A NFC enabled device to couple inductively to the H field of an RF signal and a regulator to regulate a voltage derived from an RF signal inductively coupled to the inductive coupler. The regulator has at least one voltage controlled impedance having a switch on voltage. A regulator controller provides a control voltage to each voltage controlled impedance such as that the control voltage is not less than the switch on voltage of the voltage controlled impedance.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to NFC enabled devices, and specifically to protecting NFC enabled devices from damaging voltages.
2. Related Art
Near field communications (NFC) requires that NFC devices be within a relatively small distance from one another so that their corresponding magnetic fields can exchange information. Ranges of up to several centimeters (generally a maximum of 1 meter) are common for NFC devices. Typically, a first NFC device transmits or generates a magnetic field modulated with the information, such as the credit information or the ticket fare information. This magnetic field inductively couples onto a second NFC device that is proximate to the first NFC device. The second NFC device may respond to the first NFC device by transmitting or generating its own modulated magnetic field and inductively coupling this magnetic field to the first NFC device. There are several standards in existence which set out certain communication protocols and functional requirements for NFC and other communications using the near field, such as ISO/IEC 14443, ISO 15693, ISO/IEC 18092 and ISO/IEC 21481.
A NFC enabled device is a type of NFC device that is capable of operating in an initiator mode to initiate a communication with another NFC enabled device and in a target mode to respond to the initiation of a communication by another NFC enabled device. The term "NFC enabled device" includes not only the NFC enabled device but also other initiator NFC enable devices, such as a RFID transceiver or reader that are capable of initiating a near field RF communication and/or a RFID transponder or tag that are capable of responding to initiation of a NFC by another NFC enabled device to provide some examples. Hence, the NFC enabled device can act as both a RFID transceiver and a RFID transponder and are able to communicate with other NFC enabled devices, RFID transceivers and RFID transponders.
In addition, NFC enabled devices may be associated with or comprised within or attached to certain peripheral devices, for example SIM cards (e.g. UICC), secure elements, memory devices (for example MCU, RAM, ROM and non-volatile memory), display driver or other drivers. During operation the NFC enabled device must also be able to communicate with and transfer data to and from such peripheral device.
Components of NFC enabled devices are generally protected from damaging voltages by voltage regulators such as shunt regulators. These regulators may have a finite response time during which components of the NFC enabled device are exposed to damaging voltages.
An aspect of the present invention provides a NFC enabled device that alleviates at least some of the aforementioned problems. Further aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description that follows.
The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the reference number.

Voltage regulation of near field communication communicators


A system for enhancing air purging of a modulator assembly of an electrostatic voltmeter for an electrophotographic process. A vane connected to a chopper element is located at one end of a vibratory beam so as to move when the vibratory beam oscillates. Movement of the vane generates air turbulence and currents in the vicinity of the modulator and sensor electrode thereby improving purging of toner particles and other contaminants and preventing such contaminants, which tend to cause drift errors, from settling in the vicinity of the modulator and sensor electrode.

The present invention relates to system for purging a modulator assembly of electrostatic voltmeters. More particularly, the invention is directed to self-enhanced purging of a modulator and probe for electrostatic voltmeters for use in electrophotographic processes.
In an electrostatic imaging process, six stages are utilized to produce an archival quality image on a copy sheet, such as a page of plain paper. These steps are practiced upon and around a photoreceptor element (P/R), such as a photoreceptor belt or drum, hereinafter simply xe2x80x9cphotoreceptor.xe2x80x9d The imaging stages comprise: (1) photoreceptor charging, (2) image formation or exposure, (3) image development, (4) image transfer from the photoreceptor to a copy sheet, (5) fixing of the image on the copy sheet, and (6) restoring the photoreceptor. The process proceeds in a continuous loop and, if a color image is desired, steps (1), (2) and (3) are repeated in sequential stations around the photoreceptor for toner particles of black, magenta, yellow and cyan prior to completing steps (4) through (6) of image transfer, image fixing and restoring the photoreceptor surface to a clean and neutral state.
The second and third process steps of latent image formation on the photoreceptor and image development by applying a desired quantity of toner at a precise location on the photoreceptor latent image require accurate control of an electrostatic charge on the photoreceptor. This can be accomplished by electrostatic charge monitoring and a feedback loop. In particular, in a high speed image development process the toner particles are highly charged and coulomb forces are used to attach charged toner particles to a latent image on the photoreceptor. The magnitude and location of toner deposit is critical to a successful high speed electrophotographic process and thus accurate monitoring and modulation of an electrostatic field around the photoreceptor is essential. In this, electrostatic voltmeters, such as application specific integrated circuit electrostatic voltmeters, measure electrostatic fields or potential without current flow through the electrostatic voltmeter. A typical electrostatic voltmeter includes a modulator assembly having a sensor electrode or probe and a modulator for modulating the electrostatic field that is being measured in relation to the sensor. In this, the modulator assembly is the sensing element of the electrostatic voltmeter. Electrostatic voltmeters of this type are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,212,451 to Werner, issued May 18, 1993, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,850 to Werner et al., issued Feb. 6, 1996, both of which are assigned to the Xerox Corporation and of common assignment with the subject application. The disclosures of these prior art patents are hereby incorporated by reference as though set forth at length.
One problem with current electrostatic voltmeter modulator assemblies in electrophotographic systems is that charged toner particles, which are used for developing electrostatic latent images, tend to be attracted to the modulator and/or probe. Moreover, paper dust, photoreceptor drive surface fines, and other air borne debris within an electrophotographic cabinet tend to be attracted to the modulator and/or electrostatic probe. Air borne contaminants tend to cause errors in the measurement of an electrostatic field.
Such errors are referred to as xe2x80x9cdrift errorsxe2x80x9d. One solution to this problem is to provide an air purge in the electrophotographic systems to prevent charge toner particles from getting into the modulator assembly and proximate to the probe by creating a positive air pressure around the modulator and probe. Specifically, an air purge path is provided at the front of the modulator base so that a positive air pressure is created across a sensing aperture in a front plate attached to the modulator base to purge toner particles and other contaminants from the modulator and probe. Such an approach to purging contaminants from the modulator and probe is disclosed in co-pending application Ser. No. 09/770,242 of Werner, title xe2x80x9cMODULATOR BASE FOR ELECTROSTATIC VOLTMETER MODULATOR ASSEMBLYxe2x80x9d, filed on the same date as the subject application, assigned to the Xerox Corporation and of common assignment with the subject application. The disclosure of the aforementioned co-pending application is hereby incorporated by reference as though set forth at length.
It has, however, been found that contaminants and charged toner particles tend to migrate into the modulator and probe even though an air purge is provided. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a system for enhancing the purging of toner and contaminants from the modulator assembly and the probe of electrostatic voltmeters.
The difficulties and limitations suggested in the preceding are not intended to be exhaustive, but rather are among many which demonstrate that prior art electrostatic voltmeter devices will admit to worthwhile improvement.
It is, therefore, a general object of the invention to provide an improved electrostatic voltmeter system, which will obviate or minimize difficulties of the type previously described.
It is another general object of the invention to provide an improved modulator assembly for an electrostatic voltmeter operable for providing a high level of photoreceptor voltage control for an electrophotographic process.
It is a specific object of the invention to provide an improved modulator assembly of an electrostatic voltmeter having a system for purging the modulator and probe to obtain improved operational reliability of the electrostatic voltmeter.
It is another specific object of the invention to provide an improved modulator assembly having a system for enhanced air purging of the modulator and probe.
It is another specific object of the invention to provide a system for purging a modulator and probe assembly of an electrostatic voltmeter which is easy to fabricate and exhibits enhanced operational efficiency.
It is yet another specific object of the invention to provide an improved system for self-enhanced purging of a modulator and probe of an electrostatic voltmeter, which minimizes the possibility of charged toner particles and other air borne contaminants from settling inside the sensor assembly.
To achieve at least some of the foregoing objects, the invention provides a modulator assembly of electrostatic voltmeters having a modulator base with a vibratory beam disposed inside the base for oscillating when a vibratory magnetic force is applied to the beam. Advantageously, a vane is located on the beam such that when the beam is oscillated the vane generates air turbulence or currents to purge and displace toner particles and other contaminants from the vicinity of the sensor. The beam has a longitudinal arm member and, preferably, the vane is arranged on the arm member to extend in a lengthwise direction thereof to generate air currents when the arm member oscillates.
Advantageously, the vane is associated with a device that interrupts the electrostatic voltage to modulate the voltage with respect to the sensor, hereinafter simply xe2x80x9cchopperxe2x80x9d. The chopper and vane are located at one end of the longitudinal arm member of the beam and, more preferably, the van/is integrated with the chopper in a generally L-shape configuration.

System for purging electrostatic voltmeter modulator assembly


A sensor for detecting the mass flow rate and the temperature of a fluid flow has a mass flow rate sensor having a mass flow rate sensor element, a temperature sensor having a temperature sensor element, and an interface for power supply. The sensor converts the measured values detected in analog by the mass flow rate sensor element and the temperature sensor element into digital output signals. In order to specify the simplest and most economical sensor possible for detecting the mass flow rate and the temperature of a fluid flow, at least one analog/digital converter is arranged in the sensor, which analog/digital converter converts the analog measured values of the mass flow rate sensor element and/or the analog measured value of the temperature sensor element into digital output signals and provides the digital output signals at a single digital interface.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a sensor for detecting the mass flow rate and the temperature of a fluid flow, wherein the sensor comprises a mass flow rate sensor having a mass flow rate sensor element and a temperature sensor having a temperature sensor element and also an interface for the power supply, wherein the sensor converts the measured values that are detected in an analog manner by the mass flow rate sensor element and the temperature sensor element into digital output signals.
2. Related Art
The process of detecting the mass flow rate and the temperature of a fluid flow is very important, in particular in the automotive industry, since these measurements are necessary for the purpose of controlling combustion engines in motor vehicles in an optimal manner. Hitherto, the values that are determined by sensors for the purpose of detecting the mass flow rate and the temperature of a fluid flow to the engine control unit were provided in the automobile in analog form. However, analog signals have the disadvantage that they are prone to interference and for example can be considerably degraded as a result of electromagnetic interference fields. It is advantageous to digitize the analog measured values that are determined by the sensor in the sensor itself. This is performed with analog/digital converters that can be arranged in the sensor itself. Since the sensor detects multiple physical measurements for the purpose of detecting the mass flow rate and the temperature, a multiplicity of analog/digital converters are necessary. Furthermore, a multiplicity of interfaces and power supplies are necessary on and/or in the sensor for the purpose of detecting the mass flow rate and the temperature of a fluid flow in order to operate and to read the individual sensor elements. As a consequence, the process of detecting the measured values for the mass flow rate and the temperature within a fluid flow becomes relatively complex and expensive.

Sensor for detecting the mass flow rate and the temperature of a fluid flow


A liquid discharging head includes a nozzle plate including a nozzle substrate having a plurality of nozzle holes to discharge a liquid therethrough and a plurality of dimples on the discharging surface of the nozzle substrate to hold a liquid repellent material inside the plurality of dimples in a flowable manner and a liquid repellency film formed by the liquid repellent material on the discharging surface of the nozzle substrate.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid discharging head, a liquid discharging unit, and a device to discharge liquid.
Background Art
A liquid repellent film is formed on the side of the discharging surface of the nozzle plate of a liquid discharging head (also referred to as droplet discharging head) to stably discharge a liquid.
As for a device to discharge a liquid using a liquid discharging head, the discharging surface is wiped by a blade to maintain and restore the discharging performance of the liquid discharging head.
As a result, the water repellent film is abraded by repetition of the wiping, thereby degrading the liquid repellency thereof.

Liquid discharging head, liquid discharging unit, and device to discharge liquid


A memory cell array includes a number of memory cells, each of the memory cells including a source and a drain region defined by corresponding bitlines within a semiconductor substrate. Each of the bitlines has a doped semiconductor region as well as a conductive region in direct electrical contact with the doped semiconductor region.

One of the main goals in technology development of semiconductor memory cells is to reduce the size of the memory cells in order to increase their density on a semiconductor wafer, thereby reducing the costs per bit. When downscaling a memory cell comprising buried bitlines, however, cross-sectional areas of these buried bitlines also decrease leading to an undesirable increase of their electrical resistance. A buried bitline with reduced resistance as well as a fabrication method thereof would be highly desirable.


A source follower includes first through third switches, first and second transistors, and a first capacitor. The first switch is used to determine whether or not to couple the source of the first transistor with an input signal. The second switch is used to determine whether or not to couple a gate and a drain of the first transistor with a first voltage. A first end of the first capacitor is coupled with a first control signal, and a second end of the first capacitor is coupled to the drain of the first transistor and a gate of the second transistor. The third switch is used to determine whether to or not couple a drain of the second transistor with the first voltage, and a source of the second transistor serves as an output of the source follower.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a follower, in particular, to a source follower.
2. Description of Related Art
Since liquid crystal should be driven by voltage, in a liquid crystal driving chip adopted by a liquid crystal display (LCD), voltage follower circuits of different architectures may be employed as output buffers. FIG. 1 shows an architecture of a conventional voltage follower circuit. Referring to FIG. 1, the voltage follower circuit is constituted by source followers 110 and 120. The source follower 110 includes switches 111, 113, 115 and NMOS transistors 112, 114. The source follower 120 includes switches 121, 123, 125 and PMOS transistors 122, 124. Further, in FIG. 1, VCC is the supply voltage, GND is the ground voltage, DATA is the input signal, OUT is the output signal, and SW1, SW2 are switch control signals for controlling the turn on/off of the switches.
The disadvantage of using the conventional source follower to realize the voltage follower circuit in FIG. 1 is that, the output voltage of the voltage follower circuit is limited by a threshold turn-on voltage (Vth) of the MOS transistor, and thus a rail-to-rail operation cannot be achieved. Referring to FIG. 1, the voltage level of the output signal OUT cannot reach the levels of the supply voltage VCC and the ground voltage GND. The reason of the above problem is explained with reference to FIG. 2.
FIG. 2 is a signal timing chart of the circuit in FIG. 1. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 together, during a pre-charging period of T2, the switch control signal SW1 is at a low level, and the switch control signal SW2 is at a high level for some time durations. During the period that the switch control signal SW2 is at a high level, the switches 111, 115, 121, 125 are turned off, and the switches 113, 123 are turned on, so a gate voltage VNGATE of the NMOS transistor 114 is charged to the level of the supply voltage VCC, and a gate voltage VPGATE of the PMOS transistor 124 is at the level of the ground voltage GND. During a data transmission period of T1, the switch control signal SW1 is at a high level, and the switch control signal SW2 is at a low level, so the switches 111, 115, 121, 125 are turned on, and the switches 113, 123 are turned off. At this time, as the gate voltage VNGATE=DATA+VGSN, the voltage level of the output signal OUT may be expressed by Formula (1) as follows:VOUT=(VNGATE−VGSN)=(DATA+VGSN−VGSN)  Formula (1)where VOUT is a voltage level of the output signal OUT, and VGSN is a gate-source voltage of the NMOS transistors.
Seen from the Formula (1), VOUT=DATA. However, when the highest voltage of the input signal DATA is equal to the level of the supply voltage VCC, as the gate voltage VNGATE can only be raised to the level of the supply voltage VCC at most, the highest voltage of the output signal OUT may be expressed by Formula (2) as follows:VOUT=(VNGATE−VGSN)=(VCC−VGSN)  Formula (2).
Thus, seen from Formula (2), when the level of the input signal DATA is equal to that of the supply voltage VCC, the highest voltage of the output signal OUT cannot reach the level of the supply voltage VCC. Similarly, when the lowest voltage of the input signal DATA is equal to the level of the ground voltage GND, as VOUT=(GND+VSGP), in which VSGP is a source-gate voltage of the PMOS transistors, the lowest voltage of the output signal OUT cannot reach the level of the ground voltage GND. Therefore, if the architectures of the source followers shown in FIG. 1 are employed to achieve a voltage follower circuit, the voltage swing of the output signal OUT may not reach the levels of the supply voltage VCC and the ground voltage GND, such that the voltage follower circuit cannot achieve the rail-to-rail operation.


Embodiments of apparatuses, articles, methods, and systems for protecting software components using transition point wrappers are generally described herein. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a first component, a wrapper component, and a management module. The wrapper component is to transform a transition point between the first component and a second component. The management module is to control access to the first component through the transformed transition point. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Software programs are subject to complex and evolving attacks by malware seeking to gain control of computer systems. These attacks can take on a variety of different forms ranging from attempts to crash the software program to subversion of the program for alternate purposes. Additionally, programs are subject to operating system failures and bugs within other programs that can cause corruption of unrelated programs running in the same linear address space. Some recent proposals for securing software programs involve creation of multiple execution environments and sequestering protected programs into a protected execution environment. However, this approach typically requires multiple operating systems and may present operating inefficiencies.

Protecting a software component using a transition point wrapper


Bitumen/polymer compositions with a broadened plasticity range are produced by contacting a bitumen or bitumen mixture with a sulphur-cross-linkable elastomer and a sulphur-donating coupling agent, at 100.degree.-230.degree. C. and under stirring conditions, to produce a cross-linked bitumen/polymer composition, then adding to the composition, maintained at 100.degree.-232.degree. C. and under stirring conditions, an acidic additive selected from polyphosphoric acids, acids of formula R--(COO).sub.t --SO.sub.3 H wherein t=0 or 1 and R is a monovalent hydrocarbyl radical having up to 12 carbon atoms, and mixtures of both types of acid separately or jointly with sulphuric acid, and maintaining the resulting reaction medium at 100.degree.-230.degree. C. and under stirring conditions for at least ten minutes. The bitumen/polymer compositions may be used directly or in diluted form to produce bituminous binders for making road surfaces, coated materials or sealing coatings.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a process for the preparation of bitumen/polymer compositions with a reinforced multigrade nature. It further relates to the application of the compositions obtained to the production of bitumen/polymer binders for coatings and in particular for road surfacings or for watertight facings.
Bitumen/polymer compositions with a reinforced multigrade nature is understood to mean, according to the invention, bitumen/polymer compositions which exhibit a wide plasticity range. The said range is defined as the difference between the ring-and-ball softening temperature (abbreviated to RBT), which reveals the hot properties of the binder or bitumen/polymer composition, and the Fraass brittleness point, which reveals the cold properties of the bitumen/polymer composition. The bituminous binder consisting of/or based on the bitumen/polymer composition will become increasingly resistant to hot stresses and cold stresses as the plasticity range widens.
The ring-and-ball softening temperature (RBT) and Fraass brittleness point quantities mentioned above are determined from standardized procedures as indicated hereinbelow:
ring-and-ball softening temperature:
determined according to NF Standard T 66 008 and expressed in .degree.C.; PA2 Fraass brittleness point:
determined according to NF Standard T 66026 and expressed in .degree.C.
2. Background Art
A process for the preparation of bitumen/polymer compositions with a reinforced multigrade nature is described in French Patent Application No. 94 04577 of 18.04.1994 on behalf of the Applicant Company. This process comprises bringing a bitumen or mixture of bitumens into contact, the operation being carried out at temperatures of between 100.degree. C. and 230.degree. C. and with stirring for a period of time of at least 10 minutes, with, with respect to the weight of the bitumen or mixture of bitumens, 0.5% to 20% and preferably 0.7% to 15% of a sulphur-crosslinkable elastomer and a sulphur-donor coupling agent in an amount capable of providing an amount of free sulphur representing 0.1% to 20% and preferably 0.5% to 10% of the weight of the sulphur-crosslinkable elastomer in the reaction mixture formed from the ingredients bitumen or mixture of bitumens, elastomer and coupling agent, in order to produce a sulphur-crosslinked composition, and then incorporating in the reaction mixture resulting from the vulcanization with sulphur, which is maintained at a temperature between 100.degree. C. and 230.degree. C. and with stirring, 0.005% to 5% and preferably 0.1% to 2.5%, by weight of the bitumen, of an acidic adjuvant comprising at least one compound chosen from the group formed by phosphoric acids, boric acids, sulphuric acid, the anhydrides of the said acids and chlorosulphuric acid and in maintaining the reaction mixture containing the acidic adjuvant at a temperature of between 100.degree. C. and 230.degree. C. and with stirring for a period of time of at least 20 minutes. The acidic adjuvant which can be employed in the process of French Patent Application No. 94 04577 can comprise in particular one or a number of the compounds chosen from H.sub.3 PO.sub.4, P.sub.2 O.sub.5, H.sub.3 BO.sub.3, B.sub.2 O.sub.3, H.sub.2 SO.sub.4, SO.sub.3 and HSO.sub.3 Cl.

Method for preparing reinforced multigrade bitumen/polymer and use of the resulting compositions for producing bitumen/polymer binders for surface coatings


To provide a technique employed when a plane to be polished of a silicon dioxide type material layer is polished in production of a semiconductor integrated circuit device, which is capable of polishing protruded portions by priority while suppressing polishing at recessed portions and planarizing the plane to be polished at a high level with an extremely small polishing amount, with small pattern dependence of the polishing rate. In production of a semiconductor integrated circuit device, when a plane to be polished is a plane to be polished of a silicon dioxide type material layer, a polishing compound containing cerium oxide particles, a water-soluble polyamine and water is used as a polishing compound for chemical mechanical polishing to polish the plane to be polished.

In recent years, development of miniaturization technique to achieve miniaturization and high densification is required along with high integration and high functionality of a semiconductor integrated circuit device. Particularly, importance of a planarization technique by chemical mechanical polishing (hereinafter referred to as CMP) has been increasing.
For example, along with miniaturization and multilayered structures of wiring of a semiconductor integrated circuit device, unevenness on the surface of each layer in production steps tends to be significant. In order to prevent such problems that the unevenness exceeds the depth of focus of photolithography, whereby no sufficient resolution will be obtained, CMP is an essential technique.
CMP is employed, specifically, for planarization of an interlevel dielectric (ILD) film, shallow trench isolation (STI), tungsten plug formation, formation of multilayered wiring comprising copper and a low dielectric film, etc. Further, it starts being applied to planarization of a premetal dielectric (PMD) film to be carried out prior to formation of metal wiring, for which a reflow process by heat treatment has been employed.
For an insulating film of e.g. ILD, STI and PMD, a silicon dioxide type is used in many cases. Heretofore, in production of a semiconductor device, for planarization of such a silicon dioxide type insulating film, silica abrasive particles have been commonly used as abrasive particles to be used for a CMP polishing compound.
On the surface of a film to be an object to be polished (hereinafter sometimes referred to as a film to be polished) in a semiconductor integrated circuit device, an uneven pattern is formed by the influence of unevenness of e.g. wiring beneath the film when it is laminated. When silica abrasive particles are applied to polishing of a silicon dioxide type film having such an uneven pattern, a sufficiently high polishing rate is obtained. However, there is a technical problem such that high level planarization is hardly realized by the following characteristics. That is, according to the degree of the pattern density of the surface unevenness (proportion of protruded pattern portions to the sum of the protruded pattern portions and recessed portions; for example, in the case of a stripe protruded pattern, the proportion of pattern widths to the sum of the pattern widths and pattern distances) and the protruded pattern size, the pattern dependence of the polishing rate at protruded portions is significant, and further, polishing is likely to proceed at a portion with a low density of protrusions and at a large size recessed portion (e.g. a portion over a wide portion between wirings). The polishing rate being influenced by the pattern density and the pattern size of the surface unevenness is called pattern dependence of the polishing rate.
Further, for planarization of a silicon dioxide type film by silica abrasive particles, the polishing amount required for planarization is large, and accordingly a film to be polished has to be formed with a large thickness in many cases, thus increasing the film formation cost and decreasing the throughput in production of a semiconductor integrated circuit device. For example, in PMD process, borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG), borosilicate glass (BSG), phosphosilicate glass (PSG), etc. with low hardness are used, and the polishing rate of such films are very high as compared with other materials. Therefore, such a film is preliminarily formed with a large thickness and then polished to realize planarization.
The above is exemplarily described with reference to FIG. 3. FIG. 3(a) is a partial cross-section illustrating a semiconductor integrated circuit device comprising a silicon substrate 1, and a silicon dioxide film 2, a polysilicon film 3 and a BPSG film 4 laminated on the substrate, which has a protruded portion 5 and a recessed portion 6 formed on the surface of the BPSG film 4 by the influence of the polysilicon film 3. This illustrates a state before polishing.
When the BPSG film face is polished in such a structure, the recessed portions of the BPSG film are also easily polished as compared with the protruded portions, and as a result, planarization of a plane is hardly realized to bring about a state shown in FIG. 3(b) in many cases. Therefore, at present, the BPSG film 4 is made large and polished so as to reduce unevenness.
As described above, a semiconductor integrated circuit device including a silicon dioxide type material layer, particularly, a semiconductor integrated circuit device including any one of a BPSG film, a BSG film and a PSG film, the polishing rates of which are commonly high as compared with another material, has a problem that planarization of a plane to be polished is hardly achieved.
In recent years, a CMP polishing compound using cerium oxide particles as abrasive particles has been studied. A cerium oxide polishing compound provides a high polishing rate by chemical reaction of cerium oxide with the SiO moiety on the surface of a plane to be polished, on the layer surface, and is expected to improve the throughput in production of a semiconductor device. A technique to improve dispersibility of the cerium oxide polishing compound and to improve flatness of a plane to be polished, by adding a surfactant, a water-soluble polymer, a water-soluble low molecular weight compound, etc. to the cerium oxide polishing compound, is now under development.
For example, Patent Document 1 proposes an organic compound having a hydrophilic group selected from a carboxyl group and a carboxylate group, as an additive suitable for planarization of an insulating film of e.g. SiO2, SiON, SiOF, borophosphosilicate glass or phosphosilicate glass.
Further, Patent Document 2 discloses a low molecular weight additive selected from cationic water-soluble organic low molecular weight compound including a primary amine, a secondary amine, a tertiary amine and a quaternary ammonium compound, and discloses that in CMP technology to planarize an ILD film and an insulating film for STI, polishing can be carried out with high efficiency at a high rate and easily in view of process control.
Further, Patent Document 3 proposes to incorporate at least two additives of a water-soluble nitrogen-containing compound and a water-soluble anionic organic compound in a polishing compound, and discloses that such a polishing compound is a CMP polishing compound suitable for polishing of e.g. an ILD film and an insulating film for STI, which can planarize a plane to be polished at a high level at a high rate without scars, which is excellent in storage stability and with which process control is easy. The water-soluble nitrogen-containing compound is a primary amine, a secondary amine, a tertiary amine, a quaternary ammonium, polyvinyl pyrrolidone, N-alkyl-2-pyrrolidone, an aliphatic lactam or an aliphatic dicarboxylic acid imide. Further, the water-soluble anionic organic compound is a compound having a free —COOM group, a phenolic —OH group, a —SO3M group, a —OSO3M group, a —PO4M2 group or a —PO3M2 group (wherein M is a hydrogen atom, NH4 or a metal atom).
However, these Patent Documents only disclose examples of polishing a silicon dioxide film, but failed to disclose a BPSG film, a BSG film and a PSG film which are difficult to planarize. The additive disclosed in Patent Document 1 is anionic and is thereby not adsorbed in a silicon dioxide film, a BPSG film, a BSG film and a PSG film which are negatively charged in water, whereby a covering layer can not sufficiently be formed. Even if it is possible to planarize a hard silicon dioxide film, the practical polishing rates of soft BPSG film, BSG film and PSG film are very high, and a semiconductor integrated circuit device having a pattern formed thereon can not be planarized. Further, the additive disclosed in Patent Document 2 is a cationic additive and is capable of forming a covering layer, but since it is a low molecular weight additive, the covering layer forming properties are insufficient, and a semiconductor integrated circuit device with a BPSG film, a BSG film and a PSG film can not be planarized either. Patent Document 3 proposes at least two additives of a water-soluble nitrogen-containing compound and a water-soluble anionic organic compound, but the water-soluble nitrogen-containing compound is substantially equal to the low molecular weight additive disclosed in Patent Document 2, and the polishing rates of a BPSG film, a BSG film and a PSG film are very high, and a semiconductor integrated circuit device can not be planarized either. Further, the pH of the CMP polishing compound is considered to be preferably from 3 to 9, more preferably from 7.0 to 9.0 in view of the stability, the selective polishing properties, workability, handling properties, etc. However, within this pH region, the polishing rates of a BPSG film, a BSG film and a PSG film can not effectively be controlled.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 3278532
Patent Document 2: JP-A-2001-7061
Patent Document 3: JP-A-2001-185514
Patent Document 4: JP-A-11-12561
Patent Document 5: JP-A-2001-35818

