An improved integrated circuit area efficient redundancy multiplexer circuit technique provides similar functionality to conventional CMOS transmission, or xe2x80x9cpassxe2x80x9d gates while concomitantly reducing circuit complexity, the die area necessary to support redundant elements and complementary control signals in memory device ICs and undesired parasitic capacitance. The technique of the present invention effectuates this end by utilizing the on-chip boosted voltage levels (Vpp) which are generally available in integrated circuit memory devices to supply the voltage for the control signal applied to a single N-channel transistor pass gate instead of the conventional supply voltage level of Vcc. The Vpp voltage and circuit ground (xe2x80x9cGNDxe2x80x9d) are then utilized as the logic xe2x80x9chighxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9clowxe2x80x9d signal levels respectively. This use is made possible due to the fact that these control signals operate at a direct current (xe2x80x9cDCxe2x80x9d) level after device power-up. When the integrated circuit has powered-up and is stabilized (and after the redundancy has been programmed), the signal levels of the single transistor N-channel pass gates are stabilized. The significant reduction in undesired parasitic capacitance that is also provided allows for higher throughput speeds in the address and data paths.

The present invention relates, in general, to the field of integrated circuit (xe2x80x9cICxe2x80x9d) devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved, integrated circuit area efficient, redundancy multiplexer circuit technique providing significantly reduced parasitic capacitance of particular applicability for use in integrated circuit memory devices and other semiconductor devices incorporating embedded memory elements.
Current integrated circuit memory redundancy technology often utilizes numbers of conventional, complementary metal oxide semiconductor (xe2x80x9cCMOSxe2x80x9d) transmission, or xe2x80x9cpassxe2x80x9d gates for each repairable element, with each such pass gate comprising parallel coupled N-channel and P-channel transistors controlled by complementary gate control signals. Functionally, these pass gates are often utilized for shifting addresses as well as the read/write data of redundant circuit elements.
For example, the address path of regular as well as spare row and column elements (and the data flow of a data path) can be directed through the use of pass gate logic. In the conventional CMOS implementation of a pass gate, the input signals can be propagated without a threshold voltage (xe2x80x9cVtxe2x80x9d) drop in the signal level as would be the case if only a single N-channel or P-channel transistor were used instead. In the former instance, the N-channel device would introduce a Vt drop to logic xe2x80x9conexe2x80x9d signal levels and in the latter case, the P-channel device would introduce a Vt drop to logic xe2x80x9czeroxe2x80x9d signal levels.
Although CMOS pass gates designs are traditionally well suited for these purposes, the layout of such circuits nevertheless consumes an undesirably large amount of integrated circuit die (xe2x80x9con-chipxe2x80x9d) area and adds concomitant circuit complexity with the need for complementary control signal generation, routing and other attendant requirements. This additional die space and layout complexity adds to an increased device cost and design time while also exhibiting a significantly large parasitic capacitance, leading to a decrease in the speed of the address and data paths. Further, while single device pass gates circuit techniques have been utilized before, their use has generally been limited to those applications wherein the voltage drop across the conducting transistor is either not critical or can be thereafter boosted through a subsequent amplification stage. Moreover, single device pass gates have not heretofore been utilized in conjunction with shift redundancy techniques.
The improved integrated circuit area efficient redundancy multiplexer circuit technique of the present invention disclosed herein advantageously provides similar functionality to conventional CMOS transmission, or xe2x80x9cpassxe2x80x9d gates while concomitantly reducing circuit complexity, the die area necessary to support redundant elements in memory device ICs and providing much reduced parasitic capacitance. The technique of the present invention effectuates this end by utilizing the on-chip boosted voltage levels (Vpp) which are generally available in such devices while the significant reduction provided in undesired parasitic capacitance enables higher throughput speeds in the address and data paths.
In a particular embodiment of the present invention disclosed herein, a single N-channel pass transistor uses the Vpp voltage level (which is boosted above the normal supply voltage level of Vcc) to supply the voltage for the control signal applied to the N-channel transistor gate. The voltage level Vpp and circuit ground (xe2x80x9cGNDxe2x80x9d) are then utilized as the logic xe2x80x9chighxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9clowxe2x80x9d signal levels respectively. This use is made possible due to the fact that these control signals operate at a direct current (xe2x80x9cDCxe2x80x9d) level after device power-up. When the integrated circuit device has come up and is stabilized (and after the redundancy has been programmed), then the signal levels of the N-channel pass gates are stabilized.
Particularly disclosed herein is an integrated circuit device having a supply voltage level applied thereto relative to a reference voltage level and a boosted voltage level greater than the supply voltage level. The device includes a redundancy multiplexer circuit which comprises a plurality of switching devices, with each of the switching devices coupled between a respective input signal line and a common output signal line. A plurality of control signal lines are also provided, with each of the control signal lines coupled to a control terminal of a corresponding one of the switching devices. The switching devices are operative in response to a control signal applied to the control terminal thereof at the boosted voltage level for passing an input signal on a corresponding input signal line to the output signal line without a threshold voltage drop thereacross.

Area efficient redundancy multiplexer circuit technique for integrated circuit devices providing significantly reduced parasitic capacitance


A method for estimating arrival time based on noise cancellation includes transmitting, with a transmit terminal, an ultra-wideband pulse sequence; performing power sampling on a received ultra-wideband signal; averaging a power sampling sequence; carrying out a calculation to obtain a noise mean vector; using a sum-of-rank method to obtain a rank of a power mean column vector; setting a decision threshold; and performing time-of-arrival (TOA) estimation.

A pulse ultra-wideband signal is characterized by extremely high time resolution, strong penetrability and so on. In theory, it can provide ranging and positioning accuracy of centimeter or even millimeter level, and does not need modulation when transmitted, so the system complexity is low. Therefore, it has received wide attention in the high-precision positioning technology. Time-of-arrival (TOA) estimation, as a common method of the pulse ultra-wideband positioning technology, can make full use of the advantages of the pulse ultra-wideband technology, and has high ranging and positioning accuracy and low implementation complexity. The key to TOA estimation is how to detect the first path (FP), i.e., the direct path, in the multipath channel based on the signal at the receiving end, so it is particularly important to eliminate noise interference in the signal at the receiving end.
In the pulse ultra-wideband positioning system, there have been a lot of studies that have proposed various methods of TOA estimation, such as the maximum energy selection (MES) algorithm and the threshold crossing (TC) algorithm. The MES algorithm uses the time of the largest energy block as an estimated TOA value. However, in practice, the first path is often not the path with the strongest energy, which makes the performance of the MES algorithm poor. Therefore, many methods are based on the TC algorithm to detect the first path. The TC algorithm compares the output of the energy detection receiver with a fixed threshold, and uses the time of the first energy block crossing the threshold as an estimated TOA value. But this algorithm requires an optimal threshold obtained by complex design. In the case of complex channel model and unknown channel prior information, it is very difficult to set such an optimal threshold.
The invention patent "A Method for Estimating Arrival Time of Ultra-wideband Positioning System" with the publication number of CN103297087 and the publication date of Sep. 11, 2013 provides a threshold solution model based on the constant false alarm rate constraint; although the calculation process pre-orders the energy sequence and reduces the amount of calculation to complete the arrival time estimation, this invention does not eliminate the noise interference, and the method involves an iterative process for calculating the optimal threshold, with high time complexity. The invention patent "A Method for Estimating Arrival Time Based on Energy Mean Detection" with the publication number of CN106131949A and the publication date of Nov. 16, 2016 provides a method for setting an optimal normalized threshold and thereby setting a decision threshold based on a time-averaged maximum and minimum energy mean; although the use of multiple pulses for time averaging reduces the effect of noise on TOA estimation, this invention does not actively eliminate noise, and the effect needs to be improved. The invention patent "A method for Estimating Arrival Time of Signals in Strong Multipath Environment" with the publication number of CN106879068A and the publication date of Jun. 20, 2017 reduces the noise interference and the impact of signal transmission loss through the normalized filtering of the received signal; however, this invention can only suppress the sudden noise in the received signal.
To sum up, in the existing TOA estimation methods, the influence of noise is not sufficiently eliminated, the threshold setting method is complicated and has performance defects in practice, and the high-precision positioning algorithm needs to be improved.

Method for estimating arrival time based on noise cancellation


For the purpose of providing a solar module which has a fixed type solar concentrator of high converging magnification, a solar cell 12 is installed on the bottom face of an extension 30 which is extended further from the apex of a V shape formed by a pair of prisms having a refractive index larger than that of air, and a mirror surface 18 is formed on the back side of an incident surface 20 on which sunlight 10 falls. The mirror surface 18 and the incident surface 20 are formed in such a manner that their distance widens toward the apex of the V shape. The sunlight 10 incident on the prisms 16 performs reflection on the mirror surface 18 and total internal reflection on the incident surface 20, respectively. After repeating such reflection, the sunlight 10 reaches the bottom of the extension 30, where it emerges as outgoing light 22 to the solar cell 12.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solar module having a solar concentrator and especially to a solar concentrator having an improved converging.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, it has been well known that there is technique to reduce an area to be used for expensive solar cell by converging sunlight through a lens for the purpose of reducing the costs of a power generation system which uses solar batteries. Also, a technique to track the sun for the purpose of improving the generation efficiency of a solar module is well known. However, such a tracking system leads to high driving costs of the solar module and requires a lot of man-hours for maintenance. Therefore, fixed type solar concentrators have been conceived.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 2-203160 discloses such a fixed type solar concentrator. This conventional fixed type solar concentrator has a so called tapering constitution as shown in FIG. 16. More specifically, an internal mirror is constructed in such a manner that the diameter of the mirror on the solar cell side is shorter than the diameter on the other side.
However, in the conventional solar concentrator described above, a part of the sunlight 10 incident on the taperingly constructed internal mirror 100 performs repetitive reflection on the internal mirror 100 and finally goes out in the direction of incidence, namely, the direction back toward the sky. Therefore, there is a problem that in a solar concentrator using the taperingly constructed internal mirror 100, the converging magnification cannot be improved.
FIG. 17 exemplifies a device which converges the sunlight 10 on the reception surface of a solar cell 12 by using the taperingly constructed internal mirror 100 as shown in FIG. 16. In FIG. 17, it is defined that an incident angle is an angle .theta. between a direction of the sunlight 10 and a normal line 14 which is made perpendicular to the reception surface of the solar cell 12.
FIG. 18 shows a relation between the incident angle mentioned above and outgoing intensity as the proportion of partial sunlight incident on the reception surface of the solar cell 12 to all the sunlight incident on the solar concentrator in the solar module shown in FIG. 17. The axis of ordinates shows the outgoing intensity and the axis of abscissas shows the incident angle, respectively. The solar concentrator shown in FIG. 17 is 60 mm in height. The diameter of an incident port is 40 mm and the diameter of an outgoing port is 8 mm. The converging ratio of the solar concentrator is 2.5 to 1.
As shown in FIG. 18, with the increase of incident angle, outgoing intensity falls, and when the incident angle exceeds an angle of 10 degrees, the outgoing intensity drops to 25 percent or less. As described above, this is because with the increase of the incident angle, an amount of sunlight which goes out in the direction of the incidence increases due to the reflection on the taperingly constructed internal mirror 100.
As described above, the converging magnification cannot be improved in such a tapering type solar concentrator due to the existence of the sunlight which goes out in the direction of the incidence. On the other hand, in a solar concentrator in which a section of the internal mirror 102 is arranged with parallel sides as shown in FIG. 19 or a solar concentrator in which a section of the internal mirror 102 is arranged in such a manner that the diameter of the mirror widens toward the solar cell as shown in FIG. 20, the incident sunlight will not go out in the direction of the incidence during the repetition of reflection. However, since an incident port and an outgoing port are of the same size or the former is smaller than the latter, it is impossible to improve the converging magnification.
Also, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. Sho 54-18762 discloses a solar concentrator composed of a prism which has a triangular section and performs convergence by utilizing reflection and total internal reflection. In FIG. 21, constitution of the prism 16 disclosed in the aforementioned reference is exemplified. Also, in an example of FIG. 22, a pair of prisms 16 the mate of which is shown in FIG. 21 are arranged facing each other in a V shape. In the examples of constitution shown in FIGS. 21 and 22, a surface arranged opposite to an incident surface 20 is a mirror surface 18. The sunlight 10 which comes in through the incident surface 20 is reflected on the mirror surface 18. The sunlight 10 then returns to the incident surface 20 again. It performs total internal reflection there and enters the solar cell 12.
However, in the constitution shown in FIG. 21, in order to satisfy the conditions of total internal reflection on the incident surface 20, an apex angle .alpha. of the prism 16 has to be larger than a prescribed angle. Therefore, there has been such a problem that a ratio of the surface area of the solar cell 12 to the surface area of the incident surface 20 is automatically determined, thereby making it impossible to obtain a converging magnification which exceeds a prescribed value.
Also in the constitution shown in FIG. 22, for the purpose of arranging two prisms 16 face to face, the corresponding solar cells 12 are arranged on the bottom face of the prism 16 not in a straight line, but in such a way that they define a prescribed angle with respect to each other. Consequently, in the solar concentrator according to this embodiment, mounting in an actual device is practically difficult.
The constitution as shown in FIG. 23 can also serve the purpose of arranging two prisms 16 face to face. More specifically, in order to have a flat bottom face on the apex side of a V-shaped substance, there is provided an extension 30 which is extended further from the apex of the V-shaped substance. Due to such a constitution, the solar cells 12 can be arranged in a straight line. In this case, however, as the extension 30 is in a tapering form as shown in FIG. 16, total internal reflection may be repeatedly performed at that part and the sunlight 10 may go out in the direction of incidence. Therefore, in order to form the extension 30 which is further extended from the apex of the V-shaped substance, it is necessary to optimize conditions of the constitution.


A sensing system contains a vibration device attached to a stem of an agricultural crop for applying vibration to the agricultural crop, at least one sensor attached to the stem of the agricultural crop for sensing vibration of the agricultural crop caused by the vibration applied to the agricultural product from the vibration device to transmit vibration information relate to the vibration of the agricultural crop and a computing device for identifying one local maximum value among a plurality of local maximum values in a frequency spectrum obtained from the vibration information received from the at least one sensor as a resonance frequency of the vibration of the agricultural crop to determine a growth degree of a fruit of the agricultural crop based on the identified resonance frequency.

