A control device-integrated rotating electric machine includes: a rotor integrally supported by a rotary shaft; a stator; a front case and a rear case; a pulley provided on a part of the rotary shaft, the part being protruded from the front case; a control circuit portion provided outside the rear case; a cover for covering the control circuit portion; and a rotating electric machine-side connector provided for the control circuit portion, the rotating electric machine-side connector being provided outside the cover. The rotating electric machine-side connector has a connection side that is oriented so as to be inclined on a side separating from the pulley with respect to a direction orthogonal to a width direction of the pulley, in which a belt is looped.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control device-integrated rotating electric machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a drive device for a motor generator, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2012-143036 discloses a configuration in which a connector is arranged on the outer side in a radial direction as a method for decreasing the size of the entire drive device in an axial direction. In addition, as a method for preventing a connector signal line from interfering with other members, there is disclosed a configuration in which a connector connection port is formed so as to be oriented toward a motor in the axial direction to improve the connector inserting and removing performance.
Further, Japanese Patent No. 4072394 discloses a belt transmission device that is used for a device for driving an auxiliary machine of an engine. The belt transmission device includes an automatic tensioner in which a tension pulley is rotatably supported at a leading end of a swingable arm. This automatic tensioner adjusts the tension of a transmission belt looped around a plurality of pulleys.
The auxiliary machine drive device includes an auxiliary machine having a starter function and a power generator function. When the auxiliary machine is used as the starter motor, its drive force is transmitted to the engine via the belt to start-up the engine. On the other hand, during driving after the start-up of the engine, the drive force generated by the engine is transmitted to the auxiliary machine via the belt to maintain the drive of the auxiliary machine.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-254390 discloses a power transmission belt such as a V-ribbed belt and a raw edge V-belt, which considers the quietness at the time of start-up of the engine. In the power transmission belt, a compressed rubber layer made of vulcanized rubber is provided at a contact surface between the motor generator and the pulley. In this manner, the coefficient of friction is decreased to reduce the noise generated when the motor generator is driven.
However, as the vulcanized rubber, there are employed hydrogenated nitrile rubber, chloroprene rubber, natural rubber, CSM, ACSM, SBR, ethylene-α-olefin elastomer, etc., which are formed of organic compounds. Therefore, when the auxiliary machine is driven (when the engine is started up), the belt is may be worn due to the large tension and the large rotational force of the pulley, which may cause a problem in that organic compound powder scatters.
Note that, as a structure for preventing the belt abrasion powder from scattering, Japanese Patent No. 4431418 discloses a configuration in which a cover is provided so as to cover a drive pulley.
However, in a motor generator that is directly mounted to an internal combustion engine of an automobile or the like, during continuous driving, vibration may be transmitted to a connector connection terminal portion in response to the vibration of the internal combustion engine or the vibration due to the angular acceleration generated when rapid acceleration and deceleration are repeated. As a result, packing for preventing foreign matters from entering the connector connection terminal portion from the outside may be worn. From this worn gap portion, the above-mentioned belt abrasion powder of the power transmission belt and moisture may enter the connector. When the inside of the connector becomes a moistened state, the impedance between the terminals may be reduced to cause a pre-tracking phenomenon in which a minute current flows between the terminals. Then, when the pre-tracking phenomenon occurs repeatedly, the phenomenon develops to a tracking phenomenon in which a connector resin between the terminals is carbonized, and eventually, there is a fear in that a tracking short-circuit state in which discharge occurs even in a dried state may be caused.
Further, as a measure for preventing the belt abrasion powder of the power transmission belt from scattering, it is conceivable to use the above-mentioned cover disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4431418. However, when the cover is provided so as to cover the drive pulley, the number of components is increased. Therefore, it is difficult to employ the cover in reality in view of cost increase. Further, there arises another problem in that the maintenance performance is impaired at the time of belt replacement.

Control device-integrated rotating electric machine which prevents entrance of drive belt abrasion powder


The present invention relates to a bicycle provided with a movable saddle, which comprises: the movable saddle; a saddle moving module connected to the movable saddle and coupled with the seat post area of a bicycle frame so as to move the movable saddle in the direction of travel of the bicycle or in the opposite direction as a wire is pulled or pushed; and a control lever provided in the handle area of the bicycle, wherein the wire is bound thereto, for controlling the pulling or pushing of the wire.

In general, bicycles move forward by rotating wheels with power generated when a person steps on pedals with his or her feet.
The bicycles include three-wheeled vehicles, four-wheeled bicycles, and bicycles for water or ice which move in places other than the ground.
The bicycles are representative means of transportation that use power by a person, and have been widely used. In recent years, the bicycles have been used for various applications such as means for promoting health as exercise equipment and means for enjoying recreation. Further, there is an increasing demand for the bicycles due to their environment-friendly characteristics.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a bicycle according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1, a general bicycle 1 includes wheels 2, frame 3, pedals 4, a chain 5, a fixed saddle 6, and a handle 7. In this case, the fixed saddle 6 on which a rider sits is fixed to a seat post 8 as a vertical shaft of a frame 3.
As stated above, in the bicycle 1 according to the related art, since the fixed saddle 6 is fixed to the seat post 8 in most cases, the fixed saddle 6 is not moved in a moving direction of the bicycle 1 or an opposite direction thereto.
However, unlike the bicycle according to the related art, if the fixed saddle 6 can be moved in the moving direction of the bicycle 1 or the opposite direction thereto, it is possible to easily change a position of the saddle 6 to be suitable for body sizes of users of the bicycle 1 even during moving without inconvenience even when the users have different body sizes.


A system and method for coating substrates. The coating process includes an improved capacity and uniformity through the addition of a second motion component in which the substrates move in a closed path. A major portion of the path is linear and the configuration of the coating machine is such that all substrates follow the same trajectory with respect to the machine during the coating process, resulting in a coating which is substantially the same for all substrates.

