A system and method by which individuals can send and receive audio messages using telephone devices and/or computer devices. Upon receiving an audio message on behalf of an intended recipient, the system accesses a user profile to determine how the intended recipient should be contacted. The system then contacts the intended recipient in accordance with his or her user profile and notifies the intended recipient of the received audio message. The audio message is then delivered to the intended recipient in audio form through either a computer device or a telephone device. A person may thus send a voice or other audio message to an intended recipient using either a computer device or a telephone device, at the sender's option, and the audio message may be promptly delivered to the intended recipient in audio form via either a computer device or a telephone device, at the recipient's option.

More messaging devices and systems are available today than perhaps ever before, providing individuals with numerous ways to communicate and exchange messages with one another. In addition to (or in lieu of) some of the earliest messaging options, including personal messengers, telegrams, telegraphs, and mail systems, individuals today can communicate and exchange messages via telephone answering machines and voice mail systems, email, pagers, etc. An even more recent development is the instant messaging system, where online users can exchange pop-up text messages over the Internet in near real time (thus the term "instant").
Nevertheless, there are limitations to the effectiveness and convenience of these messaging options, as recognized by the inventor hereof. For example, if one party calls another by phone with the intention of leaving a voice message, the call may actually be answered before an answering machine or voice mail system is reached, possibly resulting in a lengthy (and perhaps unwanted) phone conversation. Further, even if the answering machine or voice mail system is reached as desired, the resulting voice message might not be retrieved by the intended recipient for an extended period of time. Alternatively, a party could send a text message via email or an instant messaging system, provided that party has Internet access. In the case of instant messaging, however, the intended recipient must typically have a presence on the Internet at the time the instant message is to be sent. Otherwise, the party seeking to send the message may be forced to use another communication option, such as email. Similar to voice mail, however, an email message may sit idle in the recipient's inbox for an extended period of time before the recipient checks for new messages.
The advent of unified messaging and similar systems overcame some of these shortcomings. For example, a unified messaging system may receive and record a voice message from a caller on behalf of a user, and then notify and provide the received voice message to the user via one or more user-specified communication devices, such as a personal computer connected to the Internet, possibly after converting the received voice message into a text message or electronic file.
As recognized by the inventor, however, the ability to conveniently record and send voice and other audio messages via any desired type of communication device (e.g., from computer devices in addition to phone devices), and to promptly receive such messages in audio form via any desired type of communication device, is still lacking.


An underwater wildlife connection swimming pool is configured to engage human users with aquatic wildlife. The underwater wildlife connection swimming pool includes a swimming pool that is configured to accommodate swimming pool water with chemicals and temperatures used in recreational swimming. The swimming pool further comprises entirely transparent walls attached to an entirely transparent floor. A swimming pool deck is mechanically coupled to the swimming pool. An aquatic wildlife tank is attached to the swimming pool deck. The aquatic wildlife tank has an aquatic wildlife tank floor. The aquatic wildlife tank is configured to accommodate aquatic wildlife tank water with temperature and salinity safe for the aquatic wildlife. A plurality of swimming pool inserts are mechanically coupled to the entirely transparent floor. A plurality of support columns are mechanically coupled to the plurality of swimming pool inserts and the aquatic wildlife tank floor.

The embodiments herein relate generally to devices the permit engagement of a user and aquatic wildlife.
Prior to embodiments of the disclosed invention, there was no way to arrange clear swimming pool within a second swimming pool to support aquatic wildlife and humans with some degree of physical separation with no visual separation. The prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,696 issued to Chartier; U.S. Patent Application 2013/0180042 filed by Guridi; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,595,675 issued to Dongo.
Chartier teaches an apparatus that produces a sheet waterfall for a swimming pool or spa, but does not teach multiple levels in the swimming pool or spa. Guridi teaches a wildlife discovery swimming pool but only a small portion of the bottom surface is transparent. Dongo teaches fiberoptic illumination for a swimming pool waterfall unit. Embodiments of the disclosed invention improve on these technologies as indicated below.

Underwater wildlife connection swimming pool


The present invention provides a system and/or method that facilitates programming within Common Language Runtime (CLR) for a C++ programmer by employing a mixed type. An inheritance component creates the mixed type from received code such that the mixed class type is allocated into memory into a pure native part and a pure managed part. Furthermore, construction, destruction and function calls for mixed types are provided facilitating programming within Common Language Runtime (CLR).

As computer science has evolved, object oriented programming has become one of many familiar models designers and programmers utilize to implement functionality within computer systems. The object model generally is defined by a class structure that includes class members providing both methods and associated data elements belonging to the class. The class members thus provide/define desired functionality within a computer program, wherein an object is declared as an instance of a particular class. As is commonplace, objects often must exchange data and/or invoke other objects operating on the same platform and/or communicate with objects belonging to remote platforms. In order to communicate between objects, interface systems and standards have been developed to define how objects may communicate and/or interact with one another.
A familiar system for communicating and interfacing between objects is known as the Component Object Model (COM), wherein another similar system is referred to as the Common Object Request Brokers Architecture (CORBA). Still yet other communication interfaces may be defined in languages such as JAVA within an operating framework of a Java Virtual Machine, for example. As these and other systems have been developed however, two common object architectures or models generally have emerged and may generally be defined in terms of managed and unmanaged object systems, for example.
Managed objects may be allocated from a heap within a managed software or execution environment and are generally not responsible for managing associated object lifetimes. Managed objects may be described in terms of a data type (e.g., metadata) and automatically collected (e.g., reclaimed) by a managed environment "garbage collector" that removes the object from memory when the object is no longer being accessed. In contrast, unmanaged objects may be allocated from a standard operating system heap, wherein the object itself is responsible for freeing memory it employs when references to the object no longer exist. This may be accomplished through well-known techniques such as reference counting, for example.
As described above, managed objects may be allocated from a managed heap and automatically garbage collected. In order to achieve this, references to managed objects are traced. In one example, reference counting can be used wherein a last reference to an object is removed, the garbage collector reclaims the memory occupied by the object mitigating the need to reference count managed objects. Yet in a Common Language Runtime (CLR), memory is not reclaimed until a garbage collector is run (e.g., which normally happens with a triggering of low resource conditions). Thus in general, a managed environment essentially handles garbage collection internally. Tracing is possible within managed code because the managed environment keeps track of outstanding references that exist on an object. As each new object reference is declared within managed code, the managed environment adds the reference to a list (e.g., building the list on the fly). At any given time, the managed environment, rather than the object itself, is thus aware of live references that exist on a given object. As references fall out of scope or change value, the list (built on the fly) is determined by knowing a combination of stack walking and how to inspect areas of memory owned by the garbage collector, and as long as a reference remains within managed code, the managed environment is able to trace it. Unfortunately, object references originating from unmanaged code present difficulties when interacting with a managed environment.
One difficulty associated with unmanaged references operating in a managed environment relates to that there is substantially no straightforward way for managed environments to trace references from unmanaged code to managed objects. Even if the managed environment were aware of these references, generally, no information is maintained indicating whether a reference is active or inactive. Thus, since unmanaged clients, for example, are written in unmanaged code, presently, there is not a process for tracing references that unmanaged objects may hold on managed objects executing within a managed environment. Similarly, originating calls from managed environments to unmanaged environments also presents problems relating to managing object lifetimes. For example, unmanaged objects expect to be reference counted, but in a managed environment reference counting is not required for managed objects. It would thus be very confusing if developers that design managed code had to handle references to managed and unmanaged objects differently.
Along with object lifetime management problems described above, managed and unmanaged object systems generally differ in many other significant ways. These differences may include how the object systems provide object interfaces within the respective object systems, how data is structured and/or defined, and how errors and exceptions are handled, for example. Due to these and other differences between managed and unmanaged object systems, it is presently difficult, time consuming, and expensive in terms of development costs to have objects from an unmanaged system interface and interact with objects from a managed system and visa versa. Moreover, it is generally difficult for managed objects designed according to one object system framework to communicate with objects from an architecturally different managed system framework. This also applies to unmanaged object communications between diverse unmanaged system frameworks.
A classic paradigm relating to managed and unmanaged systems originates from a programming standpoint. Each programming language provides certain characteristics wherein strengths and weaknesses are exposed by, for example, programmers, critics, hackers, and other program languages themselves. Therefore, a programmer must take good with bad when choosing to program for a managed system and/or unmanaged system. Common Language Runtime (CLR) and C++ Standard are examples of a managed and unmanaged systems respectively, wherein each system delivers tailored benefits and detriments to the individual programmer. Thus, programmers have diverged based upon programming preferences (e.g., type instantiation in memory areas, garbage collection, pointing and reference to types, . . . ) in relation to managed systems or unmanaged systems.
In particular, an unmanaged system allows a programmer to have freedoms not available in a managed system such as freedom with user defined types being instantiated anywhere (e.g., heap or stack), yet does not provide garbage collection. For example, a standard C++ program provides a class template in which "policy" controls where an instance of a type is instantiated—yet the definition of the type itself does not control this instantiation. Thus, a C++ environment provided users with certain idioms controlling where or where not a type is instantiated.
On the other hand, various compilers and other tools expose a managed system's functionality that enable designers to write code that benefits from a managed execution environment. Thus, code that is developed with a language compiler that targets a managed system such as, for example, a Common Language Runtime (CLR) is referred to as managed code. This type environment employs features such as, for example, garbage collection based on type, reflection, and handles to reference whole objects.
Managed and unmanaged systems have developed a divergence in programming preference based upon the individual strengths and weakness of managed and unmanaged systems such as, for example, C++ and Common Language Runtime (CLR). In view of the above, there is a need to integrate C++ and Common Language Runtime (CLR) such that strengths are provided wherein weaknesses are concurrently complimented.


