A lens barrel has a base, a second lens holder frame holding a second lens group, a first lens holder frame holding a first lens group, a cam ring, and a fixed ring. The second lens holder frame has three guides projecting axially from an outer circumferential portion of an annular plate and disposed at circumferentially equally spaced intervals. Guide grooves are defined in respective portions of the annular plate which are radially inwardly faced by the guides. Guide posts engage respectively in the guide grooves, so that the second lens holder frame is nonrotatably, but axially movably supported by the guide posts.

The present invention relates to a collapsible lens barrel and an image pickup apparatus.
Some lens barrels incorporated in image pickup apparatuses such as digital still cameras, digital video cameras, etc. have a cam ring with a cam groove defined in an inner circumferential surface thereof and a lens holder frame which is nonrotatably, but axially movably held radially in the cam ring and which holds a lens assembly. The lens holder frame has a cam pin engaging in the cam groove such that the lens holder frame moves axially when the cam ring rotates about its own axis. For details, see Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-267917, for example.
One such lens barrel is illustrated in FIG. 30 of the accompanying drawings. As shown in FIG. 30, the lens barrel has a linear guide ring 3 interposed between the outer circumferential surface of a lens holder frame 1 and the inner circumferential surface of a cam ring 2.
The linear guide ring 3 is nonrotatably mounted on the lens barrel 1 and has axially linear guide grooves 3A defined therein. Cam pins 1A of the lens holder frame 1 extend through the guide grooves 3A and engage in cam grooves 2A defined in the cam ring 2. The lens holder frame 1 is nonrotatably, but axially movably held radially in the cam ring 2.
With the lens barrel in related art, however, since the linear guide ring 3 is interposed between the outer circumferential surface of the lens holder frame 1 and the inner circumferential surface of the cam ring 2, it poses limitations on efforts to reduce the diameter of the lens barrel and hence size of the lens barrel.
If the lens barrel has two lens holder frames 1 (only one lens holder frame 1 is shown in FIG. 30), then the cam grooves 2A in the cam ring 2 which are engaged by the cam pins 1A, 1B of the lens holder frames 1 extend continuously circumferentially at least fully around the cam ring 2, and the cam pins 1A, 1B are guided at different positions in the guide grooves 3A in the linear guide ring 3.
The lens holder frames 1 are assembled into the cam ring 2 with the linear guide ring 3 interposed therebetween, as follows.
First, the linear guide ring 3 is inserted into the cam ring 2, and then turned to align the guide grooves 3A with open ends 2B of the cam grooves 2A in the cam ring 2. Then, the cam pins 1A of one of the lens holder frames 1 are inserted into the open ends 2B and caused to engage in the cam grooves 2A.
Then, the cam ring 2 is rotated by one revolution to move the one of the lens holder frames 1 axially.
Thereafter, the linear guide ring 3 is turned to align the guide grooves 3A with the open ends 2B of the cam ring 2. Then, the cam pins 1B of the other lens holder frame 1 are inserted into the open ends 2B and caused to engage in the cam grooves 2A.
Then, the cam ring 2 is rotated to move the other lens holder frame 1 axially.
The assembling process is complex because the guide grooves 3A of the linear guide ring 3 need to be aligned with the open ends 2B of the cam grooves 2A twice and the linear guide ring 3 needs to be rotated by one revolution.

Collapsible lens barrel and imaging device


A first insulating film consisting of an insulating material is formed on a major surface of a semiconductor substrate. On the first insulating film, a wire comprising a first conductive layer, which contains one of elemental Ti and a Ti compound, is formed. Cover films consisting of silicon nitride cover the upper surface, the bottom surface, and the side surfaces of the wire having a multilayer structure. Accordingly, a semiconductor device in which insulation defects are unlikely to occur even when the degree of integration is increased can be provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor devices and manufacturing methods therefor, and more particularly, relates to a semiconductor device including wires consisting of elemental titanium (Ti) or a Ti-containing conductive material and to a manufacturing method therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional method for manufacturing a multilayer wiring structure including Ti layers will be described with reference to FIGS. 3A to 3F.
As shown in FIG. 3A, a first interlayer insulating film 200, which is formed of borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG) and provided on a surface of a silicon substrate, is planarized by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). On the surface of the first interlayer insulating film 200 thus planarized, a second interlayer insulating film 201 of 100 nm thick consisting of silicon oxide is formed by chemical vapor deposition (CVD).
As shown in FIG. 3B, on the second interlayer insulating film 201, a Ti film 202 having a thickness of 40 nm, a titanium nitride (TiN) film 203 having a thickness of 20 nm, and tungsten (W) film 204 having a thickness of 100 nm are deposited in that order. In addition, on the W film 204, an antireflection film 205 formed of SiON is deposited.
As shown in FIG. 3C, a resist pattern 206 is formed on the antireflection film 205. The resist pattern 206 covers areas at which wires are to be formed. Etching from the antireflection film 205 to the Ti film 202 is performed by using the resist pattern 206 as a mask. After etching, the resist pattern 206 is removed.
As shown in FIG. 3D, multilayer wires 207 each consisting of the Ti film 202, the TiN film 203, and the W film 204 are formed.
As shown in FIG. 3E, a third interlayer insulating film 208 of 10 to 20 nm thick consisting of silicon nitride is formed by low pressure CVD so as to cover the exposed surface of the second interlayer insulating film 201 and the multilayer wires 207.
As shown in FIG. 3F, on the third interlayer insulating film 208, a fourth interlayer insulating film 209 of 700 nm thick consisting of silicon oxide is formed by high density plasma CVD. On the fourth interlayer insulating film 209, a fifth interlayer insulating film 210 of 350 nm thick consisting of silicon nitride is formed by plasma enhanced CVD. The bottom of the multilayer wire 207 is in contact with the second interlayer insulating film 201, and the side surfaces and the upper surface of the multilayer wire 207 are in contact with the third interlayer insulating film 208, so that the multilayer wire 207 is insulated from the other conductive regions.
However, when the degree of integration of a semiconductor integrated circuit device is increased, it was found that insulation defects between wires or between a wire and another conductive plug were likely to occur.

Semiconductor device including titanium wires and manufacturing method therefor


A performance instructing apparatus is provided wherein data that meet a predetermined condition or conditions are extracted from each predetermined range of automatic performance data, and the predetermined range and the predetermined condition used when the data are extracted are changed depending upon a performance level entered through a performance level input device. The data extracted from the automatic performance data may be used for guiding a player through the performance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a performance instructing apparatus adapted to arrange automatic performance data and produce performance guide data used for guiding a player through performance.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, a performance instructing apparatus having a performance guide function is known wherein a light-emitting diode (LED) (keyboard LED) provided for each key on a keyboard is turned on as automatic performance data representing a tune or a song is reproduced, so as to inform a player of the timing when the key should be depressed, and wherein the reproduction of the tune is stopped until the player depresses the key designated by the light-emitting diode. Thus, the reproduction of the automatic performance data proceeds concurrently with the performance of the player guided by the apparatus (concurrent proceedings).
In a known method for guiding the player through the performance, a track (guide track) exclusively used for performance guide is provided in addition to tracks for the automatic performance data, and performance guide data (for example, key codes of keys to be depressed by the player) are stored in this guide track, so as to allow the concurrent proceedings as described above. In this method, the automatic performance data are read from the automatic performance data tracks as the tune goes on, while at the same time the performance guide data are read from the guide track, to thus perform the concurrent proceedings based on the performance guide data thus read. To enable the player to practice the tune according to the performance level of himself/herself, it has been proposed to prepare a plurality of kinds of performance guide data that vary with respective performance levels, to thus allow the player to select a desired one from the data thus prepared.
Although the conventional performance instructing apparatus as described above may enable the player to practice a tune or a song according to his/her performance level, the level of the performance guide is determined or limited by the prepared performance guide data. If performance guide data that matches the level of the player are not prepared for the tune the player wishes to practice, therefore, the player must practice the tune at a level different from the player's performance level. Even if the tune selected by the player based on his/her performance level includes some grace notes, chords and the like which are difficult to play, the player is directed by the performance guide to play these notes and chords as they are. This may cause the player to give up practicing before achieving a desired level, particularly in the case where the player is a beginner.


A synchronous vitreous lavage device for ophthalmology includes a platform, a pair of main and auxiliary supporters, a pair of guiding arms, a movable seat and a pair of clamps. When the movable seat moves in the direction of the guiding arms, the lavage device simultaneously drains bloody water from an eyeball and injects lavage water into the eyeball by means of two syringes. The bloody water in the eyeball can be easily removed from the eyeball at a cheap cost. An ophthalmologic lavaging system is formed by connecting two regulating syringes through two three-way valves to the lavage device.

After an ophthalmological surgical operation, such as retina surgical operation, has been performed on a patient, some bloody water remains within the patient eyeball and should be removed from the eyeball. Conventional method of removing the bloody water is to perform an additional ophthalmological surgical operation. The conventional method is costly, dangerous and time-consuming.

Synchronous vitreous lavage device for ophthalmology and an ophthalmologic lavaging system using the same


A furniture system has a longitudinally extending member (2), a component (4) comprising a mounting member (10) and a component mounting system for mounting the component (4) on the longitudinally extending member (2). The component mounting system includes a support member (7), a clamp member (11) and a fixing member (12). In use, the support member (7) is adapted to be located between the component (4) and the longitudinally extending member (2). The fixing member (12) extends through the clamp member (11) and the support member (7) to engage with the component mounting member (10). Engaging the fixing member (12) with the component mounting member (10) causes the clamp member (11) to engage with an engagement formation (24) on the longitudinally extending member (2) to clamp the support member (7) between the longitudinally extending member (2) and the component (4) to mount the component (4) on the longitudinally extending member (2).

It has become common place for furniture systems for waiting and audience areas, such as airport lounges, or stadiums or auditoriums to have seats and in some instances, other furniture components, mounted on a horizontal beam that is supported on a floor by legs. Typically, the legs, the seats and any arms, tables, power units or linking bars, are all mounted on the beam. The seats used may be fixed seats in which the seat portion and back portion are fixed relative to each other or may be flip-up seats in which the seat portion can rotate relative to the back portion and the beam between a horizontal, in use position, and a vertical, stowed position. The flip-up seat type is common particularly in auditoriums or stadiums, where the stowed position enables easier access by users between rows of seats. The fixed seat arrangement is more common in waiting areas, where seating is more spaced out and access between closely arranged rows is not required.
The mounting of all the components on a single support beam increases flexibility of configuration and also enables the configuration to be modified if necessary. For example, one beam mounted on legs can be used to support four seats with arms, four seats without arms, three seats and one table or two seats and two tables, with or without arms. It is also possible in these systems to run electrical or data cables through the beam to also permit mounting of power units, including for example, power sockets and/or communication sockets, on the beam, for example, adjacent to seats or adjacent to or on tables.
In these conventional furniture systems, it is common place for a mounting bracket to be fixed to the underside of the seat, usually using a threaded fastener. The seat is then mounted on the beam using further threaded fasteners that usually either penetrate through the mounting bracket into threaded engagement with the beam or alternatively, by the use of clamps which are clamped onto a formation on the beam using threaded fasteners that threadedly engage with the mounting bracket. In a further alternative, the mounting brackets are arranged such that they clamp fully around the extent of the beam.
These conventional systems have the disadvantage of requiring a load bearing and torque bearing fixing between the mounting bracket and the seat and a further load bearing and torque bearing connection between the beam and the mounting bracket using the fasteners which either threadedly engage with the beam or with the mounting bracket to fix mounting brackets to the beams.
Another disadvantage of these conventional furniture systems is that where arms are mounted on the beam between seats, the arms must be mounted using at least two separate fixings in order to fix the arm to the beam.


A terminal block is disclosed. The terminal block includes a body that forms a chamber and an opening configured to facilitate passage of a lug terminal from an exterior environment into the chamber. A movable first ferromagnetic object is positioned in the chamber. An electrical contact is exposed to the chamber, and a second ferromagnetic object is configured to magnetically attract the movable first ferromagnetic object in a direction toward the electrical contact.

A ring lug terminal is a type of electrical connector with a ring metal structure that is crimped at the end of a wire and can be used to electrically couple the wire to a conductive path using a screw and a nut. A spade lug terminal is similar to a ring lug terminal but uses a spade or bi-fork metal structure rather than a ring metal structure.
A terminal block is often used to electrically couple wires with lug terminals to various electrical paths. However, it can be tedious and time-consuming to connect lug terminals to a terminal block. Terminal blocks are often used in test environments to test an electronic device, where the connections need be secure during testing but are not permanent. Thus, the lug terminals are first connected to the terminal block, and the device is tested. The lug terminals are then disconnected from the terminal block. Devices under test may have hundreds of different wires that need to be connected to and then disconnected from the terminal block. Connecting and disconnecting hundreds of lug terminals with respect to a terminal block can take a relatively long period of time, and greatly extends the amount of time it takes to test a device, limiting the number of devices that can be tested in a given period of time.
Accordingly, there is a need for a terminal block that facilitates quick and intuitive connection and disconnection of lug terminals.

Lug terminals block for quick connection and disconnection


A cam phaser (10) dynamically adjusts a rotational relationship of a camshaft (24) of an internal combustion engine with respect to an engine crankshaft (34). A cam sprocket (20) can be driven by an endless loop power transmission member connected to a drive sprocket (36) mounted for rotation with the engine 5 crankshaft (34). The cam phaser (10) can include a planetary gear drive train (12) having a centrally located sun gear (14) connected for rotation with the cam sprocket (20), a ring gear (18) connected for rotation with the camshaft (24), and a plurality of planet gears (16a, 16b) supported by a carrier (22) in meshing engagement between the sun gear (14) and the ring gear (18). A phase adjustment gear (26) can be 10 connected for rotation with the carrier (22). The sun gear (14) can drive the planet gears (16a, 16b) in rotation thereby causing the ring gear (18) to be driven in rotation. Rotational movement the phase adjustment gear (26) can adjustably vary a cam phase position of the camshaft (24) relative to the crankshaft (34).

There are many different devices currently in production to achieve this phasing of the engine camshaft. For example, see U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0064997; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0206322; U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,506,623; 7,047,923; 6,971,352; 6,138,622; 6,129,061; 5,680,837; 5,361,736; 5,327,859; 4,850,427; and German Patent No. DE4110195. While each of these devices appear suitable to perform the intended function, it has been found that the devices have high overall cost and/or large clearance dimensions. It would desirable to provide a cam phaser with lower clearance dimensions and at a lower overall cost.

Electric motor driven simple planetary cam phaser


An over-sampled sequence detector operates on sampled data and tracks the detection reliability of the sampled data. The detector separately analyzes sample sequences for different sampling phases and then picks a sample sequence that allows for the most reliable detection. For the different sampling phases, the detector inspects some amount of look-behind and look-ahead information in order to improve upon simple symbol-by-symbol detection. The over-sampled information is used to further improve detection performance.

