An optical disc (102) and method for forming the same. The optical disc preferably includes a first substrate (150) comprising a pre-recorded, first data storage layer (152) and a second substrate (156) comprising a recordable, second data storage layer (158). The second substrate is affixed to the first substrate such that a data transducing beam (161) passes through a common exterior boundary surface (162) of the disc to access the respective first and second layers. Preferably, the pre-recorded layer comprises a sequence of pits and lands (218). Addresses of blocks in the respective layers preferably successively increment (220) so that a readback system (100) interprets the respective layers as a common recording layer within the disc. One of the layers can store disc authentication data zone, a patch which updates a version of user data stored in the remaining layer, etc. A content supplier can supply specially configured substrates with pre-recorded control data to control disc manufacture.

Optical discs are data storage media used to store a wide variety of digitally encoded data. Such discs are usually portable in nature and can be played in a variety of settings such as personal computers, car audio players, home theater systems, handheld personal entertainment devices, home gaming systems, etc.
A typical optical disc comprises a circular disc having one or more data storage (recording) layers of light reflective material embedded in a refractive substrate. Each layer is typically disposed along a plane substantially normal to an axis about which the disc is rotated and stores data in the form of localized areas of different reflectivity (pits and lands). The data can be stored along a continuously extending spiral track or a number of nested concentric tracks.
A data transducing head uses a laser or similar light source to output a readback signal based on the different reflectivities of the pit and land areas. Decoding circuitry decodes the user data for output by the appropriate playback device.
Optical discs can be pre-recorded or recordable. A pre-recorded disc typically includes an embedded metallized layer that stores the respective pits and lands. The metallized layer is formed during manufacturing of the disc using an injection molding process, and the data are permanently embossed in the disc once the disc manufacturing operation is completed.
Recordable discs are media to which data can be written. As used herein, "recordable" covers both discs that can be written once (WORM discs) or written and erased many times (rewritable discs). WORM discs typically utilize an embedded layer of dye or other material that can be selectively exposed to a write laser beam to permanently provide areas of different reflectivities corresponding to the pits and lands. Rewritable discs typically utilize a light beam to write the data as a series of areas of different reflectivity, and a magnetic field to erase the previously written data.
Pre-recorded optical discs have an advantage of low cost per byte of recorded data as long as each byte is the same on each copy of the optical disc. A disadvantage of pre-recorded optical discs is an inability to add some amount of unique information to each disc after the substrate has been manufactured, i.e. serial numbers, product activation codes, software "patches" or updates, etc.
Recordable optical discs have an advantage in that each disc can have unique data values recorded on them. A disadvantage of recordable optical discs is that all of the content data are recorded after manufacturing, thereby increasing the costs per byte. Generally, content suppliers tend to utilize pre-recorded discs for higher volume production runs where throughput efficiencies can be achieved, but are increasingly turning to the use of recordable discs for lower volume production runs.
There have been several attempts to create "hybrid" optical discs where one portion of the disc is pre-recorded and another portion is recordable. One goal of this approach is to take advantage of low cost per byte of pre-recorded data while providing the flexibility to add subsequent information to the disc. Examples of these types of discs include the Kodak® CD-PROM and the ODC™ CDR-ROM. Such discs typically have the pre-recorded portion and the recordable portion manufactured into a single surface of the substrate, which complicates the disc manufacturing process and thereby increases the costs per delivered byte. Other types of hybrid discs arrange the pre-recorded and recordable portions so as to be accessed from opposing sides of the disc, which requires two heads or the disc to be flipped over to access both portions.
Due to the continued demand for content provided on optical discs, there remains a continued need for improved disc formats that are relatively easy and inexpensive to implement, and provide flexibility to accommodate a variety of needs such as tracking and copy protection systems. It is to these and other improvements that the present invention is generally directed.


A mallet-style golf ball putter with a hollow pipe component that has generally the same diameter as a golf ball, is positioned about the sweet spot in the vertical and lateral dimensions on the putter striking face, and extends longitudinally towards the rear of the putter to assist the golfer to align the striking face of the putter with the golf ball when in an address position and with the intended line of putt during takeback and follow-through. Peripheral weighting further enhances the moment of inertia of the golf putter head. The pipe component so designed permits a visual alignment of the striking face with the golf ball in the lateral and vertical dimensions and for a smooth perpendicular stroke along an axis of the pipe.

Golf is a sport and a recreational activity that is a meant to be fun yet competitive. Perhaps the one area of the golf game that distresses and strikes fear and trepidation into many golfers is the art of putting, once defined as a "game within a game." To achieve a successful outcome, the golfer is required to align the putter head in three distinct planes or dimensions. In particular, he is required to align the putter head on the intended line of his putting stroke such that, at impact with the golf ball, the striking face of the putter head is delivered perfectly square to the ball and on a path of motion that is straight down the intended line of the putt. The golfer is also required to centre the face of the putter in a lateral plane from heel to toe of the putter head so that the point of impact of the golf ball is lined up precisely with the middle of the striking face. Perfect lateral alignment will eliminate twisting of the putter head in the heel-toe plane. The golfer is further required to align the putter striking face in the vertical plane so that the centre of the striking face impacts the ball on the equator of the ball, allowing the loft of the striking face to act efficiently on the ball and to improve the roll of the ball by minimizing backspin and skidding at impact. In a perfectly aligned orientation in all three dimensions, the ball will roll smoothly, stay on the intended line and reach the hole on target for the desired end result. A less than perfect 3-dimensional alignment will result in the force applied to the golf ball not having the intended effect on the travel of the ball.
Many prior art golf putters address one or two alignment dimensions but few address all three alignment dimensions. Those that do only do so to a very limited extent. An alignment system is desired that addresses all three alignment dimensions so that the golfer may develop repeatability and consistency in delivering the striking face to the ball in the same orientation, thereby allowing the golfer to correctly square the striking face to the intended line of the putt at address, to take the putter head away during the backstroke while maintaining a square-to-the-line orientation, and to deliver the putter head back to the golf ball in a square-to-the-line orientation. With constant, repeatable alignment in all three dimensions, the golfer will achieve improved performance in accuracy, ball speed and distance control.
Over the years, the golf industry has produced many golf putters designed to make the process of putting easier, less stress-inducing, and therefore more enjoyable for the golfer. However, many prior art golf putter heads are designed to increase the moment of inertia of the golf putter to reduce the adverse results of an off-centre strike, which is a very effective enhancement to better putting. Prior art golf putter designs generally focus on shifting mass to the sides and back of the clubhead to increase the moment of inertia, thereby reducing twisting and minimizing the undesirable effects of off-centre contact between the striking surface and the ball, including loss of distance and ball deviation from the intended line of the putt. Increasing the moment of inertia in this fashion also promotes better roll of the golf ball when struck. While this approach is beneficial to some extent, such golf putter head designs do not improve the opportunity for the golfer to align his club properly at address, takeaway the club properly on the backstroke, and keep the striking face square to the line on the forward stroke. In fact, few putter designs adequately address the difficulty that the majority of golfers have in consistently delivering the sweet spot on the striking face of the golf putter squarely to the golf ball. An alignment system is desired that allows the golfer to easily reference (e.g., using his peripheral vision) the fact that the golf putter is staying square to the intended line during the backstroke, the forward stroke and through impact with the golf ball.
Putting is often referred to as the mental part of the game of golf. Unfortunately, many prior art putter head designs complicate the mental part of the putting process by complicating the alignment system to the extent that it requires a high level of thought process before and during the putting stroke. Prior art golf putter head alignment systems generally try to relate painted or engraved markings or a series of indicia that are alien to the shape of a golf ball. For example, a flat plane visual alignment system is acceptable for a flat object like a ice hockey puck but is not intuitive for aligning a golf ball. Many prior art putter head designs introduce a complexity of angles, lines, points and other markings that, far from assisting the golfer with alignment, tend to distract and even disorient the golfer. Such putter head designs are not intuitive and lead to what has been aptly termed "paralysis by analysis." A more natural alignment system is desired that is optimally effective for the golfer in that it gives a much quicker assessment of the orientation of the striking face, thus avoiding an excessive amount of analysis on behalf of the golfer on face angle, sweet spot, line of putt, and the like, that often leads to tension, lack of certainty, and ultimately, poor putting performance.
Other prior art putter head designs use weighting rods, barrels, and cylinders of varying sizes that purportedly increase centre-weighting by concentrating an increased amount of mass behind the sweet-spot of the striking face. Unfortunately, these designs are inherently unforgiving on off-centre strikes. In some cases, such golf putter heads are also alleged to enhance alignment; however, such golf putter head designs are not much better than an elongated centreline since the barrel edges do not relate to the edges of the golf ball and are also too short on the barrel to effectively assist with maintaining a square orientation of the striking face to the intended line of the putt.
An improved golf putter head design is desired that addresses these limitations in the designs of golf putter heads by simultaneously optimizing both the moment of inertia and alignment.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Golf putter head with visual alignment system


