A heterojunction semiconductor device comprises a semi-insulating substrate, a channel layer comprising first and second sub-layers provided on the substrate for sustaining a two-dimensional carrier gas therein, a carrier supplying layer of a doped semiconductor material provided on the channel layer, a source electrode a drain electrode and a gate electrode provided on the carrier supplying layer. The first and second sub-layers have respective first and second saturation drift velocities of carriers such that the first saturation drift velocity is substantially larger than said second saturation drift velocity.

The present invention generally relates to semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to a heterojunction semiconductor device such as a high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) that has a heterojunction interface for transporting carriers in the form of a two-dimensional carrier gas.
The high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) is a MOS transistor that uses a two-dimensional carrier gas formed at a heterojunction interface for the device operation. The device has a characteristically high operational speed associated with the high mobility of the carriers transported in the form of the two-dimensional carrier gas, and is used widely for various microwave applications. As usual in the MOS transistors, the operational speed of the HEMT increases when the gate length of the device is decreased. Thus, various intensive attempts, including improvement of the submicron fabrication processes, have been made to realize a device having a reduced gate length.
When the gate length of the device is decreased excessively, on the other hand, there arises a problem that the operation of the device is affected in such a way that it deviates from the characteristics that are predicted by the gradual approximation model. This effect is known as the short-channel effect. More specifically, the electric field formed in the channel region is no longer characterized by an electric flux directed parallel to the two-dimensional carrier gas. In addition, the effect of a component acting vertically to the plane of the two-dimensional carrier gas is no longer negligible. Under such a situation, the carrier, such as electrons, experience a force that acts perpendicular to the plane of the two-dimensional carrier gas and are urged in the downward direction toward the substrate. In addition, due to the acceleration occurring in the channel region, the energy of the two-dimensional carrier gas increases. When this occurs, the confinement of the carriers in the form of the two-dimensional carrier gas, caused by a potential barrier that characterizes the heterojunction interface, is no longer effective and the carriers tend to spread into the substrate by diffusion. Thereby, various problem occur, such as reduction of the operational speed, reduced transconductance, etc.
FIG. 1(A) shows the structure of a typical conventional HEMT.
Referring to FIG. 1(A), the device includes a semi-insulating substrate 1 composed of a suitable single crystal compound semiconductor material such as GaAs, and a buffer layer 2 of the same composition which is grown on the substrate 1 epitaxially. On the buffer layer 2, a channel layer 3 of undoped semiconductor material such as GaAs, having a large electron affinity and simultaneously a small band gap, such as GaAs is provided epitaxially, and an electron supplying layer 4 of n-type semiconductor material, such as AlGaAs, having a smaller electron affinity and simultaneously a large band is provided on the channel layer 3 epitaxially. Further, source and drain electrodes 6 and 7, respectively are provided on the doped electron supplying layer 4 in ohmic contact therewith across a channel region, and a gate electrode 8 is provided on the upper major surface of the electron supplying layer 4 in correspondence to the channel region by establishing a Schottky contact therewith. As is the common practice, the thickness of the electron supplying layer 4 is adjusted in correspondence to the channel region such that the device has a desired threshold voltage V.sub.TH.
As an alternative to the channel layer 3 formed of GaAs, one may use InGaAs that provides a still larger electron mobility for the channel layer 3. In this case, the thickness of the channel layer 3 has to be restricted to less than 15-25 nm to avoid the formation of dislocations in the InGaAs layer 3. Further, one may use InP for the substrate 1. In this case, the buffer layer 2 is formed of InA1As while the channel layer 3 is formed of InGaAs. Further, the electron supplying layer 4 is formed of InAlAs.
In operation, a two-dimensional electron gas 3a is formed in the channel layer 3 along a heteroepitaxial interface between the layer 3 and the layer 4, and the source electrode 6 injects the electrons into the two-dimensional electron gas 3a via the electron supplying layer 4 while the drain electrode 7 collects the electrons from the two-dimensional electron gas 3a via the electron supplying layer 4. Thereby, the electrons flow from the source electrode 6 to the drain electrode 7 along the two-dimensional electron gas 3a under control of the electric voltage applied to the gate electrode 8. Because of reduced scattering of the electrons in the substantially dopant-free channel layer 3, the electrons are transported at a high speed along the two-dimensional electron gas, and the desired high speed operation of the device is obtained.
In such a device, a large acceleration of the electrons occurs under the channel region due to a large voltage difference between the drain electrode 7 and the gate electrode 8. This acceleration is enhanced particularly when the gate length is reduced as in the currently proposed devices, in which each gate length is about 0.25 .mu.m. In the devices that use the InGaAs channel layer, use of an even smaller gate length of 0.15 .mu.m has been proposed.
FIGS. 1(B) and 1(C) show, in respective cross sectional view, taken along the lines 1B-1B' and 1C-1C', the energy distribution of the electrons. As will be seen in these drawings, a substantial increase in the energy of the electrons across the channel region formed under the gate electrode 8 occurs. Particularly, it is clear from FIG. 1(C) that the acceleration of the electrons is significant at the lower part of the channel layer. It should be noted that such accelerated electrons form so-called hot electrons.
FIG. 2 shows the energy spectrum of the two-dimensional electron gas formed at the heterojunction interface between the channel layer 3 of undoped InGaAS and the electron supplying layer 4 of n-type InA1As, together with the conduction band Ec. As will be seen therein, the energy level of the two-dimensional electron gas increases as a result of the acceleration occurring under the gate electrode 8. In other words, the two-dimensional electron gas shifts to the higher energy side as a result of the acceleration of the electrons. As a result of the increase in the energy level, it will be noted that the confinement of the two-dimensional electron gas at the heterojunction interface by the potential well formed by the conduction band Ec of the layers 3 and 4 is decreased and the electrons tend to spread into the interior of the channel layer 3. Further, the electrons may diffuse into the buffer layer 2 or further into the substrate 1 located underneath the channel layer 3. It should be noted that the diffusion of the electrons into the underlying layer is facilitated by the vertical component of the electric flux that characterizes the short-channel effect. Thereby, the transconductance of the device inevitably deteriorates because of the decrease of the carrier density. Further, the response for controlling the flow of the carriers by the gate voltage applied to the gate electrode 8 deteriorates.
In order to eliminate the problem of the electrons escaping from the channel layer 3, a structure shown in FIG. 3 has been proposed, wherein a barrier layer 5 is interposed between the channel layer 3 and the buffer layer 2 to form a deep potential well in correspondence to the channel layer 3. The barrier layer 5 may be made of an undoped epitaxial layer having a composition identical with the composition of the layer 4 and forms a potential barrier with a barrier height substantially identical with the barrier height formed at the heterojunction interface between the layers 3 and 4. By constructing the device as above, one can eliminate the problem of the electrons or carriers escaping away from the channel layer 3.
In the device of FIG. 3, however, there exists a problem in that some of the carriers tend to penetrate into the layer 5 by the tunneling effect. When this occurs, the carriers tend to be trapped in the localized defect levels existing in the layer 5. The carriers thus trapped are then transported through the layer 5 by jumping from one defect to another at a speed which is much slower than in the channel layer 3. Thereby, a slow signal component appears in the output. of the HEMT and the operational characteristics of the device deteriorate.
The device of FIG. 3 has another problem in that the carrier velocity of the channel layer is relatively small. It should be noted that the materials such as GaAs or InGaAs, used for the channel layer 3, have a large carrier mobility so that rapid acceleration of the carriers is achieved in the channel region near the source electrode 7 where the strength of the electric field is weak. On the other hand, these materials show a saturation of the carrier velocity at a relatively small value. Thus, once the carriers enter the part of the channel region close to the drain electrode 8, the desired acceleration of carriers does not occur. Thus, the HEMT having the conventional structure has the disadvantage that it cannot obtain the desired or expected increase of the operational speed even when the gate length thereof is reduced.

Semiconductor device having a heterojunction interface for transporting carriers with improved carrier mobility


A collaboration system may produce dynamic collaborative experiences with different tools at different times based on pending workflow tasks and users that are collaborating to complete those tasks. The system may obtain a workflow, and may provide, based on first metadata from the workflow, a first set of users with a first experience that includes a first set of tools for collaborative access to a first set of files. The system may change the first metadata to second metadata in response to output resulting from user interactions with the first set of tools or changes to the first set of files resulting from the first set of users using the first set of tools. The system may provide, based on the second, a second set of users with a second experience that includes a second set of tools for collaborative access to a second set of files.