The present invention applies to the field of coating substrates using processes in which a high level of coating uniformity is required. Such processes may use physical vapor deposition (PVD) or sputtering to apply the coating.
Typical coating processes that achieve a high level of uniformity generally use an arrangement similar to the arrangement shown in FIG. 1. A process that uses this arrangement is typically called a xe2x80x9clong throwxe2x80x9d process, because there is often a considerable distance between the source of coating material and the substrates. In FIG. 1, the source 1 is shown as a cylindrical can representative of a vapor source for a PVD process in which the can contains the material being evaporated. The can is substantially a point source of material. In a long throw sputtering process, the source is typically a sputtering target, which is usually larger than the evaporative source. As disclosed by FIG. 1, the typical arrangement includes substrates 2 carried by a platen 5. Several platens may be mounted on a rack 3.
To achieve a uniform coating on the substrates, two distinct motions are typically applied to the substrates 2. The first motion is provided by rotation of the rack 3 about the axis 4. The second motion is provided by rotation of the platen 5, which holds the substrates, about its axis 6. The compound motion produced by the combination of the first and second motions is called xe2x80x9cplanetary rotationxe2x80x9d.
In processes employing planetary rotation, the rack and platen have different rates of rotation. Radial reference lines 7 and 8 have been drawn on the rack 3 and platen 5, respectively and a reference line 9 connects the two axes of rotation. As the rack 3 and platen 5 rotate, the angles that the projections of the lines 7, 8 and 9 make will change. At a first instant of time the lines 7 and 8 make certain angles with the line 9. If the motions of rack and platen are generated by mechanical means such as gears or chains connected to the same source of motion, then at some later second instant of time lines 7 and 8 will make the same angles with the line 9. The time interval between the second and first instants of time (during which both rack and platen will complete a whole number of rotations) may be referred to as the period. The first and second motions are selected such that a large number of revolutions of both rack and platen occurs during the period. This selection causes all substrates mounted at the same distance from the axis 6 of the second rotation to experience almost exactly the same path within the chamber during one period. Therefore, the coating applied to all substrates equidistant from the center will be the same.
In the process disclosed in FIG. 1, the uniformity of the coating that is applied to a point on a substrate varies with the distance from that point to the axis of the second motion. In order to achieve a given level of uniformity, the region where the substrates may be placed is limited to the space between circles 10 and 11. As the requirement for uniformity becomes more stringent, or as the deposition becomes less uniform, the radial distance between the circles decreases, limiting the number and size of substrates that may be coated in a single process.
For processes requiring uniform deposition over a large area, the distance between the source 1 and the substrate 2 is generally considerably greater than the radial distance between circles 10 and 11. In addition, masks, such a sector masks, which may move in a third motion about the axis of the second rotation 6, or fixed xe2x80x9cwallxe2x80x9d masks, may be used to improve uniformity. The large distance between the substrate 2 and the required masks reduces the deposition rate of the process, resulting in a long and expensive process to produce a limited number of coated substrates.
Another process currently employed is commonly referred to as a xe2x80x9cshort throwxe2x80x9d sputtering processes. In a short-throw process, the distance between the source of material (sputtering target) and the substrates is usually only a few inches. These short throw processes include xe2x80x9cbatch processesxe2x80x9d in which the substrates are transported past a source of coating material by a rotating drum and xe2x80x9cin-linexe2x80x9d processes in which a transporting mechanism carries the substrates past the source in a substantially straight path. Such processes are widely used in industry to apply coatings to substrates. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,714,009 to Bartolomei, commonly assigned with the present application, discloses such a process. The Bartolomei patent, incorporated by reference herein, describes arrangements for producing coatings by microwave-assisted sputtering. In the disclosed process, both rotating drums and linear transport mechanisms are used to transport substrates past sputtering targets and microwave energized plasma generators in a reactive sputtering process. FIG. 2 depicts one of the possible arrangements.
Referring to FIG. 2, a sputtering chamber 21 contains a rotatable drum 22 which carries substrates 23 in a first motion parallel to the direction of the arrow 24 past an elongated sputtering target 25 and past an elongated microwave-energized plasma generator 26. The substrates 23 are arranged in rows that are parallel to the substrate motion and columns perpendicular to that motion. The target 25 and plasma generator 26 are typically mounted on the chamber wall, and are visible in FIG. 2 because a portion of the wall has been cut away. Other sputtering targets and plasma generators, not shown, may also be mounted on the chamber wall. Usually additional targets and plasma generators will have the same vertical dimensions and will be mounted in the same vertical position as the targets and generators shown in FIG. 2.
During the sputtering process, material will be sputtered from the sputtering target 25 on to the substrates 23 where it will react with a reacting gas in the chamber to produce the desired coating. It is almost always necessary to assure that all of the substrates receive a coating that has nearly the same properties. In particular, the amount of deposited material per unit area on each substrate must generally be the same within a prescribed limit.
The amount of material deposited on a given substrate depends on the location of the substrate in the direction of the longer length of the target. The arrow 27 indicates this direction, referred to throughout the application as the xe2x80x9cz directionxe2x80x9d. The deposition of material is highest at the center of the sputtering target and decreases to zero at extreme distances from the center. In FIG. 2, the lines 28 and 29 at the ends of arrow 27, bound the region within which uniformity of deposition remains within tolerance. It is typically necessary to restrict the size of the region in the z direction so that the difference between the deposition on the center substrates and on the end substrates lies within the acceptable tolerance. Thus, the number of substrates in each column is the number that may be mounted between these limits. This number will be reduced in processes in which a tighter tolerance is imposed.
FIG. 3a is a graph illustrating the correlation between the amount of deposited material and the position of the substrate along the vertical column (i.e. position in the z direction). Curve 30 in FIG. 3a applies to the batch process of FIG. 2 and shows the amount of deposited material per unit area at substrate locations along the z direction. The target generating the curve disclosed in FIG. 3a is assumed to be xe2x80x9cidealxe2x80x9d, that is, it has a uniform rate of sputtering at all locations.
The deposition of material on the substrates is highest at point 31, which lies opposite the center of the target. At locations 32 that lie opposite the ends of the target the deposition is reduced to approximately half of the center value. Arrows 33 are provided to indicate the tolerance for the process. The limits of the area within which substrates may be placed and still meet the tolerance are reached when the difference between the maximum (center) value and the value at the limit equals the tolerance. Lines 34 are provided to show the limits. The tolerance is always considerably less than 50%, and the limits must always be displaced inward from the ends of the elongated target resulting in a region of deposition less than the target length. It should be noted that the rate of sputtering from a real target is not perfectly uniform, therefore, the limits must be moved inward farther than shown in FIG. 3a when considering a real target. A figure similar to FIG. 3a would also apply to the process disclosed in FIG. 1.
The production rate of a coating process is proportional to the number rows of substrates being coated at one time. The number of rows is limited by the target size. Therefore, high production rates require large targets. Large targets are expensive, difficult to maintain, subject to uniformity variations along their length, and require large and expensive power supplies. Furthermore, large targets are more vulnerable to arcing, than small targets. Arcing interferes with the stability of the coating process and degrades the quality of the deposited film.
The location of the substrates in the z direction also affects the extent to which the deposited material combines with the reactant gas. Similar to the requirements for uniformity of deposition discussed above, uniformity of reaction requires that the length of the plasma generator be greater than the width of the region 27 containing the substrates. The relatively long generators required to produce uniform reactions are expensive, difficult to maintain, require costly microwave supplies, and are subject to non-uniformity of plasma generation.
Since uniformity of reaction depends in part on local reactant gas concentration, the sputtering process shown in FIG. 2 requires a system for controlling the flow of reaction gas. The system employs vents which admit the gas at prescribed locations at carefully controlled rates. Flow is regulated by flow controllers which may be actuated by computer generated inputs. The flow control system is often complex and expensive.
FIG. 4 discloses an xe2x80x9cin linexe2x80x9d sputtering process that employs a substrate transport mechanism for moving the substrates in a straight line. The system includes a sputtering chamber 41, which is shown with its wall cut away. The chamber 41 contains the linear transport mechanism 42, such as a belt or web, which carries substrates 43 in a first motion parallel to the direction of the arrow 44 past an elongated sputtering target 45 and an elongated microwave-energized plasma generator 46. The direction of first motion may change direction during a single process as indicated by arrow 44. As shown in FIG. 2, the substrates are arranged in rows that are parallel to the length of the target and perpendicular columns. Both the target and plasma generator are mounted on the chamber wall. Other sputtering targets and plasma generators, not shown, may also be mounted on the chamber wall. These additional targets and generators will normally have the same length and will be mounted in the same position measured along the columns as the target 45 and generator 46 that are shown. Material is sputtered from the sputtering target 45 and then combines with a reacting gas to produce the desired coating. The requirement to achieve a desired level of uniformity limits the area in which substrates may be coated to the area between the lines 47.
The relations between the degree of uniformity and the size, cost and complexity of the batch process of FIG. 2 also apply to the in line process of FIG. 4. In both processes, the substrates move so that the center of each substrate in a given row remains at a fixed distance from a plane that contains the direction of motion and which bisects the process (xy plane). This distance is different for each substrate in a particular column. Conditions such as deposition rate, reactive gas concentration, and plasma density tend to vary as the distance changes. Therefore, it is difficult to achieve a high degree of coating uniformity in either of these process without incurring unacceptable production cost.
Variations based on the concepts illustrated in FIG. 1, 2, and 4 are known to the prior art. U. S. Pat. No. 5,618,388, issued to Seeser et al. and incorporated by reference herein, discloses a variety of coating processes. FIGS. 10 and 11 of the Seeser patent disclose modifications of the process disclosed in FIG. 2 where the top and bottom of the chamber have been moved away from the drum to make the chamber longer and to provide space at both ends of the drum for movement of the drum in a reciprocating motion in the directions indicated by the double-headed arrow 27 of FIG. 2. The reciprocating motion combines with the conventional rotary motion indicated by the arrow 24, causing the substrates to move in a helical path with respect to the chamber and the sputtering targets. The substrates mounted on the top of the drum move in the top portion of the chamber, while the substrates on the bottom of the drum move in the bottom portion of the chamber. The substrates mounted in the center of the drum move in a path that extends into both ends of the chamber. It is apparent that all of the substrates do not travel within the same region of the chamber and, as a result, are not exposed to the same conditions of deposition.
FIG. 3b is a graphical representation of the coating thickness deposited on the substrates using the Seeser process. Curve 30 is a plot of deposition per unit area on a substrate as a function of the distance of the substrate from the center of the target. The distance is measured along the z direction, and the curve 30 applies when no reciprocating motion is present. The location of the center of the target is at the center of the horizontal axis.
When reciprocating motion of the substrates is added, as disclosed in the Seeser patent, the range of z over which deposition occurs is increased. Consequently, the range of z over which deposition is plotted in FIG. 3b has been expanded. The target extends over the range between the lines 32 in FIG. 3a and FIG. 3b. The range of z over which curve 30 extends is somewhat more than a full target length in both directions from the center of the target. As the distance from the center of the target increases above half of the target length, the deposition value given by curve 30 decreases rapidly toward zero.
Considering the process in which the reciprocating motion of the substrates occurs as described above, and where the reciprocating motion has the same constant speed regardless of the direction of rotation of the drum. The reciprocating motion will carry the substrates located at the center of the target through the region between the lines 32 (the xe2x80x9ccenter regionxe2x80x9d). The reciprocating motion has constant velocity, thus, the substrates will receive equal deposition at all locations within the region. The deposition on the substrate may be obtained by computing the average of curve 30 over the center region. This average has been estimated to have the value given by the ordinate of the point 38, whose abscissa is 0, since it represents deposition on a substrate at z=0.
The substrates located at the ends of the target move through one of the regions situated between line pairs 35 or 36, (the xe2x80x9couter regionsxe2x80x9d). The deposition received by each of the end substrates may be calculated by averaging curve 30 over the appropriate outer region. The deposition values for the end substrates are shown by the ordinates of the points 37 and 39 whose abscissas are plus and minus half of the length of the target. The three points 37, 38, and 39 have been connected in FIG. 3b to obtain curve 40 which shows the dependence of the deposition thickness on the location of the substrates relative to the center of the target in the z direction.
The deposition is higher for the substrate at the center of the target than for the substrates at the ends of the target as disclosed in FIG. 3b. The deposition on the center substrate is obtained by averaging over the inner and outer halves of the center region. Over both of these halves the average value is the same relatively high value. The deposition on the outer substrates is obtained by averaging deposition occurring over both halves of the outer regions. The half of each outer region which is nearest the center of the target is the same as one of the halves of the center region, but the half of each outer region which is most remote from the target center has an average deposition value that is much less than the average deposition value of the half nearest the center region. Therefore, the deposition on the center substrate is greater than that on the end substrates and the process does not produce a film of equal thickness on all substrates.
The non-uniform deposition produced by the process disclosed in the Seeser patent occurs even in the case where the target is ideal (i.e, when the rate of emission from the target is constant along its length). However, if the rate of emission varies along the length of the target then the non-uniformity of the Seeser process will increase. In particular, the deposition curve 30 will not be symmetrical about the center of the target. Deposition on substrates equally spaced from the center of the target will no longer be equal.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to obviate the problems of the prior art and provide a novel system and method for depositing more uniform coatings on substrates.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel system and method for depositing a layer of material on an array of substrates so that each substrate moves along a common path relative to each of the sources of deposition material.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel system and method for depositing material on a planar array of substrates being moved-in a first rotational motion while concurrently being moved in a second non-rotational motion superimposed on the first motion.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a novel system and deposition process in which a planar array of substrates moves in a first motion while concurrently moving in a second motion along a linear path substantially perpendicular to the direction of the first motion.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel system and method of depositing material on an array of substrates concurrently moving in first and second motions so that each of the substrates move along a common path relative to the source of the deposition material.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a novel system and method for short throw deposition in which an array of substrates moves on a first transport mechanism while concurrently being moved in a second motion that does not change the position of the carrier relative to the source of deposition material.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a novel system and method of depositing a layer of material on an array of elongated substrates being carried on a rotating cylindrical surface, while each substrate is concurrently rotating about its longitudinal axis and being moved in a direction parallel to the axis of rotation of the cylindrical array so that each substrate moves along a common path relative to the sources of deposition material.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a novel method and apparatus for depositing a layer of material on an array of substrates the apparatus including a first carrier for moving the substrates in a first motion and a second carrier for concurrently moving the substrates in a second motion so that each of the substrates moves along a common path relative to the sources of deposition material.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a novel method and apparatus for depositing a layer of material on an array of substrates, the apparatus including a planar rotating first transport mechanism for moving the substrates in a first motion and a second transport mechanism including substrate holders for concurrently moving the substrates in a second motion along a common linear path extending outward from the axis of rotation of the first transport mechanism so that each of the substrates moves along a common path relative to the sources of deposition material.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel method and transport apparatus for moving an array of substrates along a first linear path in a first motion while concurrently moving the substrates in a second motion along a common linear path substantially perpendicular to the path of the first motion.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel method and transport apparatus for changing the position of an array of substrates carried by a rotating drum relative to the drum.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel method and transport apparatus for carrying substrate holders along a linear path substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the deposition target.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a novel substrate holder system and method with removable substrate holders so that the substrate holders may be loaded and unloaded with substrates while other substrates are present in the coating machine.
It is an object of this invention to provide a novel coating system and method using a plurality of relatively smaller sources and plasma generators.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a novel system and method for achieving a high degree of uniformity of reaction in a reactive sputtering process without employing elaborate gas distribution systems.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel substrate coating system and method in which the number of substrates being coated is independent of the size of the material sources and other components.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a novel system and method for both batch and in-line sputtering processes that achieves a high degree of coating uniformity at a low production cost.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a novel system and method of coating substrates in which the uniformity of the deposited coating is substantially independent of the configuration of the material sources.
It is a still further objective of this invention to provide a novel long throw sputtering system and method with a reduced throw distance and physical masking.
These and many other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims, the appended drawings, and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.

System and method for coating substrates with improved capacity and uniformity


Provided is a wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical transmission device which is suitable of performing splitting, wavelength multiplexing, switching, and routing on an optical WDM signal in which optical signals having a spectrum close to a rectangle are arranged with a high density, and efficiency of spectral usage is ultimately high in units of wavelengths. A WDM optical transmission device according to the present invention is configured to cause flat portions of adjacent transmission bands on a wavelength spectrum overlap each other.

A wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical transmission scheme of multiplexing a plurality of optical signals having different wavelengths in a single optical fiber and transmitting information is an very effective technique for implementing high capacity optical fiber communication.
A reconfigurable optical add drop multiplexer (ROADM) or a wavelength selective switch (WSS) is a type of an optical switch arranged at each node in an optical fiber network in which a WDM signal is transmitted. The ROADM is a general term for techniques, devices, or apparatuses used to split (drop) only a signal of a necessary wavelength from a WDM signal mainly transmitted through an optical fiber and receives the split signal or to add a wavelength signal transmitted from a current node to a WDM signal. The WSS is a WDM signal switching technique to which advanced wavelength selecting and routing functions are added, and can select an arbitrary number of signal wavelengths from a WDM signal in an input optical fiber line and output the selected arbitrary number of signal wavelengths to any one of an arbitrary number of (a plurality of) output fibers or extract optical signals of an arbitrary wavelength from WDM signals in a plurality of input fibers and output the extracted optical signals to an output fiber.
The optical switching technique attracts public attention due to its convenience as a technique essential for flexibly setting a wavelength line according to the growth of an optical network or a change in traffic in each region and implementing a ring or mesh network which is high in fault tolerance or traffic accommodation efficiency. Hereinafter, in this specification, the ROADM technique and the WSS technique are collectively referred to as a "wavelength selective switch (WSS)."
The representative scheme of WDM optical transmission has been described above. Next, a WDM technique to which the WSS technique is applied will be described.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wavelength spectrum of a WDM signal. FIG. 1(1) illustrates an optical signal spectrum of WDM according to a related art. Each of ch1 to ch6 is a channel of an optical signal modulated by a high-speed information signal of 2.5 to 100 gigabits/second or the like, and each optical signal is a spectrum having a width of several to several tens of 10 GHz by high-speed modulation. Each of λ1 to λ6 is a center wavelength (or a center frequency) of each channel, and for an absolute wavelength and spacing thereof, an arrangement standardized as a wavelength grid by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is used.
In FIG. 1, G represents spacing of a wavelength grid. As a general wavelength grid, for example, those having spacing of 200 GHz, 100 GHz, 50 GHz, or 25 GHz are used. Since an impairment is caused due to interference when a spectrum of an optical channel overlaps a spectrum of an adjacent channel, each optical channel has a grid spacing G larger than a spectrum width (b4 or b5 in FIG. 1) of each signal, and a sufficient gap (for example, about 10 to 20% of channel spacing) is given between channels. Particularly, when wavelength splitting is performed by the WSS or the ROADM above, a wavelength is split using this gap portion.
Meanwhile, an amount of information transmitted in an optical network gradually increases yearly, and in recent high-speed optical fiber transmission, the application of a ultrahigh-speed signal in which a transmission rate per wavelength exceeds 100 gigabits/second has been under review. Further, since there is a limitation to a wavelength band that can be used for long-distance transmission, the application of a high-efficiency modulation format such as optical multilevel transmission of cramming a lot of information in a limited wavelength (frequency) band and thus improving efficiency of spectral usage has been under review. As an example of this technique, for example, there is a technique disclosed in NPL 1.
In NPL 1, information of 8 bits per symbol is crammed by multilevel (or sixteen-level) modulation and polarization multiplexing technique, and high-efficiency transmission is performed using a high-sensitivity coherent homodyne receiver having wavelength/polarization selectivity.
FIGS. 1(2) to 1(4) illustrate exemplary wavelength spectrums of optical modulation formats in which efficiency of spectral usage is further improved than in FIG. 1(1). A normal optical signal has a rounded signal spectrum (for example, a raised cosine type) in which intensity is high at the center of a wavelength and intensity decreases as a distance from the center increases as illustrated in FIG. 1(1). In this spectrum, usage efficiency of a frequency component away from the center in a spectrum width (b4 in the case of ch4 in FIG. 1) of a signal is known to decrease. Ideally, it is possible to cram more information in a specified bandwidth using an optical signal of a rectangular spectral shape as illustrated in FIG. 1(2). Further, it is possible to improve the efficiency of spectral usage up to the limit by eliminating a gap between channels.
Practically, it is difficult to generate an optical signal of a rectangular spectral shape perfectly, but as a technique of obtaining a signal close to a rectangle in a pseudo manner as illustrated in FIG. 1(3), there is a technique of applying Nyquist filtering to a modulation signal. Further, it is possible to improve the efficiency of spectral usage by setting a plurality of subcarriers in a certain bandwidth of a channel, performing optical multilevel modulation on each of the subcarriers, and keeping spectrum intensity in a bandwidth constantly as illustrated in FIG. 1(4). The same effect is obtained by orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) (FIG. 1(5)) of generating a plurality of low-speed orthogonal carriers using digital signal processing. Although any of such modulation is used, it is possible to further improve information transmission efficiency by densely allocating channels at minimum spacing between adjacent wavelength channels.
The basic scheme of performing wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) on an optical signal has been described above. Next, splitting of a WDM signal using a WSS according to a related art will be described.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a WSS node 100 according to a related art. The WSS node 100 is a network node in which a WSS of a related art is mounted. The WSS node 100 has a function of arbitrarily splitting a WDM signal input from a single input optical fiber line 101 for each wavelength channel and outputting the split WDM signals to two output optical fiber lines 103-1 and 103-2. Generally, a pair of an uplink and a downlink is used as an optical fiber line, but the present invention will be described in view of only signal transmission of one direction since no problem related to directivity particularly occurs.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a relation between an optical signal and a transmission band of the WSS node 100 according to the related art. A WDM signal 102 input from the input optical fiber line 101 is assumed to include 6 wavelength signals of channels 1 to 6 (wavelengths λ1 to λ6), and signal spectrum thereof are illustrated in FIG. 3(1). In the example illustrated in FIG. 3, in the WDM signal 102, signals of the channels 3 and 4 are assumed to be split and output to the output optical fiber line 103-1, and optical signals of the channels 5 and 6 are assumed to be split and output to the output optical fiber line 103-2.
The WSS of the related art is configured with a liquid crystal MEMS switch, a spatial diffraction grating, and the like, and has a function of changing transmittance to each output fiber with wavelength spacing corresponding to a wavelength grid using a border (a grid border) of a wavelength grid as a border line. In this regard, for the output optical fiber line 103-1, a transmission band is set as illustrated in FIG. 3(2) so that input light transmits in the grids (corresponding to bands B4 and B5) of the wavelengths λ3 and λ4. As a result, the wavelength channels 3 and 4 can be output to the output optical fiber line 103-1 as an output WDM signal 104-1 as illustrated in FIG. 3(3).
Similarly, for the output optical fiber line 103-2, a transmittance is set as illustrated in FIG. 3(4) so that input light transmits in the grids of the wavelengths λ5 and λ6. As a result, the wavelength channels 5 and 6 can be output to the output optical fiber line 103-2 as an output WDM signal 104-2.
An effect of splitting the channel 4 and the channel 5 which are channels adjacent to each other is obtained by an action between steeply inclined portions (shoulder portions) of transmittance (FIG. 3(2)) for transmitting the channel 4 and transmittance (FIG. 3(4)) for transmitting the channel 5. Thus, in order to properly splitting a wavelength, the inclined portion of the transmittance needs to exactly overlap the grid border.
FIG. 3(6) illustrates a state in which the transmittance of FIG. 3(2) and the transmittance of and FIG. 3(3) are displayed to overlap. V4 represents a width of transmittance to the output optical fiber line 103-1 from the center wavelength (λ4) of the wavelength channel 4 which is measured at the wavelength channel 5 side. V5 represents the width of transmittance to the output optical fiber line 103-2 from the center wavelength (λ5) of the wavelength channel 5 which is measured at the wavelength channel 4 side. A measurement target is a range of a portion (loss of about 0.5 to 1 dB) in which a characteristic shape of a transmission band is almost flat.
In FIG. 3(6), each of the two transmittances has an inclined portion between both channels, and a sum of V4 and V5 is smaller than channel spacing (λ5−λ4) between both channels. Thus, in the WSS of the related art, the flat portions (the ranges of V4 and V5 indicated by arrows) of the transmission bands of the optical signals of the adjacent channels do not overlap.