Polishing compound for semiconductor integrated circuit device, polishing method and method for producing semiconductor integrated circuit device


An Internet Protocol (IP) address acquisition in a broadband wireless communication system is disclosed. A terminal includes a driver for loading one of a plurality Media Access Control (MAC) addresses for a multi-Frequency Allocation (FA) connection when the terminal is initialized; an interface for registering the loaded MAC address to use in an upper layer of a MAC layer; and a manager for acquiring an IP address using the registered MAC address when a network entry for at least one FA is complete.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to Internet Protocol (IP) address acquisition in a broadband wireless communication system. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for acquiring an IP address of a terminal which communicates using multiple Frequency Allocations (FAs) in the broadband wireless communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A great number of wireless communication techniques have been suggested as candidates for a high-speed mobile communication. Among them, an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) scheme is regarded as the most dominant next-generation wireless communication technique. It is anticipated that the OFDM will be applied to most of the wireless communication techniques by the year of 2010. A Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN) of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 that is called the 3.5th-generation technology also adopts the OFDM as the standard specification.
Meanwhile, wireless communication systems are advancing to servicing high-speed data or addressing various issues in the implementation process, compared to the legacy systems. In the process of this development, diverse systems may coexist in the same region according to their compatibility with the legacy systems. For example, a new advanced system can be installed in the region of an IEEE 802.16e system. In this case, the new system should be able to support the service to both of the existing terminal and the new terminal.
Through a single Frequency Allocation (FA), the current OFDM broadband wireless communication system supports only terminals which use a single bandwidth. Hence, to support a new terminal to be developed to use a wider bandwidth in the future, the FA of the system needs to be changed to a new FA of the corresponding bandwidth. However, the system of the changed FA cannot service the terminals which use the existing narrow bandwidth. In other words, when the FA of the system is changed, it is necessary to change all of the existing terminals at the same time. In this respect, in the development of the broadband wireless communication system, it is needed a method for supporting both the existing terminals using the narrow bandwidth and the new terminals using the wide bandwidth is needed.

Apparatus and method for obtaining IP address of terminal using multiple frequency allocations in broadband wireless communication system


A system for monitoring a physical environmental property having non-stationary heteroscedastic noise is disclosed. A processor receives physical environmental measurement data, and constructs a combined input and output noise levels matrix containing output noise terms associated with the physical environmental property and input noise terms associated with the at least one independent variable. Using the combined input and output noise levels matrix, the processor constructs a main Gaussian Processes (GP) model for the physical environmental property and its non-stationary heteroscedastic noise. The processor generates and co-operates with the output device to perceptibly output a predictive probabilistic representation of the environmental property, using the main GP model. The predictive probabilistic representation includes a respective range of possible values of the physical environmental property for each respective value of the independent variable(s), the range reflecting both the input noise terms and the output noise terms.

In this specification, the term "environment" refers to Earth's natural environment. Thus, the term "environmental data" refers generally to data representing manual or automated measurements of one or more properties of Earth's natural environment, such as hydrological data representing water quantity such as water levels ("stage") and volumetric flow rates ("discharge"), or water quality such as turbidity and dissolved oxygen, for example.
The acquisition, analysis and practical usage of environmental data pose special challenges not typically encountered in other technical fields. Environmental data are typically acquired in two main ways: continuous or periodic acquisition, and discrete observation.
Continuous or periodic data are acquired by automated sensors that are located at stations in the environment, such as pressure transducers to measure water level or acoustic velocity meters to measure water velocity in waterways such as rivers or streams, for example. The remote sensors may wirelessly transmit their acquired data to a centralized database either continuously or periodically.
Discrete observations are typically manually acquired by an environmental scientist or other technician during a field visit to an environmental site being monitored, and may be either uploaded to the centralized database from the site, or may be merely recorded at the site in order to be manually uploaded into the centralized database after the technician has returned from the field. Discrete observations tend to be unevenly spaced in time, as the schedule of field visits is often adaptive to environmental conditions.
Water policy, planning, management, engineering design and environmental assessment decisions that depend on environmental data are complicated by uncertainties inherent in the methods of environmental monitoring. Uncertainties may result in degraded confidence in data that may be reliable, and trust in data that are not reliable. Uncertainty often results in delayed and/or tentative decision making rather than timely and confident decisions. At least some of these problems relate to the fact that environmental data generally tends to suffer from noise (uncertainty) that is non-stationary (time-varying), heteroscedastic (unequal variation of noise across the whole range of values) and typically unquantified. For example, sensors can suffer from inherent random measurement errors, systematic errors such as fouling drift resulting from ongoing exposure to the environment, or even data communication errors. Systematic errors in continuous data records are controlled by maintenance done during field visits, detected by comparison against manual observations during the field visit, and corrected by calibration against the field visit observations. However, the manual observations made during field visits are themselves subject to both random and systematic uncertainty. Discrete observations at a given environmental site could comprise data points from a sparse number of field visits spread over many years, potentially taken by different technicians using different techniques, potentially using different types of measurement devices with different inherent random measurement errors, and typically without any quantification of those inherent random measurement errors. In most cases the uncertainty of field visit observations is unknown. The uncertainty of field visit observations propagates to the uncertainty profile of the continuous data and the resultant uncertainty on continuous data is again propagated to, and compounded by, the modeling uncertainty of all information that is derived from the continuous data. In other words, when a given imperfect mathematical model is used to describe a real-world correlation between an independent variable input and a dependent variable output, the imperfection of the model may introduce further modeling or derivation errors beyond the measurement errors associated with the input measurement.
As stated above, environmental data drives many decisions needed for a vibrant economy, security from water threats, environmental health, and a robust physical infrastructure for community development. For example, water flow data is typically used by a water agency to calibrate, initialize and execute flood forecasting models to decide whether to evacuate residents from a flood plain near a river. Similarly, a hydroelectric power generation company may use water level and flow data to decide whether to open a spillway in order to maintain the downstream water level above a minimum level necessary for fish survival. Without uncertainty quantification, entities such as the water agencies and the hydropower companies in the above examples would have to effectively make educated or even arbitrary guesses as to their own acceptable safety margins, but could suffer serious adverse consequences if those safety margins are either too large or too small. If the adopted safety margin is larger than the uncertainty underlying the data, then the agency would tend to find itself unnecessarily evacuating residents from the flood plain on a routine basis even though no flooding was actually occurring, and likewise, the hydropower company could find itself unnecessarily opening the spillway and thereby wasting potential energy even though the downstream water level had not yet reached its minimum level. Conversely, if the adopted safety margin is smaller than the uncertainty underlying the environmental data, then the water agency may fail to evacuate even in situations where flooding does in fact occur, potentially resulting in a loss of human life, and likewise, the hydropower company may fail to open the spillway even in situations where the downstream water level drops below its minimum, potentially violating environmental compliance levels and adversely affecting aquatic life.
The above difficulties become magnified for "extreme" data points for which the available environmental discrete data tends to be much more sparse, and hence more uncertain. For example, for a given waterway, there may be a great deal of available environmental discrete observations within a typical range that prevails most of the time, but there might be very little data available for atypical extreme high and low water level conditions. The smaller numbers of measured data points within these extreme high and extreme low ranges result in increased uncertainty. In the hypothetical examples given above, even if the water agency and hydropower company were to adopt safety margins larger than the uncertainty associated with the typical range, but smaller than the uncertainty for atypical extreme highs and lows outside the typical range, then the catastrophic consequences discussed above may nevertheless result.
Another disadvantage relates to the burdensome task of manually analyzing and qualitatively assessing the quality of environmental data for which quantified uncertainty information is unavailable. For example, hydrologists typically analyze and grade (label) their data before they publicly release it, labeling each data point as "good" or "bad," which may for example depend on whether the data point satisfies predefined expectations or constraints that the hydrologist associates with reliability of the data (e.g. a pH reading of 0 or 14 may be considered a "bad" data point for a river, on the assumption or expectation that the river is neither an extremely strong acid nor an extremely strong base.) Significant expenditures of time and effort are typically required to massage, grade and publish (release) data, and hydrologists are typically reluctant to publicly release their raw data until this laborious process has been completed. Such delays in public accessibility of data pose difficulties for those who require access to the data, for critical decision-making or for other reasons.
Another problem associated with environmental data is the fact that real-world correlations can change over time. For example, if a particular mathematical model accurately described the relationship between measured water level ("stage") and flow ("discharge") at a particular location in the Fraser River in 1965, that model may no longer be accurate in 2015, due to physical changes in the cross-sectional area and shape of the river caused by accretion or erosion of sediment, growth or decay of vegetation, and other natural phenomena, for example. Conventional hydrological analysis results in the generation of a two-dimensional "rating curve" that correlates stage to discharge. However, the conventional rating curve is not a function of time, and will therefore begin to suffer increasing errors with the passage of time, until eventually hydrologists decide to shift the current rating curve or completely abandon it and build a new one from more recent data; the ongoing re-evaluation and re-building of rating curves are manual and often slow processes requiring expert judgment.
Environmental data also presents the technical difficulty that it is difficult to accurately model. Unlike typical industrial processes, which are most often linear and stationary, the underlying physical processes for environmental data are typically non-linear, non-stationary (time-varying), complex and can well be described as chaotic processes. Both independent (input) and dependent (output) observations used for modeling are typically degraded by heteroscedastic noise. In fact, the dependent variable uncertainty may change with time and also with the magnitude of the independent variables. Even the continuous or periodic data used in real-time operation (after training) as input feed to the model, also tend to be degraded by non-stationary noise.
These real-world complications tend to cause technical problems for existing statistical and Machine-Learning (ML) systems that attempt to model such environmental processes, which in turn exacerbate the above-noted difficulties that result from insufficient availability of uncertainty information. For example, although standard ML approaches for Gaussian processes (GP) can be useful for modeling data in general, standard GP approaches tend to suffer from at least two significant obstacles to modeling uncertainty information for environmental data, in respect of both output noise and input noise. With respect to output noise, standard GP approaches usually assume that the output noise associated with the dependent variable is fixed and stationary, but these assumptions are not typically valid for environmental data. With respect to input noise, standard GP approaches are generally unable to propagate input uncertainties for environmental data, for technical reasons, namely, that such propagation would require the Machine-Learning system to solve an analytically intractable differential equation, which cannot be solved using any combination of the predefined native instructions of a computer processor's instruction set architecture. In this regard, in a standard GP approach involving Bayesian inference, input noise propagation would require evaluation of the derivative (slope) of the mean of the posterior distribution at all training points, but the derivative of the posterior mean tends to be an analytically intractable differential equation. Some prior GP approaches, outside of the field of environmental monitoring, have attempted to circumvent these problems to account for input-dependent noise, i.e. noise associated with the independent variable(s), through certain assumptions and simplifications. For example, one approach uses separate GPs, comprising one noise-free GP and a separate GP to model the input noise, but this approach merely effectively considers only input noise, and does not involve any separate consideration of the output noise associated with the dependent variable representing the physical environmental property being ultimately measured; rather, the resulting noise term consists solely of the propagated input noise. Another prior approach assumes no input noise and assumes output noise to depend upon input signal level, to model output signal heteroscedastic noise behavior, while yet another prior approach considers only input noise but fictitiously assumes the input and output noise variances to be identical, and thus both of these approaches fail to overcome the output noise difficulties mentioned above. More generally, existing GP solutions are not generally capable of simultaneous consideration of both the input noise associate with the independent variable(s) and the output noise associated with the dependent variable(s).