A SAW duplexer includes a first SAW filter having a passband with a relatively low frequency, and a second SAW filter having a passband with a relatively high frequency. The first and second SAW filters each have a ladder-shaped circuit configuration. A bridging inductor is connected in parallel to at least one serial arm resonator in the second SAW filter. The bridging inductor includes a coiled portion provided on a multilayer package substrate. The coiled portion is defined by connecting first to third wires provided on first to third layers by via-hole conductors. First, third, and fifth via-hole conductors that define a coil return wire portion are disposed inside the coiled portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a SAW duplexer including first and second SAW filters having different passbands, and more particularly, to a SAW duplexer in which first and second SAW filters each have a ladder-shaped circuit configuration and a bridging inductor is connected in parallel to a serial arm resonator in at least one of the SAW filters.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent mobile telephones or the like, SAW duplexers including first and second SAW filters having different passbands are widely used. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-332885 discloses an example of such a SAW duplexer.
FIG. 16 shows a circuit configuration of a SAW duplexer described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-332885. A SAW duplexer 101 is connected to an antenna 102. That is, a first SAW filter 111 and a second SAW filter 112 are connected to the antenna 102. The first SAW filter 111 and the second SAW filter 112 are different in passband. Each of the SAW filters 111 and 112 has a ladder-shaped circuit configuration including serial arm resonators and parallel arm resonators.
That is, the first SAW filter 111 includes serial arm resonators S1 to S3 and parallel arm resonators P1 and P2. Similarly, the second SAW filter 112 includes serial arm resonators S4 to S6 and parallel arm resonators P3 and P4.
Bridging inductors L1 and L2 are connected in parallel to the serial arm resonators S3 and S5, respectively. The bridging inductor L1 is provided to obtain a sufficient attenuation in the passband of the opposite SAW filter 112. Similarly, the bridging inductor L2 is inserted to obtain a sufficient attenuation in the passband of the opposite SAW filter 111.
In the SAW duplexer 101, a surface acoustic wave element chip is mounted on a package substrate. FIG. 17 is a plan view of a surface acoustic wave element chip 113. In the surface acoustic wave element chip 113, the SAW filters 111 and 112 are formed by placing a plurality of illustrated electrodes on a piezoelectric substrate 114.
The bridging inductors L1 and L2 are not provided in the surface acoustic wave element chip 113. That is, coil-shaped electrode patterns for forming the bridging inductors L1 and L2 are provided on an upper surface of a package substrate 115 shown in FIG. 18.
A plurality of electrode lands electrically connected to the surface acoustic wave element chip 113 are provided on the upper surface of the package substrate 115. Electrode lands A1 and A2 of the electrode lands are connected to the bridging inductor L1. Bumps electrically connected to both ends of the serial arm resonator S3 in the surface acoustic wave element chip 113 are joined to the electrode lands A1 and A2, respectively. Similarly, the bridging inductor L2 is electrically connected to electrode lands A3 and A4 on the package substrate 115. The electrode lands A3 and A4 correspond to portions joined to metal bumps that are connected to both ends of the serial arm resonator S5 provided in the surface acoustic wave element chip 113.
That is, in the SAW duplexer 101, the bridging inductors L1 and L2 are obtained by forming coil-shaped electrode patterns on the upper surface of the package substrate 115 on which the surface acoustic wave element chip is mounted.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-304139 discloses a package for a surface acoustic wave duplexer. In this package for a surface acoustic wave duplexer, phase-matching circuit electrodes are provided to adjust the phase characteristic of a surface acoustic wave filter mounted in the package. In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-304139, a plurality of electrodes shaped like spiral patterns are described as defining the above-described phase-matching circuit electrodes. The spirally patterned electrodes are provided on a plurality of layers, and are electrically connected to each other by a via-hole electrode.
As described above, in the SAW duplexer described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-332885, the bridging inductors L1 and L2 are connected to increase the attenuation in the passband of the opposite filter in the filter characteristics of the first and second SAW filters 111 and 112. However, the bridging inductors L1 and L2 are provided by forming coil-shaped electrodes on the upper surface of the package substrate on which the surface acoustic wave element chip is mounted. For this reason, as is evident from FIG. 18, it is necessary to prepare, as the package substrate 115, a large substrate that allows coil-shaped electrode patterns to be formed on the upper surface thereof.
The above-described Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-304139 discloses the structure in which spirally patterned electrodes are provided as the phase-matching electrodes on a plurality of layers in the SAW duplexer package. However, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-304139, the spirally patterned electrodes are simply provided as the phase-matching electrodes, but Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-304139 does not specifically refer to the bridging inductor L in the SAW duplexer. While the spirally patterned electrodes serving as the phase-matching circuit electrodes are spiral, the characteristic required of the phase-matching electrodes is completely different from the characteristic required of the bridging inductor.
That is, it is preferable that the bridging inductor have a large inductance and be of a lumped-constant type. In contrast, the phase-matching circuit electrode serves to perform phase matching, and shows a distributed-constant behavior. The length of the spirally patterned electrode is defined by the phase change amount. Therefore, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-304139 describes the structure in which the spiral electrodes are provided on a plurality of layers, but does not disclose the electrode structure that can be used as a bridging inductor in the SAW duplexer.

SAW duplexer having a bridging inductor in a multilayer package


A method includes depositing a first metal layer on a native SiO2 layer that is disposed on at least one of a source and a drain of a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). A metal oxide layer is formed from the native SiO2 layer and the first metal layer, wherein the remaining first metal layer, the metal oxide layer, and the at least one of the source and the drain form a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) contact.

The source/drain contact resistance of a conventional MOSFET using silicide has limited the performance of the MOSFET due to high Schottky barrier height between the silicide and the source/drain. A MIS structure can be an alternative contact scheme to source/drain to replace silicide and further reduce contact resistance. However, formation of the insulator has challenging issues of precision control for various devices across the entire wafer.

Metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor with metal-insulator-semiconductor contact structure to reduce schottky barrier

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A multidirectional wheel for traversing a surface that includes at least one hub is provided. The hub defines a first axial direction of rotation. A plurality of rollers are disposed around an outer periphery of the hub. The rollers are mounted for rotation in a second axial direction that is at an angle to the first axial direction. The wheel includes at least one magnet that is mounted to the hub. The hub is made of a magnetically inducible material that concentrates the flux of the at least one magnet toward the surface being traversed.

Other wheels having differing designs are known in various documents, including, among others, U.S. Pat. No. 8,308,604 entitled "Omni-wheel based driving device with belt transmission mechanism;" U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2008/0295595 entitled "Dynamically balanced in-line wheel vehicle;" U.S. Pat. No. 7,233,221 entitled "Magnetic wheel for vehicles;" U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0200380 entitled "Magnetic wheel;" and an article by Lee, Seung-heui, et. al. entitled "Recognition of Corrosion State Based on Omnidirectional Mobile Robot for Inspection of CAS for Oil Tanker Annual Conference 2008." The specific designs and features of the wheels and vehicles described in these documents can best be appreciated by a review of their respective disclosures.


A control element for opening and closing a drive connection between a first member and a second member includes a first ring engaged with the first member, displaceable among a disengaged position, a stroked position and an engaged position and formed with first serrations, a second ring engaged with the first member and including second serrations, a third ring engaged with the second member and including third serrations for alternately engaging with and disengaging from the first and second serrations, and a detent for resisting displacement of the first ring relative to the second ring when the first ring is in the stroked position and permitting displacement of the first ring relative to the second ring when the first ring moves from the stroked position to the engaged position.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a friction control element, such as a clutch or brake for an automatic transmission, and, more particularly, to establishing a stroked position for the control element.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In an automatic transmission for a motor vehicle step changes among forward gears occur when one or more friction control elements engage or disengage. In an automotive transmission it is conventional to use hydraulically actuated friction control elements that include interleaved discs and plates, which become frictionally engaged mutually when a drive connection is to be closed and disengage when the connection is opened.
A clutch or brake is stroked when its torque transmitting capacity is about zero and most of the clearances between components are absent, but the control element is ready to increase its torque capacity promptly with little additional displacement.
One factor in causing a noticeable bump during a synchronous shift from second gear to first gear shift in a transmission is the inability to determine reliably the stroke position of a clutch that causes no tie-up bump. If the friction control element is not stroked, engine speed flares.
Conical friction clutch and brakes have been developed, which employ rings having conical serrations that alternately engage and disengage to open and close a drive connection between members, to which the rings are secured. These conical clutches and brakes, however, provide no stroked state or a means for determining the degree of displacement that places the control element in a stroked position or state.
A need exists in the industry for a technique that allows reliable stroking and holding of a conical friction control element in a stroked position before its mechanical or frictional engagement.