Wavelength-multiplexed optical transmission device, wavelength-multiplexed optical transmission system, wavelength-multiplexed optical transmission method


The present invention relates to information security field and presents a method for searching for a class and a function based on a .NET card and a .NET card thereof. The method includes: building a first character string according to information of a class currently executed by the .NET card, or information of a function currently executed by the .NET card and a class that the function belongs to; computing a first index value from the first character string; searching for a first locator value corresponding to the first index value in an index table pre-stored in the .NET card, wherein index values in the index table are generated in the same way as the first index value is generated; finding, in a runtime library of the .NET card, the class or the function currently executed according to the first locator value. The .NET card includes a storage module, a building module, a computing module and a searching module. The invention improves the speed of searching for a class or a function when a program is executed in the .NET card. And the index table consumes a small part of the memory of the .NET card, therefore the method is convenient and easy to implement.

As a new generation of technical platform of Microsoft, .NET is a new cross-language development platform based on the Internet, which conforms to the trend of software industry in the aspects such as distributed computing, component-oriented development or enterprise-oriented application, Software-as-a-Service and Web-centered development. Though .NET is not a developing language, the .NET development platform supports multiple developing languages such as C#, C++, Visual Basic, and Jscript.
With a similar size of a normal business card, a smart card is a plastic card containing a silicon chip with a diameter of about 1 cm, and has functions as storing information and complex computing. Smartcards are widely used in telephone cards, banking cards, identity identification cards, and in many fields such as mobile phones and prepaid TV. A smart card is regarded as the smallest computer in the world for its integration of microprocessor, storage and input/output unit on the chip of the smart card. Furthermore, with a strong security control mechanism, the security control program is fixed in read-only memory (ROM), which provides reliable guarantee of limited copying and password-guard read/write. Compared with a general magnetic card, the smart card has many advantages such as massive storage capacity and enhanced functions by using micro-processes.
.NET card is a microprocessor smart card including a .NET virtual machine where .NET programs can be executed. A virtual machine can be viewed as a software emulation of a machine with hardware such as processor, memory and register, by which various instructions can be emulated. There are no special requirements for the runtime environment by software running on the machine; hence the virtual machine is transparent to the programs running on it. For example, an x86 virtual machine emulates a runtime environment of x86 instructions and programs, and a c51 virtual machine emulates a runtime environment of c51 instructions and programs. The .NET card invokes classes and functions in a standard class library at the time of running the application programs.
A conventional way to search for a class is: first obtaining the class name and namespace of a class to be found, and then searching for the class in a standard class library one by one till the class in accordance with the class name and namespace is found. A conventional method for searching for a function is: first finding a class that the function belongs to, and then obtaining the name, returned result and parameter type of the function; and searching one by one for the function in accordance with the name, number of parameters and parameter type in the standard class library.
The conventional way to find a function does not meet requirements of .NET cards because of limited memory and the low operation speed of .NET cards.

Method for searching for class and function based on .NET card and .NET card thereof


A method of evaluating a water sample for the presence or possible future presence of nitrification comprises obtaining data values of a number of parameters, processing the data values to determine correlation coefficients, to identify any linear dependencies, to standardize the scales, evaluating the data values over a plurality of proliferation time periods and neuron numbers, calculating MSEs and R2's from the evaluations, and estimating a valid likelihood of nitrification of the water sample. A method of evaluating a water sample for the presence or possible future presence of nitrification, comprises obtaining data values of a number of parameters, statistically pre-processing the data values and supplying the pre-processed data values to a neural network. Apparatus, media and processors which are used in performing such methods.

Preventative management of water supplies is not only useful in keeping society safe and prosperous but also critical in avoiding the cost of potentially expensive reactive measures that may be necessary to resolve contamination. There is a wide variety of potential sources for contamination of such water supplies, including naturally-occurring phenomena as well as human-induced events. History demonstrates the pervasiveness of such threats and the future beckons for an accurate and reliable apparatus and method for detecting and predicting whether such water supplies are and will be contaminated.
Water quality events which may contaminate the water supply include a variety of chemical and biological processes and agents. Examples of such water quality events include nitrification, algae bloom, and deliberately sabotaging a water supply with bacteria like Escherichia coli. The example of nitrification is one that demonstrates how the detection and prediction of such an event can avert a potentially threatening and costly situation. Nitrification is a microbial process by which reduced nitrogen compounds, primarily ammonia, are sequentially oxidized to nitrite and nitrate by ammonia oxidizing bacteria and nitrite oxidizing bacteria, respectively. Nitrification must be avoided or controlled because of its potential effect on disinfectant residuals, which must be maintained at regulatory levels to ensure water safety. Nitrification can become a pervasive, persistent problem if allowed to develop, creating chronic disinfection residual challenges and the potential for unsafe water in the distribution system. The appearance of nitrate, via the formation of nitrite, in addition to the decrease of ammonia and total chlorine in the water, are the commonly known indicators that nitrification is occurring. In fact, there may be a number of other indicators among measurable water quality parameters that may signify the presence or impending onset of nitrification.
The fact that the relationships of these water quality parameters to particular water quality events are not readily understood or defined, coupled with the reality that the data for such parameters are often dynamic, noisy, and non-linear in fashion, contributes to the lack of a proactive system to accurately and reliably forecast water quality conditions. Instead, current monitoring systems employ passive methods to observe and manage water supplies. There exists a need for a flexible system with the capability to provide on-line, real-time evaluation of these water quality parameters in order to not only detect but also predict potentially harmful water quality events. The expression "real-time", as used herein, refers to simultaneous as well as slightly delayed (i.e., substantially real-time or delayed by a relatively short period of time, e.g., not more than one second, not more than one minute, not more than one hour, or not more than one day). With such a system, water quality control officials will have more options with which to deal with threatening water quality events and will be able to utilize preventative and proactive management strategies to minimize the costly impact of such threats.

System for detection and prediction of water quality events


An apparatus for controlling an operation of a reciprocating compressor includes a inductance increasing device connected to a motor of the reciprocating compressor, so that a surge current generated when power is applied to the reciprocating compressor at an initial stage is reduced and thus an initial stroke of the reciprocating compressor is reduced. Accordingly, operational efficiency of the reciprocating compressor is improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reciprocating compressor, and particularly, to an apparatus for controlling an operation of a reciprocating compressor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, by eliminating the use of a crankshaft for converting a rotary motion into a reciprocating motion, a reciprocating motor compressor has a low frictional loss, and accordingly the reciprocating motor compressor is superior to a general compressor in the compressing efficiency aspect.
When the reciprocating compressor is used for a refrigerator or an air conditioner, a compression ratio of the reciprocating compressor is varied as varying a stroke voltage inputted to the reciprocating compressor, thereby controlling cooling capacity. A reciprocating compressor in accordance with the conventional art will now be described with reference to FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a structure of an apparatus for controlling an operation of a reciprocating compressor in accordance with the conventional art.
As shown therein, the apparatus for controlling an operation of the reciprocating compressor includes: a voltage detecting unit 14 for detecting a voltage applied to the reciprocating compressor 13 according to the variation of a stroke of the reciprocating compressor; a current detecting unit 12 for detecting a current applied to the reciprocating compressor 13 according to the variation of the stroke; a microcomputer 15 for calculating a stroke based on a voltage value detected by the voltage detecting unit 14 and a current value detected by the current detecting unit 12, comparing the calculated stroke and a stroke reference value, and generating a switching control signal according to the comparison result; and a power supply unit 11 for supplying a stroke voltage to the reciprocating compressor 13 by on-off controlling the supply of AC power to the reciprocating motor compressor 13 with a triac Tr1 controlled by the switching control signal generated by the micro-computer 15. Herein, the reciprocating compressor 13 receives a stroke voltage supplied to an internal motor (not shown), varies a stroke according to a stroke reference value set by a user, and thereby vertically moves an internal piston (not shown).
Hereinafter, operations of the apparatus for controlling an operation of a reciprocating compressor in accordance with the present invention will now be described.
First, the reciprocating compressor 13 receives a voltage supplied to the internal motor, varies the stroke according to the stroke reference value, and moves the piston vertically according to the varied stroke. Herein, the stroke means a distance over which the piston inside the reciprocating compressor 13 moves while reciprocating.
A turn-on period of a triac (Tr1) of the power supply unit 11 is lengthened by a switching control signal outputted from the microcomputer 15, and the AC power is supplied to the reciprocating compressor 13 due to the lengthened turn-on period, so that the reciprocating compressor 31 is driven. At this time, the voltage detecting unit 14 and the current detecting unit 12 detect a voltage and a current which are applied to the reciprocating compressor 13, and output the detected voltage value and the detected current value, respectively.
The microcomputer 15 calculates the stroke based on the voltage value and the current value respectively detected by the voltage detecting unit 14 and the current detecting unit 12, compares the calculated stroke with the stroke reference value, and generates a switching control signal according to the comparison result. For example, if the calculated stroke is smaller than the stroke reference value, the microcomputer 15 outputs a switching control signal for lengthening a turn-on period of the triac Tr1 to the power supply unit 11, to increase a stroke value to be supplied to the reciprocating compressor 13.
On the other hand, if the calculated stroke is greater than the stroke reference value, the microcomputer 15 outputs a switching control signal for shortening a turn-on period of the triac (Tr1) to the power supply unit 11, to decrease a stroke voltage to be supplied to the reciprocating compressor 13.
A capacitor (C) that is connected to an internal motor of the reciprocating compressor 13 in series, countervails an inductance of a coil wound in the internal motor. That is, since an inductance of the coil is countervailed by the capacitor (C), sufficient stroke is generated even with a lower input voltage. However, when power is supplied to the internal motor of the reciprocating compressor at an initial stage, an overcurrent is generated, thereby causing a damage of the reciprocating compressor.
Hereinafter, a PTC thermistor (Positive Temperature Coefficient Thermistor) which is added to an apparatus for controlling an operation of a reciprocating compressor in accordance with the conventional art in order to prevent a damage of the reciprocating compressor will now be described with reference to FIG. 2.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a PTC thermistor (Positive Temperature Coefficient Thermistor) which is applied to the apparatus for controlling an operation of a reciprocating compressor of FIG. 1
As shown therein, the PCT thermistor is connected to the capacitor (C) in parallel and cuts off an overcurrent generated when the reciprocating compressor 13 is initiated at an initial stage, thereby preventing a damage of the reciprocating compressor 13. For example, when the compressor 13 is initiated at an initial stage, the PTC thermistor cuts off an overcurrent applied to the internal motor of the compressor, thereby protecting the compressor 13 from being overloaded. Herein, the overcurrent means a current greater than a reference current value the inner motor (M) of the reciprocating compressor 13 allows.
In addition, when a resistance value of the PTC thermistor is increased by a current applied to the internal motor (M) of the reciprocating compressor 13, the PTC thermistor becomes off. Then, the current is applied to the internal motor only through the capacitor (C).
Hereinafter, a wave form of a stroke when the reciprocating compressor operates, will now be described with reference to FIG. 3.
FIG. 3 is a view showing a stroke wave form when a reciprocating compressor in accordance with the conventional art operates.
As shown therein, when power is applied to an internal motor (M) of the reciprocating compressor through the PTC thermistor at an initial stage, an overcurrent and a surge current are generated, and an overstroke (A) (a stroke more than a reference value) is generated by the surge current. That is, a piston and a discharge value collide with each other by the surge current, thereby causing a damage of the reciprocating compressor, and by this collision is increased a noise of the reciprocating compressor. Herein, the surge current means a maximum current of a current exceeding a reference current value the internal motor (M) allows. That is, overcurrent is mostly cut off through the PTC thermistor, but still the surge current is applied to the internal motor (M).
A reciprocating compressor in accordance with a different embodiment of the present invention is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,644,943 registered on Nov. 11 in 2003.

Apparatus for controlling operation of reciprocating compressor


An electric double layer capacitor in which gas generation due to decomposition of a solvent of an electrolyte solution in the capacitor is reduced and performance maintaining ratio is superior, is provided by a method which is different from a method of adding additives to the electrolyte solution. The electric double layer capacitor has activated carbon polarizing electrodes and a non-water-based solvent, and a positive electrode of the activated carbon polarizing electrodes contains an antacid agent.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to electric double layer capacitors having large capacitance and high power, and in particular, relates to a technique to prevent gas generation due to decomposition of the electrolyte solution used in the capacitor.
2. Background Art
An electric double layer capacitor has characteristics such as long service life, high cycling characteristics, characteristics of charge and discharge with large current, and wide range of operating temperatures since there are no chemical reactions during charge and discharge of the capacitor as there are in a conventional secondary battery. Therefore, this type of capacitor is attracting much attention as a new type of storage battery or as a driving power supply for automobiles and devices. In particular, electric double layer capacitors having large capacity and high power are being developed.
As an example of such an electric double layer capacitor, a button-type electric double layer capacitor is shown in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, the capacitor 1 includes a case 2, a pair of polarizing electrodes 3 and 4 contained in the case 2, a spacer 5 disposed between the electrodes, and electrolyte solution filled in the case 2. The case 2 includes an aluminum body 7 having an opening part 6 and an aluminum cover plate 8 which closes the opening part 6. A part between the outer circumference of the cover plate 8 and inner circumference of the body 7 is sealed with a sealing material 9. The polarizing electrodes 3 and 4 include a mixture of an activated carbon for an electrode, conductive filler, and binder.
Conventionally, as the electrolyte solution used as a material of the electric double layer capacitor, a water-based electrolyte solution and a non-water-based electrolyte solution can be mentioned. In particular, since high voltage use is required to improve energy density of the electric double layer capacitor, the non-water-based electrolyte solution which can be charged and discharged at relatively high voltage has been widely used. As the non-water-based electrolyte solution, a solution in which various conditions such as low-temperature property, solubility of salts, dielectric constant, safety, electrolyte solution decomposition property, boiling point, cost and the like are improved is required. As a material which meets these requirements, an electrolyte solution in which propylene carbonate is mainly used as a solvent and a quaternary ammonium salt is added as a supporting salt, may be mentioned.
However, in the electric double layer capacitor having an electrolyte solution containing propylene carbonate and an alkali activated carbon, in the case in which it is charged and discharged repeatedly under high voltage, the electrolyte solution is gradually decomposed by an electric current and gas is generated. The pressure inside the capacitor is increased by the gas generation, and the capacitor case may be deformed or broken. Furthermore, as a result of consumption of the electrolyte solution by the electrolysis, capacitance may be deteriorated.
To solve such problems, methods in which various types of materials are added to reduce decomposition of the electrolyte solution have been suggested. Practically, a non-water-based electrolyte solution containing γ-butyrolactone or γ-valerolactone in which electrolysis is reduced (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-217150), a non-water-based electrolyte solution containing fluorobenzene (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-6803), a non-water-based electrolyte solution containing diphenyls (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-146610) and the like are disclosed.
However, in these solvents, the effect of restraining gas generation is insufficient. In addition, dehydration and purification of the additives are required to add the additives to the electrolyte solution, and the cost is increased by the solution containing multiple components.


Frequency response is characterized for mechanical components of a multirate system operating in a closed-loop environment. A disturbance is injected at the frequency of interest and at each of the alias frequencies thereof as an input into the multirate system, and a matrix equation composed of resulting measurements of the response of the multirate system is solved to compute the frequency response at the frequency of interest and at each of the alias frequencies. The resulting frequency response can be used to synthesize the transfer function of the entire system, which allows simulation and evaluation of the relative performance of multiple controller designs without the need for further frequency response measurements.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to magnetic disk drives and, more particularly, to characterizing the frequency response of multirate systems, such as magnetic disk drives.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the vernacular of feedback control systems, a conventional hard disk drive (HDD) has a closed-loop servo control system comprising a "plant" with one or more moveable elements, e.g., a spindle motor, magnetic disk, and actuator assembly, and a servo controller for driving the moveable elements. Multirate controllers, which generate two or more corrections for each position measurement, are one type of servo controller commonly used in HDDs. Multirate controllers, also referred to as oversampling controllers, are necessary to position the read/write head of an HDD with respect to the center of a data track contained therein with the precision required by the high linear densities now in use for data storage on modern HDDs.
For the design and/or modeling of such controllers, it is advantageous to characterize the open-loop frequency response of the plant, i.e., the magnitude and phase of the mechanical response of the plant at each frequency of interest. This is because the need to understand the behavior of the system when excited at various frequencies appears in almost every practical control system problem, i.e., the open-loop frequency response is routinely considered in order to predict the system's closed-loop behavior. In the case of an HDD system, where the sampling frequency of the output is fixed by the design of the disk drive, characterizing the higher frequency dynamics and resonant frequencies of the system helps in the design or tuning of the servo controller parameters to improve the performance of the servo controller. Improved servo controller performance allows more precise tracking of the disk drive head with respect to the center of the data tracks, which in turn facilitates disk drives having greater storage capacity.
To characterize the frequency response of an HDD plant, the digitized output of the servo control system is typically used. Due to the nature of digital control systems, however, aliasing of the actual mechanical response of the plant occurs. That is, alias frequency components are generated as a result of digitally sampling a signal, i.e., the plant output, when the signal contains frequency components above the Nyquist frequency of the nominal sampling rate. The alias frequency components are measured as actual mechanical resonances, but in fact are only artifacts of the low sampling rate.
According to Shannon's sampling theorem, aliasing makes it impossible to recover the information lost during digital conversion if the sampling frequency is less than half the maximum frequency present in the signal. Aliasing can be minimized or avoided by increasing the sampling frequency well above the marginal sampling frequency dictated by Shannon's sampling theorem. In HDD systems, however, increasing the sampling frequency is generally impracticable, since the disk rotation speed and number of position data sectors on the disk are fixed. Thus, for signal reconstruction to be possible, the limiting frequency is half the sampling frequency, i.e. the Nyquist frequency, and the dynamics and resonant modes of an HDD system corresponding to frequencies close to and above half of the sampling frequency of the HDD cannot be identified with conventional methods.
The conventional method of quantifying the frequency response of a closed loop system is to excite the system with a sinusoidal sweep, record the sampled output data, and use a fast Fourier transform method to calculate the values of the frequency response at selected frequency points. As described above, this method breaks down at frequencies close to and above half of the sampling frequency due to aliasing. Specifically, alias components are measured along with actual mechanical resonances, both above and below the Nyquist frequency of the system. Because the frequency response measurements of an HDD plant take place in a closed-loop environment, both the mechanical resonances and the alias components are fed back through the closed-loop control system being measured, thereby confounding the alias components with the real mechanical resonances of the system and rendering the resultant characterization of the frequency response of the system inaccurate at best.
In light of the above, there is a need in the art for a method of computing the frequency response of a system beyond the Nyquist frequency of the nominal sample frequency.

Characterizing frequency response of a multirate system


Disclosed is a GOA circuit, including GOA units, which are cascade coupled. An nth stage GOA unit charges nth stage, n+1th stage and n+2th stage horizontal scanning lines. The nth stage GOA unit includes a pull-up control circuit, receiving a start signal CT and outputting a pull-up control signal Q(n); a pull-up circuit, receiving Q(n), an nth stage clock signal CK(n), an n+1th stage clock signal CK(n+1) and an n+2th stage clock signal CK(n+2), and outputting an nth stage transfer signal ST(n), an nth stage scan driving signal G(n), an n+1th stage scan driving signal G(n+1) and an n+2th stage scan driving signal G(n+2); a pull-down circuit, receiving an n+6th stage scan driving signal G(n+6) and a first direct current low voltage signal VSSQ1 to enable Q(n) in an off state. Three stages scan driving signals can be outputted through one stage GOA unit.

The liquid crystal display possesses advantages of being thin and light, energy-saving, and having radiation index generally lower than that of a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) display, so that it gradually replaces the CRT display and realizes wide application in various electronic products. The driving of horizontal scan line in the present active liquid crystal display is mainly accomplished by an external Integrated Circuit (IC) of a panel. The external IC can control the charge and discharge stage by stage of the level scan lines of respective stages. The GOA technology is to use a TFT (Thin Film Transistor) liquid crystal display array process to fabricate gate scan driving signal circuit on the array substrate, thereby implementing a drive mode of a gate progressive scan. Therefore, the driving circuit of the horizontal scan line can be fabricated on the substrate around the display area by using the original process of the liquid crystal display panel. The GOA technology can reduce the bonding procedure of the external IC and has potential to raise the productivity and to lower the production cost. Meanwhile, it can make the liquid crystal display panel more suitable to the narrow frame or non frame design of display products.
The main architecture of the GOA circuit includes a pull-up control circuit, a pull-up circuit, a pull-down circuit and a pull-down holding circuit. The pull-up circuit is used to output a clock signal as a scan driving signal. The pull-up control circuit is used to output a pull-up control signal to control an activating time of the pull-up circuit. The pull-down circuit is used to pull down the pull-up control signal and the scan driving signal. The pull-down holding circuit is used to hold the pull-up control signal and the scan driving signal at a low potential. At present, in order to meet the design requirements of the ultra-narrow frame of the liquid crystal display panel, the frame of the liquid crystal display panel is generally smaller and smaller, which requires that a proportion of the frame occupied by the GOA circuit is correspondingly reduced. However, due to the large number of GOA units in the existing GOA circuit, the design difficulty of the GOA circuit is increased, and the circuit design space occupied by the GOA circuit is large, which is disadvantageous for the ultra-narrow frame requirement of the liquid crystal display panel.

Gate driver on array circuit and liquid crystal display device having the gate driver on array circuit

SHENZHEN CHINA STAR OPTOELECTRONICS SEMICONDUCTOR DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A communication apparatus is provided with: a processing rule storage unit capable of storing a first processing rule for unknown packets set in advance, and a second processing rule set by a control apparatus; a packet processor that processes received packets based on processing rules stored in the processing rule storage unit; and a state notification unit that transmits a predetermined control message to the control apparatus when a packet is processed using the first processing rule. On receiving the predetermined control message, the control apparatus creates the second processing rule to be set in the communication apparatus and sets the second processing rule in the communication apparatus, and also discards packets included in the control message. The communication apparatus continues packet processing using the first processing rule until the second processing rule is set by the control apparatus.

With the expansion of network bandwidth, services are required that handle large amounts of data such as image distribution and the like. As a component technology thereof, OpenFlow in Non Patent Literature 1 and 2 may be cited. In OpenFlow, switches capable of high-speed forwarding are arranged on a user plane, and by optimally setting path information by an OpenFlow controller, it is possible to adequately respond to high speed forwarding needs.    [Non Patent Literature 1]    Nick McKeown and 7 others, "OpenFlow: Enabling Innovation in Campus Networks", [online], [search conducted Feb. 14, 2012], Internet <URL: http://www.openflow.org/documents/openflow-wp-latest.pdf>    [Non Patent Literature 2]    "OpenFlow 1.2", [online], [search conducted Mar. 27, 2012], Internet <URL: https://www.opennetworking.org/images/stories/downloads/openflow/openflow-spec-v1.2.pdf>

Communication apparatus, control apparatus, communication system, communication method, method for controlling communication apparatus, and program


An automatic wafer transfer apparatus for transferring at once a plurality of wafers from a wafer basket to an etching drum which can be opened and closed by means of a movable housing and a horizontal set bar, to contain wafers therein; the wafer transfer apparatus comprising an elevator for elevating and lowering wafers, adapted to reciprocate vertically such that its top surface can pass through the etching drum to carry in the wafers, and the movable housing and the set bar of the etching drum for opening and closing the etching drum.