According to the present invention, contact plugs are formed by a CVD method without deteriorating the properties of the ferroelectric capacitor in a semiconductor device having a fine ferroelectric capacitor. Adhesive film is formed in a contact hole, which exposes an upper electrode of the ferroelectric capacitor after conducting heat treatment in an oxidizing atmosphere, and a W layer is deposited by the CVD method using such TiN adhesive film as a hydrogen barrier and the contact hole is filled.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to semiconductor devices, and more particularly to a semiconductor device having a ferroelectric film.
Semiconductor devices such as so-called Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM)s or Static Random Access Memory (SRAM)s are used extensively as a high-speed main memory device in various information processing apparatuses including computers. These semiconductor devices, however, have volatile memories and the information stored therein is lost when the power is turned OFF. Conventionally, nonvolatile magnetic disk units have been used as large-capacity secondary storage devices for storing programs and data.
However, magnetic disk units have disadvantages in that they are bulky and fragile, have large power consumption, and furthermore in that they have low access speed upon reading and writing information. Recently, Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM)s or flash-memory devices are frequently used for storing information in a floating-gate electrode in the form of electrical charges. Particularly, flash-memory devices tend to have a high integration density because they have cell construction similar to that of DRAM, and are expected to become the large-capacity storage device comparable to a magnetic disk unit.
In EEPROM and flash-memory devices, writing of information is achieved by injecting hot electrons through a tunneling insulation film into the floating gate electrode. Thus, a flash-memory device has drawbacks in that it inevitably takes a substantial time for writing and tunneling insulation film deteriorates after writing and erasing operations are repeated a number of times. When tunneling insulation film is deteriorated, operations of writing and erasing become unstable.
In view of the above, a ferroelectric memory device (designated hereinafter as FeRAM) for storing information in a ferroelectric film in the form of a spontaneous polarization is proposed. In such FeRAM, an individual memory cell transistor, consisting of a single MOSFET as in the case of DRAM, comprises a structure in which dielectric film in the memory cell capacitor is replaced by ferroelectric material such as PZT (Pb(Zr, Ti)O3) or PLZT(Pb(Zr,Ti,La)O3), and furthermore, SBT(SrBi2Ta2O3), or SBTN (SrBi2(Ta,Nb)2O3); and it becomes possible to integrate at high integration density. Moreover, FeRAM has an advantageous feature that because it controls the spontaneous polarization of the ferroelectric capacitor by applying an electric field, writing operation is achieved with a high speed, faster by a factor of 1000 or more than the EEPROM or flash-memory devices which carries out writing by injecting hot electrons, and the power consumption is reduced to about 1/10 compared to the EEPROM or flash-memory device. Furthermore, lifespan is longer because there is no need to use the tunneling oxide film; the FeRAM device can be erased 10 million times or more.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a structure of FeRAM 10 disclosed in a Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-156470.
Referring to FIG. 1, FeRAM 10 is formed on a Si substrate 11 in correspondence to an active region defined by a device isolating insulation film 12. FeRAM 10 includes gate electrode 13 formed on the Si substrate 11 via gate insulation film not shown in the Figure, and diffusion regions 11A and 11B formed on either side of the gate electrode 13 in the Si substrate 11.
Interlayer insulation film 14 is formed on the Si substrate 11 so as to cover the gate electrode 13. A ferroelectric capacitor in which a lower electrode 15, a ferroelectric film 16, and an upper electrode 17 are consecutively layered is formed on the interlayer insulation film.
The ferroelectric capacitor is covered with a separate interlayer insulation film 18 formed on the interlayer insulation film 14. Contact holes 18A, 18B that pass through the interlayer insulation film 14 and expose diffusion regions 11A and 11B, respectively, are formed in the interlayer insulation film 18. Additionally, contact hole 18C exposing the lower electrode 15, and contact hole 18D exposing the upper electrode 17 are formed in the interlayer insulation film 18.
In FeRAM 10 of FIG. 1, contact holes 18A through 18D are filled with contact plugs 19A through 19D, respectively, with a consecutively layered structure of TiN film, Al—Cu film, TiN film and WSi film. Furthermore, interconnecting patterns contacting the contact plugs are formed on the interlayer insulation film 18.
Recently in particular, conductive oxide such as IrOx or SrRuOx is frequently used as the upper electrode of the ferroelectric capacitor used in FeRAM. Such conductive oxide is similar to ferroelectric film consisting of oxide in terms of chemical and crystallographic properties, and is convenient in optimizing the electrical property of ferroelectric film.
In the FeRAM 10 of FIG. 1, contact plugs 19A through 19D are formed by a sputtering method. However, in the sputtering method, if a semiconductor device is miniaturized, step coverage in contact holes 18A through 18D easily form defects and a problem of yield and reliability arises.
In a general semiconductor device, such contact plugs are frequently formed by depositing a W layer by means of a Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) method, and then removing the W layer on the insulation film by means of a Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) method. It is possible to securely fill the contact holes with W plugs by the CVD method even in contact holes where the aspect ratio is large.
However, in semiconductors with ferroelectric film such as FeRAM, attempts to deposit a W layer by means of the CVD method develop a problem where H2 contained in the atmosphere during deposition acts on the ferroelectric film and reduces the ferroelectric film. When ferroelectric film is reduced, the electrical property with a characteristic of desired hysteresis is lost.
In an attempt to avoid this problem, steps of forming W plugs for diffusion regions, and then forming contact plugs for the ferroelectric capacitor can be considered.
In FeRAM 10 of FIG. 1, it may be considered to, for example, first form contact holes 18A and 18B, and then after filling the contact holes 18A, 18B with W plugs 19A and 19B, respectively, to form contact holes 18C, 18D. According to such staging, in the formation of W plugs 19A and 19B, a ferroelectric film 16 is sealed by interlayer insulation film 18 and the problem of ferroelectric film reduction can be avoided.
In such a method, however, it is necessary to form contact holes 18C and 18D in the ferroelectric capacitor by a dry etching method. This dry etching method involves, especially if upper electrode 17 is formed by conductive oxide film, the upper electrode 17 and ferroelectric film 16 underlying the upper electrode will be partially reduced, and a problem of oxygen defect arises.
For this reason, in the case where contact holes 18C and 18D are formed afterward, heat treatment in the oxidizing atmosphere to compensate for oxygen defect is necessary. However, when conducting heat treatment in the oxidizing atmosphere, previously formed W plugs 19A and 19B oxidize, and a problem concerning increase in contact resistance arises.

Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same


An integrated circuit phase changeable memory device includes an integrated circuit substrate, a first electrode on the integrated circuit substrate, and a second electrode on the integrated circuit substrate and spaced apart from the first electrode. A carbon nano tube and a phase changeable layer are serially disposed between the first and second electrodes. An insulating layer can include a contact hole and the carbon nano tube may be provided in the contact hole. Moreover, the phase changeable layer also may be provided at least partially in the contact hole. A layer also may be provided at least partially surrounding the carbon nano tube in the contact hole. Related fabrication methods also are provided.

Integrated circuit (semiconductor) memory devices can be roughly categorized into volatile memory devices and nonvolatile memory devices according to whether the semiconductor memory devices maintain data when a power supply is cut off. The volatile memory devices may include, for example, DRAM devices and SRAM devices and the nonvolatile memory devices may include, for example, flash memory devices. These conventional memory devices may indicate a logic value "0" or a logic value "1" according to the relative presence or absence of stored charges.
Recently, phase changeable memory devices have been proposed. A phase changeable memory device uses phase changeable materials that change their crystalline states depending on a resistive heating by a current pulse. Conventionally, chalcogenide compounds (GST) including germanium (Ge), antimony (Sb) and/or tellurium (Te) may be used as a phase changeable material.
An amorphous phase changeable material has relatively high electric resistance, and the electric resistance decreases as the amorphous phase changeable material changes gradually into a crystalline state. Since the resistance can vary according to the crystalline states, logic information can be determined by sensing a difference between the resistances. The phase changeable material layer can contact a conductive plug that passes through an insulating layer, and may be provided with heat (Joule heat) from the conductive plug and/or a heater plug. The conductive plug is conventionally formed of conductive nitride materials such as titanium nitride. To embody a phase changeable memory device having low power consumption, the diameter of the conductive plug may be reduced.
However, if the conductive plug is formed of titanium nitride, it may be difficult to reduce the diameter as much as may be desirable. In particular, a heater plug having about 40 nm diameter may not endure a current density of about 108 A/cm2 or more under a write current of about 1 mA, because the titanium nitride may have weak tolerance with respect to this current density. As a result, if a conventional titanium nitride heater plug is used, the diameter of the heater plug may not be reducible under about 40 nm. It therefore may be difficult to provide phase changeable memory devices having a desirably high integration density and/or a desirably low power consumption.

Phase changeable memory devices including carbon nano tubes


A method is provided wherein a process suitable for subtractive etching of titanium nitride layers useful in the fabrication of semiconductor integrated circuit devices can be efficiently employed on commercially-available plasma reactor system equipment normally suitable only for subtractive etching of passivation layer materials and the like, resulting in increased efficiency and reduced cost in the manufacturing of such devices.