Friction control element having a stroked state


An image forming apparatus includes an image forming device for forming an image on to a recording material and a driving source for driving the image formation device. A plurality of drive force transmitting members transmit a drive force from the driving source to the image forming device and a plurality of electrical equipment units, mounted on a substrate, control the image forming device. A grounded metal plate which supports the plurality of driving force transmitting members is interposed between at least two of the plurality of electrical equipment units.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for forming a developed image onto a recording material of a device, such as a copying machine or printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various electrical equipment units must be used in order to drive image forming apparatuses. For example, typical electrical units are: an engine unit for controlling components such as a power supply, a paper feed unit, a scanner and a fixing unit, and an image controller for converting image codes transmitted from a host computer into dot images. The image controller is composed of highly integrated components, such as a microprocessor. Accordingly, in many cases, multilayered and double-sided substrates are employed to make effective use of space and reduce radiation noise. The engine unit is composed of large and heavy components, such as the power supply and a transformer. The degree of integration of these components is lower than that of the components of the image controller. Therefore, single-sided substrates are employed for the engine unit. The cost of single-sided substrates is lower than that of multilayered and double-sided substrates. The single-sided substrates are sufficient for use in the engine unit.
For these reasons, it is preferable that the engine unit and image controller be separately attached to an image forming apparatus. It is also preferable that the engine unit be covered with "grounded sheet metal" because the engine unit produces relatively high magnitude radiation noise.
Nonetheless, radiation noise is transmitted to the image controller through a connector which connects the engine unit to the image controller and then it is transmitted from the image controller to the outside. The image controller, like the engine unit, may be covered with "grounded sheet metal". However, it is not desirable to cover the image controller with "grounded sheet metal", since to do so would increase the cost of the image forming apparatus and make it difficult to replace one image controller with another one in accordance with the type of external computer being used.
Thus, the radiation noise transmitted from the image controller causes a problem.
In conventional image forming apparatuses a paper feed roller, a carrier roller, image forming means, such as a photosensitive drum, a developing roller and a charge roller, and other components are operated by force from a driving source through driving force transmitting device. A plurality of drive gears are usually used as the driving force transmitting device. As shown in FIG. 3, the drive gears are arranged on both sides of the image forming apparatus, as viewed from the direction indicated by arrow A. These gears are rotatably supported by a plurality of supporting members, and thus they occupy large portions within the apparatus.
Accordingly, the foregoing conventional image forming apparatus suffers from the above-described problems of radiation noise transmitted from the image controller and bulky arrangement of the drive gears.

Image forming apparatus having grounded metal plate supporting drive transmitting members and separating electrical equipment units


When writing a signal current from a current source to a current source circuit, noise occurs in some cases in a wiring through which a current flows, which may cause a potential of the wiring to be outside the normal range. As the potential does not turn back within the normal range easily at this time, writing to the current source circuit is delayed. According to the invention, when the potential becomes outside the normal range due to noise occurring in a wiring through which a current flows when writing a signal current from a current source to a current source circuit, a current is supplied from other than the current source, thereby the potential of the wiring can turn back within the normal range rapidly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device provided with a function to control a current supply to a load by a transistor. In particular, the invention relates to a semiconductor device including a pixel formed of a current driving light emitting element of which luminance changes according to current, and a signal driver circuit thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, what is called a self-light emitting display device of which pixel is formed of a light emitting element such as a light emitting diode (LED) is attracting attentions. As a light emitting element used for such a self-light emitting display device, an organic light emitting diode (OLED), an organic EL element, an electroluminescence (EL) element and the like are attracting attentions and used for an organic EL display and the like.
A light emitting element such as an OLED which is a self-light emitting element is advantageous as compared to a liquid crystal display in that a pixel provides a high visibility, a backlight is not required, a high response speed is achieved, and the like. The luminance of a light emitting element is controlled by a current value supplied thereto.
As a driving method of a display device using such a self-light emitting element, a passive matrix method and an active matrix method are known. With the passive matrix method, a structure is simple but a large display of high luminance is difficult to achieve. The active matrix method in which a current supplied to a light emitting element is controlled by a thin film transistor (TFT) provided in a pixel circuit is more actively developed recently.
In the case of such an active matrix display device, there is a problem in that a luminance changes when a current supplied to a light emitting element changes due to variations in current characteristics of driving TFTs.
In other words, in the case of such an active matrix display device, driving TFTs which drive a current supplied to a light emitting element is used in a pixel circuit. When the characteristics of these driving TFTs vary, a current supplied to a light emitting element changes, leading to vary the luminance. In view of this, various circuits for suppressing variations in luminance have been suggested, in which a current supplied to a light emitting element does not change even when characteristics of driving TFTs in a pixel circuit vary.
[Patent Document 1]    Published Japanese Translation of PCT International Publication for Patent Application No. 2002-517806
[Patent Document 2]    International Publication WO01/06484
[Patent Document 3]    Published Japanese Translation of PCT International Publication for Patent Application No. 2002-514320
[Patent Document 4]    International Publication WO02/39420
Patent Documents 1 to 4 each discloses a structure of an active matrix display device. Patent Documents 1 to 3 each discloses a circuit configuration in which a current supplied to a light emitting element does not change due to variations in characteristics of driving TFTs provided in a pixel circuit. This structure is referred to as a current write type pixel, a current input type pixel or the like. Patent Document 4 discloses a circuit configuration for suppressing a change of signal current due to variations of TFTs in a source driver circuit.
FIG. 31 shows a first schematic example of a conventional active matrix display device disclosed in Patent Document 1. The pixel in FIG. 31 includes a source signal line 3101, first to third gate signal lines 3102 to 3104, a current supply line 3105, TFTs 3106 to 3109, a capacitor 3110, an EL element 3111, a signal current input current source 3112.
A gate electrode of the TFT 3106 is connected to the first gate signal line 3102, a first electrode thereof is connected to the source signal line 3101, a second electrode thereof is connected to a first electrode of the TFT 3107, a first electrode of the TFT 3108, and a first electrode of the TFT 3109. A gate electrode of the TFT 3107 is connected to a second gate signal line 3103, and a second electrode thereof is connected to a gate electrode of the TFT 3108. A second electrode of the TFT 3108 is connected to a current supply line 3105. A gate electrode of the TFT 3109 is connected to a third gate signal line 3104 and a second electrode thereof is connected to an anode of the EL element 3111. The capacitor 3110 is connected between the gate electrode and an input electrode of the TFT 3108 and holds a gate-source voltage of the TFT 3108. The current supply line 3105 and a cathode of the EL element 3111 are inputted with predetermined potentials respectively and have a potential difference therebetween.
An operation from writing of a signal current to light emission is described with reference to FIGS. 32A to 32E. In FIGS. 32A to 32E, reference numerals which denote each portion are referred in FIG. 31. FIGS. 32A to 32C each shows a current flow schematically. FIG. 32D shows a relationship of a current flowing through each path when writing a signal current. FIG. 32E shows a gate-source voltage of the TFT 3108, which is a voltage accumulated in the capacitor 3110 when writing a signal current.
First, a pulse is inputted to the first gate signal line 3102 and the second gate signal line 3103, thereby the TFTs 3106 and 3107 are turned on. At this time a current flowing through a source signal line, which is a signal current is called Idata.
As a current Idata flows through a source signal line, a current path is divided into I1 and I2 in a pixel as shown in FIG. 32A. The relationship between these is shown in FIG. 32D. It is to be noted that Idata=I1+I2 is satisfied, needless to say.
A charge is not held in the capacitor 3110 just after the TFT 3106 is turned on, therefore, the TFT 3108 is off. Accordingly, I2=0 is satisfied and Idata=I1 is satisfied. That is to say, only a current accumulated in the capacitor 3110 flows at this time.
After that, a charge is accumulated in the capacitor 3110 gradually, which generates a potential difference between both electrodes (FIG. 32E). When the potential difference between the both electrodes becomes Vth (point A in FIG. 32E), the TFT 3108 is turned on and I2 generates. As described above, as Idata=I1+I2 is satisfied, I1 decreases gradually, however, a current still flows and a charge keeps being accumulated in the capacitor.
In the capacitor 3110, a charge keeps being accumulated until the potential difference between the both electrodes, which is a gate-source voltage of the TFT 3108 reaches a desired voltage, which is a voltage (VGS) high enough for the TFT 3108 to flow a current Idata. When the charge accumulation is terminated (point B in FIG. 32E), the current I1 stops flowing and a current corresponding to VGS at that time flows through the TFT 3108, leading to satisfy Idata=I2 (FIG. 32B). In this manner, a steady state is achieved. The writing operation of a signal is completed in this manner. At last, selection of the first gate signal line 3102 and the second gate signal line 3103 is terminated, which turns off the TFTs 3106 and 3107.
Subsequently, a light emitting operation starts. A pulse is inputted to the third gate signal line 3104, thereby the TFT 3109 is turned on. As VGS which is just written is held in the capacitor 3110, the TFT 3108 is on and a current Idata flows from the current supply line 3105 to the EL element 3111. Accordingly, the EL element 3111 emits light. At this time, by setting the TFT 3108 to operate in the saturation region, Idata can flow without change even when a drain-source voltage of the TFT 3108 changes.
An operation to output a set current in this manner is called an output operation. The current write type pixel of which example is shown above is advantageous in that a desired current can be accurately supplied to an EL element since a gate-source voltage required to flow the current Idata is held in the capacitor 3110 even when characteristics and the like of the TFT 3108 vary. Accordingly, variations in luminance due to variations in characteristics of TFTs can be suppressed.
The aforementioned example relates to a technique for correcting a change of current due to variations of driving TFTs in a pixel circuit. A similar problem occurs in a source driver circuit as well. Patent Document 4 discloses a circuit configuration for suppressing a change of signal current due to variations of TFTs in a source driver circuit.

Semiconductor device having a rectifying element connected to a pixel of a display device

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A semiconductor device includes an internal power supply, at least one semiconductor circuit block, a delay circuit, and a detecting circuit. The internal power supply outputs an initialization completion signal when initialized. The semiconductor circuit block operates on the basis of a voltage generated by the internal power supply. The delay circuit delays the initialization completion signal. The detecting circuit commands the semiconductor circuit block to start operations in response to the initialization completion signal delayed by the delay circuit and an externally input first input signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device comprising a transition detecting circuit and a method of activating this semiconductor device, and in particular, to an operation of reading data from a semiconductor memory device immediately after power-on.
2. Description of the Related Art
With conventional semiconductor storage devices, a chip enable signal and an address signal are input to the device before power-on. Such a conventional semiconductor storage device will be described with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional LSI.
As shown in the figure, an LSI 100 comprises a semiconductor storage device 200 and a transition detecting circuit 300. A power-on reset signal POR is output by an internal power supply in the LSI. The signal POR is output to the semiconductor storage device 200 and the transition detecting circuit 300 when the internal power supply (not shown) is completely initialized. Upon receiving the power-on reset signal POR, the semiconductor storage device 200 and the transition detecting circuit 300 are returned from initialization and become active. The transition detecting circuit 300 detects transitions in a chip enable signal CE and an address signal add which are externally input. Upon detecting a transition in at least one of these signals, the transition detecting circuit 300 outputs a transition detection signal TDS to the semiconductor storage device 200. Upon receiving the transition detection signal TDS, the semiconductor storage device 200 is enabled. Then, the semiconductor storage device 200 starts to operate and reads data from the semiconductor storage device 200.
However, with the configuration shown in FIG. 1, it is difficult to perform a read operation immediately after power-on. This will be described with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a timing chart for various signals in the semiconductor device shown in FIG. 1, showing a state observed immediately after power-on.
It is assumed that the semiconductor device 100 is powered on at a time t0 as shown in the figure. Further, as described at the beginning of this section, it is assumed that a chip enable signal and an address signal are input to the semiconductor device 100 before power-on. Then, at a time t1, when the internal power supply is completely initialized, the power-on reset signal POR is enabled. Subsequently, data should be read from the semiconductor storage device 200 according to the input address signal add. However, with the conventional configuration, after the semiconductor storage device 100 has been powered on, no transitions occur in the chip enable signal or the address signal. Accordingly, the transition detecting circuit does not output a transition detection signal TDS. Thus, the semiconductor storage device 200 cannot start operations. As a result, data cannot be read from the semiconductor storage device 200.
For example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2000-339969 describes the above problems and means for solving them. With the method described in this document, while the power-on reset signal is at a specified level or higher, an enable pulse ENP is output whether or not there is a transition in the address signal. This enables a read operation to be performed immediately after power-on.
However, it may be very difficult for the method described in the above document to control the semiconductor device. That is, the enable pulse ENP rises when the voltage of the power-on reset signal reaches the specified level and then falls when the voltage decreases below the specified level. A plurality of circuit blocks included in the semiconductor device is normally returned from initialization when the power-on reset signal rises. However, it is impossible to externally determine the timing with which the power-on reset signal rises and a period for which this signal is at the specified level or higher. Consequently, it is very difficult for the circuit blocks to be returned from initialization concurrently with the power-on reset signal. In particular, the power-on reset signal often remains at the specified level or higher for only a very short time. In this case, an enable pulse may be generated before the other circuit blocks are completely returned from initialization. Then, naturally, the read operation fails. This is a serious problem particularly with semiconductor storage devices that perform destructive read operations.

Semiconductor device comprising transition detecting circuit and method of activating the same


An objective lens module includes a light-converging lens that is coaxially disposed with respect to an optical axis of first laser light having a first wavelength, and a transmission-type diffractive optical element that is coaxially disposed to cause diffracted light of first laser light to be incident on the light-converging lens. The diffractive optical element has an incident surface and an emergent surface, and first, second, and third regions that are provided on at least of the incident surface and the emergent surface in the vicinity of the optical axis, and are sequentially defined according to different radius distances from the optical axis to have different diffraction gratings of different diffraction angles, respectively. The first region diffracts odd-order diffracted light of first laser light to the light-converging lens, the second region diffracts even-order diffracted light of first laser light to the light-converging lens, and the third region diffracts even-order or zero-order diffracted light of first laser light to the light-converging lens, such that the light-converging lens converges diffracted light from the first, second, and third regions with a predetermined numerical aperture.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical system of an optical pickup in an optical information recording and reproducing apparatus which records and reproduces information for optical discs having different corresponding wavelengths. More particularly, the present invention relates to an optical information recording and reproducing apparatus which allows compatibility for a plurality of optical recording mediums using laser light sources of different wavelengths, to an optical pickup, to an objective lens module, and to a diffractive optical element.
2. Description of Related Art
As an optical information recording and reproducing apparatus, an optical disc apparatus is known in which recorded information can be read from an optical recording medium, that is, an optical disc, such as digital versatile disc (hereinafter, referred to as DVD), compact disc (hereinafter, referred to as CD), or the like.
A compatible optical disc apparatus is known in which recorded information can be read from DVD and CD. As for DVD, the substrate thickness is 0.6 mm, the corresponding wavelength is in a range of 635 nm to 655 nm, and the numerical aperture (NA) of an objective lens is about 0.6. As for CD, the substrate thickness is 1.2 mm, the corresponding wavelength is in a range of 760 to 800 nm, and the numerical aperture of an objective lens is about 0.45. In the compatible optical disc apparatus, there is a case in which a laser light source having a wavelength λDVD in the vicinity of the wavelength 660 nm for DVD and a laser light source having a wavelength λCD in the vicinity of the wavelength 780 nm for CD are mounted.
For example, a technology is suggested in which an optical pickup device for allowing information to be recorded and reproduced for information recording mediums having different substrate thicknesses for DVD/CD, and an objective lens and an optical element used for the optical pickup device are provided (JP-A-2001-235676). The optical pickup device is suggested in which the objective lens having diffractive orbicular zones is used for the optical pickup device, such that, with an outside light flux of a predetermined numerical aperture in a use state of a small numerical aperture as a flare, recording and reproducing of information are performed for various information recording mediums having different thicknesses. The objective lens having such diffractive orbicular zones includes a diffraction surface having the diffractive orbicular zones. Here, when a function of an optical path difference of the diffraction surface is Φ(h) (where h is a distance from an optical axis), dΦ(h)/dh is a discontinuous or substantially discontinuous function at a place of a predetermined distance h.
On the other hand, as for blue-ray disc (hereinafter, referred to as BD), the thickness of a transmissive protection layer (which corresponds to the thickness of a transparent substrate of DVD or the like) is 0.1 mm, the corresponding wavelength is 408 nm, and the numerical aperture of an objective lens is about 0.85. Accordingly, in a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical disc apparatus, a laser light source which emits laser light of λBD in the vicinity of the wavelength 408 nm, that is, an optical system, needs to be mounted, in addition to the configuration of the above-described compatible optical disc apparatus. Further, since the optical discs of BD, DVD, and CD have different thicknesses, a unit for correcting three kinds of different spherical aberrations needs to be provided. In addition, since all of them have different numerical apertures, a corresponding unit also needs to be provided. However, in JP-A-2001-235676 described above, the specified descriptions of these units are not given. That is, it is difficult to realize compatibility of three or more kinds of recording mediums having different light source wavelengths, numerical apertures (effective diameters), optical disc thicknesses (the thickness of a transmissive protection layer), such as BD, DVD, CD, and the like by use of a single objective lens according to the related art.
In order to realize an optical pickup for a compatible apparatus, a method is suggested in which an objective lens exclusively used for BD and a DVD/CD compatible objective lens are used, and are switched according to wavelengths. In this case, however, since two objective lenses are used, a complex lens switching mechanism needs to be provided, which causes a problem in that manufacturing costs are increased. In addition, since an actuator is made large, it is disadvantageous to reduce the size of the apparatus. Further, a method may be considered in which an objective lens and a collimator lens are incorporated, but, since the collimator is fixed with respect to the objective lens, it may be difficult to maintain performance at the time of movement of the objective lens.
In any cases, if a plurality of light sources are used, and an optical system of exclusive prism, lens, and the like is configured in order to ensure compatibility of BD, DVD, and CD, an optical pickup or an overall optical head is complicated, and tends to have the large size.

Diffractive optical element, objective lens module, optical pickup, and optical information recording and reproducing apparatus


A conductive rubber component includes a laminate in which conductive rubber layers and insulating rubber layers are laminated alternately in parallel, and the conductive rubber layers and the insulating rubber layers are integrated at their boundaries by a cross-linking reaction. A solderable metal coating is integrated with at least one surface of the laminate that is perpendicular to the electrical conduction direction by the deposition of at least one selected from atoms and molecules. This conductive rubber component can have good compression load properties and good compression set properties, achieve a stable electric connection for a long period of time due to the good compression set properties, be soldered to a printed wiring board or the like because of the presence of the integrated metal coating, suppress the occurrence of burrs, reduce costs, and improve the production efficiency.

In recent years, there have been problems with electromagnetic interference such as the malfunction of electronic equipment and the effect on a human body due to electromagnetic waves radiated from radio application equipment including a portable telephone. One of the measures against the electromagnetic interference is to dispose a conductive metal evaporated film on the inner surface of a resin body of a portable telephone for shielding purposes. The conductive metal evaporated film is effective as a shielding layer for preventing radiated electromagnetic noise from coming out of the portable telephone. In many cases, the conductive shielding layer is formed by a metal evaporation method, the application of a conductive coating, or the like. The conductive shielding layer needs to be connected electrically to a printed wiring board so that they are at the same potential. For this reason, a method has been employed in which spring metal contacts are fixed to an electrode on the printed wiring board, and the electrode is brought into contact with the conductive shielding layer to make an electric connection when the resin body is assembled (Patent Document 1).
Another method also has been proposed in which a metal foil or the like is integrated with one surface of conductive rubber, and then this conductive rubber is fixed on a printed wiring board using a conductive adhesive or other means to make an electric connection (Patent Documents 2 to 3).
The conductive rubber of such a component is produced by mixing insulating rubber and a large amount of conductive filler. Since the conductive rubber contains a large amount of conductive filler, the proportion of rubber in the entire volume is reduced. Thus, the rubber hardness becomes higher, and the initial compression load is increased. At the same time, the conductive rubber is likely to lose rubber elasticity or restoring force. Moreover, the conductive rubber significantly sacrifices the compression set properties, which are the important rubber properties. Consequently, the conductive rubber component is weakened and broken from the compression for a long period of time, and cannot be restored. Further, the resiliency of the conductive rubber is degraded, so that the electric connection to be maintained by the resiliency cannot be maintained in the end.
The conventional method generally includes integrating two materials with dearly different physical properties, i.e., a metal and an elastomer and cutting the resultant product to a desired size. However, when a sheet obtained by laminating the conductive rubber and the metal foil that differ in physical properties (e.g., rigidity and Young's modulus) is cut, burrs are likely to occur at the end of the product. This will be described with reference to the drawing. FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional laminate of conductive rubber and a metal foil. Conductive rubber 4 is laminated with a conductive adhesive layer 5, a primer layer 6, and a metal foil 7, and then integrated together. This laminate 11 is in the form of a sheet, and at least one end face is cut. Thus, a burr 8b occurs at the cut surface. As indicated by the arrow b in FIG. 9, the burr 8b is 80 μm or more in size and can increase the possibility of a defect that causes conductive anomaly, i.e., the product is mounted obliquely during reflow mounting.


A method of turbo decoding using soft input-soft output information. A vector of data is sampled from a channel of data. The vector of data is then processed to output a final code word of bits. A final reliability vector of reliability values associated with the final code word is generated, such that each bit of the final code word of bits has a corresponding reliability value in the final reliability vector. Corresponding reliability values for one or more bit positions of the final code word are determined by a difference of distance metrics, and corresponding reliability values for one or more bit positions of the final code word are determined utilizing a numerical approximation.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related generally to the decoding of linear block codes, and more specifically to a method of soft input-soft output decoding.
2. Description of the Related Art
The transmission of digital information has become, and will continue to be, the most common form of communications for years to come. Digital communication links in the form of satellite communications systems, wireless LANs, digital cellular communications systems, digital video broadcast, and many others, are used for the efficient and flexible transmission of a wide variety of data services. However, in most, if not all cases, the digital data is subjected to imperfect transmission mechanisms which introduce various levels of noise into the transmitted signal and threaten the reliability of the transmitted data at the receiving end. As a result, designers have continued to develop error-detecting and correcting tools in an effort to improve data reliability in communications regimes.
Forward error correction is the capability of a receiving station to correct a transmission error, and can increase throughput of a data link operating in a noisy environment. The transmitting station appends information to the data in the form of error correction bits, however, the number of error correction bits also impacts the size of the transmitted word, which ultimately effects the bandwidth of the data channel. Therefore, the number of error-correction bits must be chosen with bandwidth, and other factors in mind.
Turbo codes are a relatively new class of correction codes which represent the next leap forward in error correction. The designer has more flexibility to determine the required transmission energy, bandwidth, and system complexity with the increased error-correction performance offered by turbo codes. Turbo codes break a complex decoding problem into simple steps. Each step is then repeated until a solution is reached. The complexity of convolutional codes has slowed the development of low-cost turbo convolutional decoders. However, turbo product codes offer substantially higher data throughput in hardware at a more reasonable cost by solving multiple steps simultaneously. As a result, turbo product codes are receiving more attention in advanced terrestrial and satellite communications systems due to their unmatched error-correction capability.
A sequence of logical 1s and 0s in a digital message is typically sent from a source device through a channel medium to a decoder at a destination end for decoding. However, before transmission, the logical 1s and 0s are converted into voltages, and transmitted through the channel medium as +1 volt and −1 volt, respectively. Channel noise is inherently introduced into the voltage signal which is received by the receiver at the destination device. The decoder at the destination device will then make a hard decision based upon the received voltage signals. (With a threshold placed at 0 volts, a value greater than or equal to 0 volts is interpreted as a logical 1, and a value less than 0 volts is interpreted as a logical 0.) This is termed hard decision decoding (HDD), since each symbol, as first represented by a voltage, is converted to logical 1s and 0s prior to decoding. Soft decision decoding utilizes more information than the logical 1s and 0s by utilizing the received voltage signals, usually quantized to three or four bits.
Turbo coding (also called "iterative" decoding) of product codes (and variances thereof) requires the use of a decoder that uses soft information as input ("soft input information"), and yields soft information at the output ("soft output information"). Soft information is a more detailed measure of received channel information. Soft input information to a decoder is that which indicates what value each received bit is assigned (e.g., a logical 1 or 0), and an associated value that indicates the reliability or confidence that the value assigned to the particular received bit is correct. The decoder then uses the soft input information to decode the received information to produce an estimate of the original transmitted data. Soft output information of a decoder is that information which not only provides an accurate estimate of the original message, but also reliability or confidence information as to the likelihood that the decoded bit is correct. Decoding with soft input information yielding soft output information is called SISO (Soft Input-Soft Output) decoding.
Prior art SISO turbo decoding algorithms are complex, bandwidth-intensive, and costly to implement. What is needed is an efficient and more cost effective algorithm which is easier to implement and exhibits near optimal SISO decoding with a tiny fraction of the complexity of the prior art decoding algorithms.

Soft input-soft output forward error correction decoding for turbo codes


A semiautomatic drawing tool is configured to generate an image segmentation contour that corresponds to a visible edge within a digital image. Individual contour points define the shape and location of the image segmentation contour, and the semiautomatic drawing tool determines the locations of these contour points based on both user input and on the location of a steep luminance gradient that corresponds to the visible edge. The semiautomatic drawing tool determines the location of a particular point of the image segmentation contour based on the current location of an input device pointer, e.g., a cursor, the location of the steepest luminance gradient, and the location of previously selected points of the image segmentation contour.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Segmentation of digital images is a commonly performed operation, in which a targeted region of an image is defined and can be selected for manipulation, analysis, or other use separate from the original image. Various segmentation schemes are known in the art, and selection of the targeted region may be a largely automated process, a manual process, or a combination of both.
For example, while the process of segmenting organs or other visual structures in volumetric medical images is more and more automated, there are still applications in which the use of a manual input tool is preferred for segmenting an image. This is because a user can determine a particular biological or other structure in an image more reliably than an automated process can. However, completely manual definition of a segmented region demands careful attention by a user to prevent the introduction of segmentation artifacts and inaccuracies. For example, when a user manually traces the edge of a visual structure, such as an organ border, precisely following the edge can be problematic, particularly when a computer mouse is used as an input device; the large-scale hand and arm motions associated with using a mouse can produce traced edges that are jerky and imprecise.
In light of the above, there is a need in the art for a method of image segmentation that includes the convenience and repeatability of an automated process and the superior reliability of manual tracing techniques.

Semiautomatic drawing tool for image segmentation


A two-part field emission structure, and a method for making such a structure, is described. A substrate is provided having a first conductive layer thereon, a first insulating layer over the first conductive layer, a second conductive layer over the first insulating layer, and an opening formed in the first insulating and second conductive layers. A sacrificial layer is formed over the second conductive layer. A bottom portion of the field emitter structure is formed in the opening, by vertical deposition of a conductive material, whereby a third conductive layer, having a collimated channel over the bottom portion, is formed over the sacrificial layer. The formation of the field emitter structure is completed by vertical deposition of a tip material on to the top of the bottom portion of the field emitter structure, whereby a top conductive layer is formed over the third conductive layer. Lastly, the sacrificial layer, the third conductive layer, and the top conductive layer are removed. An optional interface adhesion layer is formed between the bottom portion of the field emitter structure and the tip.

(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to field emission stuctures, and more particularly to structures and methods of manufacturing field emission devices having two-part emitters.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Emission of electrons from conductive material is known to occur in the vicinity of an electric field, through such processes as Fowler-Nordheim tunneling. It is desirable to reduce the field strength required to induce electron emission. This is accomplished primarily by (1) the use of pointed structures at the location of emission, and (2) by using emitting materials with a low work-function. FIG. 1 shows a typical field emitting tip structure, which is utilized in such applications as electron microscopes and field emission displays (FEDs). A conical emitter 16 having a sharp tip 18 is formed on a conductive layer 10. This layer can be used as a conductive path formed on a glass or silicon substrate (not shown). For FEDs, the emitter is metal deposited by evaporation process, or alternately may be formed of silicon using well-known processes from the semiconductor industry including photolithography, deposition and etching. A conductive film 14 is separated from the substrate by a dielectric layer 12. The application of a voltage differential between conductive layers 14 and 10 induces electron emission from tip 18.
A reduction of the field strength necessary to create emission from the field emitter is desirable for several reasons. In an FED, for example, power consumption, driver circuit complexity and cost are lowered by reducing the driving voltage. The voltage must also be low enough so that dielectric breakdown does not occur in dielectric layer 12, which has a typical thickness of about 1 micrometer.
The use of one low work-function material for a field emitter is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,258,685 (Jaskie et al.), and is shown in FIG. 2. A field emitter 16 is provided, on which a diamond coating 22 is formed, where the diamond coating is fabricated by implanting carbon ions which act as nucleation sites for the diamond film. Diamond deposited in an amorphic form has an extremely low work-function of -0.2 eV. Using the method disclosed by Jaskie et al. has several drawbacks, however. For instance, whereas the field emitter 16 may have had a sharp tip as formed, the formation of the diamond film 22 will reduce this sharpness and require a higher driving voltage. In addition, the use of this diamond process is likely to form a carbon film over the un-implanted area. The undesirable carbon growth along the top 26 and sidewall 28 of gate layer 14, and along the sidewall of dielectric 12, could lead to an undesired short-circuit condition between the conductive layers 14 and 10.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A low-profile locking clip is installable on a surface-mount header of a printed circuit board to secure one or more inserted plug connectors in mating engagement with the surface-mount header to prevent unintended loosening and disconnection. The locking clip comprises a plurality of catch members that engage with respective lead pins of the surface-mount header and a top wall that includes one or more recesses for receiving a detent tab on a corresponding plug connector to prevent withdrawal of the plug connector.

Many electronic power or communication devices need to transmit power or communication signals between a printed circuit board (PCB) to a separate electronic device. In many cases, this electrical connection needs to be removed and re-applied at a later date. For example, in a hospital pillow speaker, a PCB mounted inside the device housing may have a cable connected to it. This cable may carry power and/or communication signals necessary for the pillow speaker to operate properly. As the pillow speaker nears end of life, or if it needs repair or service, the pillow speaker may need to be opened and the cable disconnected from the PCB. A plug connector is commonly used so that the cable can be easily removed from the PCB and easily reconnected to the PCB. Furthermore, the use of a plug connector allows an electrical connection to be made without having to attach the cable to the PCB in a way that may potentially damage the PCB. One drawback to this method is that the plug connector at the end of the cable can sometimes loosen from mated engagement and become disconnected from the PCB connection header, resulting in device failure or improper operation. To help prevent this from occurring, many PCB connection headers use a "shrouded" connector having a notch that allows the plug connector at the end of the cable to snap into place. This creates a mechanical lock for the mating header and plug connector as well as an electrical connection.
Prior art locking connector designs typically require the locking device to be part of the PCB connection header. These devices typically do not allow for a low profile locking connection, as the shrouded header is typically high and consumes a lot of space. These devices are generally incompatible with surface-mount technology (SMT) PCB connectors.

Locking device for an electrical connector


Structures including an edge coupler and a crackstop, as well as methods of forming a structure including an edge coupler and a crackstop. A waveguide core and a crackstop are located over a top surface of a dielectric layer. A communication passageway is either optically coupled or electrically coupled to the waveguide core. The communication passageway, which may include an electric conductor or a buried waveguide core, extends laterally beneath the crackstop.

The present invention relates to photonics chips and, more specifically, to structures including an edge coupler and a crackstop, as well as methods of forming a structure including an edge coupler and a crackstop.
Photonics chips are used in many applications and systems such as data communication systems and data computation systems. A photonics chip, also known as a photonics integrated circuit, integrates optical components, such as waveguide cores, polarizers, and optical couplers, and electronic components, such as field-effect transistors, into a unified platform. Among other factors, layout area, cost, and operational overhead may be reduced by the integration of both types of components into the unified platform.
An edge coupler, also known as a spot-size coupler, is commonly used for coupling light of a given mode from an optical fiber to optical components on the photonics chip. The edge coupler may include a waveguide core having an inverse taper adjacent to the optical fiber at the edge of the photonics chip. Corresponding to a direction of mode propagation, an inverse taper refers to a tapered section of a waveguide core characterized by a gradual increase in width along the mode propagation direction. In the edge coupler construction, the narrow end of the inverse taper is arranged proximate to the optical fiber, and the wide end of the inverse taper is connected with another section of the waveguide core that routes the light away from the edge coupler and to optical components in an active region of the photonics chip.
A photonics chip may include a crackstop that is intended to block crack propagation from the corners and edges of the die into the active region. To accommodate the edge coupler, the crackstop must include a discontinuity or break to allow for the passage of the waveguide core and to avoid light attenuation due to the back-end-of-line metallization from which the crackstop is constructed. The break in the crackstop increases the vulnerability of a photonics chip to crack propagation and moisture ingress into the active region, which could lead to catastrophic failure of the chip and its electrical and optical components.
Improved structures including an edge coupler and a crackstop, as well as methods of forming a structure including an edge coupler and a crackstop, are needed.

Photonics chips with an edge coupler and a continuous crackstop


A dispensing closure system is provided for a container that has an opening wherein a membrane is interposed between the container opening and the dispensing closure system. The system includes a base for extending from the container at the opening. The base has a receiving passage and an annular sealing flange extending radially inwardly around the passage. A movable spout is mounted in the base receiving passage and has a grippable discharge end that projects axially outwardly from the base receiving passage. The spout has a dispensing passage extending through the spout and has a peripheral sealing surface that is sealingly engaged with the base annular sealing flange. The spout also has a piercing element at an axially inward end of the spout. A cam track is located in either the base or the spout. A cam follower is located on the other one of the base and spout, and the cam follower is engaged in the cam track. The grippable discharge end of the spout can be grasped to rotate the spout for moving the spout axially to pierce the membrane.