The present invention relates to an automatic etching unit for etching semiconductor wafers, and in particular it relates to such an etching unit having (i) an automatic wafer transfer apparatus (mechanism) capable of automatically transferring all of the wafers contained in a basket to an etching drum at a time, and (ii) an etching drum capable of allowing all the wafers contained in the drum to be etched without being removed from the drum. Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for automatically transferring all of the wafers contained in a basket to the etching drum at a time.

Automatic wafer transfer apparatus and a method for transferring wafers and an etching drum


Regular data inputted/outputted to/from external terminals is read/written to/from a regular cell array, and parity data is read/written from/to a parity cell array. Since the parity data is generated by a parity generation circuit, it is difficult to write a desired pattern to the parity cell array. The regular data and the parity data are exchanged with each other by a switch circuit, so that the regular data can be written to the parity cell array and the parity data can be written to the regular cell array. This enables the write of desired data to the parity cell array. A test of the parity data can be easily conducted. In particular, a leakage test or the like between memory cells can be easily conducted.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory having an error correction function.
2. Description of the Related Art
A semiconductor memory having an error correction function has regular cell arrays storing externally supplied data and parity cell arrays storing parity data of data written to the regular cell arrays. The parity data are generated by a parity generation circuit according to the write data. Data read from the regular cell arrays are error-corrected by an error correction circuit according to the parity data. It is not generally easy to write desired data to the parity cell arrays, which makes a test of the parity cell arrays difficult.
As an art for easier testing of the parity cell arrays, for example, an art of forcibly inverting part of logical values of parity data to generate a pseudo error is disclosed (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 2001-351398 (Patent document 1)). Another art disclosed is an art in which a semiconductor memory is provided with an external parity data terminal for data read/write to/from a parity cell array in order to allow a desired pattern to be written to the parity cell array, and data are directly read/written from/to the parity cell array in a test mode (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 5-54697 (Patent document 2)).
The present invention was made to overcome the following problems. A semiconductor memory in Patent document 1 inverts part of bits of the parity data generated by a parity generation circuit. The parity data are generated as a result of logical operation on regular data written to regular cell arrays. Therefore, it is not possible to write desired data patterns to the parity cell arrays only by inverting part of the bits of the parity data.
In Patent document 2, it is possible to write desired patterns to the parity cell arrays. However, it is not possible to write desired patterns while a parity generation circuit and an error correction circuit are kept effective. In other words, it is not possible to write desired patterns to the parity cell arrays while the semiconductor memory is kept in an actual operation state. Moreover, forming the external parity data terminal (test pad) leads to an increase in chip size.
It is an object of the present invention to facilitate conducting a test of a semiconductor memory by writing desired data patterns to parity cell arrays. Another object is to write desired data patterns to the parity cell arrays while an error correction function is kept effective.

Semiconductor memory having an error correction function


An apparatus enabling communication and control between a battery powered device, such as a cellular telephone, and a battery pack through a two-pin interface between the battery pack and the battery powered device is disclosed. A battery powered device includes means for selectively switching a load across the two-pin interface for the device. By selectively switching the load across the terminal of the interface, a voltage varying signal is generated. The creation of the voltage varying signal is controlled in such a manner that alterations in the voltage represent a binary-encoded signal. The voltage changes representing the binary-encoded signal are detected within a battery pack interconnected with the battery powered device and used to provide instructions to a controller controlling an apparatus associated with the battery pack device, such as vibrator alarm.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to interactions between a battery pack and a battery powered device, and more particularly, to communication between a battery pack and a battery powered device.
2. Description of Related Art
Many types of battery powered devices, such as cellular telephones, include removable battery packs enabling the recharging of one battery pack while another is plugged into the battery powered device to provide power thereto. The majority of the battery packs and battery powered devices are interconnected via a two-pin interface consisting of a positive terminal and a ground terminal. This allows current to flow between the battery pack and battery powered device and provide power to the battery powered device from cells within the battery pack.
Presently, if it is desired to incorporate extra features within a battery pack, the addition of extra contacts within the interface between the battery pack and the battery powered device are necessary. However, in some cases the necessary costs, additional space, or other limitations may prevent the addition of contacts to a battery pack or battery powered device even though the extra features are desired. Thus, some manner enabling the incorporation of additional features within an existing two-pin configuration would enable expansion of the functionalities that could be incorporated within battery packs and battery powered devices having the two-pin interface.

Means of communication between a battery pack and a battery powered device


A method of controlling an optical writing apparatus and an optical writing apparatus utilizing the method to control its write execution time include a pickup to write write data onto a writing medium, a servo driving portion to control the drive of the pickup, a counter to count a predetermined write execution time to notify an ending time of the write execution time, and a controller to control the servo driving portion until the controller is notified of the ending time of the counter to allow the write data to be written onto the writing medium when a write request signal is applied from the key input portion, to stop the write operation, and to control the count of the counter to change the ending time of the write execution time when the request signal for pausing the write operation is applied from the key input portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an optical writing apparatus and a method to control the write execution time. More particularly, the present invention relates to an optical writing apparatus to decrement or maintain its write execution time during a pause period when the pause period is required while write data are written onto a writing medium by setting the write execution time, and a method to control its write execution time.
2. Description of the Related Art
An optical writing apparatus employs an optical disk driver to allow data to be written onto an optical disk. In the optical writing apparatus, data to be written onto the optical disk are written in a stream form, thus providing videos and sounds of high quality.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view for illustrating a conventional optical writing apparatus. Referring to FIG. 1, the optical writing apparatus includes a front panel 100 wherein a key input portion 110 is included to receive operating instructions corresponding to selection or setting of various functions, which are input by a user. The front panel 100 further includes a display 120 to display operations in progress and functions selected by the user, and a tray 130 to load and unload an optical disk (not shown).
A plurality of function keys 110a to 110g are typically arranged in the key input portion 110. The function keys 110a to 110g include a PLAY key 110a to reproduce images and sounds stored in the optical disk, a RECORD key 110b to perform a writing operation to write data to the optical disk, a STOP key 110c to stop the operation in progress, a PAUSE key 110d to pause the operation in progress, an OPEN/CLOSE key 110e to open or close the tray 130, a rewind key 110f, a fast forward key 110g, and direction keys 110h to select up, down, right and left directions in a menu.
After the user operates the OPEN/CLOSE key 110e to load the writing medium (i.e., the optical disk) onto the optical writing apparatus, the user operates the RECORD key 110b to allow write data to be written onto the writing medium. In this case, the user may operate the direction keys 110h to set a writing time when the write data are written onto the writing medium using the menu provided in the optical writing apparatus.
When the write execution time is set, the optical writing apparatus gradually decrements the write execution time while the writing operation is in progress, and stops the writing operation when the write execution time reaches zero.
When the user does not pay attention to the writing operation or when contents that the user does not want to write are provided from an external equipment connected to the optical writing apparatus, the user operates the PAUSE key 100d to pause the writing operation. The conventional optical writing apparatus decrements the preset write execution time in a paused state of the writing operation as is done in a state of the writing operation, or does not allow the write execution time to be decremented in the paused state of the writing operation.
In other words, functions of decrementing and maintaining the write execution time in the paused state are predetermined to allow performance of any one of these functions in the paused state of the conventional optical writing apparatus.
As a result, there is a need for the user to be able to decrement or maintain the write execution time in the paused state.