(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for selective etching of titanium nitride layers useful in fabrication of semiconductor integrated circuits, and more particularly to subtractive etching of titanium nitride by reactive plasma etching, and still more particularly to subtractive etching of titanium nitride layers in a plasma reactor system particularly configured for a specific range of plasma reactive etch processes.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
In the fabrication of semiconductor integrated circuits, layers of refractory metal nitride compounds and particularly titanium nitride are used for the purpose of passivation and to provide an antireflection coating on top of previously deposited layers used in the circuit. Such layers of titanium nitride must themselves be formed into useful patterns by selective etching, and this is done conventionally by subtractive etching through a photoresist pattern, using a chemically reactive plasma to bring about the desired subtractive chemical reactions. In such a process, a reactive gas or mixtures of reactive gases such as trifluoromethane CHF3 or tetrafluoromethane CF4 are excited in a reaction chamber by an electrical plasma sustained therein by radio # frequency energy input to provide the reactive species which react with the titanium nitride layer to bring about the subtractive etching. The entire process of plasma activation of the gas and subtractive etching is normally carried out in a plasma reactor chamber specifically designed and operated for this purpose.
It is customary in manufacturing of integrated circuits to employ various systems for reactive etching which are optimally designed and operated for narrowly specified conditions and results. It is commonly observed that a system so narrowly attuned to specific materials and process objectives cannot readily be employed for widely different materials or substantially altered process objectives. Thus, for example, a particular system widely employed for reactive plasma etching of various materials known as the LAM 590 is supplied by LAM Systems Inc., Fremont, Calif., USA. This system, while useful in circuit manufacturing for conventional subtractive etching of passivation layers of silicon oxide and the like, is generally not considered suitable for plasma -enhanced etching of titanium nitride in gas mixtures of CHF3 and CF4 within the normal operating limits of the system, due to difficulties with electrical arcing, resputtering of material, and electrical damage to integrated circuits due to excessive ion bombardment from the ions in the plasma.
In the conventional integrated circuit fabrication process for forming an electrical contact to a conductive layer covered first by an antireflection coating layer of, for example, titanium nitride and then by an insulating passivation layer of, for example, silicon oxide or silicon nitride, subtractive etching of the passivation layer must first be done selectively to begin formation of the electrical contact via hole. This must then be followed by subtractive etching of the titanium nitride layer to complete the formation of the electrical contact via hole. The first subtractive etching step, of the passivation layer, may be done conventionally in a plasma reactor system such as a LAM 590 system previously mentioned. However, the second subtractive etching step of the titanium nitride layer is normally then done in a different plasma reactor system. This is because the system parameters of the LAM 590 plasma reactor system set up for pasivation layer etching will result in problems such as electrical arcing and discharge, excessive ionic bombardment of the integrated circuit, and resputtering and redistribution of material when attempt is made to subtractively etch titanium nitride layers. Such difficulties would result in lower yield and greater cost in manufacturing as well as reduced reliability of integrated circuit devices, and therefor the need fora second system results in increased cost in the manufacturing of integrated circuit devices.
It is known in the prior art that titanium compounds such as titanium nitride can be selectively etched by active halogen species generated in an electrical plasma. U.S. Pat. No. 5,326,427 to Jerbic describes the etching of titanium-containng materials by chlorine or fluorine atoms obtained from an electrical discharge in molecular chlorine or fluorine-containing gases. U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,805 to Jolly describes the etching of titanium nitride by reactive halogen species obtained from an electrical plasma sustained in a mixture of CF4 and C2F6 gases. Neither patent describes the use of a specific plasma reactor design, system configuration, or process description to bring about the desired subtractive etching reactions, nor is there any discussion of the use of commercially-available standard plasma reactor equipment for this purpose.

Method for etching titanium nitride layers

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


The present invention provides for an improved EPROM transistor cell which forms the programming portion of the programmable interconnect interconnect of an FPGA integrated circuit, and a method of manufacturing the EPROM cell. The EPROM cell has a floating gate disposed over a P region of the substrate. Aligned with one edge of the floating gate and at the surface of the substrate is a lightly doped P- region; on the opposite edge of the floating gate is a heavily doped N+ region. A control gate lies over the P-, P substrate and over the N+ region. N+ regions are formed at the opposite edges of the control gate. One N+ region is contiguous to the P- region and forms the source of the EPROM cell and the other N+ region is connected to the N+ region under the control gate and forms the drain of the EPROM cell. This structure allows for easy process control of the V.sub.T of the access transistor formed by the control gate and the P- surface, and of the space charge region formed by the P substrate and the N+ drain of the EPROM cell.

The present invention is related to field programmable integrated circuits, and more particularly, to Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs).
Typically, an FPGA has an array of logic elements and wiring interconnections with many thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of programmable interconnects so that the FPGA can be configured by the user into an integrated circuit with defined functions. Each programmable interconnect can connect two circuit nodes in the integrated circuit to make (or break) a wiring interconnection, or to set the function or functions of a logic element.
FPGAs use either memory cells or antifuses for the programmable switches. The memory cells are reprogrammable and antifuses are programmable only once. In U.S. Ser. No. 08/270,714, entitled, "A GENERAL PURPOSE, NON-VOLATILE REPROGRAMMABLE SWITCH," filed Jul. 5, 1994 by Robert J. Lipp, Richard D. Freeman, Robert U. Broze, John M. Caywood, and Joseph G. Nolan, III, and assigned to the present assignee, a new memory-type of programmable interconnect is disclosed. The described FPGA programmable interconnect has a non-volatile memory (NVM) cell, which is reprogrammable, to provide a general purpose switching element to randomly interconnect the FPGA wiring and circuit elements.
The present invention provides for an improvement in the disclosed programmable interconnect. In particular, the process of manufacturing the programming portion of the programmable interconnect is improved with the resulting programming element, an EPROM transistor cell, having improved electrical operating parameters.

Floating gate FPGA cell with counter-doped select device


A rotating electric machine is comprised of a stator having a stator core and a stator coil wound around the stator core, the stator core having at least two tip portions, and a rotor having a rotor core and a plurality of permanent magnets provided in the rotor core, the rotor being rotatable relative to the stator. A direction of flux of the permanent magnets is perpendicular to a direction of an array of the stator, and the tip portions of the stator core sandwich the rotor and are disposed to be nearer to the rotor than the stator coil.

The present invention relates a rotating electric machine which comprises a rotor having a rotor core and permanent magnets disposed in the rotor core and a stator having a stator core and a stator coil wound around the stator core, and which is arranged such that the rotor is rotatably provided relative to the stators with an air gap.
A rotating electric machine of a type that a rotor is constructed by embedding a permanent magnet therein has been widely used, for the reason that such a type performs a high efficiency due to a small loss and a high output performance.
Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2002-233120 discloses such a type of a rotating electric machine which is constructed by specifically formed rotor and stator so as to further decrease the size of the machine and to improve a torque generation performance.


The present invention relates to a method for classifying a signal (S). An intermediate signal (IS) is decimated in order to obtain a processed signal (PS) as a new intermediate signal (IS). A processed signal (PS) is compared with respect to the signal (S) to be classified to thereby generate comparison data (CompDAT). Based on the comparison data (CompDAT) said signal (S) to be classified is classified, thereby classification data (ClassDAT) are generated.

Nowadays, the analysis and classification of signals becomes more and more important, in particular in electronic customer devices and respective equipment. Many methods and devices for pre-estimating and pre-processing signals have been developed in order to derive certain properties of the respective signals in order to classify these signals for further processing, or the like.
However, known methods and devices are comparable complicated in structure, architecture and its processing flow. Therefore, the respective computational burden and/or hardware equipment and to space and/or time-consuming systems.