Collaboration involves different users advancing a common workflow by working together to complete tasks and/or actions of that workflow. Online collaboration may include providing the users with shared remote access to the workflow resource so that each user may complete different tasks and/or actions on those resources in their respective capacity.
However, online collaboration may not limit or restrict user access to the resources, tasks, and/or actions of a workflow. Some users may contribute where they should not, other users should be prevented from accessing certain confidential or private information, and still other users may lose time determining what resource, tasks, and/or actions to perform and when to perform the tasks and/or actions within a large workflow involving many different business units, user roles, tools, resources, etc.

Virtual reality collaborative workspace that is dynamically generated from a digital asset management workflow


Methods, software products, and systems establish a connection between a source network element and a destination network element in a communication network comprising a plurality of first network elements. The first network elements are partitioned into at least two areas wherein a shared network element is shared between the at least two areas. A working path is then generated between the source network element and the destination network element through the shared network element. A first backup sub-path is then generated within a first one of the at least two areas between the source network element and the shared network element. A second backup sub-path is generated within a second one of the at least two areas between the shared network element and the destination network element.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to the field of telecommunications, and in particular, to an area based sub-path protection for communication networks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Communication networks include network elements that are connected to each other through communication links. Some examples of network elements are transceivers, switches, routers, and cross-connect devices. Some of these network elements use optical technology to exchange communications over optical fiber links. One such technology is wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), where each wavelength of an optical signal carries a different channel of communications. Thus, an optical fiber link carries a number of channels of communications using WDM.
These optical transmission channels between two network elements are called lightpaths. A lightpath may travel through multiple fiber links. Some lightpaths operate at the rate of a few gigabits per second (Gbps). In some communication networks without wavelength converters, a lightpath occupies the same wavelength on all the fiber links it traverses, which is referred to as wavelength continuity. When using lightpaths, the routing of the lightpaths and the wavelength assignment of lightpaths are determined.
In one example of the communication networks, the network elements within the communication network are connected in a ring configuration. Each network element is connected to two other network elements to form a ring. Some rings are connected to other rings, where shared network elements are stacked to interconnect rings. These ring configurations have poor scalability and use excessive resource redundancy for failure recovery. Thus, network configurations are migrating from ring network to mesh networks, where network elements are connected to two or more network elements. In another example, a communication network using Internet Protocol (IP) is partitioned into regional areas for control and management purposes.
Network element or optical fiber link failure in a communication network results in loss of data or delays in data, which both result in revenue loss. There are two types of fault management to handle the failure of the network element or optical fiber link: protection and restoration. Restoration is a reactive procedure in which spare capacity is available after the fault's occurrence is utilized for rerouting the disrupted connections. Protection is a proactive procedure in which spare capacity is reserved as a backup resource during connection setup. A working path of a connection is setup, which is the path carrying the connection under normal operations. When a failure occurs on the working path of a connection, a portion of or the entire connection is switched to the pre-reserved backup resource.
Protection schemes are classified by type of rerouting and type of resource sharing. In a link-based rerouting, the connections are rerouted around the end network elements of the failed link. In a path-based rerouting, a backup path is selected between the end nodes of the working path. In a dedicated resource protection, the network resources such as wavelengths are not shared among backup paths. In a shared resource protection, the backup paths do share resources such as wavelengths, which utilizes network resources more efficiently. In shared-path protection, the backup paths can share resources as long as the corresponding primary paths are not in the same shared risk group (SRG). Two primary paths are in the same SRG if they traverse the same fiber, or the fibers they traverse are in the same cable or in the same duct.
Some prior solutions for mesh WDM communication networks use protection schemes that protect the communication network as a whole. Some of these prior solutions use integer linear programs (ILP) or simulated annealing based heuristics to solve routing and planning of capacity. These ILPs and heuristics minimize the total cost of a given static traffic demand set. However, as the communication networks increase in size, there are problems with long protection switching time and poor scalability.
Other prior solutions decompose a mesh communication network into different structures such as rings, protection cycles, p-cycles, and trees. Some of these prior solutions then perform automatic protection switching based on these individual structures. However, these prior solutions suffer from excessive resource redundancy.

Area based sub-path protection for communication networks


A hand bracket comprising a grip section, a top connection bracket at a first end of the grip section and a bottom connection bracket a second end of the grip section. At least one of the top connection bracket and the bottom connection bracket comprises a shell having two screw holes and a rim, with screw cylinders extending from the screw holes to a position planar with the rim. The at least one of the top connection bracket and the bottom connection bracket includes a first side and a second side, with the two screw holes located closer to one of the first side or the second side.

The present invention pertains to hand brackets, and in particular, to a hand bracket specially suited for use on a marine vessel, motor home, travel trailer or other recreational vehicle.
Many recreational vehicles and vessels provide a series of steps and an associated hand bracket along their outer surfaces to accommodate easy access thereto.
However, due to the mobility of the vehicle or the like, the hand bracket can be adjustably constructed to avoid interference with the desired travel. One common approach is to detachably secure the hand bracket to the vehicle so that it may be removed for travel. An example of such a construction is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,227 issued May 12, 1987 to Hansen, and entitled PORTABLE BALUSTRADE AND PLATFORM ASSEMBLY. However, while such arrangements avoid travel interference, they involve labor-intensive and time-consuming operations to attach and detach, and therefore often become a nuisance to the user. Furthermore, suitable and easily-accessible storage space must be provided for receiving the hand bracket during travel. Also, the various fasteners utilized to assemble and attach the hand bracket must be kept track of to ensure that they will not become lost or erroneously used in the subsequent erection and attachment of the hand bracket. This problem is especially acute if the hand bracket is to be stored for a long duration before reassembling.
In an effort to alleviate these difficulties, past artisans have also developed collapsible hand brackets, such as disclosed in: U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,116 issued Jan. 19, 1988 to Williams et al., and entitled STORABLE STAIRWAY AND PLATFORM APPARATUS FOR RECREATIONAL VEHICLES; U.S. Pat. No. 3,997,211 issued Dec. 14, 1976 to Graves, and entitled RETRACTABLE PATIO ASSEMBLY FOR USE ON A PICKUP TRUCK MOUNTED CAMPER OR THE LIKE; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,912,298 issued Oct. 14, 1975 to Humphrey, and entitled FOLDABLE STEPS FOR MOBILE HOME. However, these hand brackets typically involve a plurality of pivotally interconnected segments which cooperate to effect collapse of the hand bracket against the vehicle in a vertical plane or elements which fold against an enlarged horizontal porch section before collapsing against the side of the vehicle. These arrangements greatly increase the complexity of the hand bracket and invariably increase the cost of fabrication and the susceptibility to disrepair.
Accordingly, an apparatus is desired having the aforementioned advantages and solving and/or making improvements on the aforementioned disadvantages.


A nipple is provided downhole as part of a tubing (drill string or production) string. The nipple has an interior passage with recesses therein and a seat. A data probe attached to a wireline traverses inside of the tubing from the surface to the nipple. The probe has a seal that seats inside of the nipple. The probe shuts in the well to allow formation fluid pressure to build. A first latch deploys into one of the recesses to retain the seal in place against the pressure. A bypass around the seal is provided. The bypass is kept closed against the pressure by a second latch that deploys into the other nipple recess. When the probe is to be retrieved to the surface, the bypass is opened to allow the pressure across the seal to equalize. The bypass is opened by unlatching the second latch. The seal is unseated by unlatching the first latch. The first and second latches are connected in series so as to operate sequentially, with the first latch deploying before the second latch. The probe has instrumentation and a sampling chamber which can be brought to the surface during flow periods of a test.

In drilling oil and gas wells, the drilling operator desires to obtain production information on the earth formation of interest. Such information includes the type and quality of fluid (whether liquids or gases) that is produced by the formation, as well as the flow rate and pressure of the fluid. Such information is useful in determining the commercial prospects of the well. A well that shows satisfactory production capability may be completed, while a well that shows no commercial promise is typically plugged and abandoned, with no further drilling expense incurred.
The desired information is typically obtained by drill stem testing. When the drilling extends the borehole into the formation of interest, a drill stem test of the formation maybe initiated. To change over from drilling to a drill stem test, the drill stem is removed from the borehole and the drill bit is taken off. The drill stem is lowered back into the borehole, with a packer and testing equipment at the lower end of the drill stem. The testing equipment is lowered to the formation of interest.
In a conventional drill stem test, the testing equipment is provided with a four phase tool and a hydraulic tool. The four phase tool has a valve that is initially open, while the hydraulic tool has a valve that is initially closed. The valve in the four phase tool is opened and closed by rotating the drill stem in one direction for a specified number of revolutions. The four phase tool can only be actuated for four phases, and no more. The hydraulic tool is opened and closed by putting weight on the drill stem.
The testing equipment has a pressure recorder that operates during the entirety of the drill stem test. The information is recorded on a chart located in the recorder.
After the drill stem is positioned in the borehole, the formation is isolated from the drilling fluid (such as drilling mud) by setting the packer. The packer is set by putting weight on the drill stem. This action also opens the valve in the hydraulic tool, wherein fluid from the formation flows up into the drill stem. The hydraulic tool remains open, and the packer remains set, as long as weight is applied to the drill stem. The period of time where fluid flows into the drill stem is called the initial flow period.
After the initial flow period, the four phase tool is closed by rotating the drill stem a specified number of revolutions (for example, five revolutions). This begins the initial shut-in period, wherein the formation fluid pressure is allowed to increase. The increase in pressure is recorded by the pressure recorder.
After the initial shut-in period, the drill stem is rotated again a specified number of revolutions so as to open the four phase tool. This initiates the second flow period, wherein fluid from the formation enters the drill stem. The second flow period is followed by a second shut-in period, which is begun by rotating the drill stem the specified number of revolutions.
After the second shut-in period, the drill stem is raised to unseat the packer and close the hydraulic tool. Further testing is prohibited because the four phase tool can no longer be opened and closed; the tool has completed its four phases. Occasionally, further drill stem testing may be desired. Therefore, a disadvantage with the conventional drill stem test is a lack of flexibility in conducting extended repetitions of the flow and shut-in periods. If extended repetitions are required, then the four phase tool must be pulled from the borehole and reset at the surface. This adds to the cost of drilling the well.
Another disadvantage occurs in crooked boreholes. Because the four phase tool is opened and closed by rotating the drill stem, it is desirable to have the drill stem not be bound by the sides of the borehole. Unfortunately, in a crooked borehole, rotation of the drill stem may not be possible due to the contact of the drill stem with the sides of the borehole. In such a crooked borehole, a drill stem test cannot be conducted.
Still another disadvantage is the time involved for a drill stem test. A typical drill stem test may take 4.5-6 hours. The information being recorded is located in the pressure recorder at the bottom of the borehole. This information is not available for study until after the test is completed, wherein the testing equipment is pulled to the surface, along with the rest of the drill stem. Furthermore, a sample of the produced fluids is not available for study until the drill stem is pulled to the surface (the produced fluids are in the lower portion of the drill stem due to the flow periods).
In some wells, it becomes immediately apparent upon the retrieval of the information (whether the information is pressure, a fluid sample, etc.) that the well is unproductive. For example, if the well produces salt water or has depleted pressures, then the well is unproductive and will be abandoned. While the drill stem test is being conducted, the drilling equipment stands idled. Yet, the well owner still pays for the drilling equipment, even if idled. Unfortunately, in such unproductive wells, unnecessary expenses are incurred in the form of idled drilling equipment while awaiting the results of the drill stem test. The longer the drill stem test takes to complete, the more expense that is incurred for the idled drilling equipment.
There is in the prior art a downhole tool that transmits the information uphole during the drill stem test. An electrical wireline is used to transmit the information to the surface. Unfortunately, this procedure is very expensive and consequently is not used on many wells.
Once a well has entered into production, the well operator may, from time to time, wish to conduct production tests on that well. When the well is completed for production, a seat nipple is provided just above the packer (the packer isolates the formation). Production tubing extends from the seat nipple up to the surface.
To conduct a production test on the well, a pressure recorder is lowered inside of the tubing to the seat nipple. Then, a surface valve on the tubing is closed to shut in the well. The well is typically shut-in for about 24-72 hours. The test takes a long time because pressure must build up in the tubing from the formation all the way up to the surface. After being shut-in for an extended period of time, the pressure recorder is retrieved to the surface to access the recorded information inside.
The disadvantage to this type of production test is the long period of time needed to conduct the test. A production well may be damaged if it is shut-in for too long. This is because the build up of pressure inside the well could undesirably fracture the formation. As a result, many operators or owners do not subject certain wells to production tests.

Method and apparatus for conducting well production tests


A plurality of conductive patterns are formed so as to be arranged in a scanning direction of a recording head. A state of each of the conductive patterns and a state between the adjacent conductive patterns are electrically checked to detect a wire break and a short circuit in the conductive patterns.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pattern forming method and a pattern forming apparatus that form a conductive pattern on a base material by a liquid discharging method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Circuit boards on which semiconductors, such as LSIs, and various electronic components are mounted are now currently used as the cores of electronic apparatuses, communication apparatuses, and computers. In these circuit boards, a composite of a reinforcing material such as a ceramic or glass fiber, and a synthetic resin such as epoxy resin are frequently used as a base material. However, when a circuit board is incorporated in a small apparatus such as a mobile telephone or a digital camera, a base material is frequently made flexible by being formed of, for example, polyester resin or aramid resin in order to increase mountability. On the other hand, although one-sided boards and double-sided boards have been mainly used heretofore, multilayer circuit boards each including, for example, eight or sixteen circuit-pattern layers are currently dominating the market because size reduction can be achieved and the integration level of the apparatuses can be increased. In addition, the definition and density of circuit patterns have been rapidly increased with the increase in the speed of electronic circuits.
Various methods are used to form a circuit pattern on a circuit board. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-163499 discloses a method for forming a circuit pattern by a liquid discharging method (inkjet recording). The use of the liquid discharging method reduces the machining cost and overcomes an environmental problem of waste disposal, compared with known subtractive processes. Moreover, the liquid discharging method provides other advantages, for example, high-speed recording is possible, the running cost is low, space saving of the apparatus can be easily achieved, and noise is low. While the liquid discharging method is basically used for recording, it is promising for applications to various industrial fields, for example, formation of circuit patterns on circuit boards, formation of pixels in color filters, formation of luminescent layers of organic electroluminescent elements and electron emission elements of electron sources, and production of microlenses.
The above-described publication discloses that a pattern composed of a conductive pattern and an insulating pattern is formed as a circuit pattern on a base material by discharging a conductive-pattern solution and an insulating-pattern solution from a liquid discharging head.
However, the use of the liquid discharging method causes a new specific problem. That is, a circuit pattern is recorded by discharging a solution for the circuit pattern from discharge openings provided corresponding to recording elements (for example, heating elements or piezoelectric elements) in the liquid discharging method. If any of the recording elements does not perform discharging for some time, evaporation of the solution proceeds at the discharge opening corresponding to the recording element, and the residual component sometimes sticks to the adjacency of the discharge opening.
FIGS. 1A and 1B are schematic views showing states in which the above-described sticking is caused at a discharge opening. FIG. 1A shows a state in which one discharge opening is clogged with sticking solution, and FIG. 1B shows a state in which the solution sticks outside the discharge opening.
FIGS. 2A to 2C are schematic views showing adverse effects on a circuit pattern recorded with a recording head in which sticking of the solution occurs, as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. FIG. 2A shows a linear pattern normally recorded in a state in which the above-described clogging and sticking do not occur at any of a plurality of discharge openings of the recording head. FIG. 2B shows a linear pattern recorded in a state in which one of the discharge openings is clogged, as shown in FIG. 1A. Since discharging from the clogged discharge opening is impossible, no solution is applied in a portion of the linear pattern. This leads to a wire break of the linear pattern. Hereinafter, this state in which discharging of the solution is impossible is referred to as a nondischarging state.
FIG. 2C shows a linear pattern recorded in a state in which a foreign substance sticks to the rim of a discharge opening, as shown in FIG. 1B. Since discharging is performed in such a state in which the foreign substance sticks near the discharge opening, position error is caused by deviation of the discharging direction, and a solution droplet lands at a position displaced from a desired position on a base material. As a result, a wire break occurs in the circuit pattern. When the displaced landing droplet comes into contact with another pattern, a short circuit occurs. Hereinafter, landing of the solution droplet at an undesirable position will be referred to as dot misalignment. While the substance sticks near the discharge opening in FIGS. 1B and 2C, even when a part of discharged solution sticks near the discharge opening, dot misalignment is sometimes caused by the influence on the discharging direction of the solution from the discharge opening. When a wire break in a portion of the circuit pattern or a short circuit between adjacent circuit patterns is thus caused by nondischarging or dot misalignment in the recording head, it is fatal to the recorded circuit pattern.
A method for minimizing these adverse effects is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-24008. In this method, a line pattern is recorded by using all discharge openings of a recording head, as shown in FIGS. 2A to 2C, and it is optically or electronically checked whether there is an unrecorded portion in the line pattern. When the unrecorded portion is detected, the recording head is subjected to recovery operation.
In recent circuit forming technologies, there is an increasing demand to further reduce the weight, thickness, and size of circuit boards. In a circuit forming technology using a liquid discharging method, technical development has also been advanced to form higher-definition patterns. The use of the liquid discharging method generally allows a circuit pattern to be recorded with a line width of approximately ten to tens of microns. In addition, there has been a study report that pattern formation on the order of submicrons is possible.
However, as the integration level thus increases, it becomes more difficult to maintain a high recording accuracy, for the following reasons:
(1) In order to form a high-definition circuit pattern, the lines of the pattern are required to be thinner, thus the number of droplets discharged from each discharge opening is reduced. Therefore, the size of each discharge opening is reduced. The size reduction makes the discharge opening more susceptible to clogging.
(2) When the solution is discharged from the discharge opening, minute droplets (hereinafter referred to as mist) are produced besides main droplets. The influence of the mist increases as the amount of solution to be discharged decreases. Parts of the mist consecutively stick to the adjacency of the discharge opening, and this causes dot misalignment.
(3) For example, even if a foreign substance does not stick, slight dot misalignment easily occurs between a plurality of discharge openings because of the structure of the recording head, that is, the manufacturing error of the discharging openings and foam or a substance sticking to a part of the inner wall of the discharging opening. With the reduction in the line width, the influence of such dot misalignment has become too serious to be ignored.
That is, when high-definition circuits are formed by the liquid discharging method according to the recent demand, not only the above-described problems (1) and (2) are further worsened, but also the new problem (3) is caused.
The method disclosed in the above-described publication can detect the presence or absence of an unrecorded portion in one line pattern, but cannot detect electrical connection (short circuit), that is, the contact between adjacent patterns due to position error of the discharging direction.

Pattern forming method and pattern forming apparatus


A power supply system includes one or more power transmitters and one or more power receivers: the one or more transmitters transmitting identification information and a power transmitting condition to the one or more receivers, receiving identification information and a power receiving condition from the one or more receivers, wirelessly transmitting power to the one or more receivers on the basis of the power transmitting and receiving conditions, and generating power transmission amount information indicating the amount of the transmitted power; the one or more receivers receiving identification information and a power transmitting condition from the one or more transmitters, transmitting identification information and a power receiving condition to the one or more transmitters, wirelessly receiving power from the one or more transmitters on the basis of the power transmitting and receiving conditions, generating power reception amount information, and transmitting the identification information and the power reception amount information.

Well-known wireless power supply technologies include power supplies based on electromagnetic induction and power supplies based on radio waves. On the other hand, recently, power supplies based on magnetic resonance have been proposed.
In a wireless power supply system based on magnetic resonance, for example, resonant coils having certain resonant frequencies are arranged in a power transmitting device, and resonant coils having the same resonant frequencies as those of the power transmitting device are arranged in a power receiving device. A coupling of a magnetic field which realizes an electromagnetic energy transfer by the magnetic resonance is formed between the power transmitting device and the power receiving device, and the power is efficiently transmitted wirelessly from the resonant coils of the power transmitting device to the resonant coils of the power receiving device by the coupling of a magnetic field.
It is considered that, compared with a power supply system based on radio waves, a power supply system based on magnetic resonance is capable of supplying a larger amount of power, elongating a power transmission distance, and reducing a size of the coil for power transmission.
A certain well-known non-contact power supply device embodies a power supply stand which includes a first coil, a power supply, power supply controlling equipment, and a supply commanding unit, and which is installed on the ground. A second coil, a charge controlling circuit, and a battery are loaded on a vehicle. In charging the battery, the vehicle is made to stop in such a way that the second coil is located immediately above the first coil, a controlling signal is output to the power supply from the power supply controlling equipment by an operation of the supply commanding unit, and an alternating excitation current is supplied to the first coil from the power supply, which generates an induced magnetic flux. An alternating induced electromotive force induced in the second coil by this induced magnetic flux is converted into a direct current by the charge controlling circuit, the obtained direct current is supplied to the battery, and the battery is thereby charged. A control displaying unit calculates and displays the supplied power amounts and charges or wirelessly transmits them.
In a certain well-known power supply system, an ECU (electronic control unit) of the vehicle which transmits power executes a program which includes a step of wirelessly transmitting power to the vehicle which receives power. The ECU of the vehicle which receives power, when it receives power transmitted from the vehicle which transmits power, supplies the received power to a driving motor, and executes a program which includes a step of driving a driving motor. With this, when the vehicle is traveling, power transmission and reception are available. The power supply system calculates fees on the basis of the transmitted power and/or received power.
A certain well-known power transmitting device senses an approach of a portable electronic apparatus having a high-speed large-capacity storage module which functions as a rechargeable power supply, and transmits power to charge the high-speed large-capacity storage module in response to the sensed approach. With this, the power source is rechargeable at a time of, for example, a noncontact authentication processing operation, by approximation to the authentication device. A charging system performs a charging fee process in accordance with an amount of charge.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication 8-237890    Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication 2005-168085    Patent Document 3: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication 2006-353042

Power supply system, power transmitter, and power receiver


A method for manufacturing integrated circuit devices, optical devices, micromachines and mechanical precision devices, the said method comprising the steps of (1) providing a substrate having patterned material layers having line-space dimensions of 50 nm and less and aspect ratios of >2; (2) providing the surface of the patterned material layers with a positive or a negative electrical charge by contacting the substrate at least once with an aqueous, fluorine-free solution S containing at least one fluorine-free cationic surfactant A having at least one cationic or potentially cationic group, at least one fluorine-free anionic surfactant A having at least one anionic or potentially anionic group, or at least one fluorine-free amphoteric surfactant A; and (3) removing the aqueous, fluorine-free solution S from the contact with the substrate.

