has been typically used in the art, one example being referred to as a flexible (or thin) film carrier. Such a carrier is described in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,057,969, as well as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,937,006, 4,962,416 and 4,914,551, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
In the structures defined in these patents and application, the chip is typically bonded initially to the conductive leads (e.g., copper) of the carrier and this chip-carrier subassembly is then bonded to respective circuit (contact) sites or members on the next substrate (typically, a printed circuit board). This combined structure is then typically incorporated into the remaining electrical portions of a larger assembly (e.g., a processor) which in turn may form part of an information handling system (also known as a computer). In the processes for achieving such bonding between chip and carrier, as well as in processes wherein chips have been directly bonded to other circuitized substrates (e.g., metallized ceramic substrates), solder connections have often been utilized with hot gas directed onto the lead and/or solder junctions. U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,006 defines such a process. U.S. Pat. No. 5,057,969 also defines use of hot gas impingement, but primarily onto the copper leads, which in turn assist in heating portions of the respective solder mounds to which these are engaged. Such direct hot gas impingement onto the circuitry and adjoining surface of an epoxy resin dielectric circuit board may prove deleterious because of the lower melting point of this dielectric, in comparison to the much higher temperature ceramic and similar substrate materials.
Understandably, elimination of an interim carrier thus results in a substantial reduction in the processes, costs and time involved in making such products. As defined herein, the invention provides such distinct advantages over processes and structures as described in the foregoing patents and application in a new and unique manner. Significantly, the invention provides such connections without direct gas impingement onto the solder elements (also referred to as solder mounds or solder balls) used to form such connections. Because an interim carrier is eliminated, the conductive (copper) leads associated therewith are also removed, such that the method of connection provided by the instant invention is directly between the chip's solder elements and circuitry located on the surface of the substrate to which the chip is to be bonded. Of further significance, the avoidance of direct hot gas impingement on leads and/or substrate (including the circuitry thereof) enables direct device attachment to less costly substrates of lower melting point dielectrics (e.g., epoxy resin).
It is believed that such a form of connection will constitute a significant advancement in the art.

Apparatus for soldering a semiconductor device to a circuitized substrate