In recent years, needs of improving efficiency in the agriculture field and adding a higher value to an agricultural crop have increased due to some factors such as intensification of international competition in an agriculture field caused by promotion of international free trade policies, sluggish prices of agricultural crops and rising prices of production materials. In order to improve the efficiency in the agriculture field and add the higher value to the agricultural crop, it is very important that an agricultural operator accurately predicts a schedule indicating when and how many agricultural crops will be harvested and shipped.
Such a schedule is essential information when the agricultural operator develops his/her business plans. If accuracy of this information is low, the agricultural operation cannot help but develop ambiguous business plans. One of the biggest concerns of the agricultural operator is that it is difficult to pass a financing examination of a financial organization such as a bank even if the agricultural operator applies a financial loan of the financial organization for his/her agricultural business because the agricultural operator cannot help but develop the ambiguous business plans. Thus, it is virtually impossible to receive the financial loan from the financial organization such as the bank. This situation hampers motivated agricultural operators who want to perform large-scale investments to make agriculture more efficient and value-added. In Japan, Japan Agricultural Cooperative Association (JA) has been responding to such loan needs from the agricultural operators. However, there are needs of the agricultural operators to receive more financial loans from not only Japan Agricultural Cooperative Association but also other financial organizations. For this reason, there are great needs to accurately sense a growth degree of the agricultural crop and obtain an accurate schedule for agricultural crop harvesting and shipping in order to develop accurate business plans.
In recent years, it is widely performed that an agricultural operator has entered into direct contracts with retail stores such as supermarkets and vegetable shops or eating houses such as restaurants and pubs to directly sell his/her agricultural crop. By concluding such a direct contract between the agricultural operator and the retail stores or the eating houses, it becomes possible to sell the agricultural crop with a relatively high price compared with the case where the agricultural crop is sold to the retail stores or the eating houses through a middleman such as Japan Agricultural Cooperative Association because the agricultural operator can guarantee safety and taste of the agricultural crop to users. However, it is impossible to accurately predict the schedule indicating when and how much agricultural crops can be harvested and shipped in the present situation as described above. Thus, when the agricultural operator concludes the direct contract with the retail stores or the eating houses, the agricultural operation often declares a relatively-small number of agricultural crops which are expected to be delivered by the time of delivery. This declaration is performed for preventing the contract from being violated if the number of agricultural crops which can be delivered does not reach the contracted number due to some factors such as bad weather. However, in the case where the small number of agricultural crops is declared as described above, there is a problem that some of the agricultural crops are wasted by a number exceeding the contracted number when a large number of agricultural crops are harvested. In order to avoid such a problem, there are the great needs to accurately sense the growth degree of the agricultural crop to obtain the accurate schedule for the agricultural crop harvesting and shipping.
Further, in China and the United States, it is widely performed that agricultural operators have entered into direct contracts with users who are end consumers to sell a high value-added agricultural crop to the users without through agricultural associations or retail stores. This is a selling model based on urgent needs to check food safety in China. On the other hand, this is a selling model based on needs for a high value-added agricultural crop (e.g., an organic vegetable) for a wealthy class in the United States. When the agricultural operator directly sells the agricultural crop to the users as described above, there are needs to provide the users with information related to the growth degree of the agricultural crop in real time via the Internet or the like for increasing a degree of satisfaction of the users. By increasing the satisfaction of the users, it becomes possible to sell the agricultural crop with a higher price. For this reason, there are the great need to accurately sense the growth degree of the agricultural crop.
Further, in general, when fruit vegetables such as tomatoes and eggplants and fruit-like vegetables such as strawberries are sold to the retail stores through the middleman such as the agricultural association, a time duration from when fruits are harvested to when users who are end consumer purchase is relatively long. Thus, the agricultural operator harvests and ships the fruit of the agricultural crop before the fruit gets fully ripe (for example, in the case of tomato, the fruit is in a blue state) so that the fruit of the agricultural crop appears to be most palatable (for example, in the case of tomato, the fruit is in a most-red state) when the fruit of the agricultural crop is lined up in the retail store. On the other hand, in the case of directly selling the agricultural crop to the users as described above, it is possible to secure a long time for maturing the agricultural crop since the time from when the agricultural crop is harvested to when the agricultural crop is delivered to the users who are the end consumers is short. In this case, it is important to know information indicating which fruit has ripened fully and when and which fruit will ripen fully. In order to know such information, there are the great needs to accurately sense the growth degree of the agricultural crop.
As a sensing system related to the agricultural crop, there is known a system for sensing a growth environment for the agricultural crop (temperature, humidity and the like in a vinyl house) as disclosed in patent document 1, for example. However, such a sensing system is intended to sense and control the growth environment for the agricultural crop and does not sense the growth degree of the agricultural crop. Thus, the sensing system does not match with the great needs described above.
In order to quantitatively determine the growth degree of the fruit of the agricultural crop such as the fruit vegetable (for example, tomato and eggplant) and the fruit-like vegetable (for example, strawberry), it is generally considered to measure a weight (mass) of the fruit of the agricultural crop by holding the fruit of the agricultural crop with a hand. However, when the weight of the fruit of the agricultural crop is measured, it is required to bring a measuring instrument such as a scale into contact with the fruit of the agricultural crop. Thus, there is a risk that the fruit of the agricultural crop is damaged due to the contact with the measuring instrument. Further, the measurement of the weight of the fruit of the agricultural crop is likely to be affected by disturbances such as wind and rain blowing against the fruit. Thus, it is often impossible to accurately determine the growth degree of the fruit of the agricultural crop. Furthermore, since such a work is performed manually by the agricultural operator one by one, a great burden is imposed on the agricultural operator.

Vibrational sensing system, vibrational sensing method, and non-transitory computer readable medium for sensing growth degree of fruit crop


Provided is a disk controller comprising a front end FC I/F to a host, a back end FC I/F to a magnetic disk, a processor, and a main memory section. The front end I/F and the back end I/F are provided for performing information exchange with a network (connected) device that is connected to a network and manages storage. The main memory section stores registered information expressing an attribution of the network (connected) device, access information including security and performance of each network (connected) device through the network, and ranking information assigning a rank to each network (connected) device based on the registered information and the access information. An appropriate network (connected) device is selected from various types of information including the ranking information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage system, and a management method for such storage system, having a disk controller and an iSCSI device connected to the disk controller by a network. More particularly, the present invention relates to a format for managing storage connections on the network.
2. Description of the Related Art
As IT becomes more widespread and entrenched, users continue to seek greater storage capacity. Because of this, there are many cases where more storage is necessary than the capacity originally installed in a storage system.
FIG. 8 shows an example of an overall construction of a disk controller and a storage system in accordance with a conventional example. In the conventional technique shown in FIG. 8, an operation input and a management program 235 on an SVP (Service Processor) 230 issue an instruction to a control program 217 and a device list 218 inside a disk controller 210 to register new storage as storage to be governed by the disk controller 210 itself, and to connect a corresponding new magnetic disk 220 to a back end FC I/F 213, whereby achieving extension of storage capacity.
In another method for increasing storage capacity, instead of the magnetic disk 220, FC heterogeneous storage 227 having an FC device 225 is connected. Here, "storage" refers collectively to magnetic disks, magnetic tape, etc. "Heterogeneous storage" refers to any storage medium that the disk controller does not manage directly. Also, "FC" is an abbreviation for Fiber Channel. An example of an FC storage system is illustrated in an IBM white paper called "IBM Storage Tank™, A Distributed Storage System", dated Jan. 24, 2002.
As shown in FIG. 8, when making a remote copy or a backup of data, the storage where the remote copy is to be made does not necessarily have to be recognized by the disk controller as storage governed by the disk controller 210 itself. Therefore, it is also possible to use a SAN (Storage Area Network) 250 to connect a heterogeneous storage 229 having a front end FC I/F 212 and an FC device 260. An example of such a construction is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,092,066.
On the other hand, in an IP network, transmissions can only be performed in accordance with TCP/IP protocol, for example. Therefore, in order to directly send SCSI protocol, which is common for disk unit I/O, the disk unit, a new protocol is necessary to piggyback common SCSI commands and the like onto the data portion of an IP frame. A representative example of this new protocol is iSCSI protocol.
An example of a storage system using iSCSI is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,024. This type of iSCSI I/F can transmit information about a magnetic disk, which is the target, to the disk controller, which is an initiator. In the storage system using the FC I/F as described above, the network is closed inside the disk controller. Therefore, since it is possible to learn the status of everything including the status of the FC heterogeneous storage and the status along the route thereto, it is possible to select the optimum storage when recording data.
However, in the FC I/F storage system described above, it is not possible to connect an IP network and iSCSI heterogeneous storage that are spread widely around the world. Therefore, in order to create a network on an IP-network scale, it is necessary to set up a separate network with just the FCs. Furthermore, management methods used on IP networks cannot be simply transferred and used on the storage system using the FC I/F described above.
In order to add more storage using the FCs and the SAN as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,092,066, it is necessary to establish the SAN network separately from the general IP network. This creates problems of increased equipment costs and management costs.
On the other hand, with the iSCSI I/F using the IP network, the iSCSI storage can be connected as the target, but only information about the target can be transmitted. Therefore, it is not possible to learn information about the performance of the network leading to the iSCSI storage, nor security, costs, or other such information about the IP network. Therefore, there was a problem in that it was not possible to connect optimally to the iSCSI heterogeneous storage in a way which took the status of the network into consideration.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An antenna apparatus comprises: a first chip having: a substrate; a ground film on the substrate; a dielectric film on the ground film; a micro-patch antenna on the dielectric film; a microstrip line extending from the micro-patch antenna; and an in/output microstrip line on the dielectric film; a second chip having a circuit for effecting an operation with the antenna; and a connecting portion for fixing the second chip to the first chip by providing mechanical and electrical connection (flip-chip bonding) between the circuit and the microstrip line and between the circuit and the in/output microstrip line. The substrate comprises a silicon, a GaAs substrate, or a dielectric substrate. The antenna may be provided on the bottom surface of the substrate and be provided on a third substrate also connected by the flip-chip bonding wherein the second chip and the antenna is connected using a through hole. Instead of the through hole, the antenna is coupled to the circuit portion electromagnetically. The substrate may have a hollow portion and the second chip may be accommodated in the hollow portion and the antenna may be provided on a third chip covering the second chip.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an antenna apparatus for receiving or transmitting radiowaves.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An antenna apparatus, having a microstrip patch antenna on a first substrate for receiving or transmitting radiowaves and a radiowave circuit on a second substrate for receiving or a radiowave signal from the microstrip patch antenna or supplying a radiowave signal to the microstrip patch antenna, first and second substrates being combined to provide a hybrid structure or a monolithic structure to reduce a loss in the coupling pass between the microstrip patch antenna and the radiowave circuit, is known.
FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a prior art monolithic antenna apparatus. A first chip having a microstrip antenna 202 formed on a bottom surface of a quartz substrate 201 and a ground conductor 203, having a slot 204 or a window, formed on a top surface of the substrate 201. A second chip comprising an MMIC 205 having a GaAs substrate and a down-converter 206, and a microstrip line 207 for coupling to the microstrip patch antenna 202. First and second chips are bonded such that the microstrip patch antenna 202 is coupled to the microstrip line 207 through the slot 204 by electromagnetic coupling. This is disclosed in a paper Published in Volume 2, at c-50 of the autumn meeting 1992 of The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers.