In the process of manufacturing ICs with LSI, VLSI and ULSI, patterned material layers like patterned photoresist layers, patterned barrier material layers containing or consisting of titanium nitride, tantalum or tantalum nitride, patterned multi-stack material layers containing or consisting of stacks e.g. of alternating polysilicon and silicon dioxide layers, and patterned dielectric material layers containing or consisting of silicon dioxide or low-k or ultra-low-k dielectric materials are produced by photolithographic techniques. Nowadays, such patterned material layers comprise structures of dimensions even below 20 nm with high aspect ratios.
Photolithography is a method in which a pattern on a mask is projected onto a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer. Semiconductor photolithography typically includes the step of applying a layer of a photoresist on a top surface of the semiconductor substrate and exposing the photoresist to actinic radiation, in particular UV radiation of a wavelength of, for example, 193 nm, through the mask. In order to extend the 193 nm photolithography to the 20 nm and the 15 nm technology node, immersion photolithography has been developed as a resolution enhancement technique. In this technique, the air gap between the final lens of the optical system and the photoresist surface is replaced by a liquid medium that has a refractive index greater than one, e.g., ultra pure water with a refractive index of 1.44 for the wavelength of 193 nm. However, in order to avoid leaching, water-uptake and pattern degradation, a barrier coating or a water resistant photoresist must be used. These measures however add to the complexity of the manufacturing process and are therefore disadvantageous.
Besides the 193 nm immersion lithography, other irradiation techniques using significant shorter wavelengths are considered to be solutions which fulfil the needs of further downscaling of the to be printed feature sizes of the 20 nm technology node and below. Besides electron beam (eBeam) exposure, the Extreme Ultraviolett (EUV) lithography with a wavelength of about 13.5 nm seems to be the most promising candidate to replace immersion lithography in the future. After the exposure, the subsequent process flow is quite similar for immersion eBeam and EUV lithography as described in the following paragraph.
A post-exposure bake (PEB) is often performed to allow the exposed photoresist polymers to cleave. The substrate including the cleaved polymer photoresist is then transferred to a developing chamber to remove the exposed photoresist, which is soluble in aqueous developer solutions. Typically, a developer solution such as tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) is applied to the resist surface in the form of a puddle to develop the exposed photoresist. A deionized water rinse is then applied to the substrate to remove the dissolved polymers of the photoresists. The substrate is then sent to a spin drying process. Thereafter, the substrate can be transferred to the next process step, which may include a hard bake process to remove any moisture from the photoresist surface.
Irrespective of the exposure techniques, the wet chemical processing of small patterns involves however a plurality of problems. As technologies advance and dimension requirements become stricter and stricter, photoresist patterns are required to include relatively thin and tall structures or features of photoresists, i.e., features having a high aspect ratio, on the substrate. These structures may suffer from bending and/or collapsing, in particular, during the spin dry process, due to excessive capillary forces of the deionized water remaining from the chemical rinse and spin dry processes and being disposed between adjacent photoresist features. The maximum stress a between small features caused by the capillary forces can be defined as follows:
  σ  =                              6          ·          γ          ·          cos                                                          θ            D        ·                  (                  H          W                )            2
wherein γ=surface tension of the fluid, θ=contact angle of the fluid on the feature material surface, D=distance between the features, H=height of the features, and W=width of the features. Consequently, the surface tension of the chemical rinse solutions must be significantly lowered.
Another solution for immersion lithography may include using a photoresist with modified polymers to make it more hydrophobic. However, this solution may decrease the wettability of the developing solution.
Another problem of the conventional photolithographic process is line edge roughness (LER) due to resist and optical resolution limits. LER includes horizontal and vertical deviations from the feature's ideal form. Especially as critical dimensions shrink, the LER becomes more problematic and may cause yield loss in the manufacturing process of IC devices.
Due to the shrinkage of the dimensions, the removal of particles in order to achieve a defect reduction becomes also a critical factor. This does not only apply to photoresist patterns but also to other patterned material layers which are generated during the manufacture of optical devices, micromachines and mechanical precision devices.
An additional problem of the conventional photolithographic process is the presence of watermark defects. Watermarks may form on the photoresist as the deionized water or rinse liquid cannot be spun off from the hydrophobic surface of the photoresist. The photoresist may be hydrophobic particularly in areas of isolated, or non-dense, patterning. The watermarks have a harmful effect on yield and IC device performance.
The American patent application US 2008/0280230 A1 discloses a chemical rinse solution containing an alcohol, in particular, isobutyl alcohol. Moreover, the chemical rinse solution may contain fluorosurfactants such as 3M Novec™ fluid HFE-711 PA, -7000, -7100, -7200, and 7500, 3M Fluorinert™ FC-72, -84, -77, -3255, -3283, -40, -43, -70, -4432, 4430, and -4434, or 3M Novec™ 4200 and 4300.
For instance, 3M Novec™ 4200 is a perfluoroalkyl sulfonamide, 3M Novec™ 4300 is a perfluoroalkyl sulfonate, HFE-7000 is heptafluoro-3-methoxypropane, HFE-7100 is nonafluoro-4-methoxybutane, HFE-7200 is 1-ethoxy-nonafluorobutane, HFE-7500 is 3-ethoxy-dodecafluoro-2-(trifluoromethyl)-hexane, and HFE-711 PA is an azeotrope of 1-methoxy-nonafluorobutane and isopropanol. The 3M Fluorinert™ series surfactants are customarily used as inert perfluorinated heat transfer media.
The American patent application US 2008/0299487 A1 teaches the use of the above mentioned fluorosurfactants as additives to developer and chemical rinse solutions as well as to the immersion photoresist material. Moreover, 3M L-18691, an aqueous solution of perfluoroalkyl sulfonimide, can also be used. Additionally, the use of the following fluorosurfactants is suggested:                Rf—SO3−M+, wherein Rf is a C1-C12 perfluoroalkyl group and M+ is a cation, a proton or an ammonium group;        Rf—SO2N−—R1M+, wherein Rf and M+ have the above-mentioned meaning and R1 is a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, a hydroxyalkyl group, an alkylamine oxide group, an alkylcarboxylate group or an aminoalkyl group, the alkyl, hydroxyalkyl, alkylamine oxide, alkylcarboxylate and aminoalkyl groups having preferably 1-6 carbon atoms and the hydroxyalkyl having preferably the formula —(CH2)x—OH, wherein x=1-6; and        Rf-Q-R1SO3−M+, wherein Rf and M+ have the above-mentioned meaning and R1 is an alkylene of the formula —CnH2n(CHOH)oCmH2m-, wherein n and m are independently of each other 1-6 and o is 0-1, and is optionally substituted by catenary oxygen or nitrogen group, Q is —O— or —SO2NR2—, wherein R2 is a hydrogen atom, or an alkyl, aryl, hydroxyalkyl, aminoalkyl, or a sulfonatoalkyl group having 1-6 carbon atoms, optionally containing one or more catenary oxygen or nitrogen heteroatoms; the hydroxyalkyl group may be of the formula —CpH2p—OH, wherein p is 1-6; the aminoalkyl group may be of the formula —CpH2p—NR3R4, wherein p is 1-6 and R3 and R4 are independently of each other hydrogen atoms or alkyl groups of 1-6 carbon atoms.
The American patent applications US 2008/0280230 A and US 2008/0299487 A1 remain silent as to whether the chemical rinse solutions containing such an ionic fluorosurfactant can meet the ever increasing demands of the IC manufacturing industry, in particular with regard to pattern collapse in the 32 nm and sub-32 nm technology nodes.
The international patent applications WO 2008/003443 A1, WO 2008/003445 A1, WO 2008/003446 A2 and WO 2009/149807 A1 and the American patent application US 2009/0264525 A1 disclose inter alia cationic and anionic fluorosurfactants. These known fluorosurfactants find numerous applications, for example, in textile, paper, glass, building, coating, cleaner, cosmetic, herbicide, pesticide, fungicide, adhesive, metal, or mineral oil technologies as well as in special coatings for semiconductor photolithography (photoresist, top antireflective coatings, bottom antireflective coatings) [cf., for example WO 2008/003446 A2, page 14, line 29 to page 20, line 20]. The use of the fluorosurfactants for manufacturing ICs for nodes of 50 nm and lower, in particular for 32 nm nodes and lower, is not disclosed. Moreover, many of these prior art fluorosurfactants are not easily biodegradable and are therefore prone to bioaccumulation.

Method for manufacturing integrated circuit devices, optical devices, micromachines and mechanical precision devices having patterned material layers with line-space dimensions of 50 nm and less


A one-piece, flat, garment display hanger having a generally T-shape with a relatively long top crossbar and a relatively short bottom crossbar. Vertical spacer means space the crossbars from each other. Hook means on the top crossbar suspend the hanger. The hanger is inserted into a garment to locate the bottom crossbar in the crotch of the garment and to locate the waist of the garment about the top crossbar. The spacer means is long enough to slightly stretch the garment between the crossbars to give a representation of how the garment would look when worn.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed toward a garment display hanger. The invention is more particularly directed toward a garment display hanger of the type for displaying underwear such as briefs or panties.
2. Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed under CFR .sctn..sctn. 1.97-1.99
Underwear is usually sold in stores in packages. The buyer has difficulty in visualizing how the packaged underwear, particularly women's lingerie, will look when worn. Several attempts have been made to overcome this problem by providing various flat forms on which the underwear can be mounted. The forms are adapted to be hung and usually are shaped to simulate a human torso. The buyer can see how the apparel article looks when mounted on the form in a manner similar to manner it is worn. Examples of such forms are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. D368,805; 4,805,816 and 4,542,838.
The known forms or display hangers are however quite expensive to manufacture and have not found widespread use. The solid hanger forms, such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,542,838 and 4,805,816, use too much material and are too expensive. Even the known forms which just provide an outline of the hips or torso of a person, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. D368,805 for example, are expensive in their use of material particularly since they must be rigid enough to maintain their shape.
Undergarments, particularly women's lingerie, are cut so that the leg openings are higher in the front than in rear. Thus the leg openings are quite well defined when looking at the garment from the front. However, the known forms or display hangers, in providing an outline of the hips or torso, hide the rear of the garment and thus the leg openings are not as apparent. As a result the garment is not as attractively displayed on the known forms or display hangers.


The present invention relates to diphenylmethyl imidazole mineralocorticoid receptor modulators compounds having the structure

The compounds described in this invention represent a novel structural class of mineralocorticoid receptor modulators.
Mineralocorticoids exert profound influences on a multitude of physiological functions by virtue of their diverse roles in growth, development and maintenance of homeostasis. The actions are mediated by the mineralocorticoid receptor. In visceral tissues, such as the kidney and the gut, mineralocorticoid receptors regulate sodium retention, potassium excretion, and water balance in response to aldosterone. Elevations in aldosterone levels, or excess stimulation of mineralocorticoid receptors, are linked to several physiological disorders or pathologic disease states including Conn's Syndrome, primary and secondary hyperaldosteronism, increased sodium retention, increased magnesium and potassium excretion (diuresis), increased water retention, hypertension (isolated systolic and combined systolic/diastolic), arrhythmias, myocardial fibrosis, myocardial infarction, Bartter's Syndrome, and disorders associated with excess catecholamine levels (Hadley, M. E., ENDOCRINOLOGY, 2nd Ed., pp. 366-381, (1988); and Brilla et al., Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, 25(5), pp. 563-575 (1993)). Additionally, elevated aldosterone levels have been increasingly implicated with congestive heart failure (CHF). In CHF, the failing heart triggers hormonal mechanisms in other organs in response to the attending reductions in blood flow and blood pressure seen with CHF. In particular, the kidney activates the rennin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) causing an increase in aldosterone production by the adrenals which, in turn, promotes water and sodium retention, potassium loss, and further edema. Although historically it was believed that aldosterone participated in the etiology of CHF only as a result of its salt retaining effects, several recent studies have implicated elevated aldosterone levels with events in extra-adrenal tissues and organs, such as myocardial and vascular fibrosis, direct vascular damage, and baroreceptor dysfunction. Pitt et al., New Eng. J. Med., 341:709-717 (1999). These findings are particularly significant since angiotensin converting enzyme (SCE) inhibitors, which were once thought to completely abolish aldosterone production, are now believed to only transiently suppress aldosterone production which has been shown to occur in extra-adrenal tissues including the heart and vasculature. Weber, New Eng. J. Med., 341:753-755 (1999); Fardella and Miller, Annu Rev. Nutr., 16:443-470 (1996).
The involvement of aldosterone acting via MR in CHF was confirmed in the recently completed RALES (Randomized Aldactone Evaluation Study) study, Pitt et al., New Eng. J. Med., 341:709-717 (1999). The RALES study demonstrated that the use of Aldactone™ (spironolactone), a well-known competitive MR antagonist, in combination with standard CHF therapy, reduced cardiac related mortality by 30% and frequency of hospitalization by 33% in patients suffering from advanced CHF. However, spironolactone therapy has also been associated with attending side effects such as gastric bleeding, diarrhea, azotemia, hyperchloremic metabolic acidosis and type-4 renal tubule acidosis, nausea, gynecomastia, erectile dysfunction, hyperkalemia, and irregular menses. Thus, the mineralocorticoid receptor represents a viable target for CHF therapy either alone or in combination with conventional CHF therapies such as vasodilators (ACE inhibitors), inotropics (digoxin), diuretics, or beta blockers. Molecules, preferably non-steroids, which bind to the mineralocorticoid receptor and modulate receptor activity without the attending side effects current therapies would be particularly desirable.
Current mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists are limited by hyperkalemia due to blockade of renal epithelial mineralocorticoid receptors. Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists are approved for treatment of hypertension and heart failure. Non-kalemic mineralocorticoid receptor modulators would be safer that current approved compounds.