An object of the present invention is to provide an image retrieval system for computing similarity in the case when components are different between an image feature vector of a query image and the image feature vectors of images to be retrieved when retrieval is carried out by using features of images. A first image feature vector conversion device converts a query image feature vector into a first image feature vector for use in a similarity computation according to similarity computation image feature vector configuration information describing a given configuration of an image feature vector for use in a similarity computation. A second image feature vector conversion device converts an images-to-be-retrieved feature vector into a second image feature vector for use in a similarity computation according to the similarity computation image feature vector configuration information. The image feature vector similarity computation devices compare the first image feature vector with the second image feature vector according to the similarity computation image feature vector configuration information, and compute the similarity.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image retrieval apparatus and a method for determining the similarity of each image, and retrieving an image similar to a specified image, and more specifically to an image retrieval system for computing the similarity when the configurations of the feature vector of a query image and the feature vector of an image to be compared are different from each other especially when a retrieving process is performed by using an image feature.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an image retrieving process has been performed by converting the feature of an image into data, indicating an image feature vector, determining the similarity of each image by using the image feature vector, and retrieving a similar image (for example, from accumulated images). Various apparatuses and computer programs have been developed to perform the process.
In the above mentioned conventional technology for retrieving an image, a method of retrieving a similar image based on the similarity of an image feature vector is adopted using a feature vector extracted from an image.
FIG. 8 shows an image retrieval system using the conventional image feature vector. FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the conventional image retrieval system. The conventional image retrieval system comprises first image feature vector generation means 102, second image feature vector generation means 202, image feature vector similarity computation means 107, a similarity evaluation unit 109, and an output device 111 for outputting a retrieval result.
In this system, it is necessary to determine in advance what feature vector is to be extracted in what configuration to compare the image feature vector of a query image with image feature vectors of images to be retrieved. First, the first image feature vector generation means 102 generates an image feature vector 103 from a query image 101 and query image feature vector configuration information 100 describing the configuration of the image feature vector. The second image feature vector generation means 202 generates an image feature vector 203 from images 201 to be retrieved and the images-to-be-retrieved feature vector configuration information 200 describing the configuration of the images-to-be-retrieved feature vector. It further comprises the image feature vector similarity computation means 107 for computing similarity 108 between the image feature vector 103 and the image feature vector 203, a similarity evaluation unit 109 for evaluating the similarity based on the computed similarity 108 and returning a retrieval result 110, and the output device 111 for outputting the retrieval result.
On the other hand, as an example of the conventional technology, the conventional image retrieval system using the frequency distribution feature vector expressed by the color layout of an image using a frequency area as an image feature vector is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-259832. The frequency distribution feature vector refers to an image feature vector indicating the energy of each band obtained by dividing the frequency distribution of a spectrum of the color (average color) of an image into a plurality of bands and performing a frequency analysis. The configuration information describes a band used as a frequency distribution feature vector. When the configuration of the frequency distribution feature vector of a query image is different from the configuration of the frequency distribution feature vector extracted from images to be retrieved, that is, when a query image feature vector has 18 conversion coefficients (6 coefficients of luminance and 6 coefficients of chrominance) when the images-to-be-retrieved feature vector has 12 conversion coefficients (6 coefficients of luminance and 3 coefficients of chrominance), etc., there has been no means for computing the similarity of them. Thus, to retrieve an image in an environment in which image feature vectors having plural types of configurations exist, an image feature vector database and similarity computation means are required corresponding to the configuration of the feature vector of a query image. Therefore, it is necessary to provide similarity computation means and an image feature vector database corresponding to each type of configuration of an image feature vector. Therefore, such a problem arises that the apparatus is complicated and costly for manufacturing.
On the other hand, there is a method of solving the above mentioned problem by comparing only the common coefficients and computing the similarity. In this case, the dimension of the computed similarity depends on the configuration of the coefficient of an image, the comparison cannot be performed using the same similarity. For example, if a query image has 18 coefficients, and the image feature vectors of images to be retrieved are 12 and 18 coefficients, then the similarity computed by comparing only 12 coefficients and the similarity computed by comparing 18 coefficients have different weights. Therefore, the similarity cannot be evaluated on the same basis.
As described above, there have been the following problems with the conventional apparatus.
First, there are a number of elements and configurations forming the image feature vector indicating the features of an element. To compare and retrieve images, it is necessary to prepare image feature vectors having common configurations for each of the images to be compared (retrieved).
Second, there is a method of solving the above mentioned problem by comparing common components only and computing the similarity. However, in this case, since the dimension of the computed similarity depends on each image, the comparison cannot be carried out by using the same similarity. That is, the comparison cannot be carried out on images having different coefficients and feature vectors.

Image retrieval apparatus and image retrieving method


The present invention generally provides a vacuum system having a small-volume load-lock chamber for supporting a substrate set of only two rows of substrates, which provides for quick evacuation and venting of the load-lock chamber to provide a continuous feed load-lock chamber. More particularly, the present invention provides a transfer chamber; one or more processing chambers connected to the transfer chamber; a substrate handling robot disposed in the transfer chamber; and at least one load-lock chamber connected to the transfer chamber, and having one or more substrate support members for supporting one or more stacks of only two substrates per stack. Another aspect of the invention provides a staging, or storage rack associated with or integrated with the load-lock chamber. More particularly, the staging, or storage rack may be located outside the transfer chamber and accessible by a staging robot serving the load-lock chamber. The staging or storage rack may temporarily store processed substrates for cooling of the substrates prior to replacing the substrates within substrate cassettes during idle time of the staging robot. In this way, the substrates may continue to be cooled without interrupting the operation of the load-lock chamber.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the storage and transfer of substrates typically used in the fabrication of electronic devices such as integrated circuits and flat panel displays. Specifically, the invention relates to a load-lock chamber and a pre-processing or post-processing storage rack used to transition substrates from one environment to another environment in a processing system.
2. Background of the Invention
Vacuum processing systems used in the fabrication of integrated circuits and flat panel displays are generally known. An example of a vacuum processing system 100 is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The vacuum processing system 100 typically has a centralized transfer chamber 102 mounted on a monolith platform or main frame structure 110. One or more process chambers 106 are in communication with the transfer chamber 102 via access ports 105 and associated slit valves 107. Substrates are passed through the system by a substrate handling robot 103 disposed in the transfer chamber 102. The slit valves 107 isolate the process chambers 106 from each other and from the transfer chamber 102 while substrates are being processed. The transfer chamber 102 is typically held at a constant vacuum, while the process chambers 106 may be pumped to a greater or lesser vacuum than the transfer chamber 102 for performance of their respective processes. Afterward, the process chamber pressure returns to the level in the transfer chamber 102 before opening the slit valve 107 is opened to permit access between the chambers.
The substrate handling robot 103 disposed in transfer chamber 102 typically retrieves one or more unprocessed substrates from one or more load-lock chambers 112 connected to the transfer chamber 102 and places the substrates in the process chambers 106. The load-lock chambers 112 selectively cycle between the pressure level of the ambient environment and the pressure level in the transfer chamber 102 to transition the substrates between atmospheric pressure and the vacuum environment of the transfer chamber 102. The load-lock chambers 112 typically have a large volume and store multiple substrates. Typically, twelve to twenty-four substrates are stacked vertically in one or more substrate cassettes 109 disposed in load-lock chambers 112. The substrate cassettes 109 typically include a plurality of substrate supports spaced vertically to permit a substrate handling robot blade 115 to reach under a substrate to remove or place a substrate. Substrates are typically loaded in and removed from the load-lock chamber 112 by either a staging robot 113 (shown in FIGS. 1 and 3), or an operator at or near a frontend staging area 104.
Typically, the front-end staging area 104 is maintained at or near ambient or atmospheric pressure. Accordingly, prior to transfer of substrates into or out of the loadlock chamber 112, the atmospheric volume within the load-lock chamber 112 must be vented to atmospheric pressure before opening the valves of the load-lock chamber 112. Similarly, before transfer of substrates between the load-lock chamber 112 and the transfer chamber 102, the atmospheric volume within the load-lock chamber 112 must be evacuated to the low pressure maintained in the transfer chamber 102. Because of the sizable volume within typical load-lock chambers 112, a relatively lengthy amount of time is required to vent and then evacuate the load-lock chamber 112 before permitting access to the substrates by the substrate handling robot 103 This process may typically take approximately four (4) minutes to complete. During this time, the vacuum processing system 100 typically sits idle while awaiting the introduction of additional unprocessed substrates into the system.
It has been found that substantial production gains can be made by reducing the atmospheric volume within the load-lock chamber 112 serving the transfer chamber 102. Accordingly, systems having single substrate load-lock chambers have been developed to reduce venting and evacuation time within the load-lock process chamber 112, which has resulted in a reduction of process chamber idle time and an increase in production. One exemplary system of this type is shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/990,396, entitled xe2x80x9cSingle Wafer Load-lock Chamber For Pre-Processing And Post-Processing Wafers In A Vacuum Processing System,xe2x80x9d filed on Feb. 15, 1997, which is incorporated herein by reference.
However, the reduction in the number of substrates housed in the load-lock chamber 112 requires that the substrates must be transferred quickly into and out of the load-lock chamber 112. This can be problematic when substrates must be pre-heated prior to processing or cooled following processing before being replaced into a substrate cassette 109. Unfortunately, a shorter transition time through the load-lock chamber 112 may prevent the load-lock chamber 112 from sufficiently pre-heating a substrate prior to processing or cooling a substrate following processing.
To accommodate this cooling and/or pre-heating process, existing systems have provided cooling and/or pre-heating chambers attached to the transfer chamber 102. Because space may be limited on a typical transfer chamber 102, such systems are required to forfeit a facet on which a processing chamber 106 could be mounted. Alternatively, systems may have limited throughput due to a limited number of preheating/cooling chambers mounted to the transfer chamber 102 and/or the amount of time required to perform the pre-processing/post processing procedures. In systems where heating and/or cooling members are integrated within the load-lock chamber 112, throughput may be limited because a cooling process may require an extended cooling time beyond the time in which the substrate handling robot 103 can return to the load-lock chamber 112 to return a processed substrate or retrieve an unprocessed substrate for further processing. As a result, the system substrate transfer system is limited by the time required for the cooling process to be performed.
Accordingly, there is a need for a vacuum processing system that provides high throughput and pre-processing and/or post-processing processes. More particularly, there is a need for an integrated system having a load-lock chamber with an integrated staging, or storage rack mounted external to the transfer chamber for pre-processing and/or post-processing of substrates.
The present invention generally provides a vacuum apparatus for processing substrates, comprising a transfer chamber; one or more processing chambers in communication with the transfer chamber; a substrate handling robot disposed in the transfer chamber; and at least one load-lock chamber connected to the transfer chamber, with the load-lock chamber having one or more substrate support members for supporting one or more substrates. The apparatus preferably includes a substrate staging area and may further include a staging robot disposed in the staging area to load substrates into and remove substrates from the load-lock chamber.
In another aspect of the invention, the staging area may include one or more storage racks associated with the load-lock chamber for receiving and temporarily storing substrates. Further, the storage racks, preferably include at least a cooling element and are adapted to temporarily receive and cool substrates retrieved from the load-lock chamber following processing.
In another aspect of the invention, at least one of the storage racks may include a heating element adapted to pre-heat unprocessed substrates retrieved from the substrate cassette prior to processing. Further, the storage racks may include a cooling element and/or a heating element, each adapted to receive and process a substrate prior to transfer. Still further, the load-lock chamber may include a heating element disposed in connection therewith for pre-heating unprocessed substrates in the load-lock chamber, and the load-lock chamber may include a substrate support member for receiving a substrate thereon.
In another aspect of the invention, the load-lock chamber may include a substrate support member for receiving a single stack of two or more substrates thereon, preferably in a single load-lock chamber connected to a single facet of the transfer chamber. Further, each load-lock chamber may include a dual substrate support member for receiving two stacks of two substrates thereon. In another aspect, a plurality of load-lock chambers may be provided, wherein each load-lock chamber is connected to a different facet of the transfer chamber.
In another aspect, the invention is directed to a method of processing substrates, comprising the steps of providing unprocessed substrates to a load-lock chamber with a staging robot, retrieving the unprocessed substrates from the load-lock chamber with a substrate handling robot located within a transfer chamber, processing the unprocessed substrates in one or more process chambers connected to the transfer chamber, returning the processed substrates to the load-lock chamber with the substrate handling robot, retrieving the processed substrates from the load-lock chamber with the staging robot, placing the processed substrates in a cooling station located external to the load-lock chamber and the transfer chamber, and cooling the substrate in the cooling station; and retrieving the cooled substrates from the cooling station with the staging robot and placing them in a substrate cassette.
In another aspect, the invention is directed to a method of processing substrates, comprising: a) providing a vacuum apparatus with a transfer chamber, one or more processing chambers connected to the transfer chamber, a substrate handling robot disposed in the transfer chamber, and a load-lock chamber connected to the transfer chamber and having at least one substrate support member for supporting a substrate thereon; b) initially loading the load-lock chamber and transfer chamber with one or more unprocessed substrates; c) processing the substrates in one or more processing chambers; d) removing the processed substrates from the one or more processing chambers with a substrate handling robot; e) placing the processed substrates within the load-lock chamber with the substrate handling robot; f) retrieving the processed substrates within the load-lock chamber with a staging robot located external to the load-lock chamber; g) placing the processed substrates within a storage rack located external to the load-lock chamber with the staging robot; and h) repeating steps c) through g), while retrieving cooled substrates from the staging or storage rack with the staging robot and placing the cooled substrates within substrate cassettes with the staging robot during staging robot idle time.
Further, each substrate set may include a single substrate in each of two substrate stacks, and the method may further include the step of pre-heating the unprocessed set of substrates within the load-lock chamber prior to removal by the substrate handling member. Further, the method may include the step of pre-heating the unprocessed set of substrates within the storage rack prior to their placement in the load-lock chamber.
In still another aspect, the invention is directed to a staging module for use with a substrate processing system, comprising: at least one load-lock chamber adapted to be connected to a transfer chamber of the substrate processing system; and one or more storage racks associated with the load-lock chamber for receiving and temporarily storing substrates. At least one of the one or more storage racks may be a cooling rack, preferably including a cooling element, adapted to cool processed substrates following processing by the substrate processing system. Further, at least one of the one or more storage racks may be a pre-heating rack, preferably including a pre-heating element, adapted to pre-heat unprocessed substrates prior to processing by the substrate processing system. Still further, the staging module may include one or more cooling racks, preferably including a cooling element and one or more heating racks, preferably including a heating element.