High-speed digital communication represents an increasingly important technology. An increasing number of analog communication links are replaced with high-speed serial links offering reliability, link quality (e.g. low Bit Error Rate (BER)), simplicity of use and low cost to end users.
For example, modern computer displays and High-Definition Television (HDTV) displays often employ high-speed serial links based on industry standards such as Digital Visual Interface (DVI) and High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI). The aggregate data rate for such links is generally in the Gigabits/second range. For example, the DVI link baud rate approaches 5 Gigabaud, with many vendors offering products exceeding this limit by non-trivial margins.
Another example is a serial Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) interface for connecting storage devices in computer systems. This application also requires data rates of about 2 Gigabits/second and above.
Still other examples are high-speed Local Area Network (LAN) applications such as Gigabit Ethernet (such as 1000Base-T) as well as emerging 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GBASE-T) standards.
The links underlying these and similar examples have many common requirements. They require high-speed operation, an ability to tolerate substantial deterministic and/or non-deterministic data jitter, an ability to tolerate substantial frequency offset and/or frequency modulation (FM), good effective BER, an ability to operate with small horizontal eye openings (for example a 0.4 unit interval (UI) eye width specification is not uncommon), high tracking bandwidth, fast phase acquisition and good tracking range, to name a few.
One popular implementation of a receiver for such a high-speed serial link is based on receiver data over-sampling combined with so called 'Phase picking' to select 'good' sample streams. Common DVI link implementations use an over-sampling factor of L=3, and data sampling is often done without any phase tracking. Once the over-sampled data stream is available, the phase picker retains one sample out of L samples by using some type of phase tracking approach (such as transition phase averaging) in order to select the optimal sample.
While such a technique is relatively simple and inexpensive to implement, it suffers from a variety of problems. For instance, some line codes employed today have very wide frequency spectrums (i.e. poor run length (d,k)-constraints). This problem is especially acute for DVI/HDMI links which can have runs from 1 to 14 symbols. For reasons of stability and robustness, phase pickers have to operate with relatively narrow tracking bandwidths. The downside of such an approach is an inability to track deterministic jitter present in the over-sampled data. Narrow tracking bandwidth also places limitations in settling speeds (i.e. phase acquisition times), causes poor transient performance and sometimes narrows the capture range.
One fundamental problem of the phase picking approach is its inability to use all available over-sampled data in the detection process. Common phase picker implementations simply discard L−1 samples for each symbol, retaining just one out of L received samples. Hence, the over-sampled data is used only for phase tracking and not for data detection. Thus, the phase picker discards many data samples which carry useful information about the symbol which is being decoded. In common DVI/HDMI implementations, about ⅔ of the information available to the receiver is simply discarded.
If the data rate is moderate and the eye opening is adequate, such as when the link employs a short high-quality Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) cable, the loss caused by such a phase picking approach is tolerable and makes for an inexpensive receiver implementation. However, once the data rate is increased and/or a longer or lower quality cable is used, such as an Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) cable, the available eye width becomes smaller and receiver performance begins to degrade rapidly.
For example, it can be shown that such a traditional phase-averaging phase picker requires an eye opening that is greater than 2 sampling intervals in order to reliably detect data symbols. In case of a common implementation using L=3 samples, this implies that the eye width should be at least 0.7 UI if data errors due to phase picking are to be avoided. Such a limitation is quite acceptable at low speeds and/or short transmission distances, but becomes an expensive luxury at higher data rates and often requires good equalization and pre-emphasis techniques which are relatively expensive.
In addition, many traditional phase picking approaches are difficult to implement at high speeds and/or high over-sampling factors because they generally do not provide an easy way for parallel-processing of the samples. From a receiver implementation standpoint, it is often desirable to have the receiver complexity depend linearly on the over-sampling factor, thus providing for narrower eye specification. Many existing phase picking methods do not exhibit such a linear increase in complexity and instead grow with the square of the over-sampling factor or even more.
An alternative class of receivers well known in the art is represented by so called 'Majority Voting' over-sampled receivers. This technique was widely used in the past for low speed links and offers some linear and/or non-linear filtering of the data, often improving the robustness and BER of the link, provided a good eye opening is available, such as an eye opening of 0.9 UI or wider. Such receivers are also inexpensive to implement, which is an important reason for their popularity in the past. However, once the eye opening begins to shrink, as is common is today's high-speed serial links, the performance of such a 'Majority Voting' receiver quickly becomes unsatisfactory. Furthermore, in general such a receiver has difficulty handling data streams with high frequency offset and frequency modulation, as well as data streams with high non-deterministic jitter.
Compared to traditional 'analog' clock and data recovery (also known as CDR) techniques, data detections and/or phase tracking in the digital domain often have the advantages of portability between different fabrication processes, simple design and low cost. In addition, many non-linear detection and/or filtering methods that might be unavailable for analog implementation are often inexpensive to implement in the digital domain. Furthermore, even though conventional analog CDR often provides good phase tracking performance, it seldom contributes to improved data detection per se; most analog CDRs have a simple sampler for data detection that takes just one sample per symbol. Thus, if substantial eye closure due to high deterministic jitter is present, analog CDR performance becomes unsatisfactory.
In general, the best receiver operation performance may be achieved if every symbol is detected (i.e. sampled) at the point of maximum eye opening height. However, such a sampling point is difficult, and often impossible, to find. In order to determine an 'optimal' sampling point, a receiver usually consults data transitions for guidance. However, such data transitions generally do not occur right at symbol boundaries. Their position is affected by deterministic jitter (caused by inter-symbol interference (ISI) determined by the history of preceding symbols), non-deterministic jitter introduced by noise in various components of the transmission system (such as clock generator phase noise, imprecise slicing of signal by sampler resulting in amplitude and time offsets, additive and multiplicative channel noise, etc.), crosstalk-induced jitter and frequency offset and frequency modulation often present in such a link. In addition, the link often suffers from nonlinear distortions that further complicate reception.
Because the location of transitions may not provide reliable information regarding an optimal sampling point for the current symbol, the receiver may attempt to filter the sampling phase information derived from the observation of the transitions in order to arrive at some acceptable sampling phase. For instance, many existing implementations apply either a linear filter with low-pass transfer characteristics or some nonlinear filter with noise suppression properties (e.g. a median filter). However, the sampling phase position obtained with such a method is often non-optimal in the symbol-by-symbol sense. This is because it is difficult to separate deterministic components (such as ISI and crosstalk) from pure non-deterministic phase noise and frequency offset. While non-deterministic phase noise should be filtered out (i.e. suppressed), the deterministic part as well as the frequency offset should be tracked in order to provide good receiver performance. A filtering approach is often unable to make such a distinction and thus, overall detection performance suffers.
There are other well-known methods that attempt to improve the performance, such as sequence detection method based on the Viterbi Algorithm (VA) and its modifications, as well as feedback detection schemes and Decision Feedback Equalization (DFE). These approaches work well and allow to account for ISI and other deterministic components, thus improving overall performance and simplifying the sampling phase tracking task (since it now only needs to handle non-deterministic parts as well as frequency offsets). However, sequence-detection based methods often are complex and expensive to implement, generally requiring multi-bit sampling (i.e. analog-to-digital conversion (ADC)) and extensive computations on a symbol-by-symbol basis. Once the data rate starts to approach the Gigabit/second range, sequence detectors quickly become impractical. Even at low rates, VD (Viterbi Decoding) and DFE based receivers are prohibitively expensive to implement.
Therefore, what is needed is a simple yet efficient way to build a data receiver with over-sampled data reception which doesn't suffer from the problems which plague traditional phase pickers, 'Majority Voting' and analog CDR receivers.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for reception of data over a transmission link


A new vacuum cleaner has a removable rack that combines both tool storage elements and hose fence elements in a compact arrangement. The rack is snapped in place. Laterally-spaced fence elements help hold the hose against the main body of the vacuum cleaner, and hooked upper ends help to retain the hose in place. The outer surfaces of the fence element have adjacent concave outer surfaces that form parts of two separate tool storage elements. One of the retainers has opposed ends that form a clip that can hold a vacuum hose accessory in place. The other retainer has a lower lateral end that extends radially outwardly to an upwardly projecting stem section. The stem section is sized to fit within an interior portion of a vacuum hose accessory.

The present invention relates generally to vacuum cleaners, and more particularly to household vacuum cleaners that have a tank, a lid, and a hose.
Household vacuum cleaners commonly have long hoses and accessories that attach to the hose, such as shaped nozzles. Not all purchasers keep the original carton packaging, and when the vacuum cleaner is stored in a closet, the hose and accessories tend to end up sprawled across the closet.
Some vacuum cleaners have been provided with tool storage holes or slots, like those shown in D623367 and in D676207, that can be used for storing accessories.
Others vacuum cleaners have been provided with hose fence elements like the one seen in co-pending application Ser. No. 29/458,837.

Vacuum cleaner with hose fence and tool storage


An adamantanetricarboxylic acid derivative is represented by following Formula (1):

This Nonprovisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) on Patent Application No(s). 2003-086166 filed in Japan on Mar. 26, 2003, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel adamantanetricarboxylic acid derivative which is useful for the formation of a film of a polybenzazole (imidazole, oxazole or thiazole) having high heat resistance and a low dielectric constant.
2. Description of the Related Art
Polybenzazoles having an adamantane skeleton are useful as highly heat resistant resins (Journal of Polymer Science, Part A-1 (1970), 8(12), p. 3665-3666). In particular, highly crosslinked polybenzazoles using a trifunctional adamantane derivative involve a multitude of molecular-scale voids, have a low relative dielectric constant and satisfactory mechanical strength and heat resistance and are thereby very useful as materials for interlayer dielectrics (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2001-332543). These highly crosslinked polybenzazoles can be prepared, for example, by heating a material in the presence of a condensing agent such as a polyphosphoric acid. However, the resulting highly crosslinked resin is hardly soluble in solvent and cannot be significantly applied to a substrate by coating, thus a film having a sufficient thickness necessary as an interlayer dielectric cannot be significantly formed.
A thin film of a wholly aromatic chain polybenzazole is formed by a method in which an aldehyde derivative as a material monomer is spread over an aqueous solution of an amine as another material monomer to form a film by polymerization on a gas-liquid interface; the film is laminated on a substrate by a horizontal attachment method and is subjected to a thermal treatment in the air to form a thin film of a polybenzazole (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 62-183881). However, the method is not suitable for industrial production, since it takes quite a long time to form the thin film. In addition, the precursor polyimine is subjected to an oxidative thermal treatment in a final process, and the resulting polybenzazole film may be possibly oxidized, thus a lower dielectric constant as a dielectric film is not expected.
In addition, adamantanepolycarboxylic acid derivatives used as a material monomer have a significantly high polarity as a compound and are soluble in quite limited types of solvents. In particular, these monomers are hardly soluble in a solvent having a relatively low polarity, and a film having a thickness of several hundreds nanometers required as an interlayer dielectric for a semiconductor device cannot significantly be formed. Thus, dielectric films of highly crosslinked polybenzazoles using a trifunctional adamantane derivative have been hardly formed.

Abstract: wherein X is a hydrogen atom or a hydrocarbon group; and R1, R2 and R3 may be the same as or different from one another and are each a carboxyl group which may be protected by a protecting group, or a carbonyl halide group, wherein at least one of R1, R2 and R3 is a carboxyl group which is protected by a protecting group, or a carbonyl halide group.


The present invention relates to a cleaning implement comprising elastic compressed foam and to a method of cleaning a hard surface with said cleaning implement.

Open-cell foams and in particular melamine-formaldehyde resin foams (also referred to herein as melamine foams) are well known in the art for use in industrial applications, for example, as heat or sound insulating materials as well as for fire protection purposes. Indeed, in the automotive industry, open-cell foams are commonly used to insulate motor compartments and driver cabins of cars and trucks.
Recently, a novel application for such open-cell foams in the area of hard surface cleaning has been discovered. Indeed, cleaning implements of cut or molded pieces of such open-cell foam, and in particular melamine foam, have become popular to remove soils and/or stains from hard surfaces (i.e., cleaning of hard surfaces) such as tiles, walls, floors, sanitary fittings such as sinks, showers, shower curtains, wash basins, WCs, household appliances including, but not limited to, refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, automatic dryers, ovens, microwave ovens, dishwashers and so on. Indeed, melamine foam sponges are currently marketed under the tradename Mr. Clean Magic Eraser®.
It is has been observed that open-cell foam (and melamine foam in particular) shows good soil and/or stain removal performance when used to clean hard surfaces, on stains/soils such as marks on walls and furniture. Indeed, it has been observed that open-cell foams (and melamine foam in particular) when wetted with an appropriate solvent, such as tap water, removes soils and/or stains from a hard surface when said hard surface is brought into contacted with said wetted modified open-cell foam. By "bringing into contact" it is meant wiping, swiping, rubbing or the like. In order for the open-cell foam (and melamine foam in particular) to optimally remove soils and/or stains from hard surfaces substantial amounts of an appropriate solvent, such as tap water, have to be used. Most commonly, tap water is used by the users of melamine foam when removing soils and/or stains from hard surfaces. When used with water or any other appropriate solvent, the open-cell foam (and melamine foam in particular) comes off as small particles (meaning, the foam crumbles) when brought into contact with a hard surface. Indeed, a milky suspension of small modified open-cell foam (and melamine foam in particular) particles in water is formed. However there has been the need for better soil and/or stain removal with better durability upon use.
It is therefore, an objective of the present invention to provide a cleaning implement based on inventive foam, wherein said implement is capable of (improved) cleaning greasy soap scum soils and neat kitchen dirt (grease) from hard surfaces and at the same time shows excellent durability upon use.
It has now been found that the above objective can be met by the use of elastic compressed foam according to the present invention to clean hard surfaces. Indeed, the objectives are met by the cleaning implement according to the present invention comprising such elastic compressed foam, the method of cleaning hard surfaces with such a cleaning implement or the method of cleaning hard surfaces with the inventive foams.

Cleaning implement comprising elastic compressed foam


A portable LED lamp can be removably attached to a stand. The stand has connectors that are usable to retain the lamp as well as supply power to the lamp from an external-power supply source. The connectors can also serve as pivot points for a user to pivot the portable LED lamp when it is attached to the stand. In some embodiments, a dual level circuit board assembly is also provided for the portable LED lamp, with LEDs coupled to both levels of the circuit board assembly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to portable lamps.
2. Description of Related Art
Table lamps (or desk lamps) serve a wide range of purposes within the home, from bedside reading lamps to desk study lamps to mood-enhancing living room lamps. Many homes are outfitted with a large collection of differing types of table lamps, each being necessary for serving different purposes, such as providing different levels and qualities of light for different activities.
Also, portable lights, such as flashlights, are often kept within homes. These lights sources can be conveniently and portably taken from room to room or on trips to illuminate otherwise dark areas temporarily, without the need for external power supply. For most table lamps, that is impractical, as many require external electrical power sources.
It would be desirable to have a table lamp that can serve multiple lighting purposes, but which also has aesthetic appeal for the home and is power efficient, for long-term use without an external power source.


A planar discharge plasma display device is disclosed, wherein common third signal lines, first signal lines for display discharge, and second signal lines for auxiliary discharge are formed on a rear plate, and barrier ribs for preventing cross-talk between pixels are formed together. Particularly, the signal lines and barrier ribs formed in the same direction constitute an accumulated structure so that the display discharge can be caused fast and stably, and also the occupation area of pixel per unit area is maximized, thereby realizing an image display of higher density.

The present invention relates to a plasma display device, and more particularly to a planar discharge plasma display device.
Generally, a direct current (DC) plasma display device is formed in such a manner that a plurality of stripe-like anodes and cathodes are arranged in the form of an X-Y matrix on each inner surface of two parallel substrates, and barrier ribs for preventing cross-talk between anodes are formed with a predetermined height. In such a plasma display device, the anodes and cathodes are exposed to an inner space filled with a discharge gas, so that a DC discharge is generated between the exposed upper anodes and lower cathodes, i.e., at a pixel, by a DC voltage sequentially supplied to each anode and cathode. However, the conventional plasma display device is disadvantageous in that the luminance deteriorates because the discharge light is transmitted through a transparent anode. Moreover, since the anodes and the cathodes which constitute pixels are separately formed on the front and rear plates, the fabrication process is difficult and complicated.
To solve the above problems, this inventor has suggested a plasma display device of a structure as shown in FIG. 1 (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/785,107, filed on Nov. 2, 1990).
In the suggested plasma display device, a plurality of anode signal lines 31' and cathode signal lines 41' in the form of an X-Y matrix are arranged on a rear plate 20' and a front plate 10' which are spaced at a predetermined distance. The both sets of signal lines 31' and 41' are isolated from the discharge space by the respective upper insulating layers 51' and 52'. A discharge electrode, e.g., an anode 30' and a cathode 40', is extruded and extended from the signal lines 31' and 41' with a certain pitch interval, and is exposed to the discharge space. Barrier ribs 60a' of a specified height are formed over and parallel to anode signal lines 31'.
The plasma display device having the aforementioned structure comprises a plurality of pixels in each of which an anode and a cathode spaced apart from each other at a predetermined distance are opposed near each intersection of an opposing anode signal line 31' and cathode signal line 41', which are insulated from each other. Accordingly, one signal line is selected by sequentially supplied scanning signals, thereby causing a discharge between the corresponding anode 30' and cathode 40', which is generated in the planar direction in parallel with the rear plate. The discharge light generated by the discharge is transmitted through to the front plate, to be visualized.
In the aforementioned plasma display device, since discharge is caused in the planar direction parallel to the rear plate, the discharge light is not lost through a transparent anode as in the conventional device and directly proceeds to the front plate. Accordingly, its luminance efficiency is higher than that of the aforementioned conventional plasma display device.
However, the plasma display device suggested by this inventor requires high breakdown voltage for initial discharging because discharge is caused only by directly supplying a voltage between the cathode and the anode. Accordingly, its response characteristic is bad because a certain amount of time is required until discharge starts, after supplying the voltage.


An engine component assembly is disclosed having a bi-material wrist pin which secures a piston rotatably to an associated connecting rod. The bi-material wrist pin includes a cylindrical ceramic core. Surrounding the cylindrical core is a tubular shell which fixedly secures the core in relation to the shell. The shell rotatably cooperates with the piston and is fixed in relation to the connecting rod.

1. Field Of The Invention
This invention relates to an engine component assembly, and more particularly to wrist pins for deployment therein.
2. Related Art Statement
The implications of mass reduction in reciprocating components of piston engines is well defined. Two strategies are conventionally utilized to take advantage of reduced mass: power may be increased by a factor proportional to the mass reduction by allowing the dynamic loads to remain constant while increasing the engine speed (if valve train components are upgraded simultaneously); or fuel economy benefits may be realized by reducing mass and associated friction, while maintaining a constant engine speed.
Numerous reciprocating piston engines are known which utilize a piston pivotally connected to a connecting rod by a wrist pin. In use, the piston forms a movable gas-tight plug which confines a charge within a cylinder and transmits to the connecting rod forces generated by combustion of the charge. Since the piston forms a guide and a bearing for a piston-connecting end of the connecting rod, the piston operates under lateral thrust due to an oblique inclination of that rod. Wrist pin bosses are formed within the skirt located on the underside of the piston. If the wrist pin is fixed in relation to the connecting rod, and the wrist pin pivots freely within holes defined in wrist pin bosses, the lateral thrust loading tends to be distributed over a large bearing area.
Ideally, the combined weight of the piston and wrist pin is kept to a minimum to reduce vibration and the inertial loading on related bearings, and to avoid friction and other losses entailed in accelerating the piston/wrist pin in both directions.
Design considerations for piston/wrist pins include anticipating and accommodating considerable variation in operating temperatures--from starting cold, to very high temperatures at maximum output. Superimposed upon these variations are those which may be encountered in any given geographic location.
Thermal flow in a piston is from a crown, then outwardly out to a ring belt, whence heat is transferred through rings to cylinder walls (and thence to a coolant). The wrist pin is subjected to those thermal variations by heat transferred down to the skirt and across the bearing surfaces.
In modern internal combustion engines, if the height of the piston is reduced, the wrist pin becomes deployed more closely to the hot crown. As a result, lubricating difficulties are experienced due to the higher loads imposed by increased engine performance and higher operating temperatures.
Virtually all pistons are tapered from top to bottom. This compensates for differing expansion due to thermal gradients and variations in thickness of metal needed to transmit the gas and inertial loading from the crown to wrist pin bosses.
The wrist pin may be one of the most highly stressed engine components. Wrist pins must withstand bending, compression, and shear stresses without significant deformation over time in varying conditions of loading and temperature. If the wrist pin is unable to resist significant bending forces, the fatigue behavior of the associated wrist pin bosses will be adversely affected. If sub-optimal materials or dimensions are selected, partial seizure or scuffing may occur in the wrist pin bosses due to the very small clearances which are generally provided.
Where lighter pistons are used, the wrist pin contributes to a higher proportion of the total mass of the piston and wrist pin. In several cases, the wrist pin may account for 30%-40% of the total piston-wrist pin mass.
If the wrist pin is formed from a substantial mass of a suitable metallic material, it will generally not fail catastrophically, since deformation is likely to be limited to the elastic range. Nevertheless, the search resumes for suitable materials that may provide an increase in stiffness of the wrist pin.
Although many wrist pins in use today are made of case-hardened steel, some have been developed which are entirely formed from a ceramic material. Such approaches tend to suffer from the inability of present designs to resist failure of the pin and contain fracture debris to avoid catastrophic failure of associated engine components. Adverse damping characteristics of an all-ceramic wrist pin also adversely impact the noise associated with an oscillated piston/pin/connecting rod assembly. Additionally, to minimize friction, the outside diameter of ceramic piston pins need to be ground to achieve a desired surface texture. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a design wherein the outside diameter of a metal shell is in stationary contact with adjacent ceramic material and in rotary contact with associated wrist pin bosses, thereby avoiding the need for potentially expensive post-forming operations, such as grinding.