Abstract: and their use in treating cardiovascular events.


A method for forming a sensor includes forming a base-region barrier in contact with a base substrate. The base-region barrier includes a monocrystalline semiconductor having a same dopant conductivity as the base substrate. An emitter and a collector are formed in contact with and on opposite sides of the base-region barrier to form a bipolar junction transistor. The collector, the emitter and the base-region barrier are planarized to form a level surface opposite the base substrate such that when the level surface is exposed to charge, the charge is measured during operation of the bipolar junction transistor.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to semiconductor devices, and more particularly to charge sensors formed using inverted lateral bipolar junction transistors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, different types of sensors are fabricated for the detection of different materials/substances. For example, Geiger counters are used to detect the radiation dose and provide a real-time but semi-quantitative readout. Personal radiation dosimeters in the form of wearable badges are available but cannot provide real time readout. Bio-sensors, depending on the materials to detect, include quite different structures, which very often require a certain amount of time for readout due to the reaction/detection mechanism. Moreover, better resolution/sensitivity requires longer processing time, which sometimes involves special instruments only available in laboratories, limiting the portability of bio-sensors.

Charge sensors using inverted lateral bipolar junction transistors


A paper pulp molding device has a reversing demolding mechanism and a vacuum set. The reversing demolding mechanism has a transmission set and at least one suction set. The at least one suction set is rotatable and driven by the transmission set. Each one of the at least one suction set has multiple sucking structures. Each sucking structure has a hollow unit and a vacuum suction disc communicating with the hollow unit. The vacuum set has a vacuum apparatus and multiple hoses. Each hose respectively communicates with the hollow unit of one of the sucking structures and the vacuum apparatus. The vacuum suction disc of each sucking structure enlarges the contact area between the vacuum suction disc and a container to reinforce the suction force produced by the vacuum apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device that is applied for molding recycled paper material into containers, and more particularly to a paper pulp molding device that can reliably demold the molded containers.
2. Description of Related Art
Pulp molding process is a recycling technique that can manufacture containers by discarded paper products. The pulp molding process breaks the discarded paper products into paper pulps, and then adopts the paper pulps to form the containers by compression molding. The pulp molding process not only can resolve the pollution caused by the discarded paper products, but also can reduce the consumptions of timber and decrease deforestation.
With reference to FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, a conventional paper pulp molding device has an upper die 80 and a lower die 90. The upper die 80 has a cavity 81 and multiple channels 82 communicating with the cavity 81. The upper die 80 and the lower die 90 mold the paper pulp into a container C. The container C is left in the cavity 81 of the upper die 80. The conventional paper pulp molding device conducts compressed air into the channels 82 to force the container C to detach from the cavity 81. However, in certain circumstances (such as when the outline of the cavity 81 is complicated), the container C is easily stuck in the cavity 81 and cannot detach from the cavity 81. The container C left in the cavity 81 may interfere with the next manufacturing procedure.
To overcome the shortcomings of the conventional paper pulp molding device, the present invention provides a paper pulp molding device to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.


A water supplying extension arm for supplying water from a water source to a showerhead has an elongated hollow extension arm element extending along its longitudinal axis and having a first end connectable to the water source turnably about a horizontal axis and a second end spaced in a direction of the longitudinal axis from the first end and connectable to the showerhead. The hollow elongated extension arm element is arch-shaped and has a cross section with a shape of an ellipse having a shorter upright axis and a longer transverse axis.

The present invention relates generally to an equipment for supplying water from a source of water, for example from a water pipe, to a showerhead, and more particularly it relates to water supplying extension arms which supply water from the water source to the showerhead.
Water supplying extension arms are used for supporting on them other element of water systems, which can be connected turnably around an axis of the extension arm and slidingly along the extension arm. At the same time the extension arms are hollow and have an inner channel through which water flows from the water source to the showerhead.
The known water supplying extension arms are usually straight and thereby they restrict a movement range of the showerhead and adjustability of the arm and the showerhead and require additional angle adjustment means. They also have a circular cross section which also has its drawbacks, in particular increased material use.


A flange structure (10) is provided for a fuel supply unit of a vehicle. The flange structure includes at least one electrically conductive fuel port (16′) having a periphery and first and second ends (22, 23). The first end (22) includes first barb structure (28). A plastic flange (20′) is overmolded on at least a portion of the periphery of the fuel port between the first and second ends. A portion of the flange overmolded on the portion of the periphery of the fuel port defines fitting structure (25) having second barb structure (27). A hose (30) is coupled with the first end of the fuel port and with the fitting structure with the first and second barb structures engaging the hose thereby preventing fuel or fuel vapor from passing between the periphery of the fuel port and the overmolded flange.

With reference to FIG. 1, a typical fuel supply unit for a vehicle includes flange structure, generally indicated at 10 including a plastic flange 20 configured to be sealed to a wall of a fuel tank. The flange structure 10 is interconnected with a fuel pump assembly 12 by a pair of metal struts 14. The flange structure 10 also includes various ports 16 that provide pathways into and out of the fuel tank for fuel. The ports 16 are connected with the fuel pump 12 to supply fuel to an engine, but the connecting hoses are not shown in FIG. 1.
Recently, there has been a greater focus on Electro Static Dissipation (ESD) in such fuel supply systems. It is known that as fuel flows through various components of the fuel supply system, such as the fuel pump assembly, the fuel filter, and various valving and tubing, there is the potential for static electricity to be generated in the various conductive components of the fuel supply system. To dissipate this static electricity, fuel supply systems electrically ground the components through electrical interconnection.
For example, as shown in FIG. 1, some systems employ a separate cable harness 18 which grounds through the pump negative. Other systems employ grounding clips (not shown) that touch an inline filter. In addition, conductive portions of fuel ports have been grounded.
There is a need provide for ESD of fuel ports while creating a barrier to prevent permeation or leakage of fuel around the fuel port.

Interface hose seal for low permeation flange of a fuel supply unit


A compressed bitstream is scaled down to a reduced rate bitstream by first demultiplexing a compressed input bitstream to extract video objects as elementary input bitstreams having a first bit rate. A transcoder converts each elementary input bitstream to an elementary output bitstream having a second bit rate. The first bit rate is less than the second bit rate. A transcoding control unit, coupled to the transcoder, supplies control information for the transcoder. A multiplexer composes the elementary output bitstreams into a compressed output bitstream having the second bit rate.