Micro-patch antenna connected to circuits chips

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A two bulb mercury vapor lamp apparatus includes a housing with a bottom whose cross-section forms a curved "M" shape. A pair of reflectors are attached to the bottom of the housing with each reflector positioned in one-half of the "m". The reflectors direct light from the bulbs onto a focal plane where a photosensitive material is located. A plurality of quartz liquid coolant circulating tubes are positioned between the bulbs and the photosensitive material which tubes both cool the lamp and filter out infrared rays. The coolant tubes are attached to a pair of end blocks which are removably secured to the housing. The end blocks, connected plumbing lines and coolant tubes can be lowered from the housing intact, thus greatly facilitating maintenance access to the bulbs and reflectors.

The present invention relates to a double bulb mercury vapor lamp apparatus including cooling and infrared filtering systems.
In photodevelopment applications, lamps are used to cure photosensitive materials such as inks, paints and coatings. In modern web or sheet presses, extremely high speeds of operation require the use of high intensity light sources to provide the requisite rapid curing of photosensitive materials during very short exposure times. Mercury vapor lamps are often used to provide the required high intensity light. However, the use of mercury vapor lamps introduces a number of problems.
Mercury vapor lamps must operate at temperatures exceeding the boiling point of mercury, i.e. 450 degrees Celsius, but below the devitrification temperature of the lamp envelope. Thus, these lamps are generally placed in quartz envelopes. When they are used as lamps for photosensitive applications, the high temperatures generated by the bulbs require elaborate cooling systems to prevent the materials being cured from being damaged by the heat. At the same time, the considerable infrared radiation given off by mercury vapor bulbs can provide unwanted heating of the curing materials as well.
These problems were addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,407 ('407 patent), which is incorporated herein by reference. In the '407 patent, a quartz envelope mercury vapor bulb is positioned in a reflector housing with water circulated through the housing as a cooling agent. The bulb is positioned within an arc-shaped reflector which directs light from the bulb toward the material being cured. Positioned between the bulb and the curing material are a pair of transparent tubes, which may be made of quartz as well. Water or another transparent cooling medium is circulated through the tubes to provide additional cooling and to act as a filter for infrared radiation generated by the bulb. Thus, the curing material is protected from direct heat generated by the bulb and from indirect heating due to the infrared radiation emitted by the bulb.
While this arrangement has proven to be generally satisfactory, speed advancements in the printing art since the '407 patent issued have necessitated the use of stronger radiation sources with consequent increased cooling requirements, but confined within a housing of comparable size.
It is clear then, that a need exists for an improved mercury vapor lamp apparatus with infrared filtering and cooling systems which can produce enhanced illumination in a photosensitive application without damaging the materials to be cured. Such a lamp must provide the enhanced illumination without producing temperatures or infrared radiation which can damage the curing materials, and must be contained within a housing of comparable size to ones in prior art single bulb lamps.

Double bulb mercury vapor lamp apparatus


A bipolar transient clamp including a RC circuit, a clamping circuit and a breakdown circuit. The RC circuit is configured to control the rate of change of clamp. Moreover, the RC circuit is coupled between a first rail and a second rail. The clamping circuit is configured to pass a current from the first rail to the second rail. In addition, the clamping circuit is coupled to be activated by the RC circuit. The breakdown circuit is coupled between the RC circuit and the clamping circuit. The breakdown circuit is configured to increase the transient trigger voltage of the clamping circuit.

Transient electrostatic discharge (ESD) clamps are very effective with respect to ESD protection because they respond quickly to an ESD event and can clamp well. Moreover, they are easily simulated. Two common types of clamps include a CMOS clamp and a bipolar clamp. In a common CMOS clamp design, an active device is used to keep the main clamping transistor off until needed. In a purely bipolar process used to form a bipolar clamp, there is not an effective element to keep the clamp turned off once power is applied since the clamp has to draw power to keep it turned off. This makes it unattractive from total power consumption standpoint. However, a transient bipolar clamp has its advantage because it can respond to transient voltages of a few volts. In addition, the rise time that a bipolar clamp responds to can be tuned by adjusting the resistance and capacitance of the RC network. An issue with transient bipolar clamps is the switching noise produced by circuit operation. The noise could exceed the transient voltage threshold of the clamp causing the ESD clamps to falsely trigger.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a transient clamp with a high trigger voltage to prevent noise transients from falsely triggering the clamp while it is powered up and does not consume the added power that a keep off circuit would require.


Methods, systems, devices and/or storage media for passwords. An exemplary method tiles an image, associates an index with each tile and optionally determines offsets for select tiles. Further, the tiling optionally relies on probability and/or entropy. An exemplary password system includes an image; a grid associated with the image, the grid composed of polygons; an index associated with each polygon; and an offset associated with each polygon wherein password identification relies on one or more indices and one or more offsets.

As communication enabling technologies such as the Wireless Access Protocol and Bluetooth have resulted in a recent proliferation of mobile computation platforms such as browser-enabled wireless phones, Pocket PCs, wearable computers, and Internet appliances, application developers have focused on porting software onto these miniature computers. Since graphical input commonly dominates keyboard on such systems, many routines, such as a logon process, require adaptation to touch-pads and stylus mediated human-computer interaction. Technologies for accomplishing such tasks, as well as other tasks, are presented below.


An electrical dimmer device and its driving method applicable to, for example, an image pickup unit and a display unit operate so that when a control signal for stop adjustment is changed from its current value of stop adjustment to a larger value, which occurs when the light transmissivity of a positive type liquid crystal is raised, or when the light transmissivity of a negative type liquid crystal is lowered, the control signal is temporarily varied to an intermediate value that is larger than the larger value. The energy of the varied larger value and a time during which that varied value is applied are determined in accordance with predetermined values. By doing so, it is possible to make a response speed when changing the light transmissivity extremely faster and thus attain a response time, of for example, one field period of time or less required for a stop mechanism of a video camera.

For example, in a video camera which is developed aiming at making it compact and light in weight, it is difficult to adopt, e.g. the conventional mechanical means as a stop mechanism for performing the adjustment of light quantity in taking a picture. Thus, it has been proposed to adopt an electrical dimmer device which uses, e.g. a liquid crystal as a light adjustment means instead of such a mechanical stop mechanism (see Patent Gazette of Laying-Open H11-326894).
Specifically, in the invention disclosed by the laid-open Patent Gazette, a polarizing plate is moved in and out of a light path where a liquid crystal cell is disposed to perform an initial light adjustment. Further, by controlling the potential impressed on the liquid crystal cell to make the polarized plane of the liquid crystal cell different from the polarized plane of the polarizing plate, more transmissive light quantity is attenuated. This makes it possible to perform satisfactory light adjustment with a simpler structure than the conventional mechanical stop mechanism.
However, with the above-mentioned structure, the liquid crystal cell always exists in the light path, so that the light transmissivity of the liquid crystal cell becomes a problem. Alternatively, it is conceived to provide a mechanism in which the liquid crystal cell is also moved in and out of the light path in same way as the polarizing plate. However, the arrangement of liquid crystal cell involves supply means (wiring) of a control voltage and the like, so that the mechanism for operating the whole system becomes complicated. This is opposed to the object of the apparatus, which makes it compact and light in weight.
Thus, the present applicant previously developed the liquid crystal cell whose light transmissivity is made extremely high and applied for patent on a light adjustment device which adopts this liquid crystal cell (Patent Application No. H11-322186). The invention of this earlier application uses a guest-host type liquid crystal for the liquid crystal and uses a negative type liquid crystal for its host material to make negative of the anisotropy of dielectric constant. The invention also uses a positive type or a negative type of dichromatic dye molecule for its guest material, thereby enabling the light transmissivity of 75% or more to be made, for example, when no control voltage is impressed.
However, such liquid crystal cell as just described above has heretofore had a slow response speed when the light transmissivity is changed, so that it is difficult to attain the response time, for example, equal to or less than one field period of time (e.g. 16.7 ms for the NTSC system of interlace scanning) which is required for the stop mechanism of video camera. To be specific, FIGS. 11A and 11B show response characteristics of the light transmissivity actually measured when the control voltage on the positive type liquid crystal is varied. FIG. 11A shows a state when the light transmissivity is raised. FIG. 11B shows a state when the light transmissivity is lowered.
In FIGS. 11A and 11B, the control voltage is a rectangular wave of one kHz, one cycle of which corresponds to one ms. Therefore it takes 22.5 ms for the light transmissivity to reach a target value in FIG. 11A, whereas it takes 9.9 ms to reach that value in FIG. 11B. It can be seen here that, when lowering the light transmissivity as in FIG. 11B, the response time of one field period of time or less can be attained, but when raising the light transmissivity as in FIG. 11A, it takes more time than one field period of time (e.g. 16.7 ms).
Moreover, the response speed of liquid crystal cell tends to sustain the influence of an environmental temperature. In other words, the response speed of liquid crystal cell becomes very slow particularly in low temperature (when the environmental temperature is 10° C. or under), for example, as seen in a table of FIG. 12A and a graph of FIG. 12B. On the other hand, it is assumed that the video camera and the like is used under the environmental temperature ranging from summer to winter. For example, when it is used outdoors in winter, the environmental temperature may become −10° C. or under depending on circumstances.

Electric dimming device and its driving method


A method of fabricating a light emitting device (LED) includes measuring emission characteristics for a plurality of LED chips configured to emit light of a first color. The plurality of LED chips are sorted based on the measured emission characteristics to provide a plurality of groups respectively including ones of the plurality of LED chips having similar measured emission characteristics. A respective light conversion material is selected for each of the plurality of groups based on the measured emission characteristics of the ones of the plurality of LED chips included therein and a desired color point. The selected light conversion material is configured to absorb at least some of the light of the first color and responsively emit light of a second color. For each of the plurality of groups, the respective selected light conversion material is deposited on the ones of the LED chips included therein to provide a plurality of packaged LEDs including the plurality of LED chips and respectively configured to emit light having the desired color point. Related apparatus is also discussed.

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are semiconductor devices that convert electric energy to light. Inorganic LEDs typically include an active layer of semiconductor material and a P-N junction formed at an interface between two oppositely doped layers. When a bias is applied across the P-N junction, holes and/or electrons are injected by the P-N junction into the active layer. Recombination of holes and electrons in the active layer generates light that can be emitted from the LED. The structure of the device, and the material from which it is constructed, determine the intensity and wavelength of light emitted by the device. Recent advances in LED technology have resulted in highly efficient solid-state light sources that surpass the efficiency of incandescent and halogen light sources, providing light with equal or greater brightness in relation to input power.
Conventional LEDs generate narrow bandwidth, essentially monochromatic light. However, it may be highly desirable to generate wide bandwidth, polychromatic light, such as white light, using a solid state light source. One way to produce white light from conventional LEDs is to surround a single-color LED chip or die with a light conversion material, such as a phosphor. In general, phosphors absorb light having shorter wavelengths and re-emit light having longer wavelengths. At least some of the light emitted by the LED chip at a first wavelength (primary light) may be absorbed by the phosphor, which may responsively emit light at a second wavelength (secondary light). The primary light emitted by the LED chip and the secondary light emitted by the phosphor particles may combine to produce light having a plurality of wavelengths, which may be perceived as having a different color than either the primary light or the secondary light.
For example, light from a blue-emitting LED chip has been converted to white light by surrounding the LED with a yellow phosphor, polymer or dye, such as cerium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG:Ce). The phosphor material absorbs and "downconverts" some of the blue light generated by the LED chip. That is, the phosphor material generates light, such as yellow light, in response to absorbing the blue light. Thus, some of the blue light generated by the LED chip appears to be converted to yellow light. Some of the blue light from the LED chip passes through the phosphor without being changed, however. Accordingly, the overall LED/phosphor structure or package emits both blue and yellow light, which combine to provide light that is perceived as white light.
FIG. 1 is a region of a 1931 International Commission on Illumination (CIE) chromaticity diagram illustrating the color point distribution of packaged LEDs configured to emit white light fabricated according to conventional methods. Referring now to FIG. 1, a plurality of blue LED chips are configured to emit light over a wavelength range of 451 to 469 nanometers (nm). A yellow-emitting phosphor is deposited on all of the blue LED chips according to conventional methods such that the overall LED/phosphor package emits both blue and yellow light, which combine to provide light that is perceived as white light. Lines 101, 102, 103, 104, and 105 respectively represent the color points of light that may be produced by the blue LED chips having emission wavelengths of 451 nm, 455 nm, 461 nm, 465 nm, and 469 nm in combination with the yellow-emitting phosphor. As shown in FIG. 1, the lines 102, 103, and 104 fall inside a 7-step Mac Adam ellipse 115 around a targeted color point 120 at the center of the ellipse 115. The MacAdam ellipse 115 is an elliptical region of chromaticity coordinates that is defined based on a center, a tilt angle relative to a horizontal axis, and a level of variance. The color points contained within the MacAdam ellipse 115 are indistinguishable to the human eye from the targeted color point 120 at the center of the ellipse 115. However, not all of the packaged LEDs emit white light having a color point within the ellipse 115. In particular, the LED chips emitting light at wavelengths of 451 nm and 469 nm, respectively represented by lines 101 and 105, fall outside of the 7-step Mac Adam ellipse 115.
In some instances, it may be advantageous for packaged LEDs targeting a specific color point to emit white light within a 4-step Mac Adam ellipse around the targeted color point. A tighter distribution may result in a higher yield, so targeting the color point within a 4 step MacAdam ellipse may tighten the distribution and thus improve yields. However, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the electrical and/or optical parameters of individual packaged LEDs that are fabricated according to conventional methods may vary considerably, for example, due to routine process variations. Accordingly, improved fabrication methods may be desired.

Methods of fabricating light emitting devices by selective deposition of light conversion materials based on measured emission characteristics


A compound testing machine for testing mechanical properties used for an optical connector does not additionally have each testing machine for each of mechanical properties (such as a tensile force including both a straight pull and a side pull, a flex, a twist and an impact) in testing a mechanical property between optical connectors and other mechanical property between optical fibers of the optical connectors, and includes only one testing machine for simultaneously testing various mechanical properties in order to enhance a test machine's efficiency. The compound testing machine includes: a rotation part which includes a test specimen fixing portion for fixing a test specimen, a cable connected to the test specimen, and a load applying portion connected to the cable so as to provide a predetermined load to the test specimen, receives a driving force of an electric motor, and measures a tensile force and a flex; and an impact testing part which is mounted to one side of the rotation part, drops the test specimen while freely adjusting a height of the test specimen, and thus performs an impact test.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a compound testing machine for testing mechanical properties of an optical connector used for connecting or switching the optical lines in an optical communication system. More particularly, it relates to a compound testing machine for testing mechanical properties used for an optical connector, which compositely evaluates mechanical properties with respect to a tensile force including both a straight pull and a side pull, a flex, a twist and an impact among various mechanical properties of the optical connector, by using one machine.
2. Description of the Conventional Art
In recent times, many kinds of the optical connectors used for achieving a connection between the optical lines have been developed. These optical connectors mostly have a plug-adapter-plug structure, and mainly use a push-pull structure as a connection method.
Excepting a single-fiber optical connector, due to a packaging density and a working efficiency, a multi-fiber optical connector has been used for a connection of a super multi-fiber cable used in an optical subscriber's network service.
Many kinds of the multi-fiber optical connectors have been manufactured on a commercial scale, together with developing all optical fiber ribbon.
That is, the multi-fiber optical connectors including four-fiber, eight-fiber, twelve-fiber and sixteen-fiber have been developed in response to the optical fiber ribbon's shape. Recently, a new multi-fiber optical connector including eighty-fiber for the super multi-fiber optical cable has been developing.
The new optical connector can be used for achieving a connection between the multi-fiber optical cables and for subscribers as well, and can also be used for a system such as a distributor. In addition, the optical connector can be used for an optical LAN (local area network), a parallel connection between computers, a data-link, or a connection of optical components such as an LD array. Various optical fibers (e.g., optical cables) having a single-fiber and a multi-fiber are used for the above purposes.
Therefore, a testing machine to estimate mechanical properties such as a tensile force of the optical connector connected to the above various optical fibers should be designed.
The testing machine for testing the mechanical properties of the optical connector generally teaches a test method to the users, and is designed to estimate the mechanical properties. A test standard for the testing machine only defines a test condition, a brief construction and a function of the testing machine.
Accordingly, to satisfy the test standard, the apparatus needed to test each of mechanical properties has been respectively manufactured in various shapes.
In case of foreign countries, the apparatus for testing each of the mechanical properties has been separately manufactured in response to each mechanical property.
The EIA (Electronics Industries Association)--455 standards for internationally defining a test condition and a test method of optical components does not include a content about a detailed structure of the apparatus, and only includes a content about the test condition. Also, the EIA--455 standard provides that some test items can be examined by a user's handling, but the user should pay close attention to this handling test.

Compound testing machine for testing various mechanical properties used for optical connector

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A process for making a synthesis gas comprising H.sub.2 and CO in the presence of a reforming catalyst comprising a supported non-noble Group VIII metal catalytic component from a feed including a low molecular weight alkane, and preferably methane as in natural gas, O.sub.2, H.sub.2 O and CO.sub.2 without catalyst deactivation is achieved by partially oxidizing and steam reforming the feed in the presence of the catalyst. The feed H.sub.2 O to hydrocarbon carbon mole ratio is less than 2. The mole ratio of the combined feed CO.sub.2 and H.sub.2 O to hydrocarbon carbon ranges from 0.5-2.5 and that of the feed H.sub.2 O to CO.sub.2 ranges from 0.35-6. Synthesis gas having H.sub.2 to CO mole ratios less than 2:1 and even less than 1.5:1 are easily achieved with net CO.sub.2 consumption, which also makes the process environmentally beneficial.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to producing a syngas having a hydrogen to carbon monoxide ratio less than two by partial oxidation and reforming using carbon dioxide. More particularly, the invention relates to producing a syngas mixture having an H.sub.2 to CO mole ratio of less than two from a feed comprising a hydrocarbon, oxygen, CO.sub.2 and steam by a combination of partial oxidation and catalytic reforming in a fluid bed containing a Group VIII catalyst, such as nickel, without coking the catalyst.

Low hydrogen syngas using CO.sub.2 and a nickel catalyst


Two methods, "Adjusted Winner (AW)" and "Proportional Allocation (PA)," are provided for the fair division of a collection of items, which could be either real goods or issues in a dispute, between two claimants (parties). The methods can be implemented as a digital computer software program. In both methods, the parties are each given 100 points and then bid on each item using their points. Under the AW method, which is applicable to indivisible items, each party is initially allocated those goods, or wins on those issues, for which it bids the higher number of points. Then the goods or issues are reassigned, or resolved differently, to achieve equality of points based on the quotients of the parties' bids. Under PA, each good or issue is divided according to a ratio based on both parties' bids for that good or issue.

The general problem of dividing property rationally and fairly among two, or more, claimants has been the subject of folklore, biblical stories, and history. A variety of procedures has been extensively written upon by economists, political scientists, mathematicians, and others.
The best-known, and most widely practiced, procedure for two persons is that one divides and the other chooses. For example, to divide a cake, Mary will cut the cake into two pieces, and John will then select which piece he wants, i.e., "divide-and-choose."
Applications of divide-and-choose span about five millennia, from biblical accounts of Abraham and Lot using this procedure to divide land to the recent Law of the Sea Treaty that reserves parcels of seabed for future mining operations by developing countries (developed countries do the "dividing"). The qualities that make this two-person procedure seem both workable and fair have been explicitly set forth by the inventors and others. They include the following:
1. The procedure is conceptually simple, with little reliance on any outside arbitrator or referee. Satisfaction with a fair-division scheme relies, in part, on a feeling that the process (i.e., the step-by-step mechanics leading to the allocation) is fair, as well as the product (i.e., the actual allocation).
2. The procedure is envy-free. That is, neither of the two parties will envy the other in the sense of wishing he or she had the other's share. For two people, this is equivalent to saying that each party thinks he receives at least half the total value in his or her own eyes.
Divide-and-choose, however, also has its drawbacks:
1. It is limited to two people. The mathematical problem of extending this procedure to a constructive one that is envy-free and works for any number of parties was open for over 30 years. It was recently solved by the present inventors; see Brams and Taylor, "An Envy-Free Cake-Division Protocol," American Mathematical Monthly. Vol. #1, No. 1, Jan. 1995, pp. 9-18.
2. The resulting allocation need not be efficient. That is, there may be some other allocation that is strictly better for both parties.
3. Although divide-and-choose prevents envy for what the other party receives, the resulting allocation need not be equitable. That is, one party may feel that he received only 60% of the value while knowing that the other party feels that she received 90% of the value. Thus, while neither will envy the other in the sense of wishing to trade, the former will envy the latter's "happiness" (90% bringing more happiness than 60%).
With regard to drawback 1 (the limitation to two people), the procedure considered, prior to this invention, to be the best for obtaining a fair division of a collection of goods (items), when each good is itself non-divisible (indivisible), is called "Knaster's procedure of sealed bids" or "Knaster's procedure." Each of the parties (players) submits sealed bids for each item, for example, to an impartial mediator who administers the procedure. The party who submits the highest bid is awarded the item. However, after the auction is over, some of the money bid for items is divided up among the parties. The procedure requires that each party has money.
The Knaster procedure is illustrated in Table 1 below. There are three parties (Bob, Carol, and Ted) and 4 items A,B,C,D listed in Table 1, for example, a boat, a car, a house lot, and a painting. The amount listed in Table 1 for each party and each item is the amount that that party has bid, in a sealed bid, for that item.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ Party Bob Carol Ted ______________________________________ Valuation Item A $10,000 $4,000 $7,000 Item B 2,000 1,000 4,000 Item C 500 1,500 2,000 Item D 800 2,000 1,000 Total valuation 13,300 8,500 14,000 Items received A D B,C Value received 10,000 2,000 6,000 Initial fair share 4,433 2,833 4,667 Difference 5,567 -833 1,333 (initial excess/deficit) Share of surplus 2,022 2,022 2,022 Adjusted fair share 6,455 4,855 6,689 Final settlement A - 3,545 D + 2,855 B,C + 689 ______________________________________
Each party has bid a different amount (valuation) for each item, and the total of each party's bids is the total valuation. Each party gets the item for which he, or she, was high bidder; their winning bid is considered the valuation of that item. The "initial fair share" is the party's total valuation divided by the number of parties. For example, Bob's total valuation is $13,300; because there are 3 parties his initial fair share is $4,433. The difference between his value for the item (A) he receives ($10,000) and his initial fair share is $5,567.
These differences for all parties are summed algebraically: $5,567-$833+$1,333=$6,067, which is called the surplus. Each party is assigned one-third of the surplus, i.e., $2,022, which is added to its initial fair share, i.e., Bob's $4,433+$2,022=$6,455, which is his "adjusted fair share." This, in turn, is added (or subtracted) from the valuation of the item he, or she, received, i.e., Bob received item A valued at $10,000, and his adjusted fair share is $6,455 so he has a "final excess" of $10,000-$6,455=$3,545. Bob contributes, in money, this excess to the other parties, with Carol receiving $2,855 and Ted $689.
Knaster's procedure does guarantee envy-freeness in two-person situations but not if there are three or more parties. However, the Knaster procedure requires that the parties have the cash to pay for a final settlement. In many situations, including divorces, one or more parties do not have, and cannot borrow, sufficient money to implement the Knaster procedure.

Computer-based method for the fair division of ownership of goods


A family of power amplifiers called class-N amplifiers comprising a modulator, a pulse-transmitting means, a power switch, a power transformer, and a synchronous demodulator. The modulator produces both PWM pulses and polarity pulses sent via pulse-transmitting means to the power switch to modulate an unregulated DC supply voltage electrically isolated from the amplifier""s input and output, and to the synchronous demodulator. The power transformer transmit modulated voltage to the synchronous demodulator, which drives a load. There is no intermediary DC voltage in the amplifiers which operate in ternary mode.