Environmental monitoring systems, methods and media


The present invention relates to a power control method for forward links in the CDMA cellular mobile communication system and a structure of a mobile station and a base station for the control. The power control method for forward links and a structure of a base station and a mobile station for the control in the CDMA cellular mobile communication system is presented which can increase forward link capacity as a mobile station measures signals of forward traffic channels from base stations in soft handoff and requests power increase/decrease divided for each corresponding base station and the base station adjusts transmit power of corresponding traffic channels depending on the forward link state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to power control method for forward links and to a structure of a mobile station and a base station for the control in Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, and more particularly, to a power control method for forward links in the CDMA system which can increase forward link capacity by requesting power increase/decrease assigned to corresponding base stations as a mobile station measures signals of forward traffic channels from each base station in soft handoff and a base station adjusts transmit power of corresponding traffic channels depending on the state of forward links.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typically, the quality of forward traffic channels measured by a mobile station is reported to a corresponding base station periodically or only when the value excesses a threshold value, for power control of forward links in the CDMA cellular mobile communication system, and then the base station to receive the report adjusts transmit power assigned to the corresponding traffic channel. Also, when a mobile station exchanges call information with multiple base stations, the station sends the same measured information to the above multiple base stations, not dividing the measured quality information. Namely, a mobile station may receive all signals of base stations because all base stations send signals by the same frequency in the CDMA cellular mobile communication system. Accordingly, when 2 base stations send the same traffic information to a certain mobile station, it is possible that the mobile station demodulates the received signals, using the diversity combining. When the same information is sent from corresponding 2 base stations to the mobile station under handoff until its completion after starting handoff from one base station to the other base station, the mobile station may demodulate them after receiving and combining the signals of both base stations. The mobile station may not only measure the pilot signal strength from home base station, but it can measure pilot signals of neighboring base stations at the same time. As a result, the mobile station starts handoff by exchanging the same traffic information with the base station under conversation and the corresponding base station simultaneously if the receiving pilot signal strength of a base station is larger than a specified value. Then, the mobile station completes soft handoff by demodulating only the information sent by the base station whose receiving strength of pilot signal is the largest and requesting to stop communication to another base stations when the station decides that the receiving strength of pilot signal of a certain base station is enough larger than the strength of pilot signals from another base station and its handoff is completed.
A mobile station may improve receiving performance by performing the multipath diversity combining of multiple paths, using separate multipath combining receivers such as a rake receiver in addition to 2 receivers under normal operation. At this time, the station receives signals from another base stations in handoff using a part of receivers having been used as multipath combining receivers under normal operation, not using the redundant receivers which may be used from the soft handoff start until its completion.
On the other hand a mobile station reports the information to the base station under conversation by receiving signals of forward links and measuring traffic channel quality with the described method for power control of forward links if normal, and then the base station, based on the information, increases/decreases transmit power of forward traffic channels for the corresponding mobile station. However, the mobile station reports the quality of the measured forward traffic channels to the corresponding base stations for power control of forward links during soft handoff, but also reports the measured quality the same to the base stations engaged in current handoff, without considering the state of forward links of the base stations under current handoff. As the result, the base station increases or decreases transmit power of forward traffic channels of all base stations connected to the mobile station under conversation by the same type, based on the reported information.
When power control of forward traffic channels is performed by such a method, the transmit power of forward traffic channels of base stations, in the base stations engaged in current handoff, whose forward link is at a good state also increases. Accordingly, it causes more interference signals to neighboring mobile stations and forward link capacity decreases.
Accordingly, a power control method for forward links in a CDMA cellular mobile communication system in accordance with the present invention comprises a step to compare the combined signal-to-noise ratio of a forward traffic channel measured by a mobile station under normal operation during conversation with a target value for power control for forward links, and a step to decide whether to request transmit power increase or decrease of a corresponding forward traffic channel when the combined signal-to-noise ratio is smaller than the target value.
Also, to achieve the above object, power control of forward links in soft handoff in the CDMA cellular mobile communication system in accordance with the present invention is characterized by comprising a step to compare the combined signal-to-noise ratio of a forward traffic channel received from base station during conversation by a mobile station under soft handoff with a target value for power control, a step to request for decreasing the sending power of the forward traffic channel as much as a fixed amount to all base stations engaged in current handoff when the combined signal-to-noise ratio is larger than the target value, and a step to request for increasing the transmit power of the forward traffic channel as much as a fixed amount only for the base station whose receiving pilot signal-to-noise ratio measured from pilot channel that transmitted from each base station is the largest and to request for decreasing the transmitting power of the forward traffic channel as much as fixed amount for the other base stations, when the combined signal-to-noise ratio is smaller than the target value, so that it may be possible to divide the transmit power request information for each base station.
Also, to achieve the above object, a power control method for forward links in a CDMA cellular mobile communication system further comprising a step to increase or decrease the sending power of the forward traffic channel to each base station in accordance to the each divided transmit power request information for each base station.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

Power control apparatus and method with interference reduction during soft handoff in CDMA cellular communication systems

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


An integrated ozone generator is disclosed. It includes: (a) an upper covering layer having a thin film, and a permanent magnet being installed on the thin film, the permanent magnet having a periphery which is surrounded with a coil on which a plurality of contact points are installed for inputting an oscillating signal, so as to form an electromagnetically actuating micro pump, the upper covering layer further having a hole formed on a first side of the upper covering layer and an upper thin film electrode and a discharging teethed structure installed on an inside surface of the covering layer away from the hole; and (b) a base having a groove which is connected with an inner hole of the upper covering layer to form a gas chamber, a gradually opened channel at one side of the gas chamber for inputting gas, and another gradually reducing channel at another side of the gas chamber. The base also contains a lower thin film electrode connected to the gradually reducing channel and a plurality of discharging micro tips being installed inside the base at a position corresponding to the lower thin film electrode, the lower thin film electrode being positioned opposite to the upper electrode thin film inside the upper covering layer and the discharging micro tips which are installed on either the upper thin film electrode or the lower thin film electrode, or both, to form an arc discharging structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to an ozone generator, wherein a micro pump is used to compress air so that the air flow into a discharging section through a gradually reduced channel, then the oxygen contained within said compressed air is excited to form ozone gas, and then the ozone gas is further compressed to transfer to the atmosphere.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Ozone is a strong oxidizer, and it is generally used in water processing, organic composition, food sterilization, germless chamber, etc. The primary method for manufacturing ozone is by using electrolysis, ultraviolet excitation, and electric arc, wherein the electric arc method is widely used in industry and home ozone generator. By observing the thunderbolt in the nature, the oxygen in the air is discharged by said thunderbolt so to excite to become high active oxygen atom and then these oxygen atoms is combined to form ozone gas. That is: in the electric arc method, the discharging electrode is used to excite air or oxygen so to form ozone gas, and the density of said generated ozone gas is dependent on the power of discharging, the higher the generated ozone density, the larger the discharging power. Another, since the ozone gas is a strong oxidizer, if the density of said ozone is too high, it will make a harmful effect to human body, therefore, it is very important to control the density of ozone.
In summary, there are three Patent Applications about the ozone generator of electric arc method, in Taiwan Patent Application No. 8120273, a cylindrical discharging structure is disclosed; in the Taiwan Patent Application No. 82105268, a plan type discharging structure having rack is disclosed, another in Taiwan Patent Application No. 84209608, a hole plan type discharging structure having discharging pins is disclosed. From the aforementioned Patent Applications, it is appreciated that in the ozone generator with different forms, the oxygen in the air is excited by discharging, however, the discharging voltage is higher, furthermore an air compressor is used to guide external air into a discharging section, thus the module has a large volume. From above description, it is appreciated that the defects in the prior art is that it has a large volume, is not easy to be minimized and modularized, it need to have many components, and the structure thereof is also complicated.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


An intake system includes an air cleaner arranged behind the cross member with a shock absorber supporting portion supporting an upper end of a rear shock absorber unit connected to an engine main body in such a manner wherein a straddling portion is curved in a shape convex upwardly to straddle the cross member and also the shock absorber supporting portion from above. A fuel injection valve for the intake system is arranged in front of the cross member. An intake passage is formed to extend linearly downwardly and to the front toward an intake port at a downstream side of a straddling portion. An upper portion of a passage forming member forming at least a part of the straddling portion by forming an apex part of the straddling portion is provided with a second fuel injection valve attached with its fuel injection direction directed to the intake port.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a saddle ride type vehicle in which a vehicle body frame includes a head pipe supporting a steering handlebar in a steerable manner, a pair of left and right main frames extending downwardly and rearwardly from the head pipe, a pair of left and right pivot frames extending downwardly from rear ends of the main frames, a pair of left and right seat rails provided to extend rearwardly continuously from the rear ends of the main frames or upper ends of the pivot frames and a cross member including a shock absorber supporting portion supporting an upper end of a rear shock absorber unit. The cross member connects together the rear ends of the pair of left and right main frames or the upper ends of the pair of left and right pivot frames. An engine main body of an internal combustion engine is mounted on the vehicle body frame below the main frames in a side view. An intake system includes an air cleaner arranged behind the cross member and a throttle body inserted between the air cleaner. The intake port of the engine main body is connected to the engine main body in such a manner so as to have a straddling portion curved in a shape convex upward to straddle the cross member and also the shock absorbing supporting portion together from above. A fuel injection valve arranged in front of the cross member, is provided to the intake system.
2. Description of Background Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-222078 discloses an intake system for motorcycle in which an intake pipe connecting a throttle body and an air cleaner is formed to curve in such a manner so as to straddle, from above, a cross member connecting upper ends of a pair of left and right pivot frames. A fuel injection valve is provided to the intake pipe connecting the throttle body and a cylinder head.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-137428 discloses a structure in which a first fuel injection valve is attached to a throttle body and a second fuel injection valve is provided to an intake system on an upstream side of the throttle body in order to improve the output of an internal combustion engine.
In order to improve the output of the internal combustion engine, the aforementioned saddle ride type vehicle disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-222078 may be modified with a second fuel injection valve attached to the intake system behind the cross member as described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-137428, in addition to the fuel injection valve provided to the intake system in front of the cross member. However, since a part of the intake system is configured to straddle the cross member from above, the above modification has a problem that it is difficult to arrange the second fuel injection valve behind the cross member while improving an air intake efficiency.