This invention relates generally to information delivery systems, and more particularly to delivery systems that adapt information encoded as object-based compressed bitstreams to available bit rates of a network.
Recently, a number of standards have been developed for communicating encoded information. For video sequences, the most widely used standards include MPEG-1 (for storage and retrieval of moving pictures), MPEG-2 (for digital television) and H.263, see ISO/IEC JTC1 CD 11172, MPEG, xe2x80x9cInformation Technologyxe2x80x94Coding of Moving Pictures and Associated Audio for Digital Storage Media up to about 1.5 Mbit/sxe2x80x94Part 2: Coding of Moving Pictures Information,xe2x80x9d 1991, LeGall, xe2x80x9cMPEG: A Video Compression Standard for Multimedia Applications,xe2x80x9d Communications of the ACM, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 46-58, 1991, ISO/IEC DIS 13818-2, MPEG-2, xe2x80x9cInformation Technologyxe2x80x94Generic Coding of Moving Pictures and Associated Audio Informationxe2x80x94Part 2: Video,xe2x80x9d 1994, ITU-T SG XV, DRAFT H.263, xe2x80x9cVideo Coding for Low Bitrate Communication,xe2x80x9d 1996, ITU-T SG XVI, DRAFT13 H.263+Q15-A-60 rev.0, xe2x80x9cVideo Coding for Low Bitrate Communication,xe2x80x9d 1997.
These standards are relatively low-level specifications that primarily deal with the spatial and temporal compression of video sequences. As a common feature, these standards perform compression on a per frame basis. With these standards, one can achieve high compression ratios for a wide range of applications.
Newer video coding standards, such as MPEG-4 (for multimedia applications), see xe2x80x9cInformation Technologyxe2x80x94Generic coding of audio/visual objects,xe2x80x9d ISO/IEC FDIS 14496-2 (MPEG4 Visual), Nov. 1998, allow arbitrary-shaped objects to be encoded and decoded as separate video object planes (VOP). The objects can be visual, audio, natural, synthetic, primitive, compound, or combinations thereof. Video objects are composed to form compound objects or xe2x80x9cscenes.xe2x80x9d
The emerging MPEG-4 standard is intended to enable multimedia applications, such as interactive video, where natural and synthetic materials are integrated, and where access is universal. MPEG-4 allows for content based interactivity. For example, one might want to xe2x80x9ccut-and-pastexe2x80x9d a moving figure or object from one video to another. In this type of application, it is assumed that the objects in the multimedia content have been identified through some type of segmentation process, see for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,400,846xe2x80x9cMethod for Ordering Image Spaces to Search for Object Surfacesxe2x80x9d filed on Jun. 4, 1999 by Lin et al.
In the context of video transmission, these compression standards are needed to reduce the amount of bandwidth (available bit rate) that is required by the network. The network may represent a wireless channel or the Internet. In any case, the network has limited capacity and a contention for its resources must be resolved when the content needs to be transmitted.
Over the years, a great deal of effort has been placed on architectures and processes that enable devices to transmit the content robustly and to adapt the quality of the content to the available network resources. When the content has already been encoded, it is sometimes necessary to further convert the already compressed bitstream before the stream is transmitted through the network to accommodate, for example, a reduction in the available bit rate.
Bit stream conversion or xe2x80x9ctranscodingxe2x80x9d can be classified as bit rate conversion, resolution conversion, and syntax conversion. Bit rate conversion includes bit rate scaling and conversion between a constant bit rate (CBR) and a variable bit rate (VBR). The basic function of bit rate scaling is to accept an input bitstream and produce a scaled output bitstream which meets new load constraints of a receiver. A bit stream scaler is a transcoder, or filter, that provides a match between a source bitstream and the receiving load.
As shown in FIG. 1, typically, scaling can be accomplished by a transcoder 100. In a brute force case, the transcoder includes a decoder 110 and encoder 120. A compressed input bitstream 101 is fully decoded at an input rate Rin, then encoded at a new output rate Rout 102 to produce the output bitstream 103. Usually, the output rate is lower than the input rate. However, in practice, full decoding and full encoding in a transcoder is not done due to the high complexity of encoding the decoded bitstream.
Earlier work on MPEG-2 transcoding has been published by Sun et al., in xe2x80x9cArchitectures for MPEG compressed bitstream scaling,xe2x80x9d IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, Apr. 1996. There, four methods of rate reduction, with varying complexity and architecture, were presented.
FIG. 2 shows an example method. In this architecture, the video bitstream is only partially decoded. More specifically, macroblocks of the input bitstream 201 are variable-length decoded (VLD) 210. The input bitstream is also delayed 220 and inverse quantized (IQ) 230 to yield discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients. Given the desired output bit rate, the partially decoded data are analyzed 240 and a new set of quantizers is applied at 250 to the DCT blocks. These re-quantized blocks are then variable-length coded (VLC) 260 and a new output bitstream 203 at a lower rate can be formed. This scheme is much simpler than the scheme shown in FIG. 1 because the motion vectors are re-used and an inverse DCT operation is not needed.
More recent work by Assuncao et al., in xe2x80x9cA frequency domain video transcoder for dynamic bit-rate reduction of MPEG-2 bitstreams,xe2x80x9d IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, pp. 953-957, December 1998, describe a simplified architecture for the same task. They use a motion compensation (MC) loop, operating in the frequency domain for drift compensation. Approximate matrices are derived for fast computation of the MC blocks in the frequency domain. A Lagrangian optimization is used to calculate the best quantizer scales for transcoding.
Other work by Sorial et al, xe2x80x9cJoint transcoding of multiple MPEG video bitstreams,xe2x80x9d Proceedings of the International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, May 1999, presents a method of jointly transcoding multiple MPEG-2 bitstreams, see also U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/410,552xe2x80x9cEstimating Rate-Distortion Characteristics of Binary Shape Data,xe2x80x9d filed Oct. 1, 1999 by Vetro et al.
According to prior art compression standards, the number of bits allocated for encoding texture information is controlled by a quantization parameter (QP). The above papers are similar in that changing the QP based on information that is contained in the original bitstream reduces the rate of texture bits. For an efficient implementation, the information is usually extracted directly in the compressed domain and may include measures that relate to the motion of macroblocks or residual energy of DCT blocks. This type of analysis can be found in the bit allocation analyzer.
Although in some cases, the bitstream can be preprocessed, it is still important that the transcoder operates in real-time. Therefore, significant processing delays on the bitstream cannot be tolerated. For example, it would not be feasible for the transcoder to extract information from a group of frames, then transcode the content based on this look-ahead information. This would not work for live broadcasts, or video conferencing. Although it is possible to achieve better transcoding results in terms of quality due to better bit allocation, such an implementation for real-time applications is impractical.
It is also important to note that classical methods of transcoding are limited in their ability to reduce the bit rate. In other words, if only the QP of the outgoing video is changed, then there is a limit to how much one may reduce the rate. The limitation in reduction is dependent on the bitstream under consideration. Changing the QP to a maximum value will usually degrade the content of the bitstream significantly. Another alternative to reducing the spatial quality is to reduce the temporal quality, i.e., drop or skip frames. Again, skipping too many frames will also degrade the quality significantly. If both reductions are considered, then the transcoder is faced with a trade-off in spatial versus temporal quality.
This concept of such a spatio-temporal trade-off can also be considered in the encoder. However, not all video coding standards support frame skipping. For example, in MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, the Group of Picture (GOP) structure is pre-determined, i.e., the Intra frame period and distance between anchor frames is fixed. As a result, all pictures must be encoded. To get around this temporal constraint, the syntax does allow macroblocks to be skipped. If all macroblocks in a frame are skipped, then the frame has essentially been skipped. At least one bit is used for each macroblock in the frame to indicate this skipping. This can be inefficient for some bit rates.
The H.263 and MPEG-4 standards do allow frame skipping. Both standards support a syntax that allows a reference to be specified. However, their frame skipping has mainly been used to satisfy buffer constraints. In other words, if the buffer occupancy is too high and in danger of overflow, then the encoder will skip a frame to reduce the flow of bits into the buffer and give the buffer some time to send its current bits.
A more sophisticated use of this syntax allows one to make the spatio-temporal trade-offs in non-emergency situations, i.e., code more frames at a lower spatial quality, or code less frames at a higher spatial quality. Depending on the complexity of the content, either strategy can potentially lead to better overall quality. Methods to control this trade-off in an MPEG-4 object-based encoder have been described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,764, xe2x80x9cAdaptive video coding methodxe2x80x9d, issued on Oct. 19, 1999 to Sun et al., and in xe2x80x9cMPEG-4 rate control for multiple video objects,xe2x80x9d IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, February 1999, by Vetro et al. There, two modes of operation were introduced, HighMode and LowMode. Depending on a current mode of operation, which was determined by the outgoing temporal resolution, adjustments in the way bits were allocated were made.
Besides the work referenced above, methods to control this spatio-temporal trade-off have received minimal attention. Furthermore, the information that is available in the transcoder to make such decisions is quite different than that of the encoder. As a result, the transcoder must find some alternate means of transmitting the information that is contained in a bitstream to adapt to reductions in available bit rates.
It is an object of the invention to reduce the bit rate of a video bitstream without severely degrading the information that is conveyed at the reduced bit rate. Furthermore, it is an object to reduce the bit rate by individually manipulating video objects of the bitstream in a joint manner. Because this object-based scheme has this finer level of access, it enables a reduction of the level of spatio-temporal quality of one object without significantly impacting the quality of the entire bitstream.
More particularly, the invention provides a bitstream scaler and method that operates individual object of a compressed bitstream. A demultiplexer extracts each video object from a compressed input bitstream as an elementary input bitstream having a first bit rate. A transcoder converts each elementary input bitstream to an elementary output bitstream having a second bit rate. A transcoding control unit, coupled to the transcoder, generates control information for the transcoder. A multiplexer composes the elementary output bitstreams into a compressed output bitstream having the second bit rate. Typically, the second bit rate is less than the first bit rate. The scaler also includes an output buffer generating rate feedback information for the transcoding control unit. The trancoding control unit can include a shape analyzer, a texture analyzer, a temporal analyzer, and a spatial analyzer to generate the control information from object data generated by the transcoder.