In order to achieve a homogeneous density distribution in a layer to be solidified of a three-dimensional object produced by laser sintering a laser beam is passed across the surface of the layer to be solidified, whereby the travelling speed of the beam varies as a function of the length of lines of a line pattern.

When producing a three-dimensional object by rapid prototyping a solidifiable substance is applied layerwise onto a support or onto a previous layer, respectively, and solidified for each layer using radiation, for example a focused light beam, at those places of the layer which correspond to the cross-section of the object. If the applied material is a powder and solidified using laser beams, the method is called laser sintering. Such a method is for example known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,538. If a liquid photocurable material is used, the method is called stereolithography. Such a method is for example known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,207.
The applicant is aware that for the laser sintering the laser beam may be passed over the layer to be solidified according to a line pattern, for example in meanders as shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 shows a top view of a layer to be solidified 1 of a three-dimensional object to be formed in a coordinate system having a x-direction and a y-direction. In this method a line pattern 2 is determined which depends on the geometry of the layer. The line pattern 2 comprises parallel lines spaced from each other by a distance d. For solidifying the layer I the laser beam is passed with a constant speed v across the surface of the layer 1 to be solidified along the line pattern 2 in the direction indicated by the arrow. Owing to the irregular cross-section of the object in this layer the lines have different lengths L.
FIG. 2 shows the density of the layer to be solidified as a function of the layer geometry, i.e. indirectly as a function of the length of the lines passed by the laser beam. It turns out that the density of the layer to be solidified decreases with increasing length of the lines. In summary, this method produces an inhomogeneous density distribution in the layer to be solidified if the line pattern which is followed by the beam for solidifying the layer comprises lines having different lengths and if the beam passes over the layer with a constant speed.
The occurance of the inhomogeneous density distribution as a function of the line length of the line pattern 2, as shown in FIG. 2, can be explained as follows: Generally, rally, the spacing d of the lines of the line pattern is twice or four times smaller than the diameter of the laser beam cross-section on the surface of the layer 1 to be solidified. Thus, a section on a line can be scanned up to five times if the cross-section of the beam is passed along adjacent lines. With a smaller line length a portion of this line is therefore scanned in rapid succession. It is therefore possible to keep this section nearly continuously on a temperature which is higher than or equal to the sintering temperature. Losses by heat conduction are compensated by the rapid timely sequence of the scans. Thus, the input of energy which directly contributes to the sintering process is high in this section and the material to be sintered has a high portion of liquid phase. A high density is produced during the solidification in such a section.
However, if the beam is passed along a long line, a section along this line cools down to ist original temperature owing to heat conduction losses after the passage of the beam cross section over this section. When again scanning this section it must again be heated up to the sintering temperature. Thus, losses due to heat conduction and reheating cannot be compensated in such a section and a solidification occurs with a density which is smaller than the density of the substance in the section having the smaller line length.
Such an inhomogeneous density distribution within the layer to be solidified and therefore within a three-dimensional object to be formed causes, during the scanning operation, internal mechanical stress producing a deformation of the three-dimensional object to be formed and therefore a loss in its manufacturing precision.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus for producing a three-dimensional object using rapid prototyping, whereby a homogeneous density distribution is guaranteed in a three-dimensional object to be formed even if the object is produced in layers having arbitrary cross-sectional geometries and if the scanning is made using line patterns comprising lines of different lengths.

Apparatus and method for producing three-dimensional objects


A method for providing a print job manifest includes querying a press database containing data corresponding to print jobs recorded on a web. A print job manifest is generated according to the press database. The print job manifest is recorded on the web so that at least a portion of the manifest is located generally adjacent to a loose end of the web when the web is wound to form a roll.

A digital press can be equipped to record images on a web as the web is drawn from a supply reel and wound unto a take-up reel. Each image is part of a print job received by the press. For example, a print job may include electronic data for producing a selected number of copies of a book. Each image, then, could be a page of that book. Once the press records each print job—the roll formed at the take-up reel can be removed and passed through one or more finishing operations that can include cutting and binding.
Except for the outer exposed surface, a press operator or other user looking at the roll on the take-up reel cannot visually identify the print jobs recorded on that roll. To assist a user responsible for a finishing operation, the contents of a roll can be manually recorded on a separate sheet of paper that follows the roll. This adds extra work for the press operator and is subject to error and if detached, can easily be separated from the contents it represents.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A pallet wrapping apparatus for stabilizing a palletized cluster of articles is provided. The pallet wrapping apparatus includes an elongated panel having alternating non-elastic and elastic panels. The elongated panel is mounted by a hook to the pallet and is wrapped about the cluster of articles and secured in place by VELCRO strips. The use of alternating non-elastic and elastic panels enables the pallet wrapping apparatus to closely simulate disposable plastic film wrap while still being able to accommodate article cluster stacks of varying sizes and shapes.