Wrist pin having a ceramic composite core


A method for removing uranium from uranium contaminated water involves adding uranium reducing microorganisms and an electron donor to uranium contaminated water to reduce U(VI) in the uranium contaminated water to U(IV) which in turn forms a UO.sub.2 precipitate The UO.sub.2 precipitate is then separated from the contaminated water.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a biological method for removing uranium from water.
2. Prior Art
Two biological methods have been previously described for removing uranium from water. One method is biosorption. In this technique the water is passed through the biomass of living or dead, usually dead, bacteria, fungi, yeast or algae. The uranium binds to the biomass through passive physical-chemical mechanisms. Microbial enzymatic activity is not directly involved. Patents which describe biosorption processes include U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,481 to Brierly et al and U.S. Pat. No. 4,530,763 to Clyde et al.
A major disadvantage of the biosorption method is that in most waters uranium is in a carbonate complex and uranium in such a complex does not readily adsorb onto biomass. Other disadvantages of biosorption methods include: 1. The limited capacity of biomass for uranium sorption. 2. The fact that other metals and cations may compete with uranium for adsorption sites and limit the extent of uranium adsorption. 3. The fact that biomass is expensive to generate and the method is only cost effective if waste biomass from some other process can be obtained. 4. The biosorbed uranium represents a large volume of waste of which only a fraction is uranium. 5. Although it is possible to regenerate some forms of biomass by extracting the uranium with salt solutions or acids, this extraction is expensive and can result in a large volume of corrosive, uranium containing waste. 6. Biosorption only poorly extracts uranium when it is present at low concentrations.
A second biological method for removing uranium from waters is to add glycerol-2-phosphate to the uranium-containing water and then treat the water with the microorganism Citrobacter sp. Citrobacter sp. has a phosphatase enzyme that releases phosphate from the glycerol-2-phosphate. The phosphate then forms an insoluble uranium precipitate on the cell surface.
Although this process involves an enzymatic reaction, the enzymatic reaction does not involve uranium. Disadvantages of this method are similar to those with biosorption: 1. It is hindered by the presence of carbonate. 2. It precipitates metals, other than uranium, that form an insoluble phosphate complex. 3. The amount of uranium that can be sorbed onto the cell surface is limited. 4. The sorbed uranium represents a large volume of waste of which only a fraction is uranium.
A nonbiological method that has been used for removing low levels of uranium from waters is ion exchange. In this method uranium is adsorbed onto various ion exchange resins. Disadvantages of this method are: 1 The ion exchange material has a limited capacity for adsorption. 2. Other metals and ions are adsorbed which limits the effectiveness and lifetime of the ion exchange material for uranium. 3. Uranium held in complexes may not be extracted with ion exchange materials. 4. Uranium adsorbed onto the ion exchange material produces a large volume of waste that must be disposed of, with only a small portion of the volume actually comprised of the uranium. 5. Removal of the uranium from the ion exchange material with high concentrations of salt or acid produce a highly corrosive uranium-containing waste and the use of such extractants is expensive. 6. Ion exchange resins only poorly extract uranium from water when uranium as in low concentrations. 7. Ion exchange materials are expensive.

Enzymatic reduction and precipitation of uranium

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Interior


The present disclosure relates to a Zener diode including a cathode region having a first conductivity type, formed on a surface of a semiconductor substrate having a second conductivity type. The Zener diode includes an anode region having the second conductivity type, formed beneath the cathode region. One or more trench isolations isolate the cathode and anode regions from a remainder of the substrate. A first conducting region is configured to, when subjected to an adequate voltage, generate a first electric field perpendicular to an interface between the cathode and anode regions. A second conducting region is configured to, when subjected to an adequate voltage, generate a second electric field parallel to the interface between the cathode and anode regions.

Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a Zener diode.
Description of the Related Art
Zener diodes are commonly used to regulate voltage in a circuit or to supply a stable reference voltage. For this purpose, a Zener diode is reverse-connected in parallel with a voltage source. When the voltage supplied by the voltage source reaches the breakdown voltage of the diode, the latter becomes conducting and then maintains the voltage at this value.
The present disclosure applies in particular to objects having an autonomous low power supply, to communicating objects and to energy harvesting circuits. In these applications, the breakdown voltage of the Zener diode should be as low as possible.
FIG. 1 is a cross-section of a conventional Zener diode formed in a substrate made of a semiconductor material of a first conductivity type, for example P. The Zener diode comprises a well NW having a doping of a second conductivity type, for example N, forming an anode region of the Zener diode. The Zener diode comprises a highly doped cathode region CD of the first P+-conductivity type, formed in the well NW. The region CD is formed on a region ZD having a high doping of the second N+-conductivity type. The regions CD and ZD are isolated from the rest of the well NW by a shallow trench isolation STI. The Zener diode comprises a highly doped anode connection region ED of the second N+-conductivity type formed in the well NW and isolated from the cathode region by the trench STI. Furthermore, the substrate SUB comprises a highly doped region SP of the first P+-conductivity type, forming a bias region of the substrate SUB. The substrate bias region SP is isolated from the regions CD, ZD by the shallow trench isolation STI.
FIG. 2 represents a curve C11 of variation of the current passing through the Zener diode according to the reverse voltage applied between the regions CD and ED. The curve C11 shows the operation of a conventional reverse-biased Zener diode. Between 0 and approximately 2.5V, the current passing through the diode remains low (lower than 10−12 A). From approximately 2.5V and up to approximately 5.2V, the current passing through the diode increases linearly (according to a logarithmic scale) up to approximately 10−8 A. This operating zone which results from a so-called "band to band" phenomenon cannot be used to supply a reference voltage or to perform a voltage regulation. Above approximately 5.2V, a breakdown phenomenon appears, the diode becoming highly conducting, by avalanche effect, while reaching a maximum voltage BV called "breakdown voltage" of approximately 5.5V. The diode keeps this voltage constant irrespective of the intensity of the current, provided that the latter remains between approximately 10−8 A and 10−6 A. Zener diodes are generally used in this operating zone, to supply a stable reference voltage or to perform a voltage regulation.
One proposal already made consists in lowering the breakdown voltage of a Zener diode by thinning the region ZD so as to obtain a transition between the two conductivity types of the regions CD and ZD that is as sudden as possible. However, this solution reaches a limit due to the very low thickness of the region ZD. This solution enables a current to be obtained which increases more rapidly at low voltage values than on the curve C11. The breakdown phenomenon also occurs at a lower voltage than on the curve C11, but the voltage continues to increase according to the current. The "band to band" phenomenon tends to extend over broader ranges of voltage and current values. In these conditions, the Zener diode cannot be used to supply a reference voltage or to perform a voltage regulation.

Zener diode having an adjustable low breakdown voltage


A memory device includes memory cells having a re-writeable element and a write-once element in series with the re-writeable element. The re-writeable element is programmable between a high resistance state and a low resistance state. The write-once element can be an anti-fuse element that is programmable from a high resistance state to a low resistance state, or a fuse element that is programmable from a low resistance state to a high resistance state. The two possible states for the re-writeable element and the two possible states for the write-once element allow the memory cells to store four different bits.

