The present invention relates, in part, to a polypeptide domain having reduced immunogenicity that is capable of inducing trimers in heterologous polypeptides, fusion polypeptides comprising the trimer inducing domain, nucleic acids encoding the polypeptides of the invention and methods of making and using the same.

The structure of a polypeptide is an important element in its activity. Oftentimes, a properly folded polypeptide needs to associate with itself or different polypeptides in order to be active. Most often these interactions are as homodimers and provide an active complex, however, heterotrimers also occur. Defined trimerizing motifs are typically coiled coil domains (Burkhard et al., 2001, Trends in Cell Biol., 11:82), and includes SP-D trimerizing domains (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,716,805 and 6,190,886).
Although lacking a distinctive coiled coil motif, additional molecules known to require trimerization for optimal activity include the tumor necrosis factor super family, such as TNF-alpha, lymphotoxin alpha, and CD40L (TNFSF5), among others. Without trimerization, many TNF super family polypeptides have low or absent activity (Fanslow et al., (1994) Seminars Immunology, 6:267–278). CD40 is a transmembrane polypeptide member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor super family and is involved in stimulating proliferation and differentiation of humoral and cellular immune cells. In particular, CD40 is involved in isotype switching and is important in T-cell activation and production of type 1 cytokines in response to protein antigens (Noelle, R, (1996) Immunity, 4:415; and Borrow et al., (1996) J. Exp. Med., 183:2129).
It has been shown that CD40L (TNFSF5) is normally active in a membrane bound form, however, this form is difficult to administer as a therapeutic. The soluble version of CD40L (TNFSF5) was found to have very little stimulatory activity, but by trimerizing soluble CD40L (TNFSF5) using a mutated GCN4 leucine zipper domain, significant activation of target cells was achieved (Fanslow et al., (1994) Seminars Immunology, 6:267–278; Morris et al., (1999) J. Biol. Chem., 274:418–423; U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,805).
A significant limitation of using the mutant leucine zipper trimerizing domain in a therapeutic fusion polypeptide is that leucine zippers are typically nuclear proteins, i.e., intracellular. Thus even though the polypeptide may be of the same species as a subject being treated with the polypeptide, having not been seen by the immune system can lead to the polypeptide being recognized as foreign when expressed extracellularly and triggering an immune response in the subject. This response is particularly deleterious to the continuous or long-term administration of the fusion polypeptide to a patient. The present invention addresses this issue by providing polypeptide domains that will have reduced immunogenicity in addition to having trimerization properties.

Trimeric macrophage scavenger receptor fusion proteins and encoding nucleic acids


An imaging apparatus having a projector function which is advantageous in reducing size is provided. A light source of the imaging apparatus is constituted by three semiconductor lasers which respectively frontward emit lights of red, green and blue, each slit-shaped. To a GLV (Grating Light Valve) is applied a drive voltage as modulated by a projection image signal, so that the GLV diffracts the three lights emitted from the light source, with varying the amount or intensity of each light in accordance with the drive voltage or projection image signal. A scanning mirror is disposed between a taking lens and an image pickup device, so as to reflect the lights diffracted by the GLV toward the taking lens, with having each diffracted slit-shaped light scan in a direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
There has been proposed an apparatus where a projector function is additionally provided to an imaging apparatus such as a video camera, as disclosed in JP-A-5-304624 for instance.
The imaging apparatus comprises a light source and a projector lens which are respectively disposed in front and rear of a light transmissive liquid crystal panel for a viewfinder. A light emitted from the light source is transmitted through the liquid crystal panel and guided to the projector lens, by which a projection corresponding to one formed on the liquid crystal panel is formed.
In the conventional imaging apparatus, a white light source which produces a high intensity light is employed as the light source. When the white light source is operated, its temperature rises high, requiring a cooling fan for cooling the light source. Thus, some space inside the imaging apparatus is occupied by the cooling fan, hindering reduction in the size of the imaging apparatus.


An information terminal device includes an acquisition unit that acquires reference information representing a machine-readable feature distributed on a surface of a thing associated with a first user, and collation information representing a machine-readable feature distributed on a surface of a thing associated with a second user, a registration unit that registers the reference information acquired by the acquisition unit from the thing associated with the first user in a storage unit, a collation unit that uses the collation information acquired by the acquisition unit from the thing associated with the second user, and collates the collation information with the reference information, and a judgment unit that judge validity of whether the second user is the first user, based on a result of collation by the collation unit.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an information terminal device used as the personal authentication
2. Related Art
Some information terminal devices represented by a cellular phone, a portable type (including notebook type) personal computer, and a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) are provided with the function of personal authentication in order to prevent unauthorized access to confidential information and personal information, wrong connection to the Internet, and improper usage of pay contents.

Information terminal device, method, and computer readable medium storing program


The invention concerns a subsea water processing system comprising an electrochemical unit that uses raw or treated seawater to generate high pH and low pH solutions that are used to clean at least one subsea process apparatus during a cleaning cycle by circulation through the at least one subsea process apparatus via acid or base flow lines connecting the electrochemical unit with the subsea process apparatus on-site.

Water flooding is a widely used means for improved oil recovery (IOR) and has been used for more than 75 years. Water flooding is used to maintain or increase the reservoir pressure to extract the immobile oil present in the reservoir that would not otherwise naturally flow out of the reservoir. Usually this is a secondary recovery technique, however, it is being considered for primary and tertiary recovery for increased ultimate recovery.
In conventional water flooding processes for improved oil recovery, injection water can be taken from the nearest available source with little consideration to its chemical composition. Sources of injection water onshore include rivers and aquifers, while seawater or produced water is used offshore. Water is usually filtered to remove particles to avoid clogging of the formation by techniques such as media filtration, cartridge filtration, micro filtration or ultrafiltration. Certain reservoirs require sulphate removal to reduce the tendency of barium sulphate and strontium sulphate scale formation in the reservoir. Water may be injected at a pressure approximately 500 psi (35 bar) higher than reservoir pressure. Subsea single phase water injection pumps may be used in subsea applications.
Low salinity water flooding (LSF) is a process of flooding the oil reservoir with water of suitable salinity in order to economically extract additional oil from sandstone and carbonate reservoirs. The use of LSF in an oil field can also make other chemical and polymer IOR flooding techniques more efficient and provide cost savings by reducing chemical consumption. A reverse osmosis process, optionally in combination with an ultrafiltration pre-treatment step, can be used for low salinity water flooding applications. The ultrafiltration membranes remove foulants such as bacteria and suspended solids, while reverse osmosis membranes remove total dissolved solids to achieve optimal salinity suitable for enhanced oil recovery and low salinity flooding applications.
Injection of treated seawater or produced water into an offshore oil reservoir is thus a recognized method of increasing the recoverable volume of oil in place and enhancing production. For traditional offshore fields, seawater is treated on and injected from a topside installation such as a platform or FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading) unit. The biggest challenges that offshore systems must overcome are the space and weight limitations on the platform or FPSO. Injection volumes are limited by several factors and require valuable and costly topside space that should in an embodiment be used for production. Sometimes the topside water treatment options are simply not feasible (e.g. existing brown oil fields without extra topside space, remotely located satellite oil fields, fields in harsh environments or in arctic conditions). As a result, there is a trend in the oil industry to rely on subsea production systems where equipment is installed under water, e.g., on the seabed. The subsea water injection technology overcomes topside space and weight restrictions by placing equipment underwater.
The exploration and production activity in deeper waters, harsher environments and more remote locations represents a key oil and gas industry trend over the last decade, thanks to large deep water fields such as the offshore fields near the United States, Mexico, Brazil and West Africa. Today, the depth of subsea wells can reach 3,000 meters. At this depth, the ambient pressure is 300 bar (4450 psi) from the hydrostatic head and the ambient temperature is around 4° C. (38° F.).
Reinjection and discharge of produced water from surface facilities after treatment is standard practice in the offshore oil and gas industry. Proven methods are applied to ensure that wastewater disposal has no adverse effects upon marine life. Subsea produced water treatment involves water separation and purification at seabed for re-injection (for IOR), injection into subsea disposal wells, or for environmentally safe discharge at the seabed. Besides minimization of the topside equipment footprint and protection of equipment from damage by weather, subsea produced water treatment for re-injection or discharge has many additional benefits including elimination of the need to store or transport huge volumes of water from subsea production sites to the tieback hosts, as well as the advantage of reduced production system costs. It also decreases the hydrostatic pressure on the subsea production flow lines to help reduce back pressure on the subsea wellhead, and ultimately it allows for more production. Equipment for subsea produced water treatment include oil/water separation systems, gas-liquid separation systems, suspended solids separators (de-sanders), and filtration systems.
Deep subsea water treatment thus faces many challenges, including system mechanical design, electrification, control, inspection, fouling and scaling mitigation, maintenance and repair. Designs and operations that are typically used for onshore and topside in most cases cannot be directly used under the deep subsea conditions.
Today's conventional membrane systems and operational methods are designed for onshore and topsides applications. One major problem in the operation of membrane filtration subsea is membrane fouling. Membrane fouling is indicated by the flux decline of a membrane system caused by the accumulation of certain constituents in the feed water on the surface of the membrane or in the membrane matrix.
Regular chemical cleaning of membrane modules, such as Cleaning-In-Place (CIP), is an integral part of membrane process operation. Regular membrane cleaning and removal of foulants extend membrane element life and overall system performance, and has a profound impact on the performance and economics of membrane processes. In membrane CIP, acidic and basic cleaning solutions are typically required to perform high PH and low pH cleaning. Typically a high pH cleaning is used first to remove foulants such as biological matter or oil, followed by low pH cleaning to remove foulants such as mineral scale or metal oxides/metal hydroxides.
Chemical cleaning is also widely used in the prevention and remediation of scales. Scale problems can occur due to the incompatibility of the produced water with injected water or other sources of water, as is the case of the water present in drilling mud. For example, scale may precipitate during drilling, well completion, production or injection and may affect injection wells, the reservoir formation, production wells as well as the production system including pipelines and equipment. Remediation of scale deposits may be performed by mechanical methods, acid treatment or a combination of both. Acid washes for scale removal that may be combined with water jetting are typically used to remove scales from heat exchangers, pipes, injection wells, production wells and related equipment. Electrodes in electrolyser cells (like electrochlorinators or similar equipment) are also subject to scale deposition and therefore may require acid for remediation.
Acid for reservoir stimulation is also a common practice that can significantly increase the production rates. In this process acid is injected into the well to penetrate the rock pores in order to increase the permeability of the rock.
CIP is well established for typical land based applications. On such land based applications; chemical storage, mixing, delivery, and heating/cooling operations, all necessary components of the CIP, is generally not an issue. However, the conventional CIP systems and operation methods face many challenges in offshore applications, both topside and subsea.
For topside membrane and other process applications the chemical storage and conventional CIP equipment require valuable space on a platform or FPSO.
For deepwater membrane applications, subsea chemical storage needed for conventional CIP is most likely out of the question as the necessary chemical storage units are massive and costly. If chemical storage units are on topside and the membrane systems are at the seabed, long and costly umbilicals will be needed to deliver and return CIP chemicals to/from subsea water treatment units, and may compromise projects in deeper waters and longer distance step-out wells.
An underwater treatment unit having cleaning means suitable for cleaning filtration membranes at great water depths is previously known and disclosed in WO2014044978 A1. A heating means is arranged for heating the membrane followed by injection of water and cleaning agent (acid or base solution) each of which are stored in a water storage tank and at least one cleaning product tank.

Subsea equipment cleaning system and method


A lamp envelope is provided with an alumina layer and a multilayer phosphor coating on the alumina layer. The phosphor coating includes a top phosphor layer with a first weight percent of rare earth activators and a middle phosphor layer with a second weight percent of rare earth activators. The second weight percent is less than the first weight percent so that a total amount of the activators in the coating is reduced while maintaining a required lamp brightness and color rendering index (CRI). Preferably, the second weight percent is about 50-60% of the first weight percent and the middle layer is about 30-50% of a total weight of the coating so that a total weight of the activators in the coating is no more than about 80% of a weight of the activators in the coating if the first and second weight percents were the same.

The present invention is directed to a lamp that has a phosphor coating and more particularly to a fluorescent lamp having a phosphor coating on an alumina layer.
Some lamps, notably fluorescent lamps, use a coating of phosphors on the interior surface of the lamp envelope that converts ultraviolet radiation to visible light suitable for the intended purpose. Many of these phosphors are activated by rare earth ions. The coatings are typically blends that include amounts of particular phosphors and their respective rare earth activators that achieve the desired lamp brightness and color rendering index (CRI). For example, the CRI of some fluorescent lamps is desirably in excess of 82 and the 100 hour brightness is at least 3000 lumens.
Examples of the phosphors used in fluorescent lamps include one or more of a europium-activated yttrium oxide (YOE, Y2O3:Eu) red phosphor with a primary emission at 612 nm, a cerium and terbium-activated lanthanum phosphate (LAP, (La,Ce,Tb)PO4) green phosphor with a primary emission at 544 nm, a europium-activated barium magnesium aluminate (BAM, BaMgAl10O17:Eu) blue phosphor with a primary emission at 455 nm, and a europium-activated strontium borophosphate (SBP, Sr6P5BO20:Eu) blue-green phosphor with a primary emission at 480 nm. The specific rare earth activators for these phosphors include europium, terbium and cerium.
The cost of the rare earth activators is relatively high and various attempts have been made to reduce their use. In fluorescent lamps, the amount of ultraviolet radiation converted to visible light by the phosphor coating is a function of coating thickness, activator levels, and phosphor particle reflectivity. One attempt to reduce the cost of the rare earth activators in a lamp was to reduce a thickness of the coating, thereby reducing the amount of rare earth activators in the lamp. However, as the thickness of the coating was reduced more of the ultraviolet radiation passed through the coating and did not produce visible light.
To compensate for this loss of visible light, a less expensive halophosphate phosphor layer was placed under the coating (between the envelope interior surface and the coating) to convert the ultraviolet radiation that passed through the coating to visible light. However, the quality of the light emitted by the lamp was reduced due to the broad band emission spectra and low quantum efficiency of halophosphate phosphors. Specifically, the halophosphate phosphor layer reduced the lamp CRI to unacceptable levels. In addition, the halophosphate phosphor layer did not maintain consistent light output over the life of the lamp resulting in poor lamp lumen maintenance.
In a further attempt to reduce the amount of rare earth activators, the thickness of the phosphor coating was reduced and a layer of alumina was added between the phosphor coating and the lamp interior surface (instead of the halophosphate phosphor layer). The alumina layer provided some ultraviolet reflectivity so that some of the ultraviolet radiation that passed through the coating was reflected back into the phosphor coating for conversion to visible light. The alumina layer included mixed phase alumina particles that reflected the unused ultraviolet radiation back into the phosphor coating to provide higher ultraviolet conversion at lower coating weights. Nevertheless, the phosphor coating on the alumina layer still had to be relatively thick in order to achieve the desired lamp brightness.


A method of fabricating a light emitting device includes forming a plurality of light emitting elements on light emitting element mounting regions, respectively, of a substrate, forming lens supports on the light emitting element mounting regions, respectively, are raised relative to isolation regions of the substrate located between neighboring ones of the light emitting element mounting regions, and forming lenses covering the light emitting elements on the lens support patterns, respectively.

1. Field of the Inventive Concept
The present inventive concept relates to a method of fabricating a light emitting device having an array of light emitting elements such as light emitting diodes (LEDs).
2. Description of the Prior Art
A light emitting element such as a light emitting diode (LED) emits light through electron-hole combination. The light emitting element has low power consumption, a long lifespan, and strong anti-vibration characteristics. Also, the light emitting element can be installed in a narrow space.
Light emitting elements are classified into vertical type of light emitting elements, lateral type of light emitting elements, flip chip type of light emitting elements, and the like.
The light emitting elements, after being fabricated as individual components, are packaged to form a light emitting device. More specifically, the light emitting device includes a sub-mount onto which light emitting elements are mounted, a slug having reflectivity, leads connecting the light emitting elements to a circuit of a flexible printed circuit board, wires electrically connecting the leads to the light emitting elements, a plastic package body protecting the above-described components, a flexible printed circuit board attached to a bottom part of the package body, and a heat dissipation board for dissipating heat generated by the flexible printed circuit board.
The light emitting device transfers heat through the plastic package body. Therefore, the heat is not effectively dissipated and thus the light emitting characteristics of the device may deteriorate over time. Also, the light emitting device is made up of several separate components, including the package body. Therefore, it can be difficult to miniaturize the light emitting device.
Recently, the mounting of light emitting device to a substrate has been considered as a way to increase the dissipation of heat generated by the device. However, in the case in which light emitting elements are mounted to a substrate, it can be difficult to efficiently condense the light emitted from the respective light emitting elements.