In a snowmobile, a four-cycle engine is mounted in such a manner that its crankshaft is arranged along the body width direction and the central axis of a cylinder(s) is tilted rearward by angle α with respect to the vertical direction of the body, forming a rear tilted engine. At least part of the engine intake system including an air cleaner box and throttle body, connected to the intake port(s) of the engine is accommodated in the space inside the topmost projected portion of the engine hood. Exhaust is led out to the muffler located in front of the cylinder(s) by the exhaust system connected to the exhaust port(s) at the front of the cylinder head. Further, the intake passage is arranged between the engine body and the steering post.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a snowmobile equipped with a four-cycle engine, in particular relating to an intake structure of a snowmobile engine.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, most snow vehicles such as snowmobiles and the like use two-cycle engines, which are relatively simple in structure, light and compact and yet powerful. Recently, however, because of regulation of exhaust gas or aiming at improvement of fuel consumption, there is a trend toward employing four-cycle engines. In contrast to two-cycle engines, which are compact and high in power, four-cycle engines need a camshaft and oil lubrication, inevitably tending towards larger size.
Therefore, it is necessary to provide a contrived layout of the oil pan configuration, intake and exhaust systems and associated auxiliaries, to facilitate the body and engine hood of a snowmobile equipped with a four-cycle engine having a similar size to that of a two-cycle engine.
In general, in order to improve the maneuverability of a snowmobile, it is preferred that the engine should be set as low as the steering tie-rod so that the center of gravity of the vehicle with the engine mounted is positioned at a low position while the engine should be set as close to the steering post as possible so that the center of gravity will be set at the center of the body.
Now, consider a configuration where the engine of an existing two-cycle snowmobile is replaced with a four-cycle engine and the crank center of the four-cycle engine is set at the same position as that of the original two-cycle engine. In this case, since a four-cycle engine has an oil pan at its bottom, it has a greater height than the two-cycle engine. Therefore, if the engine is arranged with its cylinders set upright, in some cases the engine may interfere with the steering rod, or in other cases the cylinder head and throttle body may interfere with the engine hood.
Further, the two-cycle snowmobile engine needs a large capacity expansion chamber for improving the performance. This chamber is generally routed on the side opposite to the drive clutch and connected to the muffler. The reason the exhaust system is thus laid out can be attributed to the necessity of providing a space for routing and for adjusting the weight balance between the left and right. A flywheel magneto, the chamber and muffler are arranged on the side opposite to the clutch which is heavy.
Electronic and electric parts such as an engine control unit (ECU), capacitive discharge ignition (CDI) unit and the like are attached on the top of the air cleaner, to the chassis or the engine in order to avoid breakage from vibrations.
However, if these electronic and electric parts are disposed away from the engine, the wires have to be tied up or clamped which is unpreferable from the viewpoint of layout.
A model with a starter motor needs a battery for electric supply, and the battery is usually disposed away from the clutch and muffler. Therefore, it is some distance from the engine so the lead wires have to be routed and clamped.
If the exit of the muffler is arranged near the rider, the noise becomes too large and harsh to the ear. If the exit of the muffler is offset to one side, either left or right, the exhaust noise during travel differs between the left and right of the vehicle, causing a noise problem.
Further, since snowmobiles are used in cold areas, there is a fear that the breather hose for releasing the pressure inside the head cover may be frozen because oil mixed with water circulates through the breather hose. Once it is frozen, the pressure inside the head cover increases, causing sealing deficiencies and lowering the power. Moreover, since snowmobiles travel on undulating courses, there is a fear that oil may leak out from the breather as the body moves to and fro.

Snowmobile equipped with a four-cycle engine and intake structure for snowmobile engines


A method and apparatus for conditioning a surface of a ceramic body in a process chamber when the process chamber has a vacuum pump, an anode and a cathode. The conditioning method consists of pumping the process chamber down to a vacuum with the vacuum pump, introducing a gas into the chamber, energizing the anode and cathode with RF power to ignite the gas into a plasma, sputter etching the surface with ions from the plasma to remove contaminants therefrom. The method is accomplished either within a process chamber to condition, in situ, a ceramic chuck or within a cleaning chamber to condition any form of ceramic body or component.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to processes for cleaning and conditioning ceramic components of a semiconductor wafer processing system. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for cleaning the surface of an electrostatic ceramic chuck and other ceramic components of semiconductor wafer processing equipment using a plasma.
2. Description of the Background Art
Plasma-based reactions have become increasingly important to the semiconductor industry, providing for precisely controlled thin-film depositions. For example, a plasma reactor in a high-temperature physical vapor deposition (PVD) semiconductor wafer processing system generally comprises a reaction chamber for containing a reactant gas, a pair of spaced-apart electrodes (cathode and anode) to generate an electric field within the chamber, and a substrate support for supporting a substrate within the electric field. The cathode is typically embedded within the substrate support, while the anode is embedded in a target material that is to be sputtered or deposited onto the substrate. The electric field ionizes the reactant gas to produce a plasma. The plasma, characterized by a visible glow, is a mixture of positive and negative reactant gas ions and electrons. Ions from the plasma bombard the target releasing deposition material. As such, a deposition layer forms on the substrate which is supported upon the surface of the substrate support just above the cathode.
A particular type of substrate support used in a high temperature PVD system is a ceramic electrostatic chuck. Ceramic electrostatic chucks create an electrostatic attractive force between the substrate (i.e., a semiconductor wafer) and the chuck to retain the wafer in a stationary position during processing. A voltage is applied to one or more electrodes imbedded within a ceramic chuck body so as to induce opposite polarity charges in the wafer and electrodes, respectively. The opposite charges pull the wafer flush against the chuck support surface, thereby electrostatically clamping the wafer. More specifically, in a "unipolar" electrostatic chuck, voltage is applied to an electrode embedded within the pedestal supporting the chuck. The voltage is referenced to some internal chamber ground reference. Electrostatic force is established between the wafer being clamped and the chuck. When the voltage is applied, the wafer is referred back to the same ground reference as the voltage source through a conductive connection to the wafer. Alternatively, the plasma generated in the chamber can reference the wafer to ground.
The ceramic material used to fabricate a high temperature chuck is typically aluminum-nitride or alumina doped with a metal oxide such as titanium oxide (TiO.sub.2) or some other ceramic material with similar resistive properties. This form of ceramic is partially conductive at high temperatures. Because of this characteristic, the wafer is primarily retained against the chuck by the Johnsen-Rahbek effect. Such a chuck is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,121 issued May 26, 1992.
One disadvantage of using a chuck body fabricated from ceramic is that the characteristics of the chuck surface change over time. For example, exposing the chuck surface to organic material degrades chuck performance. Specifically, adventitious (surface) carbon, water and hydroxides collect on the chuck surface. Such contaminants enter the chamber during wafer processing as wafers are passed from a loadlock to the chamber or when the chamber is exposed to the atmosphere during a maintenance cycle. Additionally, outgassing of chamber components produces hydrocarbon contaminants e.g., O-rings inside the chamber breakdown and outgas. These contaminants produce a conductive carbon film on the chuck surface that grows if not removed. Additionally, waste products from wafer processing collect on the chuck surface causing contamination although these process waste products are not considered principle contaminants. The buildup of these contaminants reduces performance of the chuck and, after repeat processing and maintenance cycles, render the chuck useless (i.e., the chucking force is severely degraded and/or non-uniform). Premature replacement of the chuck results in higher unit cost and increased chamber downtime.
Therefore, a need exists in the art for a method of removing contaminant films that become deposited upon the support surface of the chuck as well as upon other ceramic components of a semiconductor wafer processing system.