The technical field is memory devices for storing data. More particularly, the technical field is memory devices having memory cells capable of storing four different bits.
Memory devices are utilized in consumer electronic products to store data such as instructions utilized by the products. Nonvolatile memory devices are desirable because they do not require power to store data. Therefore, data stored in nonvolatile memory devices is preserved when a power supply is exhausted or disconnected from the memory device. Consumers also prefer products of small volume and low cost, and the requirements of nonvolatility, high density, and low cost are primary driving factors in the design of memory devices. Low power consumption is also desirable because smaller power sources can be used, reducing the size of consumer electronic products.
Nonvolatile memory devices typically have one time programmable (OTP) or reprogrammable memory cells. A reprogrammable, or xe2x80x9cre-writeablexe2x80x9d memory cell can be switched among binary states. An OTP, or xe2x80x9cwrite-oncexe2x80x9d memory cell""s state is permanent once the cell is programmed. OTP memory devices can generally be classified as one of fuse, anti-fuse, charge storage, or mask read only memory (mask ROM).
A fuse memory cell is programmed by applying a voltage across the cell so that the cell is xe2x80x9cblownxe2x80x9d during programming. The binary state of fuse memory cells can be detected as the resistance of the cell measured during a read process. Conventional fuse memory devices have a low array density because the contact regions required for each fuse element occupy a large area of the substrate. Conventional fuse memory cells also often include an isolation element such as a diode or transistor, which further increases cell size. Isolation diodes and transistors have limited current capability, and may be damaged by the write currents required to program the fuse memory cells. In addition, the isolation diodes and transistors are typically active silicon-based elements, which are most readily formed on a silicon crystal substrate. Isolation elements of this type may preclude stacking of multiple layers of fuse OTP arrays, decreasing possible device capacity. Silicon-based isolation elements such as micro-crystalline and amorphous diodes and transistors may enable stacking, but increase complexity and cost of fabrication.
Conventional anti-fuse memory cells typically include a metal-dielectric-metal stack. Conventional anti-fuse memory cells are programmed by applying a write potential across the cells. The write potential triggers the anti-fuse and reduces the resistance of a programmed memory cell. Conventional anti-fuse memory cells suffer many of the same disadvantages as fuse/transistor cells. For example, conventional anti-fuse memory cells may require silicon-based isolation elements, which decrease array density.
A common conventional charge storage memory is EPROM. EPROM memory utilizes Fowler-Nordheim tunneling to transfer charge from a substrate to a floating gate in the memory cell. EPROM memories require a large write voltage, and the write speed in EPROM devices is limited by tunneling current density.
Mask ROM memories are programmed at the time of fabrication, rather than at the user level (xe2x80x9cfield programmingxe2x80x9d). Therefore, each batch of mask ROM devices is application-specific. As in most manufacturing processes, cost savings are realized with increased volume. Therefore, in order for mask ROM production to be cost-effective, there must be a large demand for an application-specific memory. The requirement for large-scale processing renders mask ROM too costly for many applications.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional MRAM memory array 10 having resistive memory cells 12 located at cross points of word lines 14 and bit lines 16. The word lines 14 extend horizontally along rows of the memory array 10, and the bit lines 16 extend vertically along columns of the memory array 10. Each memory cell 12 is capable of storing the binary states of xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional MRAM memory cell 12. The memory cell 12 includes a pinned layer 24 and a free layer 18. The pinned layer 24 has a magnetization that has a fixed orientation, illustrated by the arrow 26. The magnetization of the free layer 18, illustrated by the bi-directional arrow 28, can be oriented in either of two directions along an xe2x80x9ceasy axisxe2x80x9d of the free layer 18. If the magnetizations of the free layer 18 and the pinned layer 24 are in the same direction, the orientation of the memory cell 12 is xe2x80x9cparallel.xe2x80x9d If the magnetizations are in opposite directions, the orientation is xe2x80x9canti-parallel.xe2x80x9d The two orientations correspond to the binary states of xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c0,xe2x80x9d respectively.
The free layer 18 and the pinned layer 24 are separated by an insulating tunnel barrier layer 20. The insulating tunnel barrier layer 20 allows quantum mechanical tunneling to occur between the free layer 18 and the pinned layer 24. The tunneling is electron spin dependent, making the resistance of the memory cell 12 a function of the relative orientations of the magnetizations of the free layer 18 and the pinned layer 24. The resistance of the memory cell 12 may have a xe2x80x9clowxe2x80x9d value of Rxe2x88x92xcex94/2 if the orientation is parallel, and a xe2x80x9chighxe2x80x9d value of R+xcex94/2 if the orientation is anti-parallel.
Each memory cell 12 in the memory array 10 can have its binary state changed by a write operation. Write currents Ix and Iy supplied to the word line 14 and the bit line 16 crossing at a selected memory cell 12 switch the magnetization of the free layer 18 between parallel and anti-parallel with the pinned layer 24. The current Iy passing through the bit line 16 results in the magnetic field Hx, and the current Ix passing through the word line 14 results in the magnetic field Hy. The fields Hx and Hy combine to switch the magnetic orientation of the memory cell 12 from parallel to anti-parallel. A currentxe2x88x92Iy can be applied with the current Ix to switch the memory cell 12 back to parallel. In order to switch the state of the memory cell 12 from parallel to anti-parallel, and vice versa, the combined field created by Hx and +/xe2x88x92Hy exceed a critical switching field Hc of the memory cell 12. The change in resistance due to the changing memory cell magnetization is readable to determine the binary state of the memory cell 12.
While MRAM memory provides for stable storage of data and reprogrammability, only two states can be stored in conventional MRAMs. The limitation of data storage to two bit states per MRAM memory cell limits the data storage density of conventional MRAM memory arrays.
A need therefore exists for a memory device having memory cells capable of high data storage density arrangement and relatively low cost.
According to a first aspect, a memory array includes a plurality of memory cells located at the intersections of word and bit lines. The memory cells each have two storage elements in series. One storage element is a re-writeable element, and the other is a write-once element. The re-writeable element is programmable between a high resistance state and a low resistance state. The write-once element can be an anti-fuse element that is also programmable from a high resistance state to a low resistance state, or a fuse element that is programmable from a low resistance state to a high resistance state.
According to the first aspect, the two possible states for the re-writeable element and the two possible states for the write-once element allow the memory cells to occupy four different states, and therefore store four bits of data.
Also according to the first aspect, the memory cells are smaller than conventional memory cells having diode/transistor isolation elements. This aspect further increases array density.
Also according to the first aspect, the memory device can operate at a low programming voltage by using a relatively thin tunnel barrier in the anti-fuse element.
Also according to the first aspect, the memory device can advantageously employ an equipotential read method because of the presence of the re-writeable element.
Also according to the first aspect, active silicon-based isolation diodes and/or transistors are not required to isolate the memory cells. The memory device can therefore include stacked memory elements, increasing array density.
Other aspects and advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Memory device having memory cells capable of four states


A light tower assembly for the high density illumination of an indoor or outdoor area by a portable power plant or a stationary power source includes at least one vertical support shaft, at least one cross member attached to the vertical support shaft and at least on omnidirectional heavy duty LED light bracket attached to the cross member, providing support to a high lumen LED light, with the heavy duty LED light bracket being moveably aimed within a range of 360 degrees from a pivotal mounting point on the cross member.

1. Field of Invention
A light tower assembly for the high density illumination of an indoor or outdoor area by a portable power plant or a stationary power source includes at least one vertical support shaft, at least one cross member attached to the vertical support shaft and at least on omnidirectional heavy duty LED light bracket attached to the cross member, providing support to a high lumen LED light, with the heavy duty LED light bracket being moveably aimed within a range of 360 degrees from a pivotal mounting point on the cross member.
2. Description of Prior Art
A preliminary review of prior art patents was conducted by the applicant which reveal prior art patents in a similar field or having similar use. However, the prior art inventions do not disclose the same or similar elements as the present light tower assembly, nor do they present the material components in a manner contemplated or anticipated in the prior art.


A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate having an active region which includes a gate forming zone and an isolation region; an isolation layer formed in the isolation region of the semiconductor substrate to expose side surfaces of a portion of the active region including the gate forming zone, such that the portion of the active region including the gate forming zone constitutes a fin pattern; a silicon epitaxial layer formed on the active region including the fin pattern; and a gate formed to cover the fin pattern on which the silicon epitaxial layer is formed.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a semiconductor device which has a fin transistor formed to reduce standby leakage current and increase driving current, and a method for manufacturing the same.
As the design rule of below 100 nm is applied for fabricating semiconductor devices, decreased channel length and width and increased doping concentration of a junction region of a transistor cause the junction leakage current to increase due to the increased number of electric fields. Then, it is difficult to achieve the threshold voltage demanded in a highly integrated semiconductor device by utilizing a transistor having the conventional planar channel structure, and there are limitations in improving the refresh characteristic of the semiconductor device.
Thus, a transistor having a three-dimensional channel structure has been studied in an effort to increase the channel length. A fin transistor is one type that has a three-dimensional channel structure. To form a fin transistor, a fin pattern having a projecting active region is formed by recessing an isolation layer, and a gate is then formed to cover the fin pattern. In the fin transistor, the short channel effect can be suppressed due to lowering of the drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL), and a current drive characteristic can be significantly improved since the channels are formed on all three exposed surfaces of the active region.
However, the conventional fin transistor has problems in that the standby leakage current increases since the threshold voltage is decreased. In order to cope with the problems due to the increased standby leakage current, a method for adopting a negative word line has been suggested. Nevertheless, this method is not practical for actual practice due to complicated manufacturing procedures and complex circuitry of the semiconductor device and also due to the increased power consumption of the semiconductor device.
Further, the conventional fin transistor has problems due to decreasing driving current as the integration degree of a semiconductor device increases. One way proposed to solve the problems due to decreasing driving current is to increase the height of the fin pattern. However, more defects are produced by increasing the height of the fin pattern as follows.
First, as a process for forming an isolation layer, a flowable insulation layer such as a spin-on glass (SOG) oxide layer is filled in the lower end of a trench, and an high density plasma (HDP) oxide layer is formed on the SOG oxide layer in order to improve the gap-fill capability for trenches. In this case, increasing the height of a fin pattern leads to the increased loss of an isolation layer, and the loss of the isolation layer would lead to the exposure of the SOG oxide layer, which has a high wet etch rate, thereby degrading the isolation characteristics of the semiconductor device.
Second, increasing the height of the fin pattern may lead to poor etching performance in a subsequent gate forming process, by which the gates may be short-circuited leading to a device failure.
Thus, to address the above-described problems associated with high integration of semiconductor devices, there is a need to reduce the standby leakage current of a transistor and to increase the driving current at the same height of the fin pattern and with the same threshold voltage.

Semiconductor device having reduced standby leakage current and increased driving current and method for manufacturing the same


A bearing comprises an inner race defining an inner track, an outer race defining an outer track, and a compound roller assembly interconnecting the inner and outer races for relative rotation between the inner and outer races. The compound roller assembly includes a plurality of first rollers and a plurality of second rollers. The first and second rollers respectively contact the inner track of the inner race and the outer track of the outer race for rolling contact therewith. Each of the first rollers contacts at least one of the second rollers such that the first and second rollers rotate in opposite directions during relative rotation between the inner and outer races.

Roller and ball bearings are typically used to provide radial support for a rotating component, such as a drive shaft, while permitting rotational motion. A bearing includes an inner ring, an outer ring, and a plurality of rolling elements located between and in rolling contact with the inner and outer rings.
As with any relative motion between two metal objects, the frictional contact between the rolling element and the rings results in heat. Excessive heat can result in seizing of a bearing. To prevent this, many existing bearing designs reduce the friction between the contacting elements through the use of lubricating grease or oil. This tends to add weight to the bearing.
Another problem with conventional bearing designs is that any looseness between the rolling elements and the rings can result in the development of vibration in the bearing, which reduces the life of the bearing and can lead to noise, especially in enclosed compartments.
A need exists for an improved bearing design that minimizes noise and vibration.


An attachment structure of a storage unit having: a tank casing body; a tank casing door member, and a lock portion; and an operation member, and a push button, wherein: an outer circumference of a storage unit is surrounded with an opening portion of an exterior panel; the push button is protruded from an outer surface of the exterior panel in a mount position of the exterior panel when the exterior panel is in assembling work; and a space for inserting a circumferential edge of the opening portion of the exterior panel is formed on the back of the push button.

The present invention relates to an attachment structure of a storage unit in any kind of equipment such as a microwave heating apparatus having the storage unit in which a water supply tank containing water for generating steam is stored.
As microwave heating apparatuses in the conventional art, there are a single function type apparatus for performing only microwave heating, a combination oven having a convection heater for performing heater heating in addition to microwave heating, and so on. A microwave heating apparatus capable of supplying microwave and stream into a heating chamber has been also discussed.
As disclosed in JP-A-09-101034 (Japanese Application Publication Number: Hei09-101034), for the microwave heating apparatus to which a steam generating function is added, various methods such as a method of generating steam from a boiler provided outside the heating chamber and introducing the steam into the heating chamber have been proposed.
The microwave heating apparatus to which such a steam generating function is added has a water supply tank that can be attached/detached to/from a storage space formed in an exterior. Water in the water supply tank is dripped into the boiler by a water feed pump.
In the recent microwave heating apparatus, an operation panel of the microwave heating apparatus has been arranged in a door portion or a control circuit has been arranged near the bottom for the requirement of increase in volume of the heating chamber and reduction in size of the apparatus as a whole. In the microwave heating apparatus formed so that the water supply tank can be attached/detached to/from the storage space formed outside the apparatus, the storage space has to be provided as a large space for setting the water supply tank detachably. This however causes difficulty of attaining increase in volume of the heating chamber and reduction in size of the apparatus as a whole.
It may be therefore conceived that the water supply tank is stored in a narrow space between the heating chamber and an exterior panel in a side portion, etc. of the apparatus. When a storage portion for storing the water supply tank is provided in this space, there is however a problem that it is difficult to mount the exterior panel on the apparatus body.
Particularly when the exterior panel constituting a top surface and opposite side surfaces of the apparatus is U-shaped in section in advance so that the exterior panel will be fitted while slid from above or the back of the heating chamber in order to attain facilitation of the assembling work, an end surface etc. of the exterior panel is caught in the water supply tank so that the exterior panel cannot be mounted on the apparatus body even in the case where the exterior panel is slid because the storage portion of the water supply tank protruded outward from the exterior panel interferes with the exterior panel at the time of slide mounting of the exterior panel on the apparatus body.


Ice test devices include an ice adhesion test device. The ice adhesion test device comprises an ice adhesion test target in the form of a well in which, in use, a layer of accreted ice is built up. The target comprises a sample plate at the bottom of the well and an ice-engagement element positioned circumferentially around the sample plate and providing a side wall of the well, and wherein the sample plate is rotatable relative to the ice-engagement element. The ice adhesion test device also comprises torque means for applying a rotational torque between the sample plate and the ice-engagement element. The ice adhesion test device also comprises transducer means for, at least at a point at which the layer of accreted ice separates from the sample plate, measuring the rotational torque and/or the stress on the ice.

When ice forms on a structure, such as an aircraft structure, the effects can be problematic. Ice formation on an aircraft structure can, for example, change the aerodynamic properties of the structure and increase its weight. If ice that has grown on a structure breaks off, this can cause mechanical damage to the structure or to surrounding structures.
It is therefore desirable to develop effective coatings to prevent or reduce the formation of ice on such structures. These coatings are known as "ice-phobic" coatings. They can be usefully applied to structures such as the leading edge of an aircraft wing, engine blades, or the rotor blades of a helicopter, or wind turbine blades.
When ice-phobic coatings are being developed, a new coating must be assessed for whether it is, in fact, suitably ice-phobic, prior to developing it further or applying it to a structure. Current methods of testing the effectiveness of potentially ice-phobic coatings are, however, unsatisfactory.
One property of a potentially ice-phobic coating that must be tested is the strength of ice adhesion to the coating. The strength of ice adhesion to the coating can be tested by measuring the force required to separate ice from the coating. The results of existing testing techniques do not, however, accurately represent the adhesion of ice formed in the real world, and in particular atmospheric icing.
Atmospheric ice is formed by cooled or super-cooled water droplets freezing on contrast with a structure. The ice formed is also known as "accreted ice", since it is formed by many droplets.
An existing technique for testing the strength of ice adhesion to a coating uses a block of frozen water cooled by a conventional freezing method (a homogeneous glaze ice) between two coated substrates. The ice is not representative of atmospheric ice, and the test thus gives limited useful information on the performance of a potentially ice-phobic coating if its intended application is on a structure exposed to atmospheric icing, for example an aircraft structure.
There is also no satisfactory means of simulating the effects and behaviour of ice formed by "runback" without using a wind tunnel. Such ice, known as "runback ice" is ice that forms when existing ice on one part of a surface melts and re-freezes elsewhere. Runback ice can form, for example, aft of a heated leading edge of an aircraft wing or tailplane, when water droplets freeze on the leading edge and are then melted by the heating system, such that the water runs back and re-freezes. Runback ice can also form on heated propeller blades. In both examples, the above-described problems of increased weight, reduced aerodynamic performance and mechanical damage can occur. It is thus important that the formation of runback ice be properly studied.


In accordance with an embodiment, a method includes receiving an indication of a changed load condition or voltage characteristic of a power supply providing power to a load via an output port of the power supply in a first mode, and switching regulation of the power supply from sourcing a current to the load in the first mode to sinking the current from the load in a second mode in response to receiving the indication of the changed load condition or voltage characteristic. Sinking the current from the load in the second mode includes controlling the power supply to transfer energy from the output port of the power supply to an input port of the power supply.

Direct Current (DC) to DC (DC-to-DC) converters, may be used as drivers for loads with specific current and/or voltage requirements, such as chains of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The light intensity of an LED chain is controlled by the amount of current flowing through it, and consequently, traditional LED drivers generally rely on a current control loop to regulate the current flowing through the LED chain. Those regulators are relatively effective at regulating power when the load is static, but may struggle to maintain a constant current when the load is abruptly changed, such as when one or more LEDs are dynamically bypassed/shorted. More specifically, dynamically shorting LEDs in the LED chain instantaneously reduces the forward voltage biasing of the LED chain, which causes the output capacitor coupled in parallel to the LED chain to discharge. Discharging of the output capacitor produces a current spike through the LED chain that has the potential to damage the remaining LEDs. The current spike may be difficult for the current control loop to regulate, as the current spike occurs relatively quickly and is driven primarily by the output capacitors, rather than the regulated power supply.

System and method for a switched-mode power supply


Coordinated application processing. A method identifies processing engines available for coordinated application processing, distributes to the processing engines an application configured for execution to perform image processing, and distributes images to the processing engines. The images cover an image area that includes multiple different sub-areas, where the image processing proceeds across multiple cycles of image processing to process a respective set of images of each sub-area of the multiple different sub-areas, and where the distributing the images includes, for each sub-area of the multiple different sub-areas: selecting for that sub-area a respective processing engine of the processing engines to perform the image processing across the multiple cycles to process the respective set of images of that sub-area, and distributing, across the multiple cycles of the image processing, the images of the respective set of images of that sub-area to the respective processing engine selected for that sub-area.

Genomic sequencing can be a complex task that demands significant compute power. While it may be possible to distribute work to multiple nodes, it can be difficult to coordinate their execution, including the starting and stopping of sequencing package software execution, collection of runtime metrics, and distribution of work to the different nodes.


Provided are a voice synthesis method, an apparatus, a device, and a storage medium, involving obtaining text information and determining characters in the text information and a text content of each of the characters; performing a character recognition on the text content of each of the characters, to determine character attribute information of each of the characters; obtaining speakers in one-to-one correspondence with the characters according to the character attribute information of each of the characters, where the speakers are pre-stored pronunciation object having the character attribute information; and generating multi-character synthesized voices according to the text information and the speakers corresponding to the characters of the text information. These improve pronunciation diversities of different characters in the synthesized voices, improve an audience's discrimination between different characters in the synthesized voices, and thereby improve experience of a user.