Method of fabricating light emitting device


A transporting tool of this invention transports a cracked wafer between an unload table and a test position through fork, having a vacuum suction mechanism, and a main chuck. The transporting tool of this invention has a first groove formed in a first surface of the transporting tool, a first through hole which is formed to correspond to a first opening of the fork and is open to the first groove, a second groove formed in a second surface to correspond to an attracting groove of the main chuck, and a second through hole which allows the first groove and second groove to communicate with each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transporting tool suitably used in a probe apparatus or the like to transport an object to be tested (e.g., wafer), and a transporting system to transport the object to be tested. More specifically, the present invention relates to a transporting tool and a transporting system which can transport even a non-fixed-form object to be tested (e.g., a cracked wafer).
2. Description of the Related Art
The present invention can be applied to various types of apparatuses to process or test an object to be tested, e.g., a wafer itself, or a plurality of semiconductor elements or liquid crystal elements formed on the wafer.
In the following description, for the sake of more practical explanation, a probe apparatus which tests individual semiconductor elements formed on a wafer will be described hereinafter.
A probe apparatus which tests individual semiconductor elements formed on the wafer is widely known. FIGS. 7A and 7B show an example of the probe apparatus. The probe apparatus has a loader chamber 1 from which a fixed-form wafer W′ is transported, and a prober chamber 2 where the electrical characteristics of the fixed-form wafer W′ transferred from the loader chamber 1 are tested. A cassette storing portion 3 where a cassette C which stores the fixed-form wafer W′ is placed, a transporting arm (to be referred to as fork hereinafter) 4 which transports the fixed-form wafer W′ to the loader chamber 1, and a sub chuck 5 are disposed in the loader chamber 1. The sub chuck 5 prealigns the position of the wafer with reference to its orientation flat while transporting the fixed-form wafer W′ with the fork 4. An object-to-be-tested stage table (to be referred to as a main chuck hereinafter) 6 where the prealigned fixed-form wafer W′ received from the fork 4 is to be placed, an aligning mechanism (to be referred to as an alignment mechanism hereinafter) 7 to accurately align the fixed-form wafer W′ on the main chuck 6, and a probe card 8 having a large number of probes 8A which come into electrical contact with the electrode pads of the fixed-form wafer W′ aligned by the alignment mechanism 7 are disposed in the prober chamber 2. The main chuck 6 has a mechanism to move in the X, Y, Z, and θ directions. The probe card 8 is fixed to a head plate 2A arranged on the upper surface of the prober chamber 2.
As shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, the alignment mechanism 7 has a lower CCD camera 7A, upper CCD camera 7B, and control device. The lower CCD camera 7A is provided to the main chuck 6, and photographs the images of the probes 8A of the probe card 8 from below. The upper CCD camera 7B is disposed at the center of an alignment bridge (7C), and photographs the image of the fixed-form wafer W′ on the main chuck 6 from above. The photographed images of the probes 8A and fixed-form wafer W′ are displayed on a monitor screen 9A of a display device 9. The alignment bridge 7C moves from the deepest portion (the upper portion in FIG. 7B) of the prober chamber 2 to the probe center along guide rails 7D disposed above the prober chamber 2 in the Y direction. A target 7E which can move forward to above the lower CCD camera 7A and backward from it is provided to the main chuck 6. The lower CCD camera 7A photographs the images of the needle points of the probes 8A and obtains the heights of the needle points. After that, the optical axis of the lower CCD camera 7A is set to coincide with the optical axis of the upper CCD camera 7B through the target 7E. The position of the main chuck 6 at this time is used as a reference position when aligning the fixed-form wafer W′ and probes 8A.
A test head T is swingably disposed in the prober chamber 2. The test head T is electrically connected to the probe card 8 through an interface (not shown). A signal from a tester is transmitted to the electrode pads of the fixed-form wafer W′ through the test head T and probes 8A. The electrical characteristics of a plurality of semiconductor elements (to be also described as chips hereinafter) formed on the fixed-form wafer W′ are tested with this signal.
The loader chamber 1 has a wafer storing table (to be described as an unload table hereinafter) 10. The unload table 10 can be inserted in and extracted from the front surface of the loader chamber 1. The unload table 10 is used when, e.g., testing a monitor wafer W″.
As described above, when a fixed-form wafer having a predetermined diameter is to be tested, fixed-form wafers W′ are automatically extracted one by one from the cassette C in the cassette stage portion 3, and the electrical characteristics of the fixed-form wafers W′ are tested. In the manufacturing process of, e.g., semiconductor elements, a wafer may be cracked. As the cracked wafer has a diameter smaller than that of the fixed-form wafer, it cannot be stored in the cassette C or automatically extracted from the cassette C. Wafers to be tested are limited to, e.g., fixed-form wafers W′ having circular shapes or the like. Cracked wafers other than the fixed-form wafers W′ or other non-fixed-form wafers cannot be tested. For this reason, when testing a cracked wafer, the operator must open the prober chamber 2 and place the cracked wafer on the main chuck 6 manually. Software for driving a conventional probe apparatus does not cope with manual operation done by an operator. Thus, sufficient safety is not always ensured when the operator recovers a non-fixed-form wafer from the main chuck 6 manually.

Transporting tool for object to be tested, and object-to-be-tested transporting system


A multi-phase permanent-magnet type electric rotating machine comprising: a permanent magnet type rotor, the permanent magnet type rotor including pairs of magnetic bodies magnetized by an axially magnetized cylindrical permanent magnet and disposed so as to face each other in a manner so that different poles of the magnetic bodies are disposed alternately or including a cylindrical permanent magnet having a multi-polar-magnetized outer circumferential surface; and a stator disposed so as to face the rotor through an air gap therebetween, the stator having 6N or 10N (N being an integer not smaller than 1) main poles formed in a distributed fashion, the stator having coils wound on 3N or 5N in total of the 6N or 10N main poles selected every other one, wherein the coils wound on the 3N or 5N main poles are connected so as to form a star connection and at least one of the three or five terminals of the star connection of the coils is connected to a predetermined polarity of a power supply while all or part of the other terminals of the star connection are connected to the same opposite polarity of the power supply, whereby the polarity of one of the three or five terminals of the star connection is reversed sequentially by driving so that the rotor is made to rotate step by step.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure of a electric rotating machine and a driving method thereof, and particularly relates to an inexpensive electric rotating machine which is the most suitable for a scanner motor of a copying machine or the like, and which is required to be low in vibration as well as in rotational irregularity.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An inner-rotor 3-phase 6-slot permanent-magnet type stepping motor (hereinafter simply referred to as "3-phase electric rotating machine"), which is one of conventional multi-phase permanent-magnet type electric rotating machines, has such a structure, for example, as shown in FIG. 15.
FIG. 15 is a conceptual sectional view schematically illustrating the structure of an inner-rotor 3-phase electric rotating machine, in which the reference numerals 10 and 20 represent a stator and a rotor, respectively. A rotation shaft, a housing and so on are omitted in the drawing.
The rotor 20 is rotatably supported by a not-shown rotation shaft and bearings. In FIG. 15, the reference character N represents an N (north) pole of a permanent magnet which is magnetized so that the N-pole faces the stator, and S represents an S (south) pole of a permanent magnet which is magnetized so that the S-pole faces the stator. Thus, two pairs of magnetic poles are formed.
The stator 10 has main poles 10a1, 10a2, 10a3, 10a4, 10a5 and 10a6 formed at a predetermined distance from the surface of the rotor 20, and exciting coils 10b1, 10b2, 10b3, 10b4, 10b5 and 10b6 are wound in the same direction on the main poles 10a1, 10a2, 10a3, 10a4, 10a5 and 10a6, respectively.
FIG. 16 shows an example of the connection of the above-mentioned coils 10b1, 10b2, 10b3, 10b4, 10b5 and 10b6. The reference numerals 10b1, 10b2, 10b3, 10b4, 10b5 and 10b6 shown in FIG. 16 are corresponding to the reference numerals of the coils shown in FIG. 15 respectively.
Specifically, for example, let the winding start of the lead wire of the first coil 10b1 be a U-terminal of this electric rotating machine, then the winding end of the first coil 10b1 is connected to the winding start of the fourth coil 10b4. Let the winding start of the lead wire of the second coil 10b2 be a V-terminal of the electric rotating machine, then the winding end of the second coil 10b2 is connected to the winding start of the fifth coil 10b5, and let the winding start of the lead wire of the third coil 10b3 be a W-terminal of the electric rotating machine, the winding end of the third coil 10b3 is connected to the winding start of the sixth coil 10b6.
The winding ends of the other coils 10b4, 10b5 and 10b6 are connected to each other.
That is, the exciting coils of this electric rotating machine form a star connection.
FIG. 17 shows an exciting method of the electric rotating machine having such a structure as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16.
The numerical values 1 to 6 in the leftmost column in FIG. 17 show the order of exciting steps from top to bottom, returning to the step 1 after reaching the step 6.
The characters U, V an d W in the uppermost row show the terminals shown in FIG. 16.
The symbol (+) shows a predetermined direction of an electric current, that is, the direction of the current flowing into the above-mentioned terminals, and (-) shows the opposite direction, that is, the direction of the current flowing out of the terminals.
Specifically, the step 1 shows that a current of a predetermined value is made to flow from the terminal U to the terminal V. Therefore, in the step 1, for example, the first main pole 10a1 and the fourth main pole 10a4 become N-poles, and the second main pole 10a2 and the fifth main pole 10a5 become S-poles.
Similarly to this, the step 2 shows that the current of the same value is switched so as to flow from the terminal W to the terminal V so that the third main pole 10a3 and the sixth main pole 10a6 become N-poles and the second main pole 10a2 and the fifth main pole 10a5 become S-poles. By the change of the terminals to which the exciting current is supplied as shown in FIG. 17, the electric rotating machine rotates at a rotational speed in accordance with the stepping speed of the applied steps with the stepping angle of 30 degrees which is 1/6 of the pitch angle of 180 degrees because the number of pairs of the main poles is 2.
In a driving means for supplying such a constant current rectangular wave as shown in FIG. 17, such a torque as shown in FIG. 18 is generated in this electric rotating machine. The torque is expressed by the following expression (3) is established and the input power can be expressed by the expression (4).
In FIG. 18 and the expressions (3) and (4), T.sub.1 represents one phase of torque generated in a main pole where a total current flows; T.sub.2, a total torque in the case of two-phase excitation; P.sub.12, input power; R, a resistance component of a coil; and I, the value of the exciting current. ##EQU1## Therefore, when efficiency T.sub.2 /P.sub.12 is represented by K.sub.2, the following expression (5) is established. ##EQU2## K.sub.2 shows the efficiency in the case of the two-phase excitation.
It has been inevitable that the above-mentioned electric rotating machine is disadvantageous in the economical viewpoint in that the coils should be wound on all the main poles though there is generated no unbalanced electromagnetic force, because the number of coils is six while the number of input terminals is three, as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16.
Further, FIG. 19A shows another example of connection in which the number of coils is three. In this case, the three coils are wound on three main poles respectively, and there arises such a problem that an unbalanced electromagnetic force is generated to cause vibrations, as will be described later with reference to FIG. 19B.
Specifically, three coils 100b1, 100b2 and 100b3 are wound on main poles 100a1, 100a3 and 100a5 respectively, with their respective terminals U, V and W as shown in FIG. 19A. Then, when a current is supplied from the terminal U to the terminals V and W, the current flows in the coils 100b1, 100b2 and 100b3 in the directions as shown by arrows, and the main pole 100a1 becomes an N-pole while the main poles 100a3 and 100a5 become S-poles.
In FIG. 19B, therefore, if the radial force acting on a rotor by the main pole 100a1 is represented by F.sub.a1, the radial force acting on the rotor by the main pole 100a3 is represented by F.sub.a3, and the radial force acting on the rotor by the main pole 100a5 is represented by F.sub.a5, the resultant force F.sub.T is generated by the radial force F.sub.a3 acting on the rotor by the main pole 100a3 and the radial force F.sub.a5 acting on the rotor by the main pole 100a5. It is apparent that the resultant force F.sub.T is smaller than the radial force F.sub.a1. Therefore, the rotor receives a radial force in the direction of the main pole 100a1 by the force which is a difference between F.sub.a1 and F.sub.T. This radial force rotates in accordance with the exciting steps to make the rotor vibrates.
In addition, an exciting means which is superior in efficiency to that shown in the expression (5) has been required.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to solve the foregoing problems so as to provide a multi-phase permanent-magnet type electric rotating machine in which the number of coils is reduced by half without generating any vibrations while the machine has necessary characteristics corresponding to those of conventional machine, and to provide an exciting means superior in efficiency.