The present invention relates in general to audio amplifiers and in particular a method and apparatus for obtaining power supply isolated high power audio.
Audio circuits are well known in the prior art and generally utilize an audio amplifying circuit to drive the audio speaker. The audio amplifier is required to have a power audio stage. Such power amplifier circuits are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,409,559 and 4,651,112.
A typical class AB audio amplifier has an isolated power supply and the audio amplifier. The cost of these two units together is significant in the manufacture of an audio output device. There are many switching power amplifiers that attempt to increase power efficiency over class AB. Such circuits are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,763,080, 4,517,522, 4,047,120 and 4,453,131. These still need an isolated power supply, unipolar or bipolar.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,986,498 teaches an audio amplifier using two transformers for isolating main voltage from the output circuitry. However it has a few flaws and drawbacks: its embodiment as disclosed involves two switching transistors driven by a transformer and an input signal zero-voltage crossing detector, and a phase-lag network. Its two MOSFETs are one too many. Driving MOSFETs with a transformer is slow and difficult due to its leakage inductance and the need for flux balancing. The zero-voltage crossing of the input signal does not coincide with the zero-voltage crossing of the output voltages due to delays in the modulator, switching delays of the MOSFETs, and rise time of the transformers, and characteristics of the load. Furthermore, a phase lag network reduces the bandwidth of the amplifier and therefore increases its distortion especially for high frequencies. Most importantly, ""498 teaches an amplifier incapable of driving a reactive load which audio speakers normally are, because the rectifiers at its output only allow unidirectional current flow, whereas a reactive load needs to dump its reactive energy to the source during portions of a sine wave.
What is needed is a power supply isolated switch-mode amplifier capable of driving any load, capable of high bandwidth and low distortion in addition to high efficiency, small size and weight, and low cost.
In accordance with the present invention a novel and useful class-N amplifier is herein provided.
This invention is a family of class-N amplifiers where the functions of a power converter such as an AC-to-DC switch-mode converter or a boost converter are integrated into the circuitry of a switching amplifier to produce a high power signal. The output section of a class-N amplifier is inherently electrically isolated from the power source such as rectified AC voltage for personal safety purposes via a high-frequency power transformer. The invention can be briefly described as a combination of a power modulator transmitting modulated power via a power transformer, followed by a synchronous demodulator driving a speaker. The modulator modulates the power supply voltage with pulse-width modulated (PWM) pulses. A power transformer transmits the modulated voltage to a synchronous demodulator, which reconstructs both phase and amplified amplitudes of the input signal, and filters out carrier frequencies to provide power audio signal to a speaker. Feedback circuits force faithful reproduction of the output signal with minimum distortion.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an efficient and simple method and apparatus for amplifying an audio signal into high power signal with high efficiency and with isolation from power source.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for amplifying and driving an audio signal into any reactive load with high efficiency.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a class-N amplifier in which heat generation is substantially reduced during its operation.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a class-N amplifier which is amenable to miniaturization and, thus, is useful in audio systems, computers, and any other devices where minimal heat generation and minimal electromagnetic interference generation are criteria.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a class-N amplifier which possesses a high level of reliability due to low component count.
Further objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from a consideration of the drawings and ensuing description.


A method of sharpening cutting blades of the type made from bar stock type material, the method comprising producing relief surfaces on the cutting profile surface. The method comprises forming first and second relief surfaces on the cutting profile surface. The first relief surface extends from a location inward of the cutting edge to the back face and is oriented at a first relief angle with respect to a side surface. The second relief surface extends from the cutting edge to the first relief surface and is oriented at a second relief angle with respect to the side surface with the second relief angle being smaller than the first relief angle.

Cutting blades for cutting gears and the like may be of many forms. One form widely used are cutting blades known as "stick blades" which are made from a length of material such as bar stock.
One example of cutting blades of the bar stock type are those blades known as "profile sharpened" blades. In these blades, the top surface, side profile surfaces, and, the cutting face (in some types), are ground to restore and resharpen the blades. In those types of blades not requiring sharpening of the front face, metallurgical coatings or other treatments which improve cutting and wear characteristics are usually included on the front face. Profile-sharpened cutting blades may be used to remove stock material from the outside or concave flank of a tooth slot (outside blade), the inside or convex flank of a tooth slot (inside blade), and/or the bottom portion of the tooth slot (bottom blade).
One type of profile-sharpened cutting blade that does not require the front face to undergo grinding during sharpening is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,260,299 to Ryan et al., this cutting blade comprises a base portion and a cutting end with the cutting end having a front rake surface arranged at a particular rake angle, a back face, top surface, cutting profile surface and clearance profile surface. The cutting and clearance edges are defined by the intersection of the front rake surface with the cutting profile surface and the clearance profile surface, respectively.
Another known type of profile-sharpened cutting blade not requiring the front face to be ground during sharpening is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,285 to Blakesley. This blade also comprises a base portion and cutting end. The cutting end includes a front rake surface, a back face, opposing side surfaces, top surface, and opposing cutting and clearance profile surfaces which at their intersection with the front rake surface form, respectively, cutting and clearance edges. The cutting blade further includes a slot extending the length of the blade through the front rake surface and intersecting the clearance profile surface which intersection forms a second cutting edge. This second cutting edge removes metal from the side of a tooth slot opposite the side being cut by the cutting edge formed on the cutting profile surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,053 to Kotthaus discloses form-ground profile-sharpened cutting blades of the type wherein along with the top surface and side profile surfaces, the front face also requires grinding during sharpening. The sharpening procedure employs three grinding discs each sharpening one of the inner profile surface, the outer profile surface, and the front face of the cutting blade.
A method of sharpening cutting blades having only top and side profile surfaces that require resharpening by utilizing a single grinding wheel to form grind the profile surfaces is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,678 to Ellwanger et al. and in Pedersen et al., "Precision Profile Grinding for High Production", SME 1982 International Tool & Manufacturing Engineering Conference, May 17-20, 1982, MR82-246.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,661 to Pedersen et al. teaches a method of sharpening profile-sharpened cutting blades by contour grinding the top and side profile surfaces on the blades by relative motion between the cutting blade and the grinding wheel.
In the stick-type cutting blades discussed above, generally those utilized as inside or outside blades, it is also known to include on the cutting profile surface, a protuberant portion adjacent the top surface and extending from the front rake surface to the back face. The protuberant portion is formed as a reduction in blade pressure angle for the purpose of creating an undercut when cutting gears, particularly pinion gears, in order to eliminate interference when running with their mating gear, such as during lapping or when in actual use.
In some contour-type sharpening processes for stick type cutting blades having this protuberant portion, it has been noticed that subsequent to final grinding of the cutting (pressure) profile surface, a hole or divot is present on the protuberant portion of the cutting edge at a point adjacent to its intersection with the cutting profile surface. The cause of this hole is believed to be due to the difference between the considerable amount of grinding force that is required when traversing the relatively large area of the cutting profile surface as opposed to the significantly smaller amount of grinding force that is utilized to commence grinding the relatively small area of the protuberant portion surface. The hole or divot on the cutting edge will be discussed in greater detail below.
The hole or divot may be reduced with slower feed rates during grinding of the cutting blade, however, any appreciable reduction in size of the hole requires increasing grinding time by about a factor of four which is unacceptable from a production standpoint.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a process in which profile-sharpened stick-type cutting blades of the types discussed above may be ground without the formation of a hole or divot in the cutting edge at the intersection of the cutting profile surface and the protuberant portion.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a sharpening process for profile-sharpened stick type cutting blades wherein the hole or divot is eliminated without a significant increase in length of process time.
It is another object of the present invention to grind stick-type cutting blades having no protuberant portion by the inventive process.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide stick-type cutting blades having a cutting profile surface ground in accordance with the present inventive process.

Method of sharpening profile-sharpened cutting blades


A printer, which is capable of receiving printing data from a host, converting the printing data into a code and executing printing based on the code, is further capable of storing the code and executing printing based on the stored code.

Conventionally, a printer carries out a flow of receiving data from a host such as a PC, carrying out a command processing inside the printer itself and then carrying out printing on paper such as a label.
However, in order to carry out printing again, it is necessary to send, from the host, new data desired to be printed by the printer, which is troublesome.

Printer converts print data into one or two dimensional code is capable of carrying out printing again based on the one or two dimensional code


A tensioning device (11) for a traction mechanism drive (1) which is arranged on an internal combustion engine and includes a drive wheel (3) arranged on a drive shaft (30) of an engine (4), one or more additional driving wheels (5, 6), and a continuously revolving traction element (2), which wraps around the drive wheel and additional driving wheels. The tensioning device has two tensioning arms (13, 14) having tensioning wheels (9, 10) mounted thereon, which apply a tensioning force to the traction element in front of and behind the drive wheel in the direction of revolution, and is provided with a spring (16) generating the tensioning force, and a tensioner housing (12), which movably mounts at least one of the tensioning arms to which the force of the spring means is applied. The tensioner housing is mounted on the engine pivotably about the axis (29) of the drive shaft.