Method and apparatus for sputter etch conditioning a ceramic body


In a case of being judged that a compressed mode is applied in a mobile terminal, if it is judged that reception quality during data communication is favorable, gap intervals are not created by passing through a processing of gap interval creation. Further, if the data communication over the HS-DSCH is performed, the data communication over the HS-DSCH is continued. This prevents degradation of data transmission rate over a channel for high speed data transmission service, in the presence of a mobile terminal in a favorable reception quality area.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile terminal, a wireless relay apparatus, and a mobile communication system, which are suitable in causing a large amount of data to efficiently transmit to, for example, a mobile terminal in a mobile communication system.
2. Description of Related Art
In a mobile communication system, it is important to satisfy the following two different functional requirements: that a mobile terminal (hereinafter suitably referred to as a "mobile station") is able to efficiently receive data from a base station currently in communication; and that a mobile station switches base stations to maintain data transmission (hereinafter referred to as "handover"). Especially, to implement the handover, it becomes necessary that a mobile station always monitors neighboring base stations.
For example, in Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) system that is specified by 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP), as a third generation mobile phone service, a compressed mode is specified as a function for performing monitoring (measurement) of different frequency base stations when performing handover between different frequencies. Specifically, according to the compressed mode, a base station sets gap intervals as shown in FIG. 1, and stops data sending over a dedicated channel (hereinafter referred to as a "dedicated CH") in the gap intervals, whereas a mobile station switches frequencies by utilizing the time within the gap intervals, and monitors different frequency base stations. Here, the dedicated CH is a transmission channel used for implementing mainly voice transmission and data transmission at a relatively low speed.
The base station end (actually, universal terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN)) makes the determination of the transition to the above-mentioned compressed mode. At that time, the base station end notifies a mobile station of necessary parameters for setting gap intervals at the mobile station in applying the compressed mode.
FIG. 1 shows receiving situation at a mobile station to which this compressed mode is applied. The ordinate of FIG. 1 indicates transmission power, and the abscissa indicates frame transmission time. In W-CDMA communication system, there is specified that transmission rate can be increased temporarily by changing spreading factor, for example. Therefore, the mobile station increases temporarily transmission rate by changing spreading factor, whereas a wireless frame performs processing so as to maintain the same time length as that before changing the spreading factor, thereby creating gap intervals as shown in FIG. 1. When applying the compressed mode, the mobile station sends data by temporarily increasing transmission power as shown in FIG. 1, in order to avoid transmission quality degradation. The time length of the gap intervals is settable at any length of 3 slots, 4 slots, 5 slots, 7 slots, 10 slots, and 14 slots, with respect to 10 ms (=15 slots) of a transmission frame of a physical channel (a dedicated CH), to which the compressed mode is applied.
Further, as shown in FIG. 2, transmission gap pattern PT1 and PT2 are specified in the compressed mode, respectively, and these patterns PT1 and PT2 are alternately repeated the number of transmission gap pattern repetition count (TGPRC). Two gaps of gaps gp1 and gp2 can be created within the patterns PT1 and PT2, respectively. In the patterns PT1 and PT2, the interval lengths of the respective gaps gp1 and gp2, and distances d1 and d2 between the respective gaps gp1 and gp2 are specified in slot units. Gap lengths GL1 and GL2 are specified by the number of frames (10 ms), and are arranged to be as much as the length of 144 frames. The number of the TGPRCs is settable at as much as an infinite number. Accordingly, the mobile station, which is once designated so as to enter the compressed mode by the base station end, comes to keep creating gap intervals for the number of the TGPRCs periodically (infinitely if the TGPRC is set at an infinite number).
Meanwhile, as a method of rapidly improving data transmission rate in a mobile communication system, for example, 3GPP complementarily defines a high speed channel (hereinafter referred to as an "HS-CH") as an independent channel other than the dedicated CH in FIG. 3A, which is a physical channel to which the compressed mode is originally applied, as shown in FIG. 3. FIG. 3B shows a downlink HS control CH, FIG. 3C shows an HS data CH, and FIG. 3D shows an uplink HS control CH.
Referring to FIG. 3, the HS-CH is a channel over which time sharing data transmission is performed in a shorter cycle (a wireless frame of 2 ms that is called subframe) than a wireless frame (10 ms) of the dedicated CH to which the compressed mode is applied, and it is regarded as a channel that can be shared among a plurality of mobile stations. Under the HS-CH, the reception quality of the HS data CH is monitored on the mobile station end, as a function independent of the monitor function in the compressed mode. It is made possible to realize high speed data transmission service of best effort type by performing, over the uplink HS control CH, feedback transmission of the monitored reception quality information and either of an acknowledge (ACK) and a nonacknowledge (NACK), which are the reception judgment results of the above-mentioned reception data, from a mobile station to a base station. Although the HS-CH is a channel different from the dedicated CH, in a case where the compressed mode is applied to the dedicated CH so as to monitor different frequency base stations, data transmission with a base station becomes impossible even over the HS-CH. Therefore, no assignment of HS data CH is made in the HS-CH intervals corresponding to the gap intervals at which the different frequency base stations are monitored. In order to do such a matter, the base station end, before the gap intervals are created over the dedicated CH, instructs the mobile station end to stop the assignment of HS data, over the downlink HS control CH. On the receipt of this instruction, the mobile station end does not make the assignment of HS data to the HS data CH. Thereafter, on the termination of the gap intervals, namely on the termination of the monitor operation of the different frequency base stations, the base station end sends HS data identification information addressed to a mobile station. The mobile station, on the receipt of the HS data identification information addressed to a local station, monitors the reception quality of the HS data CH, and then performs feedback transmission of the reception quality information and an ACK or an NACK to the base station over the uplink HS control CH.
FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of data transmission control operation on the mobile station end, based on the presence or absence of the application of the above-mentioned compressed mode and the HS-CH assignment.
Referring to FIG. 4, in step S101, a mobile station judges whether the compressed mode is applied from a base station end. The flow proceeds to the processing of step S103 if judged that the compressed mode is not applied, whereas proceeds to the processing of step S102 if judged that the compressed mode is applied. When advanced to the processing step S102, the mobile station creates gap intervals and monitors different frequency base stations, as described above. After the processing of step S102, the flow proceeds to step S103. When advanced to the processing of step S103, the mobile station starts data receiving over the dedicated CH.
Next, in the processing of step S104, the mobile station judges whether there is the HS-CH assignment addressed to a local station, over the downlink HS control CH. The processing is terminated when there is no HS-CH assignment addressed to the local station, whereas the flow proceeds to the processing of step S105 when there is the assignment. When advanced to the processing of step S105, the mobile station starts data receiving over the HS data CH and monitors reception quality. Further, the mobile station, in step S106, sends the base station the reception quality information during the data reception in step S105, and an ACK or an NACK, with use of the uplink HS control CH.
FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of data transmission control operation on a base station, based on the presence or absence of the application of the above-mentioned compressed mode and the data with use of HS-CH.
Referring to FIG. 5, in step S111, the base station judges whether there is the application of the compressed mode to a mobile station currently in communication. The flow proceeds to the processing of step S113 if judged that there is no application of the compressed mode to this mobile station, whereas the flow proceeds to the processing of step S112 if there is the application of the compressed mode. When advanced to the processing of step S112, the base station creates gap intervals. After the processing of step S112, the flow proceeds to step S113. When advanced to the processing of step S113, the base station performs data transmission with use of the dedicated CH of this mobile station.
Next, in the processing of step S114, the base station judges whether there is HS data addressed to a mobile station and it corresponds to the receiving intervals of this mobile station. The processing is terminated if the judged that there is no HS data addressed to the mobile station or it does not correspond to the receiving intervals of this mobile station. On the other hand, if judged that there is the HS data addressed to the mobile station and it corresponds to the receiving intervals of the mobile station, the base station sends, as the processing of step S115, data identification information addressed to the mobile station over the downlink HS control CH, and then receives the HS data with the use of the HS data CH, in step S116.
For example, the following patent document 1 discloses a technique of utilizing the compressed mode in W-CDMA. In this patent document, a base station apparatus creates a transmission schedule so as to send packet data at the time other than the gap intervals at which no data is sent in the compressed mode. In accordance with the technique of this patent document, there is no fear of packet data from being sent at the time other than the time at which no data is sent in the compressed mode. This enables to reduce interference with a communication terminal apparatus and improve throughput.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-153339 (FIG. 1)
However, as described above, in the case where the above-mentioned compressed mode of the dedicated CH is set when performing high speed data transmission over the HS-CH, non-receivable intervals (non-assignable intervals) of HS data CH may occur as shown in FIG. 3. It follows that the downlink HS-CH transmission rate practically degrades. That is, the length of wireless frame of the dedicated CH is as much as 10 ms. In contrast, the length of a subframe of the HS-CH is defined to be only 2 ms. Therefore, when the compressed mode of the dedicated CH is applied at the time of high speed data transmission over the HS-CH, the mobile station may loose a valuable assignment of the HS-CH by the amount of the time corresponding to the above-mentioned gap intervals of the compressed mode. This makes it impossible to transmit data of several subframes thereby to substantially degrade the HS-CH transmission rate. In particular, even in the presence of a mobile station in a favorable reception quality area at which it is unnecessary to execute handover, for example, if the compressed mode is set and the lack of the HS-CH assignment occurs, there is the problem of making it impossible to realize high speed data transmission service that is the aim of the HS-CH.

Mobile terminal, wireless relay apparatus, and mobile communication system

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.