Multi-phase permanent-magnet type electric rotating machine


A measuring system (200) for measuring a FOV of a digital camera module (52) includes a measuring chart (22), a parameter inputting module (32), and a processing module (42). The measuring chart defines a colored portion. The parameter inputting module is used to input relative parameters. The processing module is connected to the parameter inputting module and receives electronic image signals converted from images of the colored portion and of the measuring chart screened by the lens module. The processing module is configured for calculating the FOV θ of the digital camera module. A measuring method for measuring the FOV θ of the digital camera module is also provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a measuring system for measuring a field of view (FOV) of digital camera modules and, more particularly, to a FOV measuring system that simplifies measuring procedures.
2. Description of Related Art
Digital cameras are now in widespread use with the ongoing development of micro-circuitry and multimedia technologies. High-end portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), are being developed to be increasingly multi-functional. Many of these portable electronic devices are now equipped with digital camera modules.
In a digital camera module, a FOV is a very important factor in determining the quality of the pictures captured by the digital camera module. Therefore, the FOV of the digital camera module requires measuring before the digital camera module is deemed acceptable for use.
Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, a digital camera module 50 includes a lens module 501 and an image sensing module 503. When the FOV θ of the digital camera module is measured, the digital camera module 50 is used to image a measuring chart 20. The lens module 501 captures an image area 201 of the chart 20 and forms an object image 201′ on the image sensing module 503. The FOV θ can be described by either equation 1 or equation 2 below:θ=2×arc tan(d/2s)  (Equation 1)θ=2×arc tan(d′/2f)  (Equation 2)Wherein d is a length of a diagonal line AC of the image area 201, d′ is a length of a diagonal line A′C′ of the image area 201′, s is a distance between the lens module 501 and the measuring chart, and f is a focal length of the lens module 501. The image sensing module 503 is placed in an image plane of the lens module 501, and, therefore, a distance between the image sensing module 503 and the lens module 501 is equal to the focal length f of the lens module 501.
In this way, if d and s are measured, the FOV θ can be calculated using equation 1; if d′ and f′ are measured, the FOV θ can be calculated using equation 2.
Referring to FIG. 3, a typical FOV measuring system 100 is used to measure a FOV of a digital camera module 50. The typical measuring system 100 includes a measuring chart 20, a parameter inputting module 30, and a processing module 40. The digital camera module 50 includes a lens module 501 and an image sensing module 503. The lens module 501 captures an image area 201 of the chart 20 and forms an object image 201′ on the image sensing module 503. The image sensing module 503 converts optical signals of the object image 201′ into electrical signals and transmits the electrical signals to the processing module 40. The parameter inputting module 30 inputs a pixel length Ld of each pixel of the image sensing module 503 and a distance f between the lens module 501 and the image sensing module 503 into the processing module 40. At the same time, the processing module 40 calculates the number of pixels Pd of a diagonal A′C′ of the image area 201′ by means of automatically searching a frame of the measuring chart 20. In this way, the FOV θ can be calculated by means of the equation 2:θ=2×arc tan(d′/2f)=2×arc tan(Pd×Ld/2f)
However, much time is needed in searching a boundary of the image area 201, and the processing module 40 is prone to make mistakes in such an automatic search. Additionally, when the typical measuring system 100 is used to measure different types of digital camera modules 50 with different pixel lengths Ld, the pixel length Ld of each type of digital camera module 50 requires measuring and inputting into the processing module 40. This work costs more time and manpower.
Therefore, a new system for measuring FOV of camera modules and a new measuring method are desired in order to overcome the above-described shortcomings.

System and method for measuring field of view of digital camera modules


The present invention provides a method for hyperlink parking and searching. A user pre-defined search criteria is formed by adding, deleting, or modifying a search criteria that includes at least one search term. A universal resource Locator (URL) is obtained by parking a cursor on a hyperlink displayed on the current viewing computer screen, and, in response to parking the cursor on the hyperlink, an Internet connection with the URL is established. If the parked-on hyperlink is linkable and displayable, then a second indication is displayed on the current viewing computer screen, a web page associated with the URL is imported and searched with the user pre-defined search criteria to determine a number of matches for each search term, and each search term and a number of matches for each search term is displayed on the current viewing computer screen. Otherwise, a first indication is displayed on the current viewing computer screen.

The field of this invention is hyperlink park and search (HPS). More specifically, when the cursor parks on a hyperlink, behind the scene the computer automatically visits the link and performs a range of desired operations, such as:
Searches for a set of strings that the user has inputted and displays on the current viewing screen whether or not there are matches. Stores all displayed data in the computer. Edits and displays stored data in between parks. Searches for pre-defined song information that the user has inputted and when it identifies a match, downloads and plays a media data file using a media player on the current viewing computer.
Indicates on the current viewing screen if any of the parked-on hyperlinks cannot be linked to and/or displayed.
Rates the hyperlinked page that the cursor is parked on without leaving the current viewing page.
Every web site usually has a main web page that has at least one hyperlink to its inner page or other Uniform Resource Locators (URLs). Email texts often also contain hyperlinks. When one uses the Yahoo! search engine, for example, a number of URLs show up on the results page. When one reads a description of a URL and clicks on it, sometimes one finds that the page cannot be displayed, or the link is to a page one has already visited. Currently, when one clicks on a hyperlink and a new web page is displayed, from the Edit menu one can select Find (on This Page). When the Find dialog is displayed, one can input search string (s) into the textbox with the label Find What. One can click Find Next in the Find dialog to conduct a search on the newly displayed page. Then one clicks back to the previous web page to view other hyperlinks, clicks on those hyperlinks to display the web pages linked to by them, and then repeats the process of using Edit on the browser's menu bar. This process is tedious and error prone at best. This invention removes the forward and backward web page navigation from the user browsing experience and allows the user to devote more time and attention to searching for the information he/she really needs.
Currently, unlike this invention, none of the existing browser technologies, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape, has the function of parking on the hyperlink, searching in the background, displaying the searched results, and storing the searched results without leaving the current viewing computer screen. This invention therefore can help cut down unwanted browsing time by showing the results of multiple-string searches on parked-on hyperlinks on the current viewing computer screen. The user can select and store a portion of each searched result. This invention provides a method of showing the strings matching percentage of the web page—it is named Web Page Text Rating Index (WPTRI). This index gives an objective rating of a specific web page based on predefined criteria provided by the user.
For example, when one parks the cursor on a particular text hyperlink or a picture hyperlink, the browser status bar, title bar, or tool-tip-text will display: "This page cannot be displayed -->http://www.cannotdisplay.com" if the page cannot be displayed. If the search strings were "dog" and "cat," the display may read: "{dog} has -->3, {cat} has -->0, -->http://www.pethouse.com." Or the display may read: "Free dog examination, How to give your dog a bath, $50 for a mixed-breed dog -->http://www.pethouse.com." In the case of WPTRI, when browsing a web page, the status bar, title bar, or tool-tip-text will display a rating result such as: "This page is travel-related; its rating index is 35%." Thirty-five percent is the strings matching percentage. "Travel-related" is determined by matching the strings from different subject areas such as travel, law, medicine, etc. In this case, the most strings matched were travel-related. When the subject of travel is detected, it uses its sub-subjects to calculate the strings matching percentage. The higher the percentage, the better the travel content. The strings contained in the sub-subjects of "travel" for instance, can be requested from travel associations. The user may add to or modify the sub-subjects if he or she chooses to do so.
For example, in the Microsoft Explorer status bar, it will display: "This page is travel-related, its rating index is 35%," "Thailand has 5 out of 10 matches, Europe has 12 out of 20 matches, Japan has 6 out of 7 matches," etc. "Thailand has 5 out of matches" means that this web page contains five of the ten points of interest agreed on by the local travel association that provides the sub-subjects. This reduces the possibility of visiting web pages with exaggerated advertising or pages with much form but little substance. WPTRI is indifferent to web page layout, the color scheme of the web page, grammar, and other stylistic aspects of the web pages. It provides neutrality to the commercially-tilted search results (so-called "sponsored matches") seen on most search engines today.
The rating of a page can be achieved visually or for instance by U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,011, entitled "System and method for filtering data received by a computer system," issued on Nov. 30, 1999 to Donald Creig Humes, which filters objectionable words at the moment the computer receives the data. Another example is Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS). The way PICS works is when the user requests to browse a URL, the filter software sends that URL to a label bureau requesting a description label of that URL, and that software will then decide based on the label received whether or not to reject connection to the URL. U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,664, entitled "Method for scanning, analyzing and rating digital information content," issued on Jul. 24, 2001 to Adrian Peter Russell-Falla and Andrew Bard Hanson weighs each filtered word on a web page and disallows connection to the URL if the words exceed a total threshold rating. U.S. Pat. No. 6,389,472, entitled "Method and system for identifying and locating inappropriate content" issued on May 14, 2002 to Patrick Alan Hughes and Paul Blair Elswick uses the strings in the proxy server to search the received data and disallows connection to the URL when the data is unwanted.
Chen's invention uses a Web Page Text Rating Index (WPTRI). The WPTRI is calculated by using rating subjects and sub-subjects from a predefined list to search web pages and then dividing the number of matches by the total number of strings in the sub-subjects and multiplying that number by 100. Rating methods vary.
The embodiment of Chen's invention uses, for example, the following Microsoft web products and technologies: Microsoft Office XP software including Excel VBA, Access VBA, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Access database, and Excel database; Microsoft SQL database software; Visual Basic 6.0; Visual Basic.Net; Microsoft Visual C++; C# programming language; Microsoft Windows Application Programming Interface; Microsoft Advance Server 2000; Windows CE; and Microsoft Visual Studio.Net. Other examples include Linux operation software, UNIX and PHP programming language, MySQL database, and Oracle database software. In Chen's invention, the client-side user computer can be a personal computer, a web pad, a tablet PC, a mobile PC, a PDA, a mobile phone with PDA, a Microsoft Smart Display, or an interactive digital TV. The computer link to the Internet can be wired or wireless. The input device used to input search strings in this invention can be a keyboard, a handwriting input device or a voice recognition device.