The invention relates to a tensioning device for a traction mechanism drive which is disposed on an internal combustion engine and has a drive wheel arranged on a drive shaft of a machine, one or more additional driving wheels and a continuously revolving traction means which wraps around the drive wheel and the additional driving wheels. The tensioning device comprises two tensioning arms, having tensioning wheels which are mounted thereon and apply tensioning force to the traction means in front of and behind the drive wheel in the direction of revolution, and has a spring means, which generates the tensioning force, and a tensioner housing, which movably supports at least one of the tensioning arms subjected to the force of the spring means.
Particularly in traction mechanism drives having driving wheels which alternately take up and deliver torque, and having a corresponding alternation of tight strand and slack strand, the tensioning of the slack strand calls for a tensioning device having two tensioning wheels which pretension the traction means in front of and behind the drive wheel of the alternately driving and driven drive shaft. The drive shaft is constituted typically and not necessarily by the shaft of the machine configured as a starter generator, which machine delivers torque for the starting of the internal combustion engine and takes up torque for the generation of current.
While the traction mechanism drives can basically be constituted by belt, chain or link conveyor drives, tensioning devices of the type stated in the introduction are typically known as belt tensioners in an ancillary unit belt drive in a variety of designs. In DE 199 26 615 A1, DE 10 2008 025 552 A1 and DE 10 2006 019 877 A1, for instance, are proposed tensioning devices which respectively have a tensioner housing, which is fastened to the starter generator, and two tensioning arms, which are mounted movably therein and the tensioning rollers of which are forced closer together by an intermediate spring means in order to tension the belt.

Tensioning device for a traction mechanism drive of an internal combustion engine


A controller for preparing an image for segmenting includes a memory that stores instructions, and a processor that executes the instructions. When executed by the processor, the instructions cause the controller to perform a process that includes displaying a first modeled tissue structure of a first type, and displaying an image of a first tissue structure of the first type separate from the first modeled tissue structure. The process also includes identifying, on the first modeled tissue structure, landmarks on the first modeled tissue structure for identification on the image of the first tissue structure, and sequentially accentuating each landmark on the first modeled tissue structure. The processor identifies locations on the image of the first tissue structure for each landmark on the first modeled tissue structure. The landmarks on the first modeled tissue structure are mapped to the locations identified on the image of the first tissue structure.

Medical image segmentation divides medical images into regions with similar properties. The role of segmentation is to subdivide anatomical structures in the medical images, so as to, for example, study the anatomical structures, identify region(s) of interest, measure tissue volume, and so on. Anatomical structures include bones and organs in a human body, and medical images may include one such anatomical structure or multiple anatomical structures.
Model-based segmentation is a tool for automated or semi-automated medical image segmentation. Models include multiple parts and/or nodes, and consist of a three-dimensional (3D) surface mesh and a set of features that detail anatomical structures. The models of anatomical structures are created based on previous measurements of the same types of anatomical structures from multiple patients. The types of anatomical structures in models are the same types of anatomical structures in the medical images. The 3D surface mesh represents the idealized geometries (e.g., geometric shapes) of the anatomical structures. The set of features describe the appearance of the 3D surface mesh at locations corresponding to different parts and/or nodes. In model-based segmentation, a segmentation algorithm optimizes the matching of features in the models with corresponding locations in the medical images to be segmented.
If one or more structures in the medical image to be segmented contains geometry that differs substantially from the idealized geometry of the 3D surface mesh encoded in the model, the optimization may fail, resulting in the segmentation failing. The failure can be avoided if the model-based segmentation is initialized using information about the approximate position, size, shape or pose of the structure(s) in the medical image to be segmented. One known and efficient way to initialize the segmentation is to identify landmarks in the structure(s) to be segmented. A small number of landmarks, when accurately identified, allow the segmentation algorithm to determine the approximate position, size, shape and pose of the structure(s) to be segmented. This information can be used to initialize and subsequently guide the optimization algorithm, which in turn increases the probability of successful segmentation.

Landmark visualization for medical image segmentation


To facilitate phase adjustment in an external resonator type wavelength-variable laser. An external resonator type wavelength-variable laser (50) includes a semiconductor light amplifier (1), a wavelength selection filter (3) having periodic frequency characteristics, an external resonator (6), and a wavelength-variable filter (4). Δf is divided into one or more regions. The following conditions are satisfied for one Δfi region: mj=(j×Δffs)/ΔfFP where Δffs: a period of the wavelength selection filter, ΔfFP: a Fabry-Perot mode interval dependent on a length of the external resonator, j: an integer not smaller than 1 and not larger than (Δfi/Δffs). A coefficient Mj is an integer obtained by rounding off the first digit after decimal point of the coefficient mj. A coefficient Ni,j is an integer obtained by discarding the first digit after decimal point of Δfi/(j×Δffs). In this regard, a relation of (|Ni,j×2π(Mj−mj)|<π/2) is satisfied for one j.

Along with recent rapid widespread of the Internet, there is an increasing need to further increase a transmission capacity for a communication traffic volume, increase a transmission speed per system channel, and increase the number of channels based on wavelength division multiplexing (Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)). There is another need to build a flexible network capable of dynamically setting a path in accordance with a traffic volume change or disorders, and to upgrade network infrastructure to provide more variety of services.
To build a high-performance and high-reliability photonic network with such large capacity, a technique of controlling a wavelength is indispensable. A wavelength-variable (selection) light source is a considerably important system key device. In response to the above needs, a wavelength-variable DFB laser has been now put into practical use, which changes a temperature of distributed feedback (Distributed Feedback (DFB)) laser to some extent to realize a wavelength variable range of about 500 GHz (Non-Patent Document 1).
Further, since a wavelength band as wide as 1 THz or more is used (Non-Patent Document 2), or a gain band of an optical fiber amplifier (EDFA: Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier) doped with rare earth (Erbium etc.) which is used in middle- and long-distance optical communications is about 4 THz, there is a demand to popularize a wavelength-variable laser having a wavelength variable (selection) range of 4 THz or more as a desired wavelength variable range.
As a wavelength-variable laser that can satisfy such demand, extensive studies have been made on an external resonator type wavelength-variable laser that configures an external resonator with a semiconductor light amplifier and an external reflector and inserts a wavelength-tunable (wavelength selection) filter or the like to attain wavelength selection characteristics because a wavelength variable range of 4 THz or more can be attained with comparative ease. Most of the basic characteristics of the wavelength-variable laser of this type are determined based on the wavelength-tunable (wavelength selection) filter inserted into the resonator. Thus, various wavelength-tunable (wavelength selection) filters of excellent characteristics have been developed and introduced into a light source.
For example, there is a filter that rotates an etalon as disclosed in Patent Document 1, a filter that rotates diffraction grating as disclosed in Patent Document 2, and an acousto-optic filter or dielectric filter as disclosed in Patent Document 3. As the wavelength-variable mirror, there is an electrically controlled wavelength-variable mirror as disclosed in Patent Document 4.
There are various methods of configuring an external resonator type wavelength-variable laser by use of the above wavelength-tunable (wavelength selection) filter. In particular, the configuration including "wavelength selection filter+wavelength-variable filter+reflection mirror" in addition to a gain medium as disclosed in Patent Document 5 is effective for realizing a high-performance light source. For example, an etalon having periodic frequency characteristics is used as the wavelength selection filter, and the structure of acousto-optic filter+reflection mirror or an electrically controlled wavelength-variable mirror is used as the wavelength-variable filter+reflection mirror.
The principle of wavelength selecting operations of this configuration is described below in brief with reference to FIG. 16A. First, light emitter from a gain medium such as a semiconductor light amplifier has many Fabry-Perot modes 8 dependent on the total length of an external resonator. Among these modes, some modes corresponding to a cycle of a periodic transmission band 7 of a wavelength selection filter are selected, and the selected modes only pass through the wavelength selection filter.
Next, one mode is selected from the plural modes by use of a wavelength-variable filter as a wavelength-variable filter 7b and the selected mode is transmitted through a filter. The transmitted light is reflected by a reflector or the like and finally returns up to the gain medium to form a feedback loop. With this configuration, a wavelength-variable laser of high mode stability is realized with comparative ease, and wavelength selection characteristics are obtained through relatively simple control.    [Non-Patent Document 1]
"Wavelength Locker integrated DFB-LD module" The 2000 Autumn Meeting of IEICE Communications Society Conference, C-3-106    [Non-Patent Document 2]
T. Morimoto, K. Yashiki, K. Kudo, and T. Sasaki, "Wavelength-selectable microarray light sources for DWDM photonic networks," (Invited) IEICE Trans. Electron., vol. E85-C, no. 4, pp. 982-989, April. 2002.    [Patent Document 1]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 4-69987 (FIG. 1)    [Patent Document 2]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-48220 (FIG. 1)    [Patent Document 3]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-261086 ([0009]-[0010], FIG. 3), ([0011]-[0012], FIG. 5)    [Patent Document 4]
U.S. Pat. No. 6,215,928B1    [Patent Document 5]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-353555 ([0013])

External resonator type wavelength-variable laser