The present invention relates generally to storing and transporting cargo on pallets. More specifically, the present invention relates to a pallet wrapping apparatus for stabilizing cargo on a pallet for storage and transportation.
In the field of cargo storage and transportation, pallets are extensively used for supporting such cargo, which includes goods and containers for goods, in a storage facility such as a warehouse. A common problem associated with this storage and transportation method is the tendency of the palletized materials or cargo to fall off of the pallet during transport. Transport commonly shakes the stacked loads and causes them to collapse which results in damaged merchandise and a danger to persons handling such unstablized stacked goods.
Attempts have been made in the prior all to stabilize palletized articles to prevent the aforementioned problems. Pallet wrappers are used extensively by both commercial and industrial establishments to secure articles on a pallet to facilitate the pallet being transported throughout the establishment and perhaps to the point of display, for example. These pallet wrappers are placed about the stacked articles on the pallet to prevent them from moving and shifting during transport. These pallet wrappers are often used to prevent the cargo from falling off the pallet while being transported on the ground or in a forklift for storage on shelving.
The pallet wrapping apparatuses of the prior art include disposable plastic film from a roll as well as reusable devices which secure about the perimeter of the cargo stack. The disposable plastic film is typically dispensed from a roll and wrapped about the cluster of articles or cargo stacked on the pallet. The plastic film is typically started at the base of the pallet and wrapped up and around the cargo in spiral fashion to stabilize the cargo in place. Since the plastic film is flexible with elastic qualities, irregularly shaped articles can be easily accommodated during wrapping process. Despite the aforementioned advantages, plastic film must be cut away from the cargo when the cargo reaches its destination and cannot be reused resulting in considerable plastic waste.
To combat the excessive waste associated with plastic film wrapping, efforts in the prior art have been made to employ a reusable device for stabilizing a cluster of articles. These devices typically include a flexible and resilient heavy-duty material with some type of fastener connected to the edges of the resilient material. The material, usually in the form of a sheet, is wrapped about the stacked cluster of articles and then secured in place by its connectors. Each of the known reusable pallet wrapping devices of the prior art do not easily accommodate irregularly shaped articles due to the fixed size of the sheet of resilient material which is sized to be substantially equivalent to the perimeter of the article cluster. Thus, in the prior art, the resilient sheeted material is wrapped only one time around the cluster of articles. Therefore, it cannot be easily adapted to article clusters of varying sizes.
Due to the demand for a pallet wrapping apparatus, which does not produce waste and can accommodate a wide array of article cluster sizes and shapes, it is desirable for a pallet wrapping apparatus to be reusable with a configuration and design which is universal to easily accommodate any type of article cluster which is disposed on a pallet. It is also desirable for a pallet wrapping apparatus to closely simulate plastic film wrapping and its ability to accommodate article clusters of different sizes and shapes. It is also desirable that a reusable pallet wrapping apparatus provide superior cluster retention characteristics which are typically only associated with plastic film wrap.


A method of forming a semiconductor memory device includes providing a semiconductor substrate having a cell region and a peripheral region. A gate dielectric layer is formed over the semiconductor substrate in the peripheral region. An insulating layer is formed over the gate dielectric layer. An isolation trench is formed in the peripheral region, the isolation trench defining first and second trenches having different opening widths. A first gap-fill layer is provided over the isolation trench and on the step. The first gap-fill layer has a first portion on a sidewall of the insulating layer, a second portion on a sidewall of the gate dielectric layer, and a third portion at least partly filling the second trench of the isolation trench, the second portion being thicker than the first portion. A wet etch is performed to remove at least part of the first gap-fill layer. A second gap-fill layer is provided over the first gap-fill layer in the isolation trench to form an isolation structure. The second portion of the first gap-fill layer is configured to protect the gate dielectric layer during the wet etch step.

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing semiconductor devices, and more particularly, to a method of forming an isolation structure of a flash memory device.
In general, as the size of a flash memory device shrinks, it is required that the depth of the isolation structure of the cell region be set different from those of the peri-region in the formation process of the isolation structure.
In the process of forming the isolation structures of the cell region and the peri region, which have different depths, a high density plasma (HDP) oxide layer is generally used as an insulating layer for trench gap-fill. This is done to prevent gap-fill failure in the trench of the cell region, which has a smaller opening than that of the trench of the peri region. A wet etch-deposition method is also used.
If the wet etch process is performed on the trench of the peri region, which has a depth deeper than that of the trench of the cell region, neighboring gate oxide layers may also be removed when the deposited insulating layer is stripped. This degrades the reliability of the device.

Method of forming isolation structure of flash memory device


The present invention provides an electrophotographic photosensitive member which includes an undercoat layer, and the undercoat layer contains metal oxide particles and a compound represented by the formula (1).

In recent years, as an electrophotographic photosensitive member used in an electrophotographic apparatus, there has been used an electrophotographic photosensitive member (organic electrophotographic photosensitive member) including an undercoat layer which contains metal oxide particles and an organic compound and a photosensitive layer which is provided on the undercoat layer and which contains a charge generation substance and a charge transport substance.
Potential characteristics (charging property and sensitivity) of the electrophotographic photosensitive member depend on types of materials used for the undercoat layer and the photosensitive layer. In particular, the metal oxide particles and the organic compound used for the undercoat layer are materials which have significant influences on the potential characteristics of the electrophotographic photosensitive member. Accordingly, it has been known that by the structures of the above materials and the combination therebetween, the potential characteristics of the electrophotographic photosensitive member can be improved.
In concomitant with an increase in speed (increase in process speed) of the electrophotographic apparatus, besides improvement in potential characteristics, such as improvement in charging property and improvement in sensitivity, further suppression of the change in potential (change in charging property, and change in sensitivity) during a repetitive use also becomes a subject to be overcome. In particular, the metal oxide particles have a problem in that the change in potential is increased during a repetitive use under a high-temperature and high-humidity environment. The reason for this is believed that the flow of electrical charge is suppressed when the metal oxide particles absorb moisture, and as a result, the potential is changed. Hence, it is necessary to suppress the change in potential by suppression of moisture absorption.
PTL 1 has disclosed that when metal oxide particles and an organic compound having an anthraquinone structure are used for an undercoat layer, the amount of change in residual potential after discharging in a repetitive image formation test under a high-temperature and high-humidity environment can be suppressed.

Electrophotographic photosensitive member, method for manufacturing the same, process cartridge, and electrophotographic apparatus


Methods and systems consistent with the present invention provide a way to provide optimal delivery of multicast content by retail ISPs in a wholesale aggregation network environment. A broadband network gateway dynamically informs an access node of a mapping between a multicast domain corresponding to the retail service provider, allowing the gateway to send multicast data to the access node for replication to subscribers instead of replicating the multicast data at the gateway. The gateway dynamically informs the access node of the mapping using a standardized access node control protocol. The gateway can also dynamically instruct the access node to update or delete the mapping.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to aggregation, and relates more particularly to dynamic aggregation for a plurality of protocols.
2. Description of the Related Art
Broadband access technologies such as digital subscriber lines (DSL) enable internet service providers (ISPs) to provide internet services to subscribers over data networks. Rather than deploying their own data networks, ISPs typically lease access to data networks from network access providers (NAPs). A NAP might be, for example, a company that owns fiber optic cables used in data transmission. Thus, there are multiple ISPs providing internet services over one NAP's network, called an intervening network, to thousand of subscribers. As such, it is typically necessary to track which ISP a subscriber subscribes to, or in other words, which ISP "owns" the subscriber.
FIG. 1. illustrates a conventional network topology where multiple ISPs (ISP A 117 and ISP B 118) serve multiple subscribers over a single aggregation network. A subscriber uses subscriber workstation 111 to send a request for internet services from their ISP, for example, ISP A 117. This request is transmitted via DSL modem 113 to an aggregation point called a DSL Access Multiplexer (DLSAM) 103. These devices are used to aggregate multiple DSL lines, and are often located remotely from the access point such as in neighborhoods and around office buildings. The DSLAMs are connected at layer 2 of OSI to a network element referred to here as an "aggregator" 105. The aggregator aggregates connections from multiple DSLAMs, and potentially differentiates subscribers, authorizes and authenticates subscriber's access to the network, and either terminates the subscribers to provide services, or forwards the subscribers to a remote ISP that "owns" the subscriber.
When the subscriber 111 first connects, the aggregator 105 communicates with a Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) server 107 to dynamically discover which ISP owns the subscriber 111. The RADIUS server 107 maintains a centralized repository of subscriber information including information about the ISP that owns the subscriber 111. The RADIUS server 107 returns the correct ISP information to the aggregator 105, and the aggregator tunnels a connection for the subscriber 111 through the intervening network 101 to the correct ISP. The RADIUS server 107 can provide dynamic mapping of subscribers to ISPs
Where the retail ISP is providing multicast content to its customers, the wholesale-retail provider setup has prevented efficient transport of the multicast content. The wholesale network provider has typically had to send unicast data to the subscribers 111 from the aggregator 105 because of a lack of awareness of the multicast replication state closer to the subscriber. Although some attempts have been made to more efficiently traverse multicast traffic through the various networks, those attempts have assumed greater control and dependencies than are present in a wholesale-retail provider situation.