Optical writing apparatus and method for controlling execution time of writing thereof


A facsimile machine includes: a display that displays a menu screen including a menu item, an operation unit that allows a user an entry based on the menu screen, and a display control unit that changes the menu screen to be displayed on the display in response to the entry. The display control unit controls display/undisplay of the menu item based on a predetermined operational status of the facsimile machine when the display control unit changes the menu screen. The menu item corresponds to an operation effective to the predetermined operational status.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a facsimile machine for displaying a menu screen concerning operation modes to be operated by the user and more particularly to a facsimile machine capable of displaying on a menu screen an operation mode required for a predetermined type of machine status or error occurs only when such machine status or error is occurring.
2. Background Art
Hitherto, the user has set various operation modes by performing predetermined key entry through input keys provided on an operation panel of a facsimile machine or selecting a necessary menu item out of a menu screen displayed on a display provided on the operation panel.
On the other hand, menus for maintenance operation required if the facsimile machine fails and some functions are made unavailable, such as a menu for readjusting the original read function because it becomes impossible to normally read a facsimile original and a menu required because the print function fails, generally are excluded from the user-selectable menus because the menus are not daily necessary menus and are hard to handle by the user.
Thus, if the facsimile machine fails, the user must always request the manufacturer to repair the facsimile machine and the serviceperson dispatched from the manufacturer calls a maintenance menu by operating the facsimile machine according to a special procedure known only by the serviceman for repair.
By way of example, the case where the print function fails will be discussed. When the facsimile machine fails, if the power is turned off, the data is lost even if the data received by the facsimile is not yet printed out.
Usually, if a paper-out condition or a print function failure occurs and a record error occurs, a substitute reception is applied. The received data can be stored in memory as "substitute reception data" and the "substitute reception data" can be printed out after the machine is recovered from the record error.
However, if it is hard to recover the machine from the record error, there is no help for it and the power needs to be once turned off. At this time, the data in the memory containing the "substitute reception data" is lost.
To overcome the problem, the serviceperson uses numeric keys and a DIP switch to perform predetermined operation, thereby transferring the "substitute reception data" to another facsimile machine (FAX transfer) and then the power is turned off for repair. (For example, refer to JP-A-5-328080)


A semiconductor memory device has a diffusive region for a source formed in the shape of a band on a substrate; a diffusive region for a drain formed in the shape of a band in parallel with the diffusive region for a source and alternated with this diffusive region for a source; a first word line layer formed such that the first word line layer crosses the diffusive regions for a source and a drain; and a second word line layer formed in parallel with the first word line layer. The semiconductor memory device further has a channel region including an a-region on a substrate surface located on the lower side of a flat portion within a region prescribed between the diffusive regions for a source and a drain; and two b-regions on the substrate surface arranged on both sides of the a-region and located on the lower sides of first and second side wall portions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device and a method for manufacturing this semiconductor memory device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a MOS-type semiconductor memory device having a multivalued memory in a planar cell structure and a method for manufacturing this MOS-type semiconductor memory device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A memory cell structure of a mask ROM memory device used at present is constructed by one memory cell with respect to one bit. In this memory device, when a gate voltage of a memory cell transistor is set to a high potential, whether or not an electric current flows between a source and a drain of the memory cell transistor corresponds to value "1" or "0", or value "0" or "1", thereby reading data. There are various kinds of writing systems of ROM data such as a field system, a depression system, a core system and a contact system. In each of these systems, one bit corresponds to one memory cell.
Degree of integration in the semiconductor memory device is improved every year so that an area required for one memory cell is reduced. In the case of a mask ROM, an area for one memory transistor is reduced by reducing the area for a memory cell. A reduction in size of a memory cell has been tried by using a minimum design rule at any time.
One epoch-making method for reducing an area for a memory cell section is a method using a memory cell structure called a planar structure. For example, this method using the memory cell structure is shown in Japanese Patent Application Laying Open (KOKAI) Nos. 61-288464, 63-96953. The planar cell structure has a continuous diffusive region for a source region of plural MOS transistors, and a continuous diffusive region for a drain region of the plural MOS transistors. The continuous diffusive regions for the source and drain regions are alternately formed on a substrate in parallel with each other. A gate electrode is formed on the substrate such that the gate electrode crosses both the diffusive regions through an insulation film. In the planar cell structure, it is not necessary to dispose a field oxide film for separating constructional elements from each other and the plural transistors commonly have the source and drain regions. Accordingly, it is sufficient to dispose one contact portion between the source and drain regions with respect to several or several ten transistors, which is advantageous in the case of high integration.
However, one bit also corresponds to one memory cell in this planar cell structure.
In another method for reducing an area for a memory cell region, an amount of information per one memory cell is increased by setting the value of an electric current flowing out of one memory cell to three or more kinds of values. Japanese Patent Application Laying Open (KOKAI) No. 59-148360 and No. 63-81858 shows one method for setting this electric current value to three or more kinds of values. In this method, an effective channel width is set to three or more kinds of widths by core implantation into a channel region. For example, a multivalued memory in this proposed method uses a simple method in which a turning-on electric current between the source and the drain is controlled and set to four current values by using a core implantation system.
In the multivalued memory using the core implantation system, a value of the turning-on electric current is greatly dispersed by a shift in overlapping of a mask for the core implantation and a mask of a field oxide film. Therefore, no multivalued memory using the core implantation system is realized in a process for mass production.

Semiconductor memory device and manufacturing method thereof


An electric assist steering system includes a vehicle speed sensor that provides a vehicle speed signal. A determination is made as to whether loss of the vehicle speed signal has occurred. Damping of the electric assist steering system is controlled in response to the sensed vehicle speed and in response to a predetermined vehicle speed value when the vehicle speed signal is lost.

There are many known power assist steering systems for automotive vehicles. Some provide steering assist by using hydraulic power and others by using electric power.
Electric power assist steering systems that utilize a rack and pinion gear set provide power assist by using an electric motor to either (i) apply rotary force to a steering input shaft connected to a pinion gear, or (ii) apply linear force to a steering member having the rack teeth thereon. The electric motor in such systems is typically controlled in response to (i) a driver's applied steering torque to the vehicle steering wheel, and (ii) sensed vehicle speed.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,983,953, an electric motor is coupled to the input steering shaft and energized in response to the torque applied to the steering wheel by the vehicle operator. An electronic control system includes a torque sensor and uses the output of a vehicle speed sensor. A computer receives the output signals provided by both sensors. The computer controls the amount of the assistance provided by the motor in response to the applied steering torque and the sensed vehicle speed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,054 (now U.S. Reissue Patent No. 32,222, (hereinafter, "the Drutchas steering gear") utilizes a D.C. electric assist motor driven through an H-bridge arrangement. The motor encircles a steering member. The steering member has a thread convolution portion and a portion having straight cut rack teeth thereon. Energization of the electric assist motor causes linear movement of the steering member through a ball-nut drive arrangement driven by the motor in combination with the thread convolution portion of the steering member. A torque sensing device is coupled to the steering column to sense driver applied steering input torque to the steering wheel. The torque sensing device uses a magnet Hall-effect sensor arrangement for sensing relative rotation between the input and pinion shafts across a torsion bar. An electronic control unit monitors the signal from the torque sensing device and controls the electric assist motor in response thereto.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,671 disclosed an electric controlled steering system that is based on the Drutchas steering gear. In accordance with the '671 patent, a D.C. motor is axially spaced from the ball-nut and is operatively connected thereto through a connection tube. The electronic control unit includes a plurality of diagnostic features that monitor the operation of the steering system. If an error in the operation of the electric steering system is detected, the electric assist system is disabled and steering reverts to an unassisted mode.
Hydraulic power assist steering systems have an inherent yaw damping characteristic that is effective during a steering maneuver. A yaw damping characteristic in a power assist steering system is particularly important when the vehicle is traveling at a relatively high speed. It is, therefore, desirable to provide such a yaw damping characteristic in an electric assist steering system that would, at least, simulate that provided by a hydraulic power assist steering system and, preferably, improve thereupon.
A known prior art electric assist steering system provided damping by switching a load resistor across the electric assist motor when the vehicle speed exceeded a predetermined value. When the vehicle speed was below the predetermined value or when applied steering torque exceeded a predetermined amount, the resistor was disconnected from across the motor. This method of damping was used to control the yaw rate of the vehicle when the road wheels returned after a turn.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,828 to Miller et al., disclosed a method and apparatus for controlling damping in an electric assist steering system for vehicle yaw rate control. A control circuit modifies a motor control signal in response to a sensed motor speed and sensed vehicle speed signal so as to provide damping that is functionally related to both the motor speed and the vehicle speed for vehicle yaw rate control.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/331,962, filed Oct. 31, 1994 to Miller disclosed a yaw rate damping arrangement for an electric assist steering system in which a non-linear damping characteristic is provided in response to the sensed rotational rate of the electric assist motor. The damping characteristic is adjusted in response to the sensed vehicle speed so that damping increases as sensed vehicle speed increases. Specifically, an electric assist steering system includes a torque sensor means for sensing applied steering torque and providing a torque signal having a value indicative of the applied steering torque. Means provides a torque demand signal having a value functionally related to the applied steering torque. An electric assist variable reluctance motor is operatively connected to a steering member for, when energized, providing steering assist. The variable reluctance motor has a rotor and a stator. Rotor position relative to the stator is sensed and motor speed is derived therefrom. A motor control signal is provided in response to torque demand signal. Vehicle speed sensing means are provided for sensing vehicle speed and for providing a vehicle speed signal indicative thereof. Means are provided for modifying the motor control signal in response to the motor speed and the vehicle speed signal so as to provide damping as a non-linear function of both the sensed motor speed and the vehicle speed.
It is desirable to provide yaw rate control in an electric assist steering system under a situation that the vehicle speed signal is lost and the steering system is operating in an even quadrant mode, i.e., the steering input torque is not in the same direction as the steering output motion.

Method and apparatus for damping control of an electric assist steering system with vehicle speed signal loss feature