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.


A fuel injection valve includes: a needle valve with a seat surface at a distal end; a nozzle body with a seat section on which the seat surface rests and with an injection opening disposed downstream of the seat section; and a swirl flow generating section with a spiral groove for causing fuel injected via the injection opening to swirl. The seat surface includes a first contact point. The first contact point contacts a second contact point included in the seat section during valve closing. A line segment that is drawn by connecting the first contact point and the second contact point during valve opening intersects a virtual straight line passing a bottom of a first groove section that appears the most downstream side of a cross section of the swirl flow generating portion in a plane including a central axis of the needle valve and a bottom of a second groove section that appears one step upstream side of the first groove portion. Thus, the fuel that is contracted as it passes through the spiral groove can avoid collision with the needle valve, so that a decrease in a flow velocity of the fuel as it swirls through the spiral groove is suppressed.

Conventionally, a fuel injection nozzle including a spiral passage that is formed between a wall surface of a hollow hole of a nozzle main body and a sliding surface of a needle valve has been known (Patent Document 1, for example). In such a fuel injection nozzle, fuel that has passed through the spiral passage generates a rotational flow. The fuel in the rotational flow is injected via an injection opening through a space that is formed between the needle valve and the nozzle main body when the needle valve is lifted.

Fuel injection valve, and fuel injection apparatus provided with the same


In a steering control device, a road surface reaction force torque calculation module (52) uses a vehicle speed, steering angle, and vehicle model to calculate a caster-trail-caused torque, a self-aligning torque, and a road surface reaction force torque. A reaction force command current calculation module (53) uses the road surface reaction force torque and the vehicle speed to calculate a reaction force command current.

An electric power steering device, which detects a steering torque and imparts an assist torque (steering assist torque) based on the steering torque, is known as a general steering device. A steering control device for controlling drive of the electric power steering device of this type controls the steering torque sensed by the driver steering the steering wheel, and thus constitutes an important factor forming steering feeling of a vehicle.
On this occasion, a road surface reaction force torque is a torque acting in a direction of returning the steering wheel to a neutral point by a tire lateral force acting between the road surface and steered wheels. The road surface reaction force torque may be small depending on a layout of the steering system, specifications of tires, and the like on some vehicles.
When the road surface reaction force torque is small in this way, the road surface reaction force torque cannot overcome a friction torque, which is relatively large. As a result, the road surface reaction force torque acting in the direction in which the steering wheel is returned to the neutral point becomes insufficient during the steering by the driver. It is thus necessary for the driver to intentionally apply a return torque to the steering wheel, thereby returning the steering wheel to the neutral point.
Moreover, when the road surface reaction force torque is small, it is difficult for the driver to sense, based on a reaction force transmitted to the hands of the driver, whether the steering wheel is at the neutral point, or the steering wheel is displaced from the neutral point and the vehicle is thus turning. It is thus necessary for the driver to visually confirm the steering wheel position so that the vehicle is stably controlled to travel straight. As described above, in a case where the road surface reaction force torque is small, there has been a problem that the steering feeling decreases.
In order to address this problem, an electronic control unit (ECU) drives a motor so as to impart a steering wheel return torque based on a steering angle and a direction of a steering angular velocity to a steering system in a conventional device described in Patent Literature 1, for example.
Moreover, an ECU estimates a rack shaft force from a steering angle based on a vehicle model, and carries out assist control based on the estimated rack shaft force value in a conventional device described in Patent Literature 2, for example.
Further, an ECU calculates an assist torque by using a result obtained by subtracting a steady-state response component, which can be mathematically calculated, from a steering response characteristic represented as a vehicle model out of response characteristics of the steering torque with respect to a steering angle in a conventional device described in Patent Literature 3, for example. This calculated assist torque cancels a characteristic of a high frequency component (non-steady state response component) out of the response characteristics of the steering torque with respect to the steering angle.
Moreover, an ECU compensates, in phase, a detected or estimated self-aligning torque in order to compensate a cornering force affected by a suspension geometry and a transmission delay of a self-aligning torque dynamic characteristic, and corrects a steering assist command value in a conventional device described in Patent Literature 4), for example.

Power steering controller with compensation for tire deformation and caster


Search query processing includes receiving a search query input string from a user of a mobile device and comparing the search query input to a personalized dictionary of the mobile device, determining a suggested completion for each match in the comparison, and providing the suggested completion to the user for selection. The user can select the suggested modification, if desired, and the completed query can be submitted to a search facility. Personalized dictionaries can be generated from analysis of previously submitted search queries. The analyzed search queries may have been submitted by the user, as well as by other users with similar interests. The analysis of search queries may categorize users into clusters or groups of persons having similar interests.

Search applications, such as Internet search engines and mobile navigation systems, receive user input that includes search terms for desired information on locales or destinations and the like. The search applications return search results that are responsive to the search terms and that should contain the desired information. The more desirable search applications assist users in finding the information they seek more accurately and more quickly. Providing a response more quickly is especially important in the mobile environment, where the user input interface is often relatively small, cumbersome, and slow, and where users are often engaged in multiple tasks that compete for attention.
One technique for assisting the user input process is to provide suggested input completion. For example, many mobile navigation systems offer suggested city name and street name completions as a user types the input letters. The system suggestions are based on the received letters, which comprise a text string that can be compared against a database of valid city names and street names. The most likely valid names are offered to the user as suggested completions for the input string. The user is free to accept a suggested completion, or to continue with providing text input letter-by-letter until the user completes the input string. As the user types additional letters, the system may continue to offer name completion suggestions until the user submits an input string.
Query completion is also known for Internet search engines in the mobile context. As a user types letters comprising search terms into an input display box, the mobile search engine application may offer suggested terms (letters and/or words) that would be valid completions to the search query. For example, if a mobile user begins typing into a search engine input box and completes the text string "resta . . . ", the search engine may select the word "restaurant" from its database and offer the word to the user as a suggested completion for the query text. If the user selects the suggested completion, the search engine will use the accepted completion text in the search. If the user wants to keep typing the input, the user can do so. In either case, the search engine will operate on the search input phrase submitted by the user.
The database relied upon for providing suggested search terms is typically a list of several hundred or perhaps one thousand popular terms. The list of popular terms comprises a query lexicon or dictionary that the search engine can use to compare against already-received letters and terms in a query input to identify the most likely search query completion. The query dictionary is typically downloaded from the search engine server and stored at the user's mobile device, rather than kept only at the search engine server. Downloads can occur periodically according to a schedule or can occur whenever a change to the dictionary is available, or both. Such local storage of the completion database provides faster response time and reduced bandwidth requirements as compared with server-based dictionary storage.
Unfortunately, users may often provide search terms that are not found among the popular terms in standard dictionaries, and therefore the search engine system cannot find meaningful completion suggestions from the database. That is, the completion suggestions are more likely to be rejected by the user. As a result, the user must manually complete the search input string. Search terms that are not found in the local search dictionary represent lost opportunities for assisting the user with more quickly completing the query and receiving useful responses. In addition, when the acceptance rate of completion suggestions is reduced because no meaningful completions are offered, some users may come to suspect that a carrier or search provider is skewing the search terms offered or is attempting to influence the submitted searches for their own purposes, rather than to assist the user. Such suspicions lead to user dissatisfaction, much in the way that non-targeted advertising can have a negative impact on consumers.
Although more valid completion suggestions can be obtained with a larger search dictionary that would have more terms available for suggestions, the increased dictionary size would tax the local data storage capacities of most mobile devices. Thus, increasing the local dictionary size sufficiently to include most of the terms a user might input would be impractical. The search engine server has significant storage capacity for large dictionaries and could be the repository for a larger mobile completion suggestion database, but forcing mobile devices to obtain completion suggestion from the server would significantly increase the response time, defeating the purpose of completion suggestion, and would consume too much system bandwidth. Thus, server-based completion suggestion would be an unsatisfactory user experience and would be inefficient.
It should be apparent that more efficient schemes for providing search engine query input for mobile devices are desired. The present invention satisfies this need.

Personalized query completion suggestion