System and method for optimal delivery of multicast content


An electrical connector includes an insulating housing having a longitudinal and a lateral wall defining a top face and at least one contact. The lateral wall defines a slot thereon. The contact includes a main body located one the top face of the lateral wall and a contacting arm located above the longitudinal wall, a connecting portion extending from an inner edge of the main body and a retaining portion extending from an outer edge of the main body. The retaining portion is retained and received in the slot. A pressed portion laterally extends from the main body.

1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector with contacts on a top surface of an insulating housing.
2. Description of Related Art
As FIG. 1 shown, a conventional electrical connector includes an insulating housing 1′ and two contacts 2′. The housing is a rectangular frame. The contact in an L-like shape includes a main body 21′ located on a top face of a lateral sidewall of the housing after the contact is assembled on the housing in a top to down direction, wherein two retaining portion 26′ extending from an outer edge of the main body is inserted into and retained in corresponding slots 10′ defined in the lateral sidewall. The retaining portion bents from the main body by a curved transition portion 25′. A resilient contacting portion 22′ is perpendicular to the main body and upwardly-slantwise located above a longitudinal sidewall to mating with a speaker component. An abutting portion 23′ on another end of the main body opposite to the contacting portion abuts against the stop face 11′ on another longitudinal sidewall, thereby the contacts is stopped in the longitudinal direction. A soldering portion 24′ adjacent to the contacting portion extends downwards from the main body. The contacts are assembled to the housing by an automatic machine.
Due to continuing trend toward miniaturization and improved performance by the electronics industry, the housing and the contact become smaller. However, accurate position of the contacts to the slots and the automatic machine to the contact is difficult when assembling of the contacts, thereby forming a loose assembly of the contact and the housing.
Therefore, an improved electrical connector is desired to overcome the disadvantages of the prior arts.

Electrical connector having contacts with improved retaining portions


A method of forming a high-quality image on an elongated recording medium, such as a roll of paper sheet. When an image includes a character which stretches between two print regions, a blank line portion of the image is detected. When image forming operation is performed for forming a portion of the image up to the blank line, sheet feed operations are performed. Then, image forming operation for a remaining portion of the image is performed. Because the sheet feed operation will not be performed in the middle of printing of such image, undesirable broken line or gap will not be formed on the printed image.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of forming an image on a roll of paper sheet as the paper sheet is transported stepwise in a sheet feed direction.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed an image forming device including a print head for forming an image on a roll of paper sheet. The print head is reciprocally transported across the paper sheet to form one line's worth of image on the paper sheet. In this type of image forming device, the roll of paper sheet is fed by a predetermined amount in a sheet feed direction each time one-line's worth of image is formed.
However, line feed operations for feeding the roll of paper sheet may not be performed precisely. As a result, the image may be formed with undesirable lines and gaps, thereby degrading quality of the image.
There is another type of image forming device which includes a print head reciprocally movable both in a head moving direction and in a sheet feed direction. With this configuration, the print head can form one region's worth of image, that is, a plurality of lines' worth of image, on the paper sheet without performing sheet feed operations. After one region's worth of image is formed, the paper sheet is fed by a predetermined amount. Then, the subsequent one region's worth of image is formed. In this case, it is unnecessary to perform sheet feed operations every time one line's worth of image is formed. That is, the sheet feed operation is performed less often. Therefore, undesirable lines and gaps will be less likely formed on the image.
However, in this case also, such undesirable lines or gaps may not be prevented completely. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 1, when sheet feed operations are not performed precisely, a character image 200 straddling two print regions of a paper sheet may be formed with an undesirable blank line 200a or a gap.

Method of forming image on roll of paper sheet


An image forming apparatus includes: a first electrode including a spring portion extending in an axial direction and an annular contact portion extending from a first side in the axial direction; a first frame including a through hole, through which the annular contact portion protrudes; and a second frame, which is relatively movable to the first frame along an elongated direction of the annular contact portion at a further extension of the first side in the axial direction, and which includes a second electrode electrically connectable with the annular contact portion. A diameter of the annular contact portion is larger than that of the spring portion. The first frame includes a lock portion that locks the annular contact portion to place a center of the annular contact portion on a second side, which is opposite to the first side, in the axial direction from an end of the through hole.

In an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, there has been proposed a known image forming apparatus including a process cartridge, which includes a photosensitive drum, a charger and the like, and which is detachably attached to a body housing.
The body housing includes an electrode spring.
The electrode spring includes a spring portion and a contact portion. The spring portion has a cylindrically coiled shape. The contact portion has an annular shape and is formed integrally with the spring portion by bending the spring portion. The diameter of the contact portion is substantially the same as that of the spring portion. The distal end of the contact portion protrudes, in the body housing, from a through hole formed in the frame into the space where the process cartridge is attached.
The process cartridge includes an electrode portion. When the process cartridge is attached to the body housing, the distal end of the contact portion, which protrudes from the through hole, and the electrode portion abut on each other. According thereto, the contact portion and the electrode portion are electrically connected.

Image forming apparatus and electrode member for the same


A housing structure for an optical scanning system unit of an imaging device. Various optical elements which relate to a scanning operation effected by a light beam are disposed thereon with a predetermined positional relationship. The housing structure includes a dynamic deflector disposition area in which the dynamic deflector is disposed, and an optical element disposition area which is formed stepwise with respect to the dynamic deflector disposition area though a vertical wall and in which the optical elements are disposed.

The present invention relates to a housing structure for an optical scanning system of an imaging device for scanning the peripheral surface of a photoconductive member with a laser beam modulated based on image data and deflected by a dynamic deflecting means, such as a polygonal mirror, and forming an image on a recording paper with employing an electrophotographic process, wherein optical elements relating to the scanning operation effected by the laser beam are disposed in the housing structure with a predetermined positional relationship.
There are imaging devices employing an electrophotographic process for providing a hard copy by printing or drawing data output from a computer, word processor, facsimile and the like on a recording paper.
The electrophotographic process is such that a photoconductive material on the surface of a photoconductive member is uniformly charged, a latent image is formed by a portion of the photoconductive material from which electric charges are removed by exposure. The latent image is developed by adhering toner thereto (made to a toner image), and then the thus obtained toner image is transferred to a recording paper and further fixed thereon by a fixing unit.
One of such imaging devices employs an optical scanning system for causing the light beam carrying image data to perform a scanning and exposing operation. One of the optical scanning systems is a laser scanning system which is arranged such that a laser beam emitted from a semiconductor laser and corresponding to an input signal is irradiated onto a photoconductive member through optical elements such as a collimator lens, polygonal scanner, f.theta. lens , reflection mirror and the like.
In the above laser scanning system, the respective optical elements, in particular, a semiconductor laser, cylindrical lens, polygonal scanner and f.theta. lens must be disposed with relative distance, relative angle and the like with pinpoint accuracy provided therebetween.
To achieve the aforesaid disposition, an optical scanning system is preferably composed of these optical elements, each the elements are disposed on a base member with a predetermined accuracy and mounted on the chassis of the imaging device as a unit. Such an assembly enhances workability in assembly and maintenance.
The base member is required to have a high rigidity so that it cannot be easily deformed, to thereby ensure that the relative distance, angle and the like between the respective optical elements are not disturbed.

Housing structure for optical scanning system


Provided are techniques for a garbage-collected interned string table. Reference objects that each reference strings in the interned string table are created. The reference objects and the strings referenced by the reference objects in the interned string table are marked with a current generation. Garbage collection is performed by: advancing the current generation to a next generation; in response to the reference objects in a previous generation from the current generation advancing to an acquired references state, promoting the reference objects and the strings referenced by the reference objects in the previous generation to the current generation; and deleting the strings that are marked with the previous generation in the interned string table.

1. Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to garbage collection in string tables having strings that are no longer referenced.
2. Description of the Related Art
String interning is a commonly used technique in which a string table is used to reduce the space required for strings and to make string comparisons faster. String interning may be described as a technique of storing one copy of each distinct string value. Each string is replaced with an integer (or pointer) which is associated with that unique string. String comparisons are reduced to single integer comparisons. The space used by many copies of the same string is reduced to the space used by just the single copy in the string table. An interned string table may be described as a string table for which string interning is performed.
Thus, with some techniques, strings may be interned into a string table such that interned references to the same string (or string value) reference the same in-memory instance. That is, the reference refers to the string. In particular, if the integer or pointer for the interned string is stored, that integer or pointer is called a reference. Also, a reference may be described as a handle stored somewhere, but the reference refers to the string. That is, computer code may make use of the string, so the string can not be deleted. While string tables may provide memory and performance advantages, the string tables may overfill with strings (i.e., the string table may run out of space) or the integer type (which could be a 16-bit short word) may run out of codes if there are too many unique strings. This may lead to a denial of service vulnerability if the strings which are interned arrive over a network because an attacker need only send many unique strings to the server until the string table is full or out of codes. As another example, for an XML document having a large number of names, storing the names in a string table may cause the string table to overflow. If used carelessly, a string-table overflow may lead to poor table lookup performance, may exhaust a fixed-size handle pool, or may even exhaust system memory, resulting in performance and/or stability problems.
These problems can be solved with some form of garbage collection of the string table, in which strings which are no longer referenced are discarded.
In environments with manual memory management or when stricter control over the string table size or lifecycle is desired, recovery of unused strings is complex and specialized string table garbage collection may be required. In particular, in the absence of a system-wide module to determine reachability of the string table entries, the string table has to maintain its own data on the strings in use. This can be done with reference counts, but that will incur penalties in performance, and possibly memory, since the string table users will constantly be updating reference counts on the strings, and since such reference-counting mechanisms often depend on heavier-weight structures to deal with the reference-count update. In a system where interned strings or string handles are used extensively and passed around among various modules, the overhead of reference count updates may reduce the performance advantage that the string table provides.
In environments (i.e., platforms, languages, and/or frameworks) that provide native garbage collection, especially those with support for weak references, a well-designed string table may allow its entries to be freed by the system garbage collector, allowing free use of the string table without risking overflow. However, even in environments where native garbage collection is available, a performance-sensitive or memory-sensitive application may want to use lighter-weight references to the strings, such as small integers, or may wish to have greater control over the size of string-table or the life-cycle of the entries. For example, using a smaller fixed-size table may prove to be easier to tune for performance, but may become exhausted before the system garbage collector decides to free the entries. Similarly, using small-integer handles for strings may allow optimization of other handle-keyed tables throughout the system.
With concurrent garbage collection, other processing does not have to stop while garbage collection is underway. However, with existing garbage collection techniques, none are completely concurrent. For example, some existing garbage collection techniques lock the root set (i.e., the stack) during part of the garbage collection.
In a distributed environment having multiple nodes, memory addresses can not be used as the integer keys because the various nodes do not share the same main memory or virtual memory address spaces. Thus, the nodes can not allocate an entry in the string table for a new string without first synchronizing and checking that no other nodes have already allocated a string at that memory location. The overhead of synchronizing these memory addresses alone would be high-cost and high-complexity. Some systems run completely separate processes on the various nodes and pass the full strings between nodes. This has the drawback that the optimized data structures used on one node can't be passed between nodes.
Thus, there is a need for improved garbage collection techniques.

International Business Machines Corporation


A semiconductor chip includes a semiconductor substrate 126, in which first and second active regions are disposed. A resistor 124 is formed in the first active region and the resistor 124 includes a doped region 128 formed between two terminals 136. A strained channel transistor 132 is formed in the second active region. The transistor includes a first and second stressor 141, formed in the substrate oppositely adjacent a strained channel region 143.

Size reduction of metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET), including reduction of the gate length and gate oxide thickness, has enabled the continued improvement in speed performance, density, and cost per unit function of integrated circuits over the past few decades. To enhance transistor performance further, strain may be introduced in the transistor channel for improving carrier mobilities. Therefore, strain-induced mobility enhancement is another way to improve transistor performance in addition to device scaling. There are several existing approaches of introducing strain in the transistor channel region.
In one conventional approach, as described in a paper by J. Welser et al., published at the December 1992 International Electron Devices Meeting held in San Francisco, Calif., pp. 1000-1002 and incorporated herein by reference, a relaxed silicon germanium (SiGe) buffer layer is provided beneath the channel region. In such a device, a semiconductor device includes a strained silicon layer formed over and abutting a relaxed SiGe layer, which is formed over and abutting a graded SiGe buffer layer.
The relaxed SiGe layer has a larger lattice constant compared to relaxed Si, and the thin layer of epitaxial Si grown on the relaxed SiGe will have its lattice stretched in the lateral direction, i.e., it will be under biaxial tensile strain. Therefore, a transistor formed on the epitaxial strained silicon layer will have a channel region that is under biaxial tensile strain. In this approach, the relaxed SiGe buffer layer can be thought of as a stressor that introduces strain in the channel region. The stressor, in this case, is placed below the transistor channel region.
Significant mobility enhancement has been reported for both electrons and holes in bulk transistors using a silicon channel under biaxial tensile strain. In the above-mentioned approach, the epitaxial silicon layer is strained before the formation of the transistor. But there are concerns about the strain relaxation upon subsequent CMOS processing where high temperatures are used. In addition, this approach is very expensive since a SiGe buffer layer with thickness in the order of micrometers has to be grown. Numerous dislocations in the relaxed SiGe buffer layer exist and some of these dislocations propagate to the strained silicon layer, resulting in a substrate with high defect density. Thus, this approach has limitations that are related to cost and fundamental material properties.
In another approach, strain in the channel is introduced after the transistor is formed. In this approach, a high stress film is formed over a completed transistor structure formed in a silicon substrate. The high stress film or stressor exerts significant influence on the channel, modifying the silicon lattice spacing in the channel region, and thus introducing strain in the channel region. In this case, the stressor is placed above the completed transistor structure. This scheme is described in detail in a paper by A. Shimizu et al., entitled "Local mechanical stress control (LMC): a new technique for CMOS performance enhancement," published in pp. 433-436 of the Digest of Technical Papers of the 2001 International Electron Device Meeting, which is incorporated herein by reference.
The strain contributed by the high stress film is believed to be uniaxial in nature with a direction parallel to the source-to-drain direction. However, uniaxial tensile strain degrades hole mobility while uniaxial compressive strain degrades the electron mobility. Ion implantation of germanium can be used to selectively relax the strain so that the hole or electron mobility is not degraded, but this is difficult to implement due to the close proximity of the n and p-channel transistors.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an improved transistor and method thereof that addresses the above-discussed issues.

Structure and method of a strained channel transistor and a second semiconductor component in an integrated circuit

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A coffee grinder with a coffee bean container 9 divided into at least two compartments 13, 14, with a bottom-side output shaft 20 common to both compartments 13, 14. The coffee bean container has a grinding mill 10 disposed beneath the output shaft 20 and a closure element 22 for the optional closing of the output 17, 18 of the compartment(s) 13, 14. The closure element 22 forms with the grinding mill 10 a concrete unit and the coffee bean container 9 is disposed rotatably relative to the unit formed of the closure element 22 and the grinding mill 10. Such a coffee bean container 9 could also be used on an automatic coffee maker with a coffee grinder.

DE 196 06 076 A1 discloses a coffee grinder comprising a coffee bean container with a bottom-side output shaft. The output shaft of the coffee bean container terminates in the input of a grinding mill. The coffee bean container itself is divided into two compartments, such that two different coffee varieties can be stored in it. In the lower region of the coffee bean container a guide cone is disposed, which serves for the lateral supply of the coffee beans into the output shaft. The coffee bean container also has a closure element, which is rotatably supported and which extends through the coffee bean container. The closure element is structured like a cup open toward the bottom. A shaft with a top-side knob is disposed at the top side of the cup. The shaft itself is supported in a tubular body extending through the coffee bean container. The closure element is partially open circumferentially. The closure element can be brought with its remaining sections in front of the lower output opening of a compartment in order to fill coffee beans optionally from the one compartment or coffee beans from the other compartment into the output shaft and to supply them to the grinding mill. Consequently, in this prior known coffee grinder, coffee beans of different varieties can be ground without first having to empty the coffee bean container.
Although in principle the functionality of this coffee grinder is given in the described manner, disadvantages can be encountered in handling the coffee grinder. For example, beans can block a rotational movement of the closure element so that an actuation of the closure element by turning the knob is only possible, if at all, by exerting a not inconsiderable force. Further, the structuring of the coffee bean container, and especially its cover, is restricted, since it is necessary to ensure in every case that the actuation members of the closure element—shaft and knob—are in their specified position. Consequently, the realization of a hinged lid is hardly possible.
Automatic coffee makers or fully automatic coffee makers include a coffee bean container for storing coffee beans. In such automatic coffee makers with each request for coffee, freshly ground coffee is used for the preparation of coffee. A grinding mill associated with the automatic coffee maker is responsible for making available the particular required quantity of ground coffee. The coffee bean container has a receptacle with an output shaft placed onto the input of the grinding mill. As a rule, the output shaft of the receptacle carries a guide cone, in order for the coffee beans to be supplied to the grinding mill. The receptacle is open at the bottom.
The coffee bean container is secured on the housing of the automatic coffee maker by means of a coupling ring, which can be secured in position on an appropriately conceptualized counterpieces, for example with a bayonet type lock.
The coffee bean container of such automatic coffee makers includes a container for receiving the coffee beans and a shaft disposed laterally with respect to it for supplying already ground coffee past the grinding mill, in order for it to be poured directly into the brewing chamber.
However, there is a wish to having available a coffee bean container with such automatic coffee makers that can store at least two different varieties of coffee beans.
Building on this discussed prior art, the invention addresses the problem of further developing a coffee grinder as well as an automatic coffee maker equipped therewith to the extent that the disadvantages listed in connection with the coffee grinder described in the introduction are at least to the greatest possible extent avoided.
This problem is solved when the closure element forms with the grinding mill a concrete unit and the coffee bean container is disposed rotatably relative to the unit formed of the closure element and the grinding mill.

Coffee grinder with coffee bean container