A target for sputtering includes a sputtering material layer having tilt surfaces. Sputtering material particles are emitted from the tilt surfaces in directions of their normals. Consequently, even though the target and a substrate are arranged approximately parallel and the axes of the two are coincident with each other, the particles are injected onto the substrate from oblique directions.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a target for sputtering used in manufacturing a magnetic recording medium, and to a method for manufacturing a magnetic recording medium using such a target.
2. Background Art
The surface recording density of hard disk media has continued to increase. A medium with a recording density of as high as 70 Gb/in2 has been commercialized. The increased recording density, however, is accompanied by a problem of thermal instability of recording bits. In addition, media noise should be reduced.
To achieve thermal stability and reduced media noise, methods have been tried in which magnetic anisotropy is given to a magnetic layer of a magnetic disk medium. One of the methods forms a texture that is a pattern of convex and concave lines, on a nonmagnetic substrate of the magnetic disk medium, and deposits material on the textured substrate surface to provide magnetic anisotropy in the circumferential direction of the disk.
Some other methods give the magnetic anisotropy to a magnetic layer of the disk by tilting the direction of incident particle beam from the target to the substrate.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-14664 discloses a method in which a mask having slits with one of various shapes is placed between the target and the substrate. The particles sputtered on the target travel through slits or holes of the mask in which only the particles with a defined tilt (angular direction) reach the substrate, so that planar anisotropy is given to the deposited magnetic layer.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H7-057237 discloses a method of tilting the incident angle of particles from a target to a substrate. This method is illustrated in FIGS. 9(a) and 9(b) of the present drawings. In the relative positions of a target 31 and a substrate 32 shown in FIG. 9(a), the axes of the two are displaced, keeping the axes in parallel from an original arrangement in which the surfaces of the two disks are parallel and the two axes are coincident, so that the incident angle is tilted from a right angle to an angle φ. In the relative positions shown in FIG. 9(b), the axis of a substrate 32 is tilted from the original arrangement to an angle φ.
A so-called perpