When there are two kinds of caps that protect nozzle faces of print heads—a protective cap with no suction mechanism and a suction cap with a suction mechanism—and if a time during which the print heads are left idle is within a predetermined time, each print head protected by the protective cap performs 5,000 idle ejections during the idle ejection operation executed prior to initiating a printing operation. Each print head protected by the suction cap performs 100 idle ejections during the idle ejection operation. By setting the number of idle ejections for print heads protected by the protective caps to be greater, it is possible to keep all the print heads in good condition at all times whether they are protected by the suction caps or protective caps.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet printing apparatus with a protective mechanism for preventing a clogging of nozzles and ink ejection anomalies in a print head.
2. Description of the Related Art
As recording apparatus (or printing apparatus) with a function of printer, copying machine or facsimile, or as printing apparatus used as output devices for composite electronic devices including computers and word processors as well as for workstations, ink jet printing apparatus, which execute printing by ejecting ink onto a print medium (print material), such as paper, cloth, plastic sheet and OHP sheet, according to image information (print information), have become more widespread.
There are growing demands that printing apparatus print on a variety of print materials. To meet these demands, development efforts have been made in recent years and printing apparatus are now available which use as print media cloth, leather, nonwoven cloth and metals in addition to ordinary print media such as paper (including thin paper and processed sheet) and thin resin sheet (OHP sheet).
The ink jet printing apparatus, which ejects liquid ink from a print head as a printing means onto a print medium to form an image thereon (i.e., performs printing), has many features, such as an ease with which the apparatus size can be reduced and an ability to print a full color image. There is a trend in recent years for an increased number of ink colors (ink kinds) used, as a result of adding light-colored inks for reducing a graininess and special color inks for widening a color reproduction range in addition to four colors, cyan, magenta, yellow and black, the minimum required for full color printing. It has also been proposed to use a plurality of print heads for each color to increase the printing speed. Against this technical background in recent years, the number of print heads mounted on the ink jet printing apparatus has tended to increase.
A nozzle face of the print head is normally covered with a cap when a printing operation is not performed because directions and volumes of ink ejections are affected by dirt adhering to ink ejection openings or by ink near the nozzle openings being evaporated. Further, various recovery mechanisms for recovering a normal state of the print head are provided, which include a suction mechanism that sucks out viscous ink from the nozzle openings in a capped state and a preliminary ejection mechanism that performs preliminary ejections (also referred to as "idle ejections") in the capped state. The number of capping means including the cap and the recovery mechanisms tend to increase with the increasing number of the print heads used.
As the number of capping means increases, another construction is proposed in which, rather than providing all the caps with the suction mechanism, the suction mechanism is used on only a part of the caps, with the remaining caps serving as protective caps that cover the nozzle faces of the print heads (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 7-032599 (1995)). For suction operation, each of the print heads is moved to the suction cap that has the suction mechanism. By setting the number of suction caps less than the number of the print heads, the cost and size of the printing apparatus can be reduced.
With this construction, however, while the suction cap maintains a proper level of moisture in it at all times by the suction of ink, the interior of the protective cap with no suction mechanism is not moist enough to prevent the nozzle face from becoming dry It is therefore difficult to maintain a highly reliable ejection performance for the nozzles capped with the protective cap.
Since the ink jet printing apparatus perform printing by ejecting ink from minute nozzles, the nozzles may get clogged with ink, resulting in ink ejection anomalies (including ejection failures) and therefore a degraded quality of printed image. To prevent this some ink jet printing apparatus perform an ejection recovery operation to maintain or reinstate a normal ink ejection performance of the printing means. Two examples of such ejection recovery operations are described below.
A first example involves ejecting ink from all nozzles of the print head onto an area outside an image forming area (referred to as an "idle ejection operation") to prevent possible ejection failures caused by an increased ink viscosity due to characteristic changes with the passage of time.
A second example involves providing the print head protective capping means with a forced flow producing means, such as a pump, to cause ink present near the nozzle openings in all print heads to flow in order to remove viscous ink, which is formed after the apparatus has been left idle for a long period of time, from near the nozzle openings and to remove dirt or foreign substances that adhere to the nozzle openings and may cause ink ejection failures.
In conventional practice, these recovery operations have been executed periodically to keep the nozzle face clean.
Adopting the above-described first and second method in the ink jet printing apparatus, which has only a part of the caps function as a suction cap, to perform the similar ejection recovery operation on all print heads, however, has the following problems.
With the first method, because a protective cap with no suction mechanism is not moist inside, a print head protected by the protective cap when not used has an ink viscosity change faster than does the print head protected by a suction cap with the suction mechanism, and therefore requires idle ejections prior to printing even after a short period of rest. If all the print heads protected by the protective caps are to perform idle ejections required after a short period of rest, this results in the print head protected by the suction cap performing the idle ejections too often and therefore wasting ink through more than necessary idle ejections.
As to the second method, because the protective cap as described above is not moist inside, a print head protected by the protective cap when not used has an ink viscosity change faster than does the print head protected by a suction cap with the suction mechanism. If printing is to be performed after the print head has been left idle for a longer period of time than in the first method, a print head protected by a protective cap may not be able to eject ink normally unless a forced ink flow is produced in the print head prior to the start of printing operation. On the other hand, a print head protected by a suction cap may be able to eject ink normally without having to cause a forced ink flow in the print head. Therefore, if the similar forced ink flow is produced in all the print heads, the print head protected by the suction cap will have a time loss due to the unnecessary, forced ink flow and an increased volume of waste ink.


A keypad assembly for a mobile station comprises a base pad adapted to support a plurality of keys, the plurality of keys comprising a plurality of first keys and a plurality of second keys. The keypad assembly also comprises the plurality of first keys and the plurality of second keys arranged on the base pad, the plurality of second keys defined by horizontal center lines and vertical center lines of the plurality of first keys. The plurality of second keys may be further defined by outer perimeters of the plurality of first keys. The keypad assembly may further comprise a strength reinforcing plate coupled to the base pad, adapted to mechanically strengthen the keypad assembly. An alphabetic character may be assigned to each of the plurality of first keys. A numeral may be assigned to at least one of the plurality of second keys.

Mobile stations enable wireless communications between parties. Mobile stations may perform various functions such as transmitting/receiving a text message, accessing the Internet, enabling television viewing, photographing still or moving images and transmitting the images to another party, as well as conventional voice calling. Several types of mobile stations exist, such as bar type, flip type, folding type, and slide type.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a perspective view of a folding type mobile station 250. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a lateral section view of the folding type mobile station 250.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the folding type mobile station 250 includes a mobile station body 100, a folder 200 that is hinge-coupled to one side of the mobile station body 100, and a battery 300 mounted to the mobile station body 100.
The mobile station body 100 includes a body casing 110, a main board 120, mounted in the body casing 110 having a plurality of dome switches 121 at one side thereof and a plurality of components 122 at another side thereof. The mobile station body 100 also includes a keypad 130 having a plurality of keys K. The keypad 130 is mounted in the body casing 110 such that the keys K protrude to an upper surface of the body casing 110.
The keypad 130 includes a pad 132 with a plurality of protrusions 131 at one surface thereof and a plurality of keys K attached to another surface of thereof. The keys K include general keys K1 displaying numbers and/or characters, adjustment keys K2 displaying functions, and a multi-key K3. The general keys K1 are arranged at a lower region of the pad 132 to have rows and columns in horizontal and vertical directions, respectively, and the adjustment keys K2 and the multi-key K3 are arranged at an upper region of the pad 132. The keys K are positioned to correspond to the protrusions 131 provided at the other surface of the pad 132. Furthermore, the dome switches 121 of the main board 120 are arranged to correspond to the protrusions 131 of the keypad 130.
Key holes 111 that have shapes corresponding to shapes of the keys K are formed at an upper surface of the body casing 110. The keypad 130 protrudes from the upper surface of the body casing 110 such that the keys K are inserted into the key holes 111. The protrusions 131 of the keypad 130 respectively contact the dome switches 121 of the main board 120. The folder 200 also includes a display 210. Furthermore, reference numerals 140 and 220 denote a microphone and a speaker, respectively.
In the folding type mobile station 250, when a call is received from another party, the adjustment key K2 is pressed to execute the call. Furthermore, to initiate a call to another party, the general keys K1 are pressed to input a phone number and the adjustment key K2 is pressed to execute the call. To access the Internet or send a text message using the folding type mobile station 250, the keys K are also used.
As the size of folding type mobile station decreases, useable area where the keys K may be arranged is also decreasing. To compound the problem, more functions requiring use of the keypad are being added. As a result, multiple characters and/or functions are assigned to a single key, making for more complicated operation by the user.
In the conventional folding type mobile station 250, the plural key holes 111 are formed in the body casing 110 and the keys K are inserted through the key holes 111 of the body casing 110 to protrude to the outside of the body casing 110. Accordingly, a space exists between the key holes 111. Therefore, the number of the keys K that may be arranged on the body casing 110 is reduced. However, if the space between the key holes 111 is reduced to increase the number of the keys K, the structural integrity of the frame 112 of the body casing 110 may be weakened.


A method for manufacturing a dielectric isolation type semiconductor device comprises: forming a plurality of trenches in a first region on a major surface of a semiconductor substrate; forming a first dielectric layer on the major surface of the semiconductor substrate and a first thick dielectric layer in the first region by oxidizing a surface of the semiconductor substrate; bonding a semiconductor layer of a first conductive type to the semiconductor substrate via the first dielectric layer; forming a first semiconductor region by implanting an impurity into a part of the semiconductor layer above the first thick dielectric layer; forming a second semiconductor region by implanting an impurity of a second conductive type into a part of the semiconductor layer so as to surround the first semiconductor region separating from the first semiconductor region.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a dielectric isolation type semiconductor device that can improve withstand voltage, and can prevent a semiconductor substrate from warping.
2. Background Art
In recent years, a dielectric isolation type semiconductor device wherein a semiconductor layer is bonded on a semiconductor substrate via a dielectric layer, and a power device is formed on the semiconductor layer has been proposed. However, in a conventional dielectric isolation type semiconductor device, the withstand voltage of the semiconductor device was limited depending on the thickness of the dielectric layer and the thickness of the semiconductor layer. In order to solve this problem, the formation of a thick dielectric layer locally on the major surface of a semiconductor substrate so as to contact the dielectric layer has been proposed (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-175296).

Method for manufacturing dielectric isolation type semiconductor device


The semiconductor device has a low-resistance layer provided under the interconnection extending from the signal input to a gate of MOSFET. The low-resistance layer decreases the substrate resistance and the noise characteristic of the semiconductor device can also be improved. The low-resistance layer can be provided on a surface of the substrate or a polysilicon interconnection.

The present invention relates generally to a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a semiconductor device suited to a low-noise type transistor, for example, a MOSFET and an integrated circuit using the same.
A low-noise characteristic is especially required of, e.g., an amplifier circuit among a variety of circuits included in a semiconductor device.
A comb-shape structured transistor has hitherto been used as a transistor in which the above low-noise characteristic is actualized.
This comb-shape structured transistor having, as illustrated in a plan view of FIG. 9, source regions 3 and drain regions 4 which have alternately been formed with strips of gate electrodes 7 extending therebetween, is configured as a whole in a laterally elongate rectangular shape. That is, the plurality of gate electrodes 7 alternately extend across long sides of this rectangle, and contact holes 9 and electrodes 10 are so provided as to connect the adjacent gate electrodes to each other on both sides of the long sides of the source-drain regions.
In the case of the comb-shape structured transistor, for reducing a resistance of the gate electrode 7, a silicide layer is stacked on a polysilicon layer to decrease the resistance, thereby reducing noises.
Incidentally, in the amplifier circuit including the comb-shape structured transistor of which the low-noise characteristic described above is required, there exists an equivalent circuit in which a series circuit constructed of a substrate resistance from an interconnection connected to an input stage thereof to a substrate contact via an inter-layer film capacitance existing under a pad, is connected to the input stage. A structure thereof will be explained with reference to FIG. 10.
Referring to FIG. 10, a field oxide layer 2 for device isolation on the surface of a semiconductor substrate 1 so as to surround device regions 3, 4. A part of the field oxide layer 2 is formed with an opening 5 for taking out potential of the substrate, and the substrate surface at this opening 5 is provided with a high -concentration layer 6, exhibiting the same conductivity type as that of a well, for determining potential of a substrate or well.
A gate polysilicon layer 7 is provided on the device regions 3, 4 so as to extend over some of the field oxide layer 2 surrounding the device regions 3, 4, and the whole is covered with an inter-layer insulating film 8.
A contact hole 9 is formed in the inter-layer insulating film 8 at the location corresponding to the gate polysilicon layer 7, and the contact hole 9 is connected to a metal interconnection 10. Furthermore, a contact hole 11 is provided corresponding to the high-concentration layer 6 for taking out the well potential, and the layer 6 is connected via this contact hole 11 to an interconnection 12 for taking out the well potential.
Furthermore, a second inter-layer insulating film 13 is provided on those elements, a contact hole 14 is formed corresponding to the gate interconnection 10, and an interconnection 15 for connecting the gate electrode is provided on the second inter-layer insulating film 13.
Based on this construction, however, as illustrated in FIG. 10, there is configured an equivalent circuit in which a substrate resistance R1 and an inter-layer film capacitance C1 are connected in series between the well potential taking-out interconnection 12 and the gate interconnection 15.
Then, heat noises caused by this substrate resistance R1 enter the input stage of the transistor via the inter-layer film capacitance C1, resulting in deterioration of the noise characteristic. In particular, the deterioration of the noise characteristic due to the substrate resistance becomes conspicuous in a MOSFET with a high gate input impedance.

Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same


A portion capsule for producing a beverage includes a base element having a cavity in which a beverage raw material is provided and which is closed by a membrane fastened to the base element.

The present invention relates to a portion capsule for producing a beverage, comprising a base element having a cavity in which a beverage raw material is provided and which is closed by a membrane fastened to the base element.
Such capsules are well known and are being launched onto the market in abundant variety. Since these capsules are often quite similar, it is possible that the manufacturer's capsules are used in a coffee machine designed by another manufacturer, although they are not suited for it. This may result in significant security issues and/or the coffee machine may be damaged.
The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a portion capsule which only is suitable for a specific coffee machine.


A wiring device and wiring method suitable for designing LSIs or printed boards or the like. The wiring device includes a wiring pattern editing unit for editing wiring patterns; a noise analyzing unit for analyzing a noise occurring when a circuit is operated according to the wiring patterns edited by the wiring editing unit; and a noise occurring spot specifying unit for specifying a spot when noise occurs in the wiring pattern, based on the solution analyzed by the noise analyzing unit and the wiring pattern edited in the wiring pattern editing unit The man-hours of an operator can be reduced by interlocking the crosstalk noise analysis with the wiring pattern editing function and then by reducing the number of man-hours needed to correct a wiring pattern by an operator.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wiring device and wiring method suitable for designing LSIs (Large Scale Integrated Circuits) or printed boards.
2) Description of the Related Art
Recently, it has been required to assemble and arrange densely components on semiconductor large scale integrated circuits (LSIs), multichip modules (MCMs), printed boards and the like and then to wire the components with a small number of signal layers in short time. Generally, various circuits above described are designed using CAD (Computer Aided Design).
For example, in order to deal with various wiring problems in printed wiring boards each with plural part pins, a CAD device edits wiring patterns and then decides a wiring rule on wiring boards.
Various circuits have been required to form in higher density and higher performance. The circuit characteristics are largely affected by crosstalk noise occurred due to plural lines forming wiring patterns which are closely arranged.
Hence in order to edit wiring patterns for semiconductor LSIs, multichip modules (MCM), printed wiring boards or the like using the CAD device, it is necessary to design circuits with circuit characteristics immune to noise components by taking account of the crosstalk noise.
In general CAD devices, a wiring pattern editing system that edits wiring patterns as well as a transmission path analytic simulator that analyzes a crosstalk noise occurring when a circuit including wiring patterns edited by the wiring pattern editing system is in an active state are arranged independently and cannot perform their jobs concurrently.
That is, when an operator edits a wiring pattern using the wiring pattern editing system, the wiring pattern editing system is closed once. Then crosstalk noise occurring when a circuit is operated by activating the transmission path analytic simulator are analyzed.
When it is found that the crosstalk noise affect significantly the circuit characteristics, the above-mentioned transmission path analytic simulator is closed. Then the wiring pattern editing system is reactivated to specify and correct a spot causing crosstalk noise on a wiring pattern.
In concrete, when an operator corrects an edited wiring pattern, by considering the crosstalk noise, the analytical solution of the transmission path analytic simulator, for example, is printed. The spot causing crosstalk noise on the wiring pattern is specified and corrected by contracting the wiring pattern displayed on the screen of the wiring pattern editing system reactivated with the analytical solution by the operator himself.
In the CAD system, since the wiring pattern editing system and the transmission path analytic simulator are independently arranged, they cannot be activated at the same time. Hence there is the problem of needing much effort to correct the wiring pattern while referring to the solution from the transmission path analytic simulator.
Particularly, when the analytical solution of the transmission path analytic simulator is displayed as a graph showing a crosstalk noise on an edited wiring pattern, it is impossible to specify the crosstalk noise causing spot on the wiring pattern by referring to only the graph. Hence, in some cases, the noise causing spot cannot be specified principally even when the graph is contrasted with the wiring pattern displayed on the screen of the wiring pattern editing system reactivated.
In that case, the noise causing spot must be specified and corrected by presuming a noise causing spot using the analytical solution of the transmission path analytic simulator and repeating the noise causing spot presumed on the wiring pattern in the wiring pattern editing system. This procedure forces the operator to do too much work.
On the other hand, the system that can deal with various wiring problems and can edit automatically wiring patterns is under development as a wiring pattern editing system.
However, even when such an automatic wiring pattern editing system is adopted to the above-mentioned CAD system, the wiring pattern must be manually corrected based on the analytical solution of the transmission path analytic simulator.
Hence, there is the problem of being hindered from improving the automatic wiring application rate.


An apparatus and method is provided for absorbing energy. The energy absorbing device includes an anvil movable relative to a spaced axis. The anvil defines a plurality of profiles corresponding to different rates of energy absorption. The plurality of profiles are radially adjacent to one another with respect to axis. The anvil can be moved by explosive charges. For example, the anvil can define a follower portion adjacent a first explosive charge and move in response to an explosion of the first explosive charge.

Steering column assemblies for vehicles can include kinetic energy absorption devices to reduce the likelihood of injury to the driver in the event of an accident. These energy absorbing devices can come in different forms. In one form, the energy absorbing device includes a metal strap that is bent and drawn over an anvil. Examples of this form of energy absorbing device include U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,170,874; 6,189,929; 6,322,103; and 6,652,002.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, an interlayer insulating film, a tungsten film, a first barrier metal film, a second barrier metal film and a metal wiring film. The interlayer insulating film is formed on the semiconductor substrate, and has an opening. The tungsten film is embedded in the opening. The first barrier metal film is formed on the tungsten film and excludes a Ti film. The second barrier metal film is formed on the first barrier metal film and is a Ti-containing film. The metal wiring film is formed on the second barrier metal film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device having a metal wiring.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a conventional method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, there is a method shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
In this manufacturing method, at first as shown in FIG. 1, an opening 202a is formed in an interlayer dielectric film (interlayer insulation film) 202 on a semiconductor substrate 201. A Ti (Titanium) film 204, a TiN (Titanium nitride) film 206 and a W (tungsten)-film are embedded in the opening 202a. Then, an etch-back process or a CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing) process is carried out, thereby holding those films in the opening 202a and forming a W (tungsten) plug 208.
Next, so as to cover the whole of the interlayer dielectric film 202, the Ti film 204, the TiN film 206 and the W-plug 208, a Ti film 210 and a TiN film 212 are formed as a barrier metal. Then, an Al (aluminum) wiring 214, a Ti film 216 and a TiN film 218 are formed in turn on the TiN film 212. Next, as shown in FIG. 2, a dry etching process is carried out, thereby partially removing those films and forming an Al wiring 214. In this way, since the barrier metal is designed so as to have a lamination structure of the Ti film 210 and the TiN film 212, it is possible to improve the migration resistance property of the wiring layer formed.on the surface of the TiN film 212 and further improve the adhesive property to the wiring layer.
However, in the foregoing process, when the Al wiring is formed, a damage portion 222 caused by side-etching may be induced in the Ti film 210 that contacted with the W-plug 208. This damage portion 222 results in the increase in a contact resistance between the W-plug 208 and the Ti film 210 so that the electrical connection between them is decreased.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application JP-P2004-39879A discloses a technique to solve this problem. In the technique, a W-plug is formed in an interlayer dielectric film so that an upper surface of the W-plug is higher than a surface of this interlayer dielectric film. Then, so as to cover the interlayer dielectric film and the W-plug, a Ti film and a TiN film are formed in turn as a barrier metal. Then, only the barrier metal (TiN film/Ti film) on the W-plug is removed by using a CMP process.
Also, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application JP-P2004-14763A discloses a semiconductor device where a TiN film of a single layer is formed on a surface of a W-plug and a surface of an interlayer dielectric film.
However, we have now discovered that the conventional techniques disclosed in the foregoing applications have room for improvement with regard to the following points.
Firstly, the method in JP-P2004-39879A is required to form the fine W-plug with excellent controllability and further required to remove only the barrier metal formed on the W-plug. For this reason, it is very difficult to obtain the high reproducibility and excellent controllability. Further, there is still a case that the side of the Ti film in contact with the W-plug is etched in an etching process when the Al wiring is formed. Thus, the contact resistance between the W-plug and the Ti film is increased, which decreases the electrical connection. Moreover, a process for removing the barrier metal formed on the W-plug and the like are required, which increases the number of manufacturing processes and the manufacturing costs.
Secondly, in the semiconductor device disclosed in JP-P2004-14763A, the film formation property of the wiring layer formed on the surface of the TiN film is reduced, which may decrease the yield. In particular, in the case that the wiring layer is the Al wiring layer, the reduction in the film formation property is severe.
In this way, in the semiconductor device having the W-film, the semiconductor device is desired of which the simple method can be used to protect the side etching of the barrier metal film and improve the electrical connection between the W-film and the barrier metal film. Moreover, the semiconductor device is desired which can improve the film formation property of the wiring layer.

Semiconductor device having improved metal wiring


A method for rendering two-dimensional shapes and two-dimensional projections of three-dimensional shapes on a projection plane uses a sorting table to determine which shapes overlap other shapes. For each two-dimensional shape, the shorting table includes an order attribute specifying the front to back ordering of the two-dimensional shapes on the projection plane. For each three-dimensional shape the sorting table includes a Z-value specifying a position along a coordinate perpendicular to the projection plane. The position specified is dependent on whether the three-dimensional shape is perceived to be in front of the projection plane or behind the projection plane. The values in the sorting table are sorted to produce a composite ordering of the shapes and a drawing is created by sequentially rendering each shape in the composite order of the sorting table to depict an overlapped appearance of the shapes.

Prior art computer drawing methods handle the projection of three dimensional shapes onto two dimensional projection planes by forming fixed resolution images of the projection. If the resultant image is scaled to a larger size, the fixed resolution of the image results in a grainy appearance. If the scene to be depicted contains both three-dimensional shapes as well as two-dimensional shapes, the three-dimensional shape must be projected onto a projection plane from the vantage point of a viewer of the scene. The projection of the three-dimensional shape and the two-dimensional shapes must be shown properly overlapped. Once again, the prior art computer drawing methods form a fixed image of the overlapped shapes on the projection plane. If the scene is changed by moving the three-dimensional shape or by moving the vantage point, there is no information in the fixed image to reconstruct the projection of the scene on the projection plane and maintain a proper overlapped appearance of the shapes.

Method and system using a sorting table to order 2D shapes and 2D projections of 3D shapes for rendering a composite drawing


This application discloses a neural network that also functions as a connection oriented packet data network using an MPLS-type label switching technology. The neural network uses its intelligence to build and manage label switched paths (LSPs) to transport user packets and solve complex mathematical problems. However, the methods taught here can be applied to other data networks including ad-hoc, mobile, and traditional packet networks, cell or frame-switched networks, time-slot networks and the like.

Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) layers are known to those of skill in the art as a series of protocol layers to define communications in data networks. The first layer relates to the physical aspects of communication. Examples are T-1 and 100-base T. The second layer is called the data link layer. This layer is used to format data passing over a given link. Examples include Ethernet and HDLC. Layer 3 is called the network layer. This layer supports end-to-end packet delivery and the most common example is the IP routing in the Internet. Layer 4, the transport layer, provides end-to-end management of communications.
Networks that use a connection as the primary method of transporting information between two points are considered Layer 4 networks as Layer 4 protocols such as TCP can manage these networks directly.
Telephone networks can be considered layer 4 as a connection must be made before any communication can occur. The earliest of these automatic telephone networks used strowger switches and were called "direct control" or "distributed control" switching. Fundamental characteristics of distributed control are that each path is built through the network independently. The establishment of a connection is performed on a switch-by-switch basis. Once established, the connection is held up through the switch train by each end.
As telephone networks became more complex, distributed control was replaced by common control switching, and continues to this day. Common control switching is characterized by the use of computers with knowledge of the network to establish connections or route packets.
The PSTN today uses SS7, a common control switching system, to switch calls as multiple, complex routing decisions must be made for each call.
Our first data networks used telephone switches to establish connections between computers. ISDN is a technology developed by TELCOs to switch both voice and data. It soon became evident that the delay and overhead included in making connections were unacceptable to the computer world, and ISDN was replaced by packet networks.
Packet networks such as the internet are said to be OSI Layer 3 networks, as the network is connectionless and each packet is routed on a "best effort" basis.
When computers today wish to transmit packet flows reliably and securely, they use layer 4 protocols such as TCP to provide packet ordering and retransmission. TCP establishes and manages a virtual connection over a Layer 3 packet network.
As Layer 3 networks are connectionless and route data on a best effort basis, routes can often become congested. Congestion can harm time-sensitive traffic such as voice or video as the delay or packet loss associated with congestion will render the connection unusable. Also, these networks are insecure as IP addresses are known to all.
Companies are developing improvements to the packet network such as quality of service (QOS) to allow priority traffic such as voice or video to not be affected by congestion. Some companies have even developed a concept called "flow-based routing" whereby packets are organized into flows, with each flow being routed or switched separately. These systems tend to be complex and expensive as specialized hardware and software are needed to find the Layer 4 information relating to the flows imbedded in the Layer 3 packets, and they do not address any security issues.
Because of the aforementioned problems, label-switching technologies such as frame relay, ATM, and MPLS have become popular for OSI layer 2 wide area networking. The short labels are popular with telecommunication carriers as a more efficient alternative to traditional IP routing. The most popular of these technologies, multi-protocol label searching (MPLS), uses label switched paths "LSPs" to carry packet flows between edge nodes. Packets in these flows are transported in a deterministic, orderly manner. In fact, transport schemes of this nature are so reliable that the term "pseudo wire" has been used to describe this system. Through the use of MPLS, packet flows through LSPs have been used to interconnect LANS (VLANS), support QOS and policy routing, and even switch synchronous services such as DS1s or DS3s.
Neural networks occur naturally and provide the intelligence of the human brain. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are man-made networks used to solve complex problems. Details of these networks are described in the following documents which are incorporated herein by reference:
Reference 1:
Anil K. Jain and Jianchang Mao and K. M. Mohiuddin "Artificial Neural Networks: A Tutorial," Computer, March, 1996, pp. 31-44. (available online)
Reference 2:
Vipan Kakkar "Comparative Study on Analog and Digital Neural Networks" International Journal of Science and Network Security, VOL. 9 No. 7, July 2009, pp. 14-21. (available online)
These two references will aid in providing the reader with the background necessary to understand the neural network aspects of this invention.
ANNs and data communication networks have always been treated separately as the requirements and resultant functionality have always been different. ANNs have traditionally been analog networks carrying voltages that are multiplied using analog multipliers to achieve the neural network weighting functions. What is needed is a neural network technology that can share the benefits of today's packet networks.

Packet data neural network system and method


Provided is a plurality of flaky magnetic metal particles of embodiments, each flaky magnetic metal particle having a flat surface having either or both of a plurality of concavities and a plurality of convexities, the concavities or convexities being arranged in a first direction and each having a width of 0.1 μm or more, a length of 1 μm or more, and an aspect ratio of 2 or higher; and a magnetic metal phase containing at least one primary element selected from the group consisting of iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), and nickel (Ni). The flaky magnetic metal particles have an average thickness of between 10 nm and 100 μm inclusive, and the average value of the ratio of the average length within the flat surface with respect to the thickness is between 5 and 10,000 inclusive.

Currently, soft magnetic materials are applied to the component parts of various systems and devices, such as rotating electric machines (for example, motors and generators), potential transformers, inductors, transformers, magnetic inks, and antenna devices. Thus, soft magnetic materials are regarded as very important materials. In these component parts, the real part of the magnetic permeability (real part of the relative magnetic permeability), μ′, of a soft magnetic material is utilized, and therefore, in the case of actual use, it is preferable to control μ′ in accordance with the working frequency band. Furthermore, in order to realize a highly efficient system, it is preferable to use a material having a loss that is as low as possible. That is, it is preferable that the imaginary part of the magnetic permeability (imaginary part of the relative magnetic permeability), μ″ (corresponding to a loss), is minimized as far as possible. In regard to the loss, the loss factor, tan δ (=μ″/μ′×100(%)) serves as a criterion, and as μ″ becomes smaller relative to μ′, the loss factor tan δ becomes smaller, which is preferable. In order to attain such conditions, it is preferable to make the core loss for the conditions of actual operation small, that is to say, it is preferable to make the eddy current loss, hysteresis loss, ferromagnetic resonance loss, and residual loss (other losses) as small as possible. In order to make the eddy current loss small, it is effective to increase the electrical resistance, or decrease the sizes of metal parts, or finely divide the magnetic domain structure. In order to make the hysteresis loss small, it is effective to reduce coercivity or increase the saturation magnetization. In order to make the ferromagnetic resonance loss small, it is effective to make the ferromagnetic resonance frequency higher by increasing the anisotropic magnetic field of the material. Furthermore, in recent years, since there is an increasing demand for handling of high electric power, it is required that losses are small, particularly under the operation conditions in which the effective magnetic field applied to the material is large, such as high current and high voltage. To attain this end, it is preferable that the saturation magnetization of a soft magnetic material is as large as possible so as not to bring about magnetic saturation. Furthermore, in recent years, since size reduction of equipment is enabled by increased frequency, increase of the working frequency bands in systems and device equipment is underway, and there is an urgent need for the development of a magnetic material having high magnetic permeability and low losses at high frequency and having excellent characteristics.
Furthermore, in recent years, due to the heightened awareness of the issues on energy saving and environmental issues, there is a demand to increase the efficiency of systems as high as possible. Particularly, since motor systems are responsible for the major portion of electric power consumption in the world, efficiency enhancement of motors is very important. Above all, a core and the like that constitute a motor are formed from soft magnetic materials, and it is requested to increase the magnetic permeability or saturation magnetization of soft magnetic materials as high as possible, or to make the losses as low as possible. Furthermore, in regard to the magnetic wedge that is used in some motors, there is a demand for minimizing losses as far as possible. There is the same demand also for systems using transformers. In motors, transformers and the like, the demand for size reduction is also high, along with efficiency enhancement. In order to realize size reduction, it is essential to maximize the magnetic permeability and saturation magnetization of the soft magnetic material as far as possible. Furthermore, in order to also prevent magnetic saturation, it is important to make saturation magnetization as high as possible. Moreover, the need for increasing the operation frequency of systems is also high, and thus, there is a demand to develop a material having low losses in high frequency bands.
Soft magnetic materials having high magnetic permeability and low losses are also used in inductance elements, antenna devices and the like, and particularly above all, in recent years, attention has been paid to the application of soft magnetic materials in power inductance elements that are used in power semiconductor devices. In recent years, the importance of energy saving and environmental protection has been actively advocated, and reduction of the amount of CO2 emission and reduction of the dependency on fossil fuels have been required. As the result, development of electric cars or hybrid cars that substitute gasoline cars is in active progress. Furthermore, technologies for utilizing natural energy such as solar power generation and wind power generation are regarded as key technologies for an energy saving society, and many developed countries are actively pushing ahead with the development of technologies for utilizing natural energy. Furthermore, the importance of establishment of home energy management systems (HEMS) and building and energy management systems (BEMS), which control the electric power generated by solar power generation, wind power generation or the like by a smart grid and supply the electric power to homes, offices and plants with high efficiency, as environment-friendly power saving systems, has been actively advocated. In such a movement of energy saving, power semiconductor devices play a key role. Power semiconductor devices are semiconductor devices that control high electric power or energy with high efficiency, and examples thereof include individual power semiconductor devices such as an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET), a power bipolar transistor, and a power diode; power supply circuits such as a linear regulator and a switching regulator; and a large-scale integration (LSI) logic circuit for power management to control the above-mentioned devices. Power semiconductor devices are widely used in all sorts of equipment including home electrical appliances, computers, automobiles and railways, and since expansion of the supply of these applied apparatuses, and an increase in the mounting ratio of power semiconductor devices in these apparatuses can be expected, a rapid growth in the market for power semiconductor devices in the future is anticipated. For example, inverters that are installed in many home electrical appliances use power semiconductor devices nearly in all parts, and thereby extensive energy saving is made possible. Currently, silicon (Si) occupies a major part in power semiconductor devices; however, for a further increase in efficiency or further size reduction of equipment, utilizing silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) is considered effective. Since SiC and GaN have larger band gaps and larger breakdown fields than Si, and the breakdown voltage can be made higher, elements can be made thinner. Therefore, the on-resistance of semiconductor devices can be lowered, and it is effective for loss reduction and efficiency enhancement. Furthermore, since SiC or GaN has high carrier mobility, the switching frequency can be made higher, and this is effective for size reduction of elements. Furthermore, since SiC in particular has higher thermal conductivity than Si, the heat dissipation ability is higher, and operation at high temperature is enabled. Thus, cooling mechanisms can be simplified, and this is effective for size reduction. From the viewpoints described above, development of SiC and GaN power semiconductor devices is actively in progress. However, in order to realize the development, development of power inductor elements that are used together with power semiconductor devices, that is, development of soft magnetic materials having high magnetic permeability (high magnetic permeability and low losses), is indispensable. Regarding the characteristics required for magnetic materials in this case, in addition to high magnetic permeability and low magnetic loss in the driving frequency bands, high saturation magnetization that can cope with a large electric current is preferable. In a case in which saturation magnetization is high, it is difficult to induce magnetic saturation even if a high magnetic field is applied, and a decrease in the effective inductance value can be suppressed. As a result, the direct current superimposition characteristics of the device are enhanced, and the efficiency of the system is increased.
Furthermore, a magnetic material having high magnetic permeability and low losses at high frequency is expected to be applied to high frequency communication equipment devices such as antenna devices. As a method for achieving size reduction and power saving of antennas, there is a method of using an insulated substrate having high magnetic permeability (high magnetic permeability and low losses) as an antenna substrate, and performing transmission and reception of electric waves by dragging the electric waves that should reach an electronic component or a substrate inside a communication apparatus from antennas into the antenna substrate, without allowing the electric waves to reach the electronic component or substrate. As a result, size reduction of antennas and power saving are made possible, and at the same time, the resonance frequency band of the antennas can also be broadened, which is preferable.
Furthermore, examples of other characteristics that are required when magnetic materials are incorporated into the various systems and devices described above include high thermal stability, high strength, and high toughness. Also, in order for the magnetic materials to be applied to complex shapes, a pressed powder body is more preferable than materials having a sheet shape or a ribbon shape. However, generally, when a pressed powder body is used, it is known that characteristics such as saturation magnetization, magnetic permeability, losses, strength and toughness are deteriorated. Thus, enhancement of characteristics is preferable.
Next, in regard to existing soft magnetic materials, the types of the soft magnetic materials and their problems will be described.
Examples of an existing soft magnetic material for systems of 10 kH or less include a silicon steel sheet (FeSi). A silicon steel sheet is a material that is employed in most of rotating electric machines that have been used for a long time and handle large power, and the core materials of transformers. Highly characterized materials ranging from non-directional silicon steel sheets to directional silicon steel sheets can be obtained, and compared to the early stage of discovery, a progress has been made; however, in recent years, it is considered that characteristics improvement has reached an endpoint. Regarding the characteristics, it is particularly critical to simultaneously satisfy high saturation magnetization, high magnetic permeability, and low losses. Studies on materials that surpass silicon steel sheets are actively conducted globally, mainly based on the compositions of amorphous materials and nanocrystalline materials; however, a material composition that surpasses silicon steel sheets in all aspects has not yet been found. Furthermore, studies also have been conducted on pressed powder bodies that are applicable to complex shapes; however, pressed powder bodies have a defect that they have poor characteristics compared to sheets or ribbons.
Examples of existing soft magnetic materials for systems of 10 kHz to 100 kHz include Sendust (Fe—Si—Al), nanocrystalline FINEMET (Fe—Si—B—Cu—Nb), ribbons or pressed powders of Fe-based or Co-based amorphous glass, and MnZn-based ferrite materials. However, all of these materials do not completely satisfy characteristics such as high magnetic permeability, low losses, high saturation magnetization, high thermal stability, high strength and high toughness, and are insufficient.
Examples of existing soft magnetic materials of 100 kHz or higher (MHz frequency band or higher) include NiZn-based ferrites and hexagonal ferrites; however, these materials have insufficient magnetic characteristics at high frequency.
From the circumstances described above, development of a magnetic material having high saturation magnetization, high magnetic permeability, low losses, high thermal stability, and excellent mechanical characteristics, is preferable.

Plurality of flaky magnetic metal particles, pressed powder material, and rotating electric machine


A dual-band optical amplifier uses a single pump source, such as a YAG solid-state laser emitting a pump light at a wavelength of 1047 nm, to provide amplification in both the 1550 nm and 1310 nm bands which are commonly encountered in the optical telecommunications environment. The pump light is fed into a fiber doped with praseodymium fluoride having Pr atoms in a +3 ionization state. These ions exhibit a ground state absorption that includes the 1047 nm wavelength. The same pump light is also coupled to a separate amplification fiber doped with trivalent erbium ions and ytterbium. This combination of ions also can be pumped to a metastable excited state by a 1047 nm wavelength source. Accordingly, when photon emission is generated, there is signal amplification in both fibers results.

A communications network transports information or data among a number of locations. The information is usually presented to the network in the form of time-domain electrical signals and may represent any combination of telephony, video, or computer data in a variety of formats. To transport such information, a typical communications network consists of various physical sites (nodes) and information conduits (links) that interconnect the nodes. Each link carries information between nodes, while each node may contain equipment for combining, separating, transforming, conditioning, and routing the information signals.
Nodes are typically connected by many parallel links due to the need for capacity. While links in a network are currently being implemented by using electrical or microwave cables to carry RF, analog or digital signals, recent significant developments involving lasers, optical fibers, etc. in optical transmission elements enable network owners to replace or augment existing cable links. The main advantage of the optical transmission is extremely high modulation bandwidth of the optical carrier--orders of magnitude greater than with an electrical cable or microwave link. Thus, a present day optical carrier may be modulated with multi-gigabit-per-second data representing, for example, over 150,000 simultaneous telephone voice signals. Other significant advantages of the optical transmission are low attenuation, immunity to electrical noise, relatively good security of the transmitted signal and long distance transmission.
Despite the low attenuation of optical communications systems, an optical signal nevertheless requires amplification. The great distances spanned by fiber optic links often require the insertion of one or more optical amplifiers to strengthen the signal along the way. Fiber optic amplifiers are also needed before or after optical functions, such as filtering, for example, which may attenuate the signal even further.
Although many types of optical amplifiers are currently available, the most widely used is a fiber optic amplifier doped with rare earth elements, the most commonly used being dopant erbium, for example. When pumped at a suitable power and wavelength, the doped fiber amplifies an incoming data signal.
Operationally, a signal amplification optical fiber comprises a core portion to which a rare earth element has been added. An attenuated information carrying signal passing through such doped fiber is amplified as a result of the stimulated emission of the rare earth element. The rare earth element receives an energy emitted from a separate pump source for excitation--that is, the rare earth doped optical fiber is pumped at a pump wavelength of the rare earth dopant to cause population inversion of the dopant. This causes a signal propagating along the fiber at a signal wavelength to be amplified.
At the present time, two wavelength bands are prevalent in the transmission of signals in optical communications. Both bands are broadband, i.e., about 20-30 nm wide. One is simply known in the art as 1550 nm. This band is also referred to as the erbium band, because Er.sup.3+ is the dopant used for operation in this range. The other band is known as 1310 nm. At these 1550 and 1310 nm wavelength bands, the optical fibers can be optimized for low attenuation and dispersion characteristics.
It is worth noting that at the present time fiber optic amplifiers are separately designed and constructed for the 1550 band and the 1310 band. In particular, the current state of the art requires two pump sources for increasing signals in these two bands. This is because the erbium-doped amplifiers are not suited for amplifying optical signals in the 1310 band. Similarly, praseodymium doped (Pr.sup.3+) amplifiers, which amplify optical signals in the 1310 band, cannot boost optical signals having a wavelength within the 1550 nm range.
The present and foreseeable trend in the fiber optic communications suggests the use of multiple optical carriers utilizing a wavelength division multiplexing occupying both 1310 nm and 1550 nm bands along the same fiber link. A need, therefore, exists for an optical amplifier which uses a single pump source to provide an amplification in more than one band along the same fiber link.

Dual-band fiber optic amplification system using a single pump source


An approach is presented for designing a polymeric layer for nanometer scale thermo-mechanical storage devices. Cross-linked polyaryletherketone polymers are used as the recording layers in atomic force data storage devices, giving significantly improved performance when compared to previously reported cross-linked and linear polymers. The cross-linking of the polyaryletherketone polymers may be tuned to match thermal and force parameters required in read-write-erase cycles.

Current data storage and imaging methodologies operate in the micron regime. In an effort to store ever more information in ever-smaller spaces, data storage density has been increasing. In an effort to reduce power consumption and increase the speed of operation of integrated circuits, the lithography used to fabricate integrated circuits is pressed toward smaller dimensions and denser imaging. As data storage size increases and density increases and integrated circuit densities increase, there is a developing need for data storage and imaging methodologies that operate in the nanometer regime.

Method for high density data storage and read-back

International Business Machines Corporation


An image capture system comprises an image input and processing unit. The image input obtains image information which is then passed to the processing unit. The processing unit is coupled to the image input for determining image metrics on the image information. The processing unit initiates a capture sequence when the image metrics meet a predetermined condition. The capture sequence may store one or more images, or it may indicate that one or more images have been detected. In one embodiment, the image input is a CMOS or CCD sensor.

1. Field of the Invention
The described invention relates to the field of imaging. In particular, the invention relates to the selection of an image based on the content of the image.
2. Description of Related Art
Image capture devices, such as still and video cameras, typically have stored images based upon the input of a trigger from the user. Sometimes the trigger is manually input, for example, by pushing a button. The trigger may alternatively be triggered remotely via a coupling to a flash strobe, or through a timer.
Some events, however, are very difficult to trigger upon. As an example, capturing an image of lightning during a lightning storm is very difficult to capture because of the unpredictability of the event, as well as the quick timing that is needed to capture the event.
One way in which lightning could be captured is by taking a video picture of the sky, and hoping that lightning strikes during the time the video is capturing images (the capture period). However, this method fails in several respects.
First, the quality of video is typically not as good as that of a still picture. Second, because the video image must be stored, the capture period is limited to the amount of storage space in the camera. This is restrictive when the target image may take a very long time to happen. Finally, a person has to either be present during the capture period to observe whether lightning had struck to know whether the target image was captured, or the user potentially has to review the entire video to see whether the desired event occurred. A more automated method of detecting a target image is desirable.


According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, disclosed is a computer program stored in a computer readable storage medium. The computer program may include commands for making a computer perform operations, and the operations may include: receiving a message including a first transaction from an external computing device; reading the message and identifying the first transaction; recognizing a first transaction per second (TPS) value set in the first transaction; monitoring a current load value related to the first transaction; and determining whether to process the first transaction based on a result of a comparison between the current load value and the first TPS value.

By a server according to the related art, when many transactions are processed, a time for processing the transactions may be increased. When the time for processing the transactions is increased as described above, performance of the server may be degraded.
In the meantime, recently, various generic technologies, which enable the server to execute an application in linkage with a display of a web page, are provided. Accordingly, research on a technology for constructing an information system by using a web function provided by a user interface continues.
In the meantime, as a technology of controlling a load of an information system, Korean Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-160040 discloses a technology of executing a server program in one computer and increasing multiplicity of the server program when a rate of use of a center processing unit (CPU) of the computer by the server program is high.
Korean Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-268012 discloses a technology, in which in a client server system including a load balancer connected to a local area network (LAN) and a server computer, when a load of the server computer exceeds an allocation value, the load balancer stops a reception of a transaction from a terminal.

Server, method of controlling server, and computer program stored in computer readable medium therefor


A display device includes a first fiber having a silicon layer or an oxide layer, on which an active element is formed on the surface of the fiber and a second fiber forming a combined one-dimensional substrate together with the first fiber by being combined with the first fiber and having light emitting layers formed on a plurality of domains of the device. The first fiber and the second fiber are respectively drawn out from take-up jigs, are cut in necessary lengths and separated into plural fibers, and these plural first or second fibers are mounted in parallel with each other on a fixing jig. In this state, at least one-side elements of active elements and passive elements are formed on the first or second fibers.

An active matrix type flat display device being the main current at present is a flat display comprising pixel driving switches composed of TFT (Thin Film Transistor) and a pixel display medium on the surface of it, and a substrate of its starting point is a transparent glass plate of soda lime and the like. Attempts to use a plastic film as a substrate have been performed but do not yet succeed in being put to practical use, and the main current at present is liquid crystal as a display medium and a-Si TFT (Amorphous-Silicon-TFT) as an active matrix, and displays of 10″ to 20″ in diagonal size are mass-produced for PCs, monitors and the like.
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) as a display medium has problems in display performance of TV dynamic images, particularly in white, white peak, responsiveness and the like in comparison with CRT (Cathode Ray Tube). On the contrary, organic LED (OLED: Organic Light-Emitting-Diode) of which product development is recently promoted is self-luminous and can realize an image quality being more excellent in white, white peak, responsiveness and the like than LCD.
On the other hand, in TFT also, product development of polycrystalline Si by a low-temperature process (low temperature p-Si) is rapidly promoted. The reason is that first, p-Si is high in TFT performance and can have a peripheral circuit built in it and therefore has an advantage of cost reduction. In addition to this, since a-Si TFT is difficult to cope with drive of organic LED from the viewpoint of a driving current density, the transition of TFT to low-temperature p-Si including application of it to LCD is the general trend.
Market demands in all display devices including an active matrix type flat display device are always three points of the enlargement in size, high definition and cost reduction of display device. For these demands, a-Si TFT-LCD being the main current at present has little room for improvement in performance and is in the state that a substantial limit is TV of 40″ in diagonal length for enlargement and display of 20″ or less for high definition and the enlargement of glass substrate may be said to be only one means for cost reduction.
On the other hand, low-temperature p-Si TFT-LCD is excellent in performance of TFT itself in principle and can have a peripheral circuit built in it but has grave problems in practice. That is to say, there are various fundamental problems of processes being performed at a low temperature of 500° C. or lower, lack of uniformity due to polycrystal, lithography accuracy of 1 μm or more and the like because of a glass substrate. Particularly, the low-temperature p-Si TFT must realize a performance equivalent to Si LSI in a peripheral circuit but is difficult to realize a high image quality under such restrictions, and is in the state of being applied to some of peripheral circuits of a low-definition display.
In case that a display medium is organic LED, namely, TFT-OLED (TFT-Organic Liquid-Emitting-Diode), the quality of display is greatly improved in comparison with LCD from the viewpoint of self-luminance, high-speed response, thinning and the like. However, since a pixel driving circuit is composed of several transistors instead of one transistor because of current drive differently from LCD. Although there is the attempt to form a pixel driving circuit out of a-Si TFT due to the advantage of uniformity, a large-sized high-definition display cannot but use p-Si TFT.
However, a substrate is of glass and has fundamental problems with respect to TFT itself as described above, and further a large-sized glass substrate cannot but be used for cost reduction similarly to an a-Si-TFT-LCD fabricating technology.
Organic LED is composed of an organic thin film of 5 to 8 layers, the total film thickness of it is about 100 to 500 nm, and the thickness of each component film must be formed with accuracy of about 1 nm. Additionally, pixels corresponding to three colors must be formed separately over a large area. Further, since current consumption is greatly increased to 10 to 100 mA/cm2 due to current drive in case of OLED while current consumption is 1 μA/cm2 due to voltage drive in case of LCD, wiring resistance from a current source needs to be reduced by several digits in comparison with wiring of LCD. It is apparent that the more large-sized and more high-definition a display is, the more difficult the solution of such problems in manufacture is.
These essential problems are in a fact that they are apparently natural, that is, in a fundamental assumption of the prior art using a two-dimensional flat plate as a substrate. That is to say, the improvement in process accuracy is demanded simultaneously with enlargement in size of a substrate and a fabricating apparatus must be made more accurate at the same time as being made large-sized. Naturally there is some limit in mechanism and a limit appears in throughput also. In practice, an a-Si TFT-LED fabricating apparatus coping with a substrate of nearly 2 m square in size is made and used at present, but this is thought to be one limit with respect to cost-performance ratio of apparatus and production line.
The situation in p-Si TFT-LCD based on the existing a-Si TFT-LCD fabricating apparatus and technology is entirely the same. Additionally, p-Si TFT-LCD is in a more difficult situation that a process similar to that of Si LSI must be realized at a low temperature. Cost reduction by having a circuit built-in is one of advantages of p-Si TFT-LCD, but this is realized when a high-performance circuit is implemented. In practice, the more large-sized a substrate is made, the more difficult it is to realize various requirements necessary for a high-performance device such as the quality of film, the accuracy of photolithography, similar processes to those of Si LSI and the like. As for this point, p-Si TFT-OLED is entirely the same and further additionally has problems of LED structure, wiring resistance and the like as described above.

Semiconductor device and display device using a one-dimensional substrate and device fabricating method thereof


At the moment of the diffusion of Pay-TV with multi-channel signals, each channel is associated to authorization messages (ECM) which allow to decrypt this channel according to the rights of the subscriber. When changing channel, a very short time is accepted before one has determined these new rights in relation with the new channel. The heavy encrypting algorithms are thus excluded. To avoid this drawback, to decrypt a channel, a system is proposed using the combination of the authorization information for a channel (ECM), and thus encrypted by a fast algorithm, with authorization information (MECM) for a group of channels. These latter are encrypted by a high security algorithm and are thus slower to decrypt.

The decoders of subscribers of Pay-TV contain a decrypting unit able to treat the arriving signals by cable or by hertz. These signals can be analog or digital.
These signals are of different types, according to whether they contain audio type information, video or of control.
The latter category includes management messages (called EMM messages) that is to say messages containing controls directed to a decoder or to a group of decoders, and control messages (called ECM messages), that is to say containing authorization messages among others, information allowing to decrypt the signals in transmission.

Method and system for transmission of decrypting information


A method of increasing situational awareness of terrain is disclosed. A representation of a terrain feature is generated from a source of stored data. A distance from a reference point to the terrain feature is determined. The representation of the terrain feature is attenuated if the distance from the reference point to the terrain feature is within a predetermined range. The representation of the terrain feature is displayed.

The navigation of vehicles in low-visibility conditions such as darkness, fog, low-hanging clouds, rain, or other inclement weather has always increased the risk of accidents. Many proposals have been advanced to supplement the situational awareness of the driver/pilot of a boat, automobile, or airplane. For example, it has been proposed to generate a display of nearby terrain from a database having three-dimensional information about the terrain. The derived terrain display may be provided to assist the pilot or driver of the vehicle to maneuver the vehicle during times of low visibility. If used with an aircraft, it is especially advantageous to project the derived terrain display into the pilot's line of sight using a head-up display (HUD) system. When properly aligned with the actual terrain, the derived terrain display enhances the vision of the pilot.
FIG. 1 is a view of a derived or artificial terrain display. It can be seen that the terrain comprises a network of lines 6 that interconnect to form a plurality of elements 8, such as quadrilaterals or triangles, in the form of a grid. In the display shown in FIG. 1, each grid element 8 defines a substantially equal surface area of the terrain. Grid elements appearing larger represent terrain that is relatively close to the viewer, and grid elements appearing smaller represent terrain that is relatively further away from the viewer. As a viewer approaches a portion of the terrain, the grid elements representing that terrain portion increase in size and appear to move toward the viewer.
One challenge of using derived or artificial terrain displays is that distant features appear to be closer than they really are. The driver or pilot cannot easily distinguish between dangerous terrain in close vicinity of the vehicle and less important obstacles in the distance. The problem is made worse when the derived terrain display uses few color shades, as is the case with most known HUD systems. Although the relative size of the grid elements provides some depth cues to the driver or pilot, confusion may still result. Also, if a derived terrain display provides a grid that is not comprised of geometric elements having substantially equal surface areas, the relative sizes of the grid elements do not provide any reliable visual depth cues.
It is therefore an object of the invention to increase the situational awareness of a driver or pilot of a vehicle such as an automobile, boat, or aircraft.
It is yet another object to provide depth cues to a driver or pilot viewing an artificial or derived representation of terrain.
A feature of the invention is an increased attenuation of the derived representation of terrain as the terrain increases in distance from a viewer.
Another feature of the invention is the elimination of displayed terrain that is beyond a predetermined distance from the viewer.
An advantage of the invention is increased awareness of relative distances of terrain in a terrain display derived from stored data.

Method and system for providing depth cues by attenuating distant displayed terrain


A roadway guardrail system including a longitudinally extending guardrail supported by an array of spaced apart vertically mounted supporting posts and associated offset block whereas the supporting posts and/or the offset blocks are I beam shaped members.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to roadway guardrail systems and more particularly to an offset block and supporting post for supporting an associated guardrail.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Roadway guardrails are typically comprised of longitudinally extending sections of interconnected guardrails mounted to spaced apart vertically extending supporting posts. The supporting posts are spaced along the edge of a highway surface usually adjacent an intervening shoulder. Usually a mounting block is disposed between the guardrail and the supporting post. Such an arrangement is useful in spacing the guardrail from the supporting posts to minimize the likelihood of an impact between an impinging vehicle and the supporting posts. When there is a contact between a vehicle and the guardrail, especially in the region of a supporting post, the guardrail, due to its shape and composition, will absorb energy from the impinging vehicle. Thereby, the breakage of the supporting posts is minimized allowing the entire system to retain the vehicle in the right-of-way and prevent it from entering an adjacent ditch, field, or other undesired situs.
Guardrails, damaged by vehicular impact, may be readily replaced by removing the bolts which fasten the guardrails to the supporting posts through respective offset blocks. While considerable expense in both time and materials is experienced, the cost is less than the requirement to replace the entire system including the supporting posts.
The prior art guardrail systems typically employed supporting posts and offset block made of wood. Wooden supporting posts and offset blocks have some advantages. However, there are disadvantages to the use wood. Amongst the disadvantages are the wood has a limited service life and tends to constantly be depleting our forests.
It is an object of the present invention to produce a supporting post and offset block for guardrails which will be superior to wood.
Another object of the invention is to produce a supporting post and offset block for guardrails which have an unlimited duty cycle.
Another object of the invention is to produce a supporting post and offset block for guardrails formed of a composite material which is inert to the effect of the environment such as sunlight, heat, cold, rain, and snow.

Offset block and supporting post for roadway guardrail


A radiation detector according to an embodiment includes: a cathode electrode, a plurality of anode electrodes, a crystal, an anti-scatter grid, and a conductive part. The cathode electrode is provided on the radiation incident side. The plurality of anode electrodes are arranged so as to oppose the cathode electrode. The crystal is provided between the cathode electrode and the plurality of anode electrodes and configured to convert incident radiation into electrons. The conductive part is provided between the plurality of anode electrodes and has a conductivity higher than that of the crystal. The anti-scatter grid is provided on the radiation incident side of the cathode electrode so as to oppose the conductive part via the crystal, while being arranged in a first direction.

In a radiation detector of an X-ray computed tomography apparatus or the like, a collimator (an Anti-Scatter Grid, hereinafter, "ASG") may be arranged on the side where radiation becomes incident to the radiation detector (hereinafter, "radiation incident side"). The ASG is configured to inhibit detection of the radiation that becomes incident at boundaries of a plurality of detecting elements included in the radiation detector.
However, when the radiation detector is of a direct-conversion type that directly detects the incident radiation, a part of electric charges occurring inside the radiation detector may also be detected, in some situations, by another detecting element positioned adjacent to the detecting element corresponding to the radiation incident position. This phenomenon is called charge sharing (hereinafter, "CS") and can be a cause of crosstalk and may bring about undesirable problems such as occurrence of noise, for example. To reduce the CS between ASGs, the ASGs need to have sufficient blocking capabilities, and the intervals between pixels need to be approximately equal to the width of each of the ASGs. When the ASGs are designed to realize high definition in conjunction with miniaturization of the detecting elements, the intervals between the pixels required to reduce the CS may lower radiation detection efficiency and may lead to an increase in unnecessary radiation exposure of the examined subject.

Radiation detector and radiation diagnosis apparatus


Methods for forming copper interconnects for semiconductor devices are provided. In an exemplary embodiment, a method for forming a copper interconnect comprises depositing copper into a trench formed in a dielectric material overlying a semiconductor material. A force is applied to the semiconductor material and stress is induced within the copper deposited in the trench. Recrystallization and grain growth are effected within the copper and the stress is removed.

Interconnect lines (hereinafter, "interconnects") are commonly used to carry electricity in microcircuits. While interconnects are often formed of copper, a major reliability concern with copper interconnects is electromigration. Electromigration is the diffusion of copper caused by the gradual movement of copper ions due to the momentum transfer between conducting electrons and diffusing copper atoms. The effect is important in applications where high direct current densities are used, such as in microelectronics and related structures.
The grain structure of copper interconnects can have a profound influence on back end performance metrics such as electromigration performance (due to enhanced atomic mobility at grain boundaries). Thus, conventional processing of copper interconnects typically includes an annealing step used to control the crystal structure of the copper. Typically, the annealing is performed after the copper is deposited and before polishing removes excess copper, that is, the overburden. By annealing the copper within a trench with the overburden present, the overburden is able to facilitate recrystallization and grain growth of the copper such that columnar and "bamboo" grain structures grow. "Bamboo" grains are those that span the trench from the top surface of the copper to the bottom and from side to side with no grain boundary intersecting. Columnar grains span from the top to the bottom. FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional illustration of a semiconductor structure 10 having three copper interconnects 12, 14, and 16 formed within a dielectric material layer 18. A barrier layer 20 is disposed within the trench to prevent or minimize the diffusion of the copper into the dielectric material layer. The wide copper interconnect 12 has a bamboo structure, as shown by grain boundaries 22 and 24. The wide interconnect 14 has columnar grain structures, as shown by grain boundaries 26, 28, and 30. These bamboo and columnar grain structures minimize electromigration effects.
However, as feature sizes of integrated circuits (ICs) decrease below 45 nm node technology, copper interconnects with bamboo and columnar grain structures become difficult to achieve and the practical significance of electromigration in copper interconnects increases. At 45 nm node technology and below, annealing results in "gravel defects" such as those of narrow interconnect 16 of FIG. 1. "Gravel defects" are small, non-columnar grains at the bottom of the trench, as shown by grain boundaries 32, 34, and 36. These grain boundaries form a grain boundary network that can significantly increase electromigration effects. Thus, methods for forming copper interconnects that achieve recrystallization and grain growth of the copper with bamboo and columnar grain structures are preferred.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide methods for forming copper interconnects that exhibit minimal electromigration effects. In addition, it is desirable to provide methods for forming copper interconnects that utilize force to facilitate the recrystallization and grain growth of the copper into bamboo and columnar crystal structures during annealing. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.


An anti-resonant hollow core optical fiber having multiple resonant layers. The optical fiber comprises a low-refractive index core region (1) and a high-refractive index cladding region. The high-refractive index cladding region comprises an inner cladding region (4) and an outer cladding region (5). The outer cladding region (5) clads the inner cladding region (4) and the core region (1). The inner cladding region (4) comprises a first anti-resonant layer (2) and a second anti-resonant layer (3), and the first anti-resonant layer (2) and the second anti-resonant layer (3) surround the core region (1); and the first anti-resonant layer (2) comprises several layers of microcapillary tubes, and the second anti-resonant layer (3) supports the first anti-resonant layer (2). The optical fiber adopts a double-cladding structure and uses two or more anti-resonant layers such that theoretically simulated loss is reduced to 0.1 dB/km, and has the features of ultralow transmission loss, wide spectral bandwidth, low bending loss, low transmission loss, high damage threshold and single-mode transmission.

As a mainstream broadband access mode, optical fiber has the advantages of large communication capacity, long relay distance, good confidentiality, strong adaptability, small volume and light weight, wide raw material source and low price, etc., thus it will be widely applied in broadband Internet access in the future.
As a main research direction of optical fiber optics, hollow core optical fiber has significant advantages because the light is guided therein by means of the air in the fiber core. In comparison with the solid core optical fiber, the hollow core optical fiber uses the ultralow Rayleigh scattering and nonlinear coefficient of the air (several order of magnitudes lower than all glass materials), thus optical transmission of ultralow loss and low nonlinearity can be realized in principle. Additionally, a higher propagation velocity (i.e., smaller delay) and laser induced damage threshold may also be provided.
Under the inspiration of the concept of "photonic bandgap", photonic bandgap-type hollow core fiber introduces into the cladding an air pore structure periodically arranged to form the photonic bandgap. When the structure center has a defect of air pore, the light, whose wavelength is within the bandgap, may be totally restricted within the air core. In fact, as affected by the roughness at the interface between quartz and air, strong coupling occurs between the fundamental mode in the core and the surface mode in the cladding, and as a result, an experimental lowest loss is only 1.2 dB/km for such optical fiber at present, and the transmission performance of the optical fiber is also affected, especially the transmission of high-power laser is limited. On the other hand, the bandgap formation principle of the photonic bandgap hollow core fiber determines an intrinsic defect: the transmission bandwidth is narrow (hard to exceed 70 THz). This means that the application of photonic bandgap hollow core fiber limited to a very narrow range of spectral bandwidth, so that some application requiring wide spectral bandwidth transmission is excluded.

Anti-resonant hollow core optical fiber having multiple resonant layers


An electrical load status detection and control device includes a first power supply circuit loop with a first switch, a second power supply circuit loop with a second switch, a no-load status detection unit connected with the second power supply circuit loop for detecting the current passing through the second power supply circuit loop and thereby generating a current detection signal. A micro-controller connected with a reference current value database, the no-load status detection unit, the first switch and the second switch, which receives the current detection signal from the no-load status detection unit. The micro-controller generates a switching signal to actuate the first switch and the second switch to thereby open the first power supply circuit loop and the second power supply circuit loop when detecting the current passing through the second power supply circuit loop out of the reference current value range of the reference current value database.

Nowadays, the cost of energy generation rises higher and higher with the continuous increase of the international crude oil price. Thus, most people, governments, and environment protecting organization all over the world are advocating the policy of economizing on the use of energy. Especially, with the factors of warmer climate and denser population distribution, the total consumption of energy for both industrial and civil use has grown up day after day. Under this condition, to utilize energy in effective ways has become one of the most important problems to be solved right now.
Nevertheless, among all existed power supplying systems or devices, the phenomenon of electric leakage under the no-load situation exists almost unavoidably with the general ignorance of the public. The existence of electric leakage not only causes many meaningless waste of power but also cruelly causes many unpredictable numbers of casualties. Undoubtedly, above descriptions can be further verified by the statistics released from the official all over the world.

Electrical load status detection and control device


There is provided a liquid composition that can form a resistor exhibiting a stable resistance value. One mode of the liquid composition of the invention is a liquid composition comprising (a) an epoxy resin, (b) carbon black particles, (c) carbon nanotubes and (d) a solvent with a vapor pressure of less than 1.34×103 Pa at 25° C.

Multilayer printed circuit boards have conventionally been produced by steps including preparing a stack in which a plurality of one-sided printed circuit boards or double-sided printed circuit boards having a circuit formed by etching, are laminated by pressing via an adhesive layer such as a glass woven fabric prepreg, and a hole is opened in the stack using a drill or laser, after which a conductive layer is formed on the hole walls by plating or the like for electrical connection between the layers.
In recent years, methods of directly forming wiring patterns by printing methods are being investigated as substitutes for the conventional methods of producing multilayer printed circuit boards using etching or plating. For example, a method of forming a wiring pattern by ink jet printing (Patent document 1) and a method of producing a multilayer printed circuit board by forming a conductive layer and a hole-formed insulating layer on a substrate by a printing method (Patent document 2) have been proposed.
With these production methods, it is possible to produce a multilayer printed circuit board without using large-scale equipment such as pressing and plating equipment. An additional advantage is very high material usage efficiency, because the conductor ink or insulator ink can be printed only on the necessary sections.
At the same time, advances are being made in thickness reduction and high densification of circuit boards, to meet the needs for miniaturization and lighter weights of electronic devices in recent years. In addition, for electronic devices in the fields of data transmission and information processing, it is becoming ever more essential to accomplish efficient securing of mounting areas for mounting of high-performance parts. In the attempt to secure mounting areas, research has been carried out on miniaturization of surface mounting parts, narrow-pitch formation of terminals and fine patterning of boards, SMT (surface mounting technology) for high-density mounting of parts on board surfaces, and Advanced SMT which is a higher level of the same technology.
However, the numbers of active element parts (chip parts) have been increasing to meet the needs of higher functioning for electronic devices. As the number of passive element parts (capacitors, inductors and registers) that perform electrical regulating is likewise increasing, the mounting areas of such passive element parts often occupy more than half of the entirety. This has constituted an obstacle against miniaturization and higher performance of electronic devices.
Techniques for building passive element functions into boards are also being investigated. Such techniques promise not only miniaturization, but also effects such as improved reliability, by eliminating the conventional solder joints used for electrical connection between surface mounting parts and circuit boards, increased freedom of circuit design, improved electrical characteristics by reducing parasitic capacitance since passive elements can be effectively positioned internally, thereby shortening wiring lengths, and lower cost by eliminating the need for surface mounting.
Passive element-forming materials have therefore been developed with the purpose of providing passive element functions inside boards. For example, materials plated with relatively high-resistance metals have been used as resistors for built-in passive elements (Patent documents 3 and 4). There has also been proposed a method of forming resistors by ink jet printing, without the process of plating or etching (Non-patent document 1).
The present inventors have also proposed an ink comprising carbon black particles dispersed in a thermosetting resin, as a material that allows resistors of desired sizes to be formed at desired locations using an ink-jet apparatus (Patent document 5).

Liquid composition, and resistor film, resistor element and circuit board using same


The present invention is directed to conductive polymer composition that have positive temperature coefficients, electrical devices comprised thereof and methods of making the same. The composition comprises a thermoset polymer matrix containing discretely distributed thermoplastic material and dispersed conductive material. Preferably, the thermoset and thermoplastic polymers are substantially immiscible and have comparable volume transition temperatures, such as bisphenol A liquid epoxy resins and oxidized polyethylene.

The present invention is directed generally to electrically conductive polymer compositions and electrical devices comprised thereof. More particularly, the invention is directed to electrically conductive thermoset polymer compositions that contain substantially discrete distributed thermoplastic polymers and electrically conductive particles and exhibit positive temperature coefficients for use in current limiting devices and other electrical applications.
Conductive polymer compositions are finding increasingly widespread use in electrical applications because conductive polymer have desirable properties, such as the solid state characteristics and positive temperature coefficient (PTC) behavior. Generally, a material is said to have a positive temperature coefficient if the electrical resistance of a material increases with temperature.
Certain PTC materials exhibit an exponential rise in the resistivity of the material above a given temperature. Conductive polymers that exhibit this type of PTC behavior have been used in current limiting circuit protection, circuit breaker, applications for a variety of electrical devices, such as motors, solenoids, phone lines, and batteries. When a short circuit or a fault occurs causing a rise in the line current, IR resistive heating will cause a temperature rise in the polymer. The sudden rise in the polymer temperature will trigger a sudden increase in the polymer resistivity that will in effect "trip the circuit" by limiting the flow of current. Conductive polymer circuit breakers are advantageous because, when the excess voltage and current diminishes, the conductive polymer will again have a lower resistivity upon cooling. Therefore, unlike manual circuit breakers and fuses, the conductive polymer circuit breakers do not have to be reset or replaced each time the circuit is tripped.
Conductive polymers that exhibit exponential PTC behavior have been traditionally made by dispersing a conductive material in a crystalline polymer. In crystalline conductive polymers, the temperature at which the polymer switches from a low resistivity to a high resistivity, called the switching temperature, T.sub.s, is associated with the breakdown of the crystalline structure near the melting point of the polymer. A disadvantage of crystalline conductive polymers is that the switching temperature is governed by the physical properties of the polymer and can not be made specific to the desired application.
Alternatively, amorphous and semi-crystalline polymers, such as elastomers, thermoplastics and thermosets have been crosslinked to produce polymers that exhibit PTC behavior analogous to the crystalline polymer compositions. Crosslinking is usually accomplished by chemical treatment or by irradiation of the polymer. The temperature at which the crosslinking was performed determines the switching temperature of the resultant conductive polymer composition. Conductive polymers in which PTC behavior is produced by crosslinking have increased application as a result of the ability to control the switching temperature of the conductive polymer.
However, elastomers and thermoplastics typically have limited thermal and electrical resistance stability when exposed to thermal cycling, such as in current limiting applications. Whereas, thermoset polymer devices provide increased thermal stability, but the thermoset polymers having a high conductive material loading generally do not exhibit PTC effects that are necessary for current limiting applications.
Additionally, blended polymer compositions have been used to produce conductive polymer compositions that have PTC characteristics. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,250,228 (Baigrie et. al.) discloses compositions that have conductive material dispersed in a mutually soluble mixture of an essentially amorphous thermoplastic and a liquid thermoset polymer. The miscible polymer mixtures provide for increased conductive material loadings compared to prior thermoset polymer compositions, combined with increased thermal stability over compositions utilizing only thermoplastic polymers.
A disadvantage of these materials are that the polymers used in the material are limited to miscible polymers. Also, while the addition of a thermoset to the matrix material provides some degree of increased stability compared to a pure, essentially amorphous thermoplastic matrix material, the material remains relatively unsuitable for high temperature and current limiting applications. In addition, the low temperature resistance of these materials tends to increase with successive thermal cycles, known as "ratcheting", unless strict processing controls are followed.
Thus, it is apparent that the conductive polymer compositions currently available do not provide the versatility and durability required to become a viable alternative to mechanical circuit breakers in the industry. Accordingly, there is a need for conductive polymer compositions that are thermally stable and can be processed to have PTC characteristics in both high and low resistance devices and applications in a cost effective manner.

Conductive polymer compositions, electrical devices and methods of making