Fluent materials, including liquids, creams, powders, etc., may be conventionally packaged in a container having a dispensing closure which includes a body portion which is located on the top of the container and which defines one or more dispensing apertures or openings. A cap or lid may be provided for being releasably secured to the body portion for occluding the dispensing opening when the container is not in use. This prevents spillage if the container is dropped or tipped over. The lid may also help keep the contents fresh and may reduce the ingress of contaminants.
A variety of dispensing closure designs have been developed for various products which are in liquid or powder form (e.g., shampoo, lotion, cosmetic powder, etc.). One type of closure includes a flexible, self-closing, slit-type dispensing valve mounted over the container opening. The valve has a slit or slits which define a normally closed orifice that opens to permit flow therethrough in response to increased pressure within the container when the container is squeezed. One widely used form of the valve automatically closes to shut off flow therethrough upon removal of the increased pressure. Designs of closures using such valves are illustrated in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,531, U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,566, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,512. Typically, the closure includes a base mounted on the container neck to define a seat for receiving the valve and includes a retaining ring or housing structure for holding the valve on the seat in the base. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,269,986 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,616,016. U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,626 discloses a closure having a valve from which a powder is discharged through a perforated dispensing baffle to produce a desirable dispersed distribution pattern of fine powder (e.g., cosmetic powder). A closure can also be provided with a lid for covering a valve during shipping or when the container is packed for travel (or when the container is otherwise not in use). See, for example, FIGS. 31-34 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,531. The lid can keep the valve clean and/or protect the valve from damage.
In some packages, it is also desirable to interpose a membrane (e.g., a seal or liner) across the container opening and to provide a closure that (1) is installed on the container over the membrane, and (2) has an element that can be rotated to open the membrane by piercing or cutting the membrane. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,853,665, 4,884,705, and 5,482,176.
The inventor of the present invention has discovered that it would be advantageous to provide an improved closure for dispensing a fluent product, including liquid. In particular, the inventor has discovered that his innovative design provides advantages not heretofore contemplated in the packaging industry or suggested by the prior art.


A safe method of stopping a stolen car without chasing at high speeds, utilizing a bar code implanted between the inner layer and outer layer of a rear safety glass is comprised of steps: 1) scan the barcode, 2) compare the read in barcode with those of the stolen cars stored in the police computer net, 3) trigger one of the three stopping means of this invention. Those three stopping means are: 1) turn off the engine, 2) puncture the rear tires with bullets, and 3) puncture the rear tires by mechanical means.

Stopping a stolen car running on a highway or even on local streets is extremely dangerous, especially when the stolen car attempts to escape at high-speeds. Currently, the procedure to catch a stolen car is to compare the license plate number of a suspicious car with the stolen car list on the police computer, and then to ask the car to stop using the speakers of the police car. There are two extremely different possible reactions of the driver of the stolen car: First is to follow the request of the police, and second is to run away at high speeds. In the second case, the driver of the stolen car attempts to escape. However, as seen many times on TV news, the police never give up chasing them. This creates a very dangerous situation, and many innocent people may get hurt. It is the purpose of this invention to avoid this dangerous situation and stop the stolen car safely. The method and the means introduced by this invention will stop the stolen car immediately at the location where the police can then find the stolen car. The method and the means introduced by this invention will locate a stolen car even though the thief changes the number plate or the painting of the car.

Method of stopping a stolen car without a high-speed chase, utilizing a bar code


Briefly, embodiments of methods or systems for testing software modules are disclosed.

1. Field
This disclosure relates to testing computer-implementable instructions, such as software, using test stubs generated responsive to a parsing operation capable of being performed, for example, by a computing device.
2. Information
In a development environment, such as an environment in which units of computer implementable instructions are being generated, a developer may not only be responsible for preparing functional code, but may additionally be asked to generate at least a portion of a testing environment. In some instances, for example, a testing paradigm may result in a developer to preparing appropriately constrained variables and/or other parameters for testing, such as at least a majority of instructions that may comprise, for example, a module of a computer program. In a C++ development environment, for example, a code developer, or a developer of other types of computer-implementable instructions, may generate a segment of test code for a variety of methods that may comprise portions of class definitions that perform one or more functions to be executed by a computer. In some environments, generating appropriate code segments can consume an inordinate amount of time and may therefore significantly impact productivity of an entire development organization. This may result, at least in part, in increasing cost and/or time-to-market of computer implemented code modules for use in e-commerce, business computing systems, information retrieval engines, and so forth.
Reference is made in the following detailed description to accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, wherein like numerals may designate like parts throughout to indicate corresponding and/or analogous components. It will be appreciated that components illustrated in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale, such as for simplicity and/or clarity of illustration. For example, dimensions of some components may be exaggerated relative to other components. Further, it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized. Furthermore, structural and/or other changes may be made without departing from claimed subject matter. It should also be noted that directions and/or references, for example, up, down, top, bottom, and so on, may be used to facilitate discussion of drawings and/or are not intended to restrict application of claimed subject matter. Therefore, the following detailed description is not to be taken to limit claimed subject matter and/or equivalents.


Over the past several decades, rapid advances in semiconductors, automation, and control systems have resulted in the adoption of programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in an immense variety of environments. Machine learning techniques help train replacement PLCs when a legacy PLC must be replaced, e.g., due to aging or failure. The techniques facilitate the efficient adoption and correct operation of replacement PLCs in the industrial environment.

Over the past several decades, rapid advances in semiconductors, automation, and control systems have resulted in the adoption of programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in an immense variety of process automation environments. Individual and interconnected PLCs are deployed in a very wide range of industrial control systems and carry out an immense variety tasks, but they also need to be replaced as they age. Improvements in replacing legacy PLCs will enhance the ability of automation environments to continue running correctly and with reduced downtime.

Method for replacing legacy programmable logic controllers


A fluid-filled cylindrical elastic mount including an inner sleeve, an outer sleeve disposed radially outwardly of the inner sleeve, and a generally annular elastic body disposed between the inner and outer sleeves for flexible connection therebetween. The elastic body partially defines two fluid chambers filled with a non-compressible fluid. The fluid chambers are formed in diametrically opposite circumferential portions of the elastic body between the inner and outer sleeves. The elastic body has at least one orifice passage formed therethrough for fluid communication between the two fluid chambers, and extending through the elastic body, adjacent one of the inner and outer sleeves. The elastic body further has at least one void each formed between the corresponding orifice passage and the other of the inner and outer sleeves.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a fluid-filled cylindrical elastic mount which is suitably used for example as a suspension bushing or an engine mount for a motor vehicle, and which exhibits a desired vibration damping characteristic based on flow of a fluid contained therein.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
A so-called cylindrical elastic mount is known as one type of a mounting device which is interposed between two members of a vibration system for flexibly connecting the two members in a vibration-damping fashion. This cylindrical elastic mount is constructed with an elastic or rubber body being formed between an inner metal sleeve, and an outer metal sleeve disposed radially outwardly of the inner sleeve with a suitable radial spacing therebetween. The elastic body elastically connects the inner and outer sleeves. The thus constructed cylindrical elastic mount exhibits an intended vibration damping effect, with respect to a vibrational load applied between the inner and outer sleeves in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the mount. The elastic mount of this type is widely used as a suspension bushing or an engine mount for a motor vehicle.
To meet increasing requirements for enhanced vibration damping/isolating characteristics on recent high-grade cars, there has been proposed a so-called fluid-filled cylindrical elastic mount having a plurality of fluid chambers formed between the inner and outer sleeves, and at least one orifice passage connecting these fluid chambers. Upon application of a vibrational load, relative pressure changes occur between the fluid chambers, whereby a fluid is forced to flow between the chambers through the orifice passage[s). This fluid-filled elastic mount exhibits a significantly improved vibration damping effect based on resonance of the fluid mass in the orifice passage (s), as compared with the above elastic mount which relies only on elasticity of the elastic body for damping vibrations.
In the fluid-filled cylindrical elastic mount as described just above, the orifice passages may be formed between the inner sleeve, and a metallic orifice member fitted on the outer circumferential surface of the inner sleeve, as disclosed in JP-A-62-274128. Alternatively, the orifice passages may be formed between the outer sleeve, and a metallic orifice member fitted in the inner circumferential surface of the outer sleeve, as disclosed in JP-A-56-164242 and JP-A-61-270533.
However, these known elastic mounts require an exclusive orifice-defining member or members intended for forming an orifice passage or passages, resulting in an increased number of components of the elastic mount, and rather complicated construction of the mount. Further, there is limitation in space for forming the orifice passages by the orifice-defining member or members.
To solve the above problem, it is proposed to form a through-hole which extends through the elastic body to communicate with the fluid chambers, so as to provide an orifice passage. However, such an orifice passage tends to suffer from variation in its cross sectional area, due to deformation of the elastic body when the mount receives a dynamic vibrational load or a static load. Due to the phenomenon, the elastic mount exhibits an unstable or unreliable vibration damping characteristic, and is therefore unsuitable for practical use.

Fluid-filled cylindrical elastic mount having orifice passages and voids formed in elastic body


Compact printer with quick-loading cassette and method therefor. The invention includes a printer enclosure and a cassette insertable into the enclosure. The cassette includes a dye ribbon supply reel having a dye donor ribbon wound thereabout and a rotatable dye ribbon take-up reel engaging an end portion of the donor ribbon for taking-up the donor ribbon. A curved receiver supply tray is disposed in the cassette for supplying receiver sheets to the printhead which is disposed in the enclosure. The curved receiver supply tray occupies less space, depending on the radius of curvature, than the elongate rectangularly-shaped receiver supply trays of the prior art. Over time, a stack of the receiver sheets residing in the supply tray obtains a curved contour because the stack of receiver sheets conforms to the curved shape of the receiver supply tray. To avoid curling in the finished prints, a platen roller generates radiative heat which is applied to the receiver sheets in order to uncurl the receiver sheets during the printing process.

This invention generally relates to printer apparatus and methods and more particularly relates to a compact printer with quick-loading cassette and method therefor, wherein the printer forms an image on a receiver sheet fed from the cassette and thereafter removes any curl present in the receiver sheet.
It is known that a typical thermal resistive printer includes a thermal resistive printhead capable of printing an image on a receiver medium, which may be cut sheets of paper or transparency. The receiver sheets are fed to the printhead by appropriate means and brought into contact with a dye donor ribbon. The printhead heat activates the dye donor ribbon to transfer dye to the receiver sheets in order to print an output image on the receiver sheets.
The possibility exists, however, that a user of the printer will inadvertently touch the dye donor ribbon when loading the dye donor ribbon into the printer. Touching the dye donor ribbon may damage the donor ribbon, such as by particulate matter and finger prints being deposited onto the donor ribbon. Of course, damage to the donor ribbon results in unacceptable artifacts appearing on the finished prints. In addition, the damaged donor ribbon may in turn damage the printhead. It is therefore desirable to avoid damaging the dye donor ribbon.
In addition, prior art printers necessarily require the donor ribbon and receiver medium be separately loaded into the printer. Separately loading the donor ribbon and receiver medium increases the time required to prepare the printer for producing prints. Therefore, it would be desirable to avoid separate loading of the donor ribbon and receiver medium.
Moreover, some printers require sheets of receiver medium to be individually hand-fed into the printer. However, hand-feeding receiver sheets into the printer may cause fouling of the receiver sheets (i.e., particulate matter and finger prints being deposited on the receiver sheets). It is therefore desirable to avoid hand-feeding individual receiver sheets into the printer.
A known technique to avoid hand-feeding individual receiver sheets is to provide a receiver sheet supply tray which holds a stacked-supply of the receiver sheets and which allows each receiver sheet to be mechanically fed into the printer. In this regard, receiver sheets are held in the receiver sheet supply tray, which is at least partially insertable into the printer, and mechanically supplied to the printhead housed in the printer. That is, a "picker" mechanism disposed in the printer engages the receiver sheets held in the supply tray and feeds individual receiver sheets to the printhead. Such a receiver sheet supply tray is of elongate rectangular shape to hold paper or transparency typically having dimensions of 8 inches wide by 11 inches long (i.e., "letter-size" sheets) or dimensions of 8.27 inches wide by 11.69 inches long (i.e., "A-4 size" sheets).
However, although use of the receiver sheet supply tray avoids hand-feeding individual receiver sheets, use of the supply tray is not entirely satisfactory where space conservation is a concern. That is, the elongate rectangular shape of the receiver supply tray results in a longer printer foot-print than would otherwise be the case because the length of the printer foot-print must accommodate the elongate shape of the receiver supply tray. It would therefore be desirable to reduce the size of the receiver supply tray in order to provide a compact printer while simultaneously accommodating "letter-size" or "A-4 size" receiver sheets.
One technique to reduce the size of the printer is to avoid use of an elongate receiver supply tray by providing a continuous roll of receiver tightly wound on a supply spindle mounted in a cassette, which is inserted into the printer. Use of the roll of receiver mounted in the cassette eliminates the need to use an elongate receiver supply tray and also may avoid fouling of the receiver. During the printing process, receiver continuously unwraps from about the receiver supply spindle to receive the image provided by the printhead. Sheets of the receiver are subsequently cut to size during the printing process to provide the desired print size, such as "letter-size" or "A-4 size" output.
Although use of a receiver roll reduces the printer exterior envelope by reducing its length, use the receiver roll can give rise to yet another problem. That is, use of the receiver roll can cause residual curl in the finished print, which is a highly undesirable result. Such residual curl is due to the receiver having been wound in a roll around the receiver supply spindle. Indeed, prints made from the receiver closest to the inner diameter of the receiver supply spindle exhibit the most curl in the finished print because the receiver is more tightly wound closest to the inner diameter of the receiver supply spindle.
Hence, prior art attempts to provide a compact printer and artifactfree prints by using a cassette-mounted roll of receiver rather than a receiver supply tray have resulted in finished prints with residual curl therein. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a compact printer which does not produce curl in the finished print. It would also be desirable to avoid separate loading of the donor ribbon and receiver medium in order to save loading time.
Therefore, there has been a long-felt need to provide a compact printer with quick-loading cassette and method therefor, wherein the printer forms an image on a receiver sheet fed from the cassette and thereafter removes any curl present in the receiver sheet.


A suture passer and a method with the suture passer can include a first needle extending along a first longitudinal axis. The first needle can have a sharp tip and a first hook member configured to grasp a portion of a suture. The suture passer can include a shaft extending along a second longitudinal axis. The shaft can have an eyelet that intersects with the first longitudinal axis of the first needle. The suture passer can also have an actuation mechanism coupled to the first needle, and the method can include actuating the actuation mechanism to move the first needle to a position in which the first needle's sharp tip extends through the eyelet, and releasing the actuation mechanism to move the first needle to a position in which the first needle's sharp tip is a spaced apart a distance proximal of the eyelet.

Soft tissue repair can be affected using different suture constructs, in addition to other mechanisms. As an example, a tear of a patient's soft tissue can be reduced and repaired using a stitch or multiple stitches. Yet, appropriately forming a stitch across a tear in soft tissue might require, amongst other things, multiple transcutaneous portals through the patient's skin and tissue and/or the use of multiple tools and sutures to form the stitch. Current methods and tools for reducing a soft-tissue tear in this manner can be cumbersome.
The present disclosure therefore provides unique suture passing devices and methods that improve upon existing technology.


A projector that projects video light corresponding to an image signal onto a display surface includes: a light source device that emits light; a housing that houses at least the light source device; a projection lens, that is, an optical element that transmits the video light projected onto the display surface and emits the video light toward the outside of the housing; a detecting unit that detects detection light supplied to the optical element; and a control unit that adjusts a light amount of the video light on the basis of a result of the detection by the detecting unit. The projector is set such that, when the optical element is in a normal setting state, the light amount density of the video light is equal to or lower than a predetermined value on an emission surface for emitting the video light of the optical element.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a projector, and, more particularly to a technique for a projector that displays an image using a laser beam.
2. Related Art
In recent years, there is proposed a technique for using a laser beam source as a light source device for a projector. The laser beam source is developed as a light source for a projector according to an increase in power and an increase in colors. Compared with a UHP lamp used in the past as a light source for a projector, the laser beam source has advantages that, besides being small in size, for example, color reproducibility is high, instantaneous lighting is made possible, the durable life is long. It is possible to display a bright image by using the laser beam source with high power. On the other hand, it is necessary to take measures for preventing deficiencies that are likely to be caused by laser beams such as the influence of a laser beam affecting the eyes when the laser beam directly enters the eyes. For example, JP-A-2003-269915 proposes a technique for a three-dimensional monitoring device that makes it possible to highly accurately detect an object that enters a three-dimensional space. By applying such a technique to a projector and taking measures for, for example, detecting an object that enters a monitoring region to which a laser beam travels and stopping the output of the laser beam, it is possible to prevent the deficiencies that are likely to be caused by laser beams.
The projector is assumed to be used in all kinds of situations. Not only a person but also, for example, an object other than a person may enter the monitoring region. A monitoring image may change from an initial state for some cause, for example, a change in brightness in the monitoring region. Therefore, it is possible that the output of video light is frequently stopped even when it is unnecessary to stop the output. When the unnecessary stop of the output is frequency performed, comfortable video entertainment is hindered. If it is necessary to perform an arithmetic operation using an extremely large number of parameters in order to highly accurately detect that a person enters the monitoring region, the structure for monitoring is complicated. In this way, the technique in the past causes a problem that it is difficult to realize, with a simple configuration, both reduction in deficiencies that are likely to be caused by light and comfortable video entertainment.

Projector that projects an image signal on a display surface