With the development of the voice technology, the voice technology has begun to be applied to all aspects of people's lives and works. For example, in a scene such as audio reading, human-machine dialogue, smart speaker, smart customer service, etc., a device may send out a synthesized voice to serve a user.
In the prior art, a text to be processed may be obtained, and then the text is processed by using a voice synthesis technology to obtain a voice.
However, in the prior art, only a single speaker may be obtained through the voice synthesis technology, but for a multi-character scene, a multi-character synthesized voice cannot be obtained. For example, when performing audio reading, it is necessary to obtain dialogue voices of a plurality of characters, but can only obtain a voice of a single speaker by performing voice synthesis on a text in the prior art.

Voice synthesis method, apparatus, device and storage medium


A ladder program display device includes: a display-direction determining unit that determines whether a ladder program is caused to be displayed in a display direction that is vertically displayed writing or horizontally displayed writing; and a display unit that displays the ladder program vertically or horizontally in accordance with an instruction from the display-direction determining unit, wherein the display-direction determining unit compares how a ladder program is displayed in a case of vertically displayed writing and how a ladder program is displayed in a case of horizontally displayed writing for each orientation of the display unit that is a portrait-oriented state or a landscape-oriented state, selects a display direction in accordance with the orientation based on a comparison result, and instructs the display unit to display a ladder program in selected display direction.

Devices that display ladder programs include, for example, tablet terminals. Tablet terminals include terminals that automatically detect whether they are oriented in portrait orientation or landscape orientation and switch the display screen in accordance with the direction in which the terminals are orientated (orientation).
For example, when a tablet terminal has a rectangular display screen, if the tablet terminal is oriented in portrait orientation, the display screen of the tablet terminal serves as a portrait-oriented display screen, and if the tablet terminal is oriented in landscape orientation, the display screen of the tablet terminal serves as a landscape-oriented display screen. Such a tablet terminal displays a ladder program horizontally so that the ladder program extends in the horizontal direction regardless of whether the tablet terminal is oriented in portrait orientation or landscape orientation. Specifically, when the tablet terminal is oriented in portrait orientation, the ladder program is written horizontally so that the ladder program extends in the lateral direction of the display screen. When the tablet terminal is oriented in landscape orientation, the ladder program is written horizontally so that the ladder program extends in the longitudinal direction of the display screen. In this manner, the tablet terminal changes the direction in which the ladder program is displayed with respect to the display screen on the basis of the result of detecting whether it is oriented in portrait orientation or landscape orientation.

Ladder program display device and ladder program display method


A tape cassette comprises a case body having a mouth formed in the front portion thereof, a front lid pivotally supported thereon so as to cover the open front side of the case body, and a back lid pivotally joined to the front lid so as to cover a space extending behind the substantially lower half of an exposed portion of a magnetic tape in the mouth. The front lid includes a front wall covering the front opening of the mouth, side walls extending backward from the opposite side edges of the front wall, an upper wall covering the upper opening of the mouth, and a back wall extending downward from the upper wall. The side wall is provided with two guide grooves with two round projections projecting from the inner surface of the side wall being respectively received therein. Each of the two guide grooves has the shape of an arc of a circle having its center at the center of an imaginary circle at one end of the other guide groove. When the front lid is turned toward its opening position, one of the round projections moves first along the corresponding guide groove at the initial stage of turning of the front lid, and then the other round projection moves along the corresponding guide groove at the final stage of turning of the front lid.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel tape cassette and, more specifically, to a tape cassette having a front lid covering a space extending in front of the magnetic tape contained therein and a back lid covering a space extending behind the magnetic tape.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Importance of protecting a magnetic tape from dusting has increased with the augmentation of recording density. Some tape cassette is provided with a front lid and a back lid for covering spaces extending in front of and behind, respectively, of the magnetic tape contained therein so that the magnetic tape will not be exposed while the magnetic tape is not in use. Such a tape cassette a is shown in FIGS. 1 to 12. This tape cassette a has a case body b resembling a box having a laterally elongate, rectangular shape in plan view. Two tape reels, not shown, are supported for rotation within the case body b. A magnetic tape c having opposite ends fastened respectively to the tape reels extends along the front surface of the case body b between tape outlets, not shown, formed in the front wall of the case body b. The case body b is provided with a mouth d having an upper opening and a front opening and formed in front of the front wall thereof between the two tape outlets.
A front lid e for covering the a space extending in front of the case body b is supported pivotally on the case body b. The front lid e has a front wall f facing the front wall of the case body b, an upper wall g extending backward from the upper edge of the front wall f, side walls h (only one of them is shown) extending backward from the opposite side edges of the front wall f, and trunnions i (only one of them is shown) projecting from the side walls h and rotatably supported in holes formed in the respective front portions of the side walls of the case body b. The front lid e is rotatively biased by a spring, not shown, toward a closing position, where the front wall f of the front lid e is positioned in front of a portion of the magnetic tape c extending along the front surface of the front wall of the case body b. Support legs j (only one of them is shown) project downward from the upper wall g of the front lid e at positions at a small distance from the opposite side ends of the upper wall g and corresponding to the opposite ends of the mouth d.
A back lid k is positioned in the mouth d so as to cover the back surface of the magnetic tape c. Pivots 1 (only one of them is shown) projecting from the substantially central portions of the opposite side walls of the back lid k are supported pivotally on the lower ends of the support legs j, respectively, of the front lid e. The back lid k has side walls provided at their lower ends with projections m (only one of them is shown). The projections m are fitted in guide grooves n (only one of them is shown) formed in side walls defining the opposite ends of the mouth d of the case body b, respectively. The back lid k has an upper wall o which extends horizontally when the back lid k is at the closing position.
In FIG. 10, the front lid e and the back lid k are at their closing positions, where the front wall f of the front lid e is positioned in front of the exposed portion of the magnetic tape c and the back lid k is behind the exposed portion of the magnetic tape c in the mouth d. In this state, the front half of the upper opening of the mouth d is covered with the upper wall g of the front lid e and the back half of the same is covered with the upper wall o of the back lid k. If the upper wall g of the front lid e is formed so as to cover the upper opening of the mouth d entirely, the height of the front lid e from the upper surface of the case body b when the front lid e is fully opened needs to be greater than that of the same having the upper wall g covering the front half of the upper opening of the mouth d, because the front lid e is turned about an axis and the front lid e must be positioned over the back lid k when the front lid e and the back lid k are fully opened. When the front lid e and the back lid k are fully opened, the upper wall o of the back lid k is positioned behind the upper wall g of the front lid e.
As a cassette holder holding the tape cassette a is lowered in the cassette loading unit of a video tape recorder, the lid opener p of the video tape recorder engages the lower edge of one of the side walls h of the front lid e as shown in FIG. 10. As the cassette holder is lowered further, the lid opener p pushes the front lid e to turn the front lid e on its trunnions i toward the opening position against the force of the spring biasing the front lid e toward the closing position as shown in FIG. 11. Finally, the front lid e is turned to the opening position as shown in FIG. 12. Meanwhile, the pivots 1 of the back lid k engaging the support legs j of the front lid e move upward together with the front lid e and the projections m of the back lid k move along the guide grooves n, turning the back lid k on the pivots 1 as the front lid e is turned on its trunnions i. The front lid e and the back lid k reach their opening positions simultaneously.
The front lid e of this tape cassette a has a relatively low rigidity and is liable to flex when pressure is applied to the middle portion thereof, because the front lid e consists of only the front wall f, the upper wall g and the side walls h. If the front lid e flexes, a gap is formed between the front lid e and the back lid k. Then, dust enters the tape cassette a and makes the magnetic tape c dusty or the magnetic tape c may possibly be damaged with fingers. Even if the magnetic tape c is not damaged accidentally or not made dusty, the user will worry about damaging the magnetic tape c and the reliability of the tape cassette a will be spoiled if a gap is formed between the front lid e and the back lid k.

Lid assembly for a tape cassette which protects front and rear surfaces of a magnetic tape


A disposable incontinent underwear product can comprise areas having different stretch characteristics and thereby fit persons of varying body shape in a more comfortable and/or visually appealing manner. Additionally, in some embodiments, the different areas of stretch can aid in positioning absorbent components, such as an absorbent insert or core that is included in the undergarment to absorb body exudates. For example, a garment may feature at vertical stretch in an area above the crotch and below the waist while featuring horizontal stretch at the hip areas at its front and back sides. As another example, a garment may feature horizontal stretch across the front of the garment and vertical stretch across the back of the garment in areas above the crotch and below the waist. In some embodiments, the crotch also features horizontal, vertical, or biaxial stretch.

Pant-like disposable undergarments for absorbing human exudates, such as fecal matter, urine and/or other material can appear similar in size and shape to regular cloth underwear that is designed to be laundered and reused one or more times. A disposable undergarment is intended to be worn by persons, such as infants, toddlers, or adults, for single use or temporary use and is meant to be disposed of after being used once instead of being laundered, dry cleaned, or otherwise made ready for reuse. Examples of disposable undergarments include infant diapers, training pants, adult incontinence garments, feminine hygiene pants, and the like.
Currently, some disposable undergarments, such as disposable incontinent underwear products, feature limited stretch ability. For instance, an undergarment may stretch horizontally at the waist area through use of one or more elastic strands, such as LYCRA strands. However, such limited stretch may not provide optimal fit for all persons or all situations.

Disposable undergarment with stretch areas for optimal fit