An electronic assembly including a thermal capacitor. An electronic substrate of the electronic assembly includes one or more insulating layers and one or more conductor layers provided along the one or more insulating layers. The one or more conductor layers including a conductive material. A shape memory thermal capacitor is received in the electronic substrate. The shape memory thermal capacitor includes a shape memory core including a shape memory material.

Electronic devices include electronic boards referred to as printed wiring boards (PWB), printed circuit boards (PCB) or the like. Dielectric (insulating) layers are stacked with intervening layers of conductive traces that are electrically interconnected with devices coupled with a printed wiring board. In some examples, interconnecting conductive vias extend through dielectric layers to communicate between conductive traces and devices through one or more layers of the printed wiring board. Devices coupled with the printed wiring board include electronic components such as semiconductors, processors, memory, amplifiers, radio frequency (RF) components, microwave components, power switching devices or the like. The devices are mechanically coupled with the printed wiring board and electrically (and mechanically) coupled with conductive traces and conductive vias.
Devices coupled with the printed wiring board generate heat that is dissipated from the device and conducted through the printed wiring board to other devices. Devices operate more reliably and at higher efficiencies when cool, and accordingly performance degrades with heat. Printed wiring boards including dielectrics (insulators) are generally poor at conducting heat, and heat generated at the devices is retained by the devices.
In some examples, heat transfer is facilitated from the devices with fans that extract warm surrounding air from around the devices and the printed wiring board while drawing in cooler (ambient) air. In other examples, material such as thermal interface material (TIM) couples the device with heat transfer enhancing features, such as arrays of fins, posts, or the like that increase the surface area of the device and enhance heat transfer from the device.
In other examples, copper metal tabs or 'coins' are embedded in the printed wiring board. The copper coins absorb heat from the devices comparatively better than the PWB itself. For instance, copper has a specific heat of 0.385 J/g degree C., and accordingly absorbs 0.385 Joules per gram of the copper coin per degree Celsius of temperature change. When conductively heated by a device on the printed wiring board, the copper coin absorbs this heat and dissipates it to the surrounding PWB material over time.

Shape memory thermal capacitor and methods for same

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AS REPRESENTED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE ARMY


A method of forming a polymer/ceramic composite for use in various purposes. For example, the polymer/ceramic composite may be used in orthopedic procedures for replacing bone material, forming an implant, providing an anchor or other appropriate uses. The polymer/ceramic composite may also include selected characteristics such as a hardness, a strength, a bioabsorbability, a biocompatibility or other appropriate characteristics.

Although various procedures and materials may be used to perform orthopedic procedures, it may be useful to provide a bioabsorbable or biocompatible material formed of a plurality of materials. For example, various materials may include a selected characteristic while a second material may include a complimentary characteristic. Nevertheless, these various materials may be generally separate, although it may be useful to provide them in a single location.
Various materials, such as bone cement, bioabsorbable polymers, ceramics, and the like, each provide various characteristics or advantages for a selected procedure. Nevertheless, it may be desirable to provide more than one of these properties at a selected location. For example, it may be desirable to provide a bioabsorbable polymer that has a selected strength or wear characteristic, such as that similar to a ceramic. Providing a volume of both a polymer and a ceramic, however, in a single selected location may not be feasible.
For example, an attempt to provide both a polymer and a ceramic, such as a polymer surrounding a ceramic may be used. Various attempted methods include using a ceramic pre-form or a plurality of particles in a selected orientation that can be positioned in a mold or that may form a part of a mold for infiltration with a polymer. Forming such polymer/ceramic composite is difficult, especially in selected orientations. Positioning a ceramic in a mold and injecting a selected polymer therein may increase the complexity of the formation of the material and reduce the possible configurations of the final product.

Methods of making a polymer and ceramic composite


A data profiling method and system for reading an input data entry set and labeling semantic fragments according to fragments of data entries and semantic features of fragments and, based on the labeled semantic fragments performing a semantic-level data analysis of the input data entry set to obtain analysis results. According to the method and system of the present invention, it is able to obtain better data analysis of free text and make corresponding statistics and analysis of free-text data entry sets according to semantics.

Data profiling relates to the analysis of an input data entry set with respect to statistical properties of data distribution, quality of data, and so on. It is the first essential step in the data integration process. Such data profiling is needed to help understand new data sources during data integration and data cleansing. Data profiling can provide more detailed information, such as reports on the numbers of valid addresses and fields with missing information. Data profiling reports can be used to identify problems, such as bad files, and to identify new data values that need to be further researched and possibly accommodated.
Data profiling is usually a labor-intensive, resource-devouring, error-prone process. In recent years, some data profiling systems have been developed that can dramatically reduce the time of data profiling from months to weeks to even days. These data profiling systems provide good support for new enterprise applications, data warehouse projects etc.
All of the existing data profiling methods include: pattern analysis for determining whether or not data values in a field or fields match the expected pattern or structure; column analysis for identifying statistical properties of data records, such as the number of null values contained in data, maximum/minimum values of data, mean values, standard deviation etc.; domain analysis for determining whether or not specific data values are acceptable or fall within an acceptable range of values. For example, data concerning "gender" must be "male" or "female" only, and other data values are unacceptable.
However, the above existing data profiling systems provide only symbol-level shallow data analysis. For example, they analyze some characters, words and digits of the address of an input data entry, but they do not know the meaning, namely semantics of the analyzed characters, phrases and digits. In practice, various free-text data, e.g. organization name, customer address etc., also need data profiling in many data integration and data cleansing applications. Especially, a plurality of free-text data entries comprises the mixture of various data types, e.g. address, organization name, person name, phone number etc.

International Business Machines Corporation


A process for quenching a catalyst used in the manufacture of polycarbonate by melt polycondensation of a dihydroxy compound and a diester. The process includes adding a sulfonic acid ester quencher to the polycarbonate and extruding the polycarbonate, wherein the amount of sulfonic acid ester added to the polycarbonate is effective to reduce the amount of branching species generated during extrusion of the polycarbonate to less than 100 parts per million. The catalyst used in the melt polycondensation reaction is selected from the group consisting of sodium dihydrogen phosphite, cesium dihydrogen phosphate and disodium magnesium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid.

This disclosure relates to a manufacturing method for preparing polycarbonates, and more particularly, to a manufacturing method for preparing polycarbonates by melt polycondensation of a dihydroxy compound and a diester carbonate in the presence of a catalyst.
Aromatic polycarbonates are used in a variety of applications due to their excellent mechanical and physical properties including, among others, impact and heat resistance, strength and transparency. There are three general processes known for the commercial manufacture of aromatic polycarbonates, which are illustrated in FIG. 1. The conventional interfacial process, as shown in FIG. 1A, and the phosgene-based melt process, as shown in FIG. 1B, start with the reaction of phosgene with carbon monoxide. The third general process, a xe2x80x9cno phosgenexe2x80x9d melt process as shown in FIG. 1C, was developed to eliminate the use of highly toxic phosgene in the process flow. Of these general methods, the xe2x80x9cno phosgenexe2x80x9d melt process shown is preferred since it prepares polycarbonates less expensively than the interfacial process and avoids the use of highly toxic phosgene.
Both types of melt processes (FIGS. 1B, and 1C) make use of a diarylcarbonate, such as diphenylcarbonate (DPC) as an intermediate, which is polymerized with a dihydric phenol such as bisphenol A (BPA) in the presence of an alkaline catalyst to form a polycarbonate in accordance with the general reaction scheme shown in FIG. 2. This polycarbonate may be extruded or otherwise processed, and may be combined with additives such as dyes and UV stabilizers. In many cases, however, the presence,of residual catalyst in the finished polycarbonate has a detrimental affect on the quality of the product, leading to poor color, a decrease in molecular weight, a decrease in transparency, or undesirable rheological properties. Residual catalyst may also interact with additives, detracting from their efficacy and rendering the polycarbonate prone to thermal decomposition. Thus, it is desirable to reduce the levels of residual catalyst to minimize these interactions. Such reduction is referred to as xe2x80x9cquenching.xe2x80x9d
Efforts to improve the stability of the finished polycarbonate has led to the use of alkali metal phosphorus-containing inorganic salts and/or alkaline earth metal phosphorus-containing inorganic salts as the catalyst. Of these phosphorus-containing salts, sodium dihydrogen phosphite and cesium dihydrogen phosphate are preferred for use in the melt polymerization process. In addition, the art now employs disodium magnesium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid as a catalyst. These new catalyst materials require the addition of effective quenching compounds to prepare polycarbonates having acceptable residence stability.
A process for quenching a catalyst used in the manufacture of polycarbonate includes melt polycondensing an aromatic dihydroxy compound and a diester carbonate in the presence of a catalyst to produce a polycarbonate. The catalyst is selected from the group consisting of sodium dihydrogen phosphite, cesium dihydrogen phosphate and disodium magnesium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. A sulfonic acid ester quencher is added to the polycarbonate and the polycarbonate is extruded. The amount of sulfonic acid ester quencher added to the polycarbonate is effective to reduce the amount of branching species generated during extrusion of the polycarbonate to less than 100 parts per million.
These and other features will become better understood from the detailed description that is described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


A process for the polymerization of olefin monomers comprising contacting ethylene or a mixture of ethylene and one or more C4-8 α olefins with a catalyst composition comprising one or more Group 3-10 transition metal containing, Ziegler-Natta, procatalyst compounds; one or more alkylaluminum cocatalyts; and one or more polymerization control agents, said process being characterized in that at least one such polymerization control agent is an alkyl or aryl, ester of an aliphatic or aromatic (poly)carboxylic acid optionally containing one or more substituents comprising a Group 13, 14, 15, or 16 heteroatom.

The present invention relates to Ziegler-Natta catalyst compositions for use in the polymerization of ethylene and mixtures of ethylene with one or more C4-8 α-olefins having improved high temperature polymerization properties. More particularly, the present invention relates to such catalyst compositions that are self-limiting or auto-extinguishing, thereby avoiding polymer agglomeration, operability problems, and/or reactor sheeting, chunking or fouling due to localized overheating or even "run-away" polymerizations.
Ziegler-Natta catalyst compositions are well known in the art. Typically, these compositions include a Group 3-10 transition metal containing procatalyst compound, especially a complex of titanium-, halide-, and, optionally magnesium-C1-6 alkoxide- and/or C6-10 aryloxide-moieties; a co-catalyst, usually an organoaluminum compound, especially a trialkylaluminum compound; and a support, preferably finely divided magnesium dichloride. Non-limiting examples of suitable Group 4 metal complexes that are useful as procatalysts include TiCl4, TiCl3, Ti(OC2H5)3Cl, Ti(OC2H5)2Cl2, Ti(OC2H5)3Cl, Ti(OC3H7)Cl3, Ti(OC3H7)2Cl2, Ti(OC4H9)Cl3, Ti(OC4H9)2Cl2, TiCl3.1/3AlCl3, Ti(OC12H25)Cl3, MgTi(OC2H5)5Cl, MgTi(OC2H5)4Cl2, MgTi(OC2H5)3Cl3, MgTi(OC2H5)2Cl4, MgTi(OC2H5)Cl5, and mixtures thereof. Additional suitable components of the Ziegler-Natta catalyst composition may include an internal electron donor, especially C1-6 alkyl esters of aromatic carboxylic or dicarboxylic acids; dispersants; surfactants; diluents; inert supports such as silica or alumina; binding agents; and antistatic compounds. Examples of Ziegler-Natta catalyst compositions are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,107,413; 4,115,319; 4,220,554; 4,294,721; 4,302,565; 4,302,566; 4,330,649; 4,439,540; 4,442,276; 4,460,701; 4,472,521; 4,540,679; 4,547,476; 4,548,915; 4,562,173; 4,728,705; 4,816,433; 4,829,037; 4,927,797; 4,990,479; 5,028,671; 5,034,361; 5,066,737; 5,066,738; 5,077,357; 5,082,907; 5,106,806; 5,146,028; 5,151,399; 5,153,158; 5,229,342; 5,247,031; and 5,247,032.
In a typical continuous gas phase polymerization process, fouling or sheeting can lead to the ineffective operation of various reactor components. For example, accumulation of solid polymer on the surfaces of the reactor, the distributor plate, monitoring sensors, and the recycle system can lead to difficulty in operation and an early reactor shutdown. This problem is often encountered during polymerization of ethylene and ethylene/C4-8 α-olefin mixtures since the polymerization reaction is typically conducted at temperatures that are relatively close to the softening temperature or melting point of the resulting polymer.
Reasons for the occurrence of sheeting or fouling and solutions to the various process operability problems caused thereby have been addressed by many in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,792,592, 4,803,251, 4,855,370 and 5,391,657 all discuss techniques for reducing static generation, and ultimately fouling in a gas phase polymerization process by use of water, alcohols, ketones, and/or inorganic chemical additives. WO 97/14721 discusses the suppression of fines for the same purpose by adding an inert hydrocarbon to the reactor. U.S. Pat. No. 5,627,243 discusses a new type of distributor plate for use in fluidized bed gas phase reactors. WO 96/08520 discusses avoiding the introduction of a scavenger into the reactor. U.S. Pat. No. 5,461,123 discusses using sound waves to reduce sheeting. U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,736 and EP-A1 0 549 252 discuss the introduction of an activity retarder to the reactor to reduce agglomerates. U.S. Pat. No. 5,610,244 relates to feeding make-up monomer directly into the reactor above the bed to avoid fouling and improve polymer quality. U.S. Pat. No. 5,126,414 discusses oligomer removal for reducing distributor plate fouling. U.S. Pat. No. 4,012,574 discusses adding a surface-active compound, such as a perfluorocarbon group, to the reaction mixture. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,026,795, 5,410,002, 5,034,480, 3,082,198 and EP-A453,116 disclose the addition of various antistatic agents to the polymerization zone in the reactor to reduce fouling, among other reasons.
There are various other known methods for improving reactor operability including coating the polymerization equipment, for example, treating the walls of a reactor using chromium compounds as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,532,311 and 4,876,320, and feeding the catalyst into particle lean regions of the reactor, as discussed in WO 97/46599. Other known methods of reducing fouling include injecting antifoulants or antistatic agents into the reactor; controlling the polymerization rate in the reaction zone; reconfiguring the reactor design; modifying the catalyst system by combining the catalyst components in a particular order; manipulating the ratio of the various catalyst components; prepolymerizing a portion of the monomer; and varying the contact time and/or temperature when combining the components of a catalyst composition. Examples of the foregoing techniques include: WO 96/11961 (use of an antistatic agent); U.S. Pat. No. 5,283,218 (prepolymerization); and U.S. Pat. No. 4,942,147 and 5,362,823 (addition of autoacceleration inhibitors). With respect to the latter two patents, suitable autoacceleration inhibitors were stated to be Diels-Alder adducts that decomposed at elevated temperatures thereby generating a poison for the catalyst composition, exemplified by vanadium based catalysts. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,180,735, the use of solid carbonyl compounds, including aromatic carboxylic acid esters (col. 18, line 57) as one component of a catalyst composition for olefin polymerization was disclosed.
While all these possible solutions might reduce the level of fouling or sheeting of a gas phase polymerization somewhat, some are expensive to employ, some require the addition of undesirable foreign materials into the reactor, some require constant monitoring by an operator and additions in amounts and at times that must be determined empirically, and some may not reduce fouling or sheeting adequately or quickly enough for commercial purposes.
Thus, it would be advantageous to have a gas-phase polymerization process capable of operating continuously with enhanced reactor operability. In particular, the industry still desires a continuously operating, gas phase, Ziegler-Natta catalyzed, olefin polymerization process having reduced fouling or sheeting tendency, and increased duration of operation.
In particular, there remains a need in the art to provide an olefin polymerization process using a Ziegler-Natta catalyst composition for the polymerization of ethylene or mixtures of ethylene with one or more C4-8 α-olefins, which process has improved, self-limiting or auto-extinguishing properties, resulting in effectively reduced catalytic activity and heat generation, especially at elevated reaction temperatures. Desirably, the reduction in polymerization activity is inherent in the catalyst composition and does not require monitoring and outside intervention by an operator. In addition, there remains a need in the art to provide an additive or component (polymerization control agent or PCA) for use in combination with an olefin polymerization catalyst composition that is able to result in the foregoing improved, self-limiting, polymerization process.

Catalyst composition for ethylene polymerization


A SiAlON phosphor represented by a general formula (1)Lup(Si, Al)12(O, N)16:Euq  (1)wherein at least a main phase has an alpha SiAlON crystal structure; and 0.25≦p≦0.65.

In the field of illumination, there is more and more expectation on solid state lighting applications, in particular, on white illumination using semiconductor light emitting diode, leading to a widespread, vigorous, and continuous research and development. Although white light emitting diode lamp has already achieved an emission efficiency greater than or equivalent to an incandescent light bulb, there is room for further improvement, and it is considered that the white light emitting diode lamp will become widespread in the near future as an energy saving illumination device. In addition, white light emitting diode lamp is substantially advantageous in that the white light emitting diode lamp does not include substances such as mercury which impose a heavy burden on the environment. Because the dimension of an element of the white light emitting diode lamp is small, the white light emitting diode lamp is frequently used by being incorporated into a backlight of a liquid crystal displaying device and a cellular phone and the like. A white light emitting diode used in this white light emitting diode lamp includes a light emitting diode element that emits a short wavelength light such as a blue light; and a fluorescent substance that is excited by absorbing a part of or all of this light and emits a fluorescent light with a longer wavelength such as a yellow light. In other words, white light is obtained by mixing a blue light emitted by a blue light emitting diode as a light source and a yellow light emitted by a phosphor.
Concerning light emitting devices used for illumination, white light emitting devices with various color temperatures are demanded according to their usage. In order to meet such demands, a phosphor that provides a much wider chromaticity range compared to known phosphors, and a technology for adjusting the chromaticity are in demand.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2002-363554 (corresponding patent: Japanese Patent No. 3668770) (Patent Document 1) discloses a phosphor such that, if a general formula is MexSi12−(m+n)Al(m+n)OnN16−n, Me is Ca, Mg, Y; or a lanthanide metal excluding La and Ce; and Ce, Pr, Eu, Tb, Yb, and Er which are emission center lanthanide metals replacing a part of it; and a Dy as its coactivator. Regarding this phosphor, a composition range is disclosed such that, when the metal Me is divalent, 0.6<m<3.0 and 0≦n<1.5; and when the metal Me is trivalent, 0.9<m<4.5 and 0≦n<1.5. It is also disclosed that, the peak emission wavelength can be continuously varied in the range of 560 nm to 590 nm by changing the activator amount of the Eu2+ ion. A phosphor disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2003-124527 (Patent Document 2) achieves a dominant wavelength in the range of 546 nm to 583 nm by being activated by Eu2+ and having Ca as a main component of metal. In PCT International Publication No. WO 2006/006582 (Patent Document 3), we disclosed a phosphor having a dominant wavelength in the range of 577.7˜583.1 nm by being activated by Eu2+ and by having Ca as a main component of metal. However, presently there is a demand for a phosphor that can be excited by a blue light and emits light at a much longer wavelength compared to the above disclosed phosphors.

National Institute for Materials Science


A method for protecting exposed silicon from attack by phosphoric acid during wet etching and stripping processes is provided. According to various embodiments of the method, a thick chemical oxide layer can be formed on the exposed silicon to protect the exposed portion from etching by phosphoric acid. The method can include exposing the silicon to at least one of a hot ozonated sulfuric acid and a hot peroxide sulfuric acid to form the thick chemical oxide.

Phosphoric acid (H3PO4) is commonly used in semiconductor processing for a variety of applications including wet etching and stripping of metals and nitrides. For example, in a conventional process for forming a gate stack structure, phosphoric acid is used to strip an inorganic anti-reflective coating (IARC) from the top of the polysilicon gate region. Phosphoric acid is also used to etch a silicon nitride hardmask during a conventional process for forming a shallow trench isolation structure.
Problems arise, however, because phosphoric acid also etches exposed silicon leading to roughening of the silicon surface. Conventional methods for protecting against attack by phosphoric acid include growth of a thermal oxide. Growth of a thermal oxide, however, adds processing complexity and exposes the semiconductor structure to the potentially damaging effects of high temperature processing. Furthermore, controlling the growth of thermal oxide thickness is difficult for thin films, and growing of thick thermal oxide films consumes large amounts of silicon and alters critical dimensions (CD).
Another conventional method for protecting exposed silicon against attack by phosphoric acid uses a protective film. The protective film, however, is deposited on all semiconductor structure surfaces, not just exposed silicon. As such, processing complexity is increased because the protective film requires subsequent removal.
Thus, there is a need to overcome these and other problems of the prior art and to provide a method to protect silicon from phosphoric acid.

Protection of silicon from phosphoric acid using thick chemical oxide


A method of etching a metallic layer having an anti-reflection layer thereon. The method includes performing a first etching operation using a fixed set of processing parameters to etch the anti-reflection layer and remove a specified thickness of the metallic layer. Thereafter, a second etching operation is conducted to etch the remaining metallic layer.

This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 90106422, filed Mar. 20, 2001.
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an etching process. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of etching a semiconductor metallic layer.
2. Description of Related Art
Due to the rapid reduction of device dimensions in semiconductor circuits, alignment accuracy in photolithographic and etching processes is compromised. Misalignment causes serious problems, especially in the patterning of a metallic conductive layer. This is because a conductive layer has a high reflectivity index. Hence, a portion of the light from a light source is reflected back during photo-exposure, leading to a deviation in size of the developed photoresist pattern. Ultimately, an inaccurate pattern is transferred to the conductive layer. To prevent such patterning errors, an anti-reflection coating (ARC) is generally deposited over the conductive layer to reduce back reflection.
Most anti-reflection coating is made from an organic or an inorganic material. In general, organic anti-reflection coating such as a polymer layer is formed the conductive layer after the photoresist layer. Conversely, inorganic anti-reflection coating such as a titanium nitride layer is formed over the conductive layer before the photoresist layer.
A titanium nitride anti-reflection coating not only prevents the production of unwanted back reflection during photo-exposure, but also protects the conductive layer against attack by corrosive agents and the infiltration of impurities. Currently, a silicon oxynitride layer (SiON) is often used as a strengthening layer for the anti-reflection coating so that anti-reflection capacity is further enhanced.
FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a semiconductor device after a conventional metallic layer etching operation. The etching operation is conducted to pattern the anti-reflection coating and the metallic layer. As shown in FIG. 1, a substrate 100 is provided. A titanium nitride barrier layer 102 is formed over the substrate 100 and a patterned metallic layer 104 is formed over the barrier layer 102 through a metallic layer etching operation. A patterned anti-reflection coating is also formed over the patterned metallic layer 104. However, defective recesses are often formed at the interface 108 between the metallic layer 104 and the anti-reflection coating 106. A reason for this is the difference in etching rate between the metallic layer 104 and the anti-reflection coating 106. When the metallic layer is etched, over-etching at the interface between the metallic layer 104 and the anti-reflection coating 106 occurs. Ultimately, recess cavities are formed in the corner region. Since convention method relies on the simultaneous removal of both the anti-reflection coating and the metallic layer in an etching operation, corner cutting at the metallic layer/anti-reflection coating interface is difficult to resolve.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a method of etching a semiconductor metallic layer so that corner cutting at the interface of the metallic layer and the anti-reflection coating is reduced.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the invention provides a method of etching a semiconductor metallic layer. An anti-reflection coating etching operation using specific processing parameters is carried out to remove the anti-reflection coating and a pre-determined thickness of the metallic layer. This is followed by a metallic layer etching operation.
The invention provides a method of etching a metallic layer on a semiconductor substrate, with an anti-reflection layer formed on the metallic layer. A first stage etching operation is performed to etch the anti-reflection layer and a specified thickness of the metallic layer, including processing parameters, such as a top electrode power of about 400-700W, a bottom electrode power of about 100-200W, a chlorine to boron trichloride ratio of about 0.6-1.5, a gaseous nitrogen flow rate less than 10 sccm, a trifluoromethane flow rate less than 20 sccm, an overall gaseous flow rate of about 50-200 sccm, an operating pressure of about 8-15 mTorr. A second stage etching operation is then performed to etch the remaining metallic layer.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

Method of etching semiconductor metallic layer


An image sensor has a plurality of pixels each with a photoelectric conversion element and a detection transistor the threshold voltage of which fluctuates in accordance with electrical charge generated in the photoelectric conversion element. The image sensor includes a second conductivity type shield region and a first conductivity type photoelectric conversion region; a first conductivity type well region linked to the photoelectric conversion region; a ring-like gate electrode; a second conductivity type source region at the inside of the ring-like gate electrode; a second conductivity type drain region. The image sensor further includes a potential pocket region that is formed in the well region below the ring-like gate electrode and accumulates the electrical charge, wherein the width of the gate electrode is formed narrower in the part adjacent to the photoelectric conversion region than in other parts.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a threshold voltage (Vth) modulation image sensor and, more particularly, to a Vth modulation image sensor that permits pixel miniaturization.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image sensors that employ CCD are widely used. However, CCD image sensors have a complex pixel structure and require a process that is different from an ordinary CMOS process. It is therefore not easy to incorporate a CCD image sensor in the same chip as that of a peripheral signal processing circuit. On the other hand, as an image sensor that can be fabricated by means of a CMOS process, a CMOS image sensor has been proposed. A general CMOS image sensor comprises, in a single pixel, a plurality of transistors and a photoelectric conversion element such as a photodiode, and hence miniaturization of the pixel size is difficult.
As means for permitting this pixel miniaturization, a Vth modulation image sensor that uses Vth modulation of a MOS transistor according to the amount of light received has been proposed. For example, such an image sensor is disclosed by Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Nos. H11-195778, 2002-353433, and 2002-329856. In a Vth modulation CMOS sensor, electrical charge (carriers such as holes, electrons, and so forth) is generated by a photodiode that is formed in a well region common to a detection transistor, the charge is accumulated in the well region, and the variation in the threshold voltage of the detection MOS transistor that accompanies this electrical charge accumulation is then outputted as an image signal. Because each pixel is constituted by a single photodiode and a single transistor, the sensor is suited to pixel size miniaturization.
In addition, it has been proposed that the detection transistor be constituted by a ring-like gate electrode, a source region within the ring, and a drain region outside the ring to dispense with a pixel isolation region made of insulation material and suppress a leak current arising from the pixel isolation region. Such an arrangement is shown in FIG. 16 of Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2002-329856, for example. This image sensor forms a potential pocket for the accumulation of electrical charge in a well region, establishes an efficient accumulation of photoelectric converted electrical charge in the potential pocket, and increases the variation in the threshold voltage of the detection transistor caused by the accumulated electrical charge, whereby the sensitivity of the sensor increases.

Threshold voltage modulation image sensor


Digital data is transmitted over partial-response channels using a precoding technique which allows for the use of a wide variety of transmit constellations. A sequence of signal points is selected from a predetermined base constellation meeting particular criteria. A so-called combined signal point is developed for a present symbol interval by a) selecting a signal point from the base constellation as a function of input bits associated with the present symbol interval and b) combining the signal point thus selected with a feedback signal which is a function of one or more combined signal points that were developed for previous symbol intervals, that function being determined by the characteristic of the partial-response channel. A transmit signal which represents the combined signal points is then provided. In one implementation, the processing steps are performed explicitly using an integrated precoder/constellation mapper. In another implementation those steps are performed implicitly using table look-up.

The present invention relates to the transmission of digital data and, more particularly, to the transmission of digital data over partial-response channels, i.e., channels which introduce intersymbol interference.
The problem of transmitting data over partial-response channels arises in a number of commercial contexts. Among these contexts is the transmission of high-definition television (HDTV) signals in existing frequency bands that are allocated to standard (NTSC) TV signals. The problem specifically arises in areas where channels that are unused for NTSC transmission--and are thus candidates for HDTV transmission--are also in use for NTSC transmissions in relatively proximate areas. As an example, TV channel 3 is currently unused in the New York City metropolitan area, but is used in both Philadelphia and Hartford. The consequence of such proximity is that if channel 3 is to be used for HDTV in New York City, the HDTV signal may be corrupted by the channel 3 NTSC signal from Philadelphia or Hartford for New York City HDTV viewers. Conversely, the NTSC signal may be corrupted by the HDTV signal. Such corruption is referred to as "co-channel interference."
It has been realized that one can satisfactorily deal with the co-channel interference from the HDTV signal to the NTSC signal by specifying in the HDTV standards (still under consideration) a sufficiently low transmit power level. Moreover, in order to deal with co-channel interference from the NTSC signal to the HDTV signal, it has been proposed to rely on the fact that an NTSC signal is dominated by energy concentrations at particular locations in the frequency spectrum. Thus, it has been proposed to provide an HDTV receiver with a comb filter having nulls at those frequency locations, thereby removing a significant portion of the interfering NTSC signal, while only minimally degrading the HDTV signal.
The combination of the over-the-air TV channel with the comb filter constitutes a partial-response channel because the comb filter will create so-called "forced" or artificial intersymbol interference (ISI) in the received signal. (The term "channel" is used herein to mean either just the over-the-air broadcast channel or that channel in combination with various components of the receiver, as will be apparent from the context in each case.) Such ISI could be dealt with via the use of a decision feedback equalizer (DFE) in the receiver. However, the error propagation characteristics of DFEs render this a less-than-desirable solution for dealing with the forced ISI. Accordingly, it has alternatively been proposed that a precoder be provided in the HDTV transmitter so as to anticipate, and compensate for, the forced ISI, with the result that the received signal does not suffer from the forced ISI effect. A typical early such precoding technique is disclosed in P. Kabal and S. Pasupathy, "Partial-Response Signaling," IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol. COM-23, No. 9, Sep. 1975, pp. 921-934.
There are two important aspects of any successful such precoding technique. One is that it must be carried out in such a way that the number of symbols of the transmit constellation is substantially the same as the number of different precoder input bit patterns. Although the forced ISI could be dealt with using a Tomlinson-filter-based precoder, such a precoder will, in general, violate this requirement, which arises out of considerations related to transmitted power limitations and receiver equalizer complexity. The other important aspect of a successful precoding technique is that the transmitted information bits be able to be recovered from a respective signal point of the comb-filtered signal, independent of the value of any other signal point thereof. This requirement arises out of the desire to avoid error propagation in the receiver.
To this point, the prior art has indeed been able to satisfy these requirements on the precoder, but only by limiting its proposed HDTV constellation designs to essentially two classes of constellations. One class is M-ary pulse amplitude modulation--a one-dimensional signaling scheme known as M-PAM with M being an integral power of 2. The other class is M.sup.2 -ary quadrature amplitude modulation, a two-dimensional signaling scheme known as M.sup.2 -QAM with, again, M being an integral power of 2. Such limitations are potentially problematic. Those skilled in the art appreciate that having the flexibility to select from a wider array of constellation types is advantageous in that, for example, it allows one to provide and trade-off among such system design considerations as a) providing a good match between bit rate and constellation size and b) peak-to-average power ratio. Moreover, I have realized that being able to flexibly select from a broad array of constellations allows one to more readily incorporate within systems using partial-response-channel precoding a multiplexing technique wherein the quality of a received HDTV (or other) signal degrades gracefully as a function of distance from the transmitter. Such technique is described generally (but not in conjunction with partial-response-channel precoding) in my co-pending U.S. patent application with H. Y. Chung and J. Wang, Ser. No. 07/627,156 filed on Dec. 13, 1990.
A further limitation of the prior art partial-response-channel precoding techniques is that they may not be readily usable with comb filters having other than a very simple transfer characteristic--a potential drawback if the application in fact requires a more complicated characteristic.


The invention relates to a backrest for a vehicle seat, with a head support (1) which is adjustable in terms of the height of the head support (1) with respect to the backrest, and with a proximity sensor (5) for detecting the head position of a person sitting on the vehicle seat in relation to the head support (1), an indication for adjusting the head support (1) in the event of a mispositioning and/or an adjustment of the head support (1) by an electric drive (4) out of an initial position taking place until the head of the person sitting on the vehicle seat causes a triggering of the proximity sensor (5), the proximity sensor (5) being arranged in the upper part of the head support (1) and being directed downward onto the region of greatest curvature of the back of the head of the person sitting on the vehicle seat.

The present invention relates to a backrest for a vehicle seat.
DE 199 16 804 C1 discloses a head support for a backrest of a vehicle seat, comprising a capacitive sensor with two capacitor plates which are arranged one above the other and are part of a capacitor, the dielectric of which is formed by the head of a person located on the vehicle seat. The head support can in this case be moved upward, according to the output signal from the sensor, out of a lower initial position sitting on the backrest. It is in this case assumed that the head support is aligned correctly with the person's head when the signal emitted by both capacitor plates is identical. This, however, is true only of a specific ideal head shape which is in no way always to be encountered. Thus, there are people with more or less pronounced backs of the head or with necks of greater or lesser thickness. The adjustment of the head support is more or less faulty, depending on this.

Brose Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co. Kommanditgesellshaft, Hallstadt


The invention is directed to an unfailing pickup operation of an electronic component from a component storage portion at a seam of storage tapes connected even using a connection tape and prevention of reduction in a pickup rate of an electronic component. A CPU sends a feeding command to a component feeding unit to perform a component feeding operation or the like. Then, when the CPU judges that a connection tape reaches a pickup position, the CPU drives an X axis drive motor and a Y axis drive motor to move a board recognition camera to the pickup position of the feeding unit, the camera takes an image of a storage portion of a storage tape, and a recognition processing device performs recognition processing. A correction value based on a result of this recognition processing is stored in a RAM, and a suction nozzle is moved taking this correction value into account and lowers to pick up an electronic component.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electronic component mounting apparatus having a plurality of component feeding units aligned on a feeder base, the component feeding unit feeding an electronic component stored in a storage tape to a component pickup position, in which a suction nozzle picks the electronic component fed by the component feeding unit and mounts the electronic component on a printed board.
2. Description of the Related Art
In this kind of electronic component mounting apparatus, particularly in a high-speed gantry-type mounting device, since the component feeding units are fixed and not moved, there are rapidly increasing users employing the so-called splicing where storage tapes are connected to each other for supplying the components during automatic driving. A method of connecting storage tapes to each other is disclosed in the Japanese patent application publication No. hei 5-338618 and so on, for example, and a technology of facilitating the connection work is proposed.
However, in a case where the storage tapes are connected to each other with a connection tape when a shortage of electronic components occurs, the storage tapes at a connection portion with the connection tape, i.e., the storage tapes at a seam where the connection tape is attached are shifted due to the attached connection tape. Therefore, positions of a component storage portion and an electronic component stored therein are shifted relative to a position where the suction nozzle lowers to pick up the electronic component at the component feeding unit, thereby causing an error in picking a component and reduction in a pickup rate.
The invention is directed to an unfailing pickup operation of an electronic component from a component storage portion to prevent reduction in a pickup rate of electronic components even in the above case.


An operating method of a display device is provided. The method includes: recognizing, by the display device, a user's function control voice for controlling a function of a peripheral device; controlling, by the display device, the peripheral device to perform a function corresponding to the recognized function control voice in the peripheral device through a remote control device; and providing, by the display device, a control state of the peripheral device representing that the function corresponding to the recognized function control voice is performed in the peripheral device.

The present disclosure relates to a display device and an operating method thereof.
In general, an IR blaster function is a function for transmitting an IR signal for controlling a peripheral device to a light reception unit thereof by receiving a control signal in a predetermined format. Such an IR blaster function may be applied to a display device or may be used through a display device.
Typically, in order to control a peripheral device, an integrated IR micro computer in a display device outputs input information to an external wired IR cable. The information outputted to the wired IR cable may be received by an IR reception unit in a peripheral device through an accessory equipped with an IR blaster function and through this, may control the peripheral device. Accordingly, a user needs to purchase an accessory equipped with an additional IR blaster function to control a peripheral device.
Moreover, even when an IR blaster function is applied to a remote control device such as a remote controller, it maintains a sleep state when not in use due to a battery issue. Thus, since there is no way of receiving a control command from a peripheral device such as a set-top box by a display device, the IR blaster function may not be utilized completely.
Furthermore, since products equipped with a typical IR blaster function perform one-way IR communication with a peripheral device such as a set-top box, when the peripheral device is not controlled properly due to the IR directivity, there is no way of recognizing whether IR signal is received from a remote controller properly. Therefore, in order to eliminate the directivity restriction, a multiple IR module is equipped. However, as a multiple IR module is equipped, the costs of products equipped with an IR blaster function are increased.
Moreover, for people with visual impairments, accurate feedback on whether a peripheral device is controlled normally cannot be provided.

Display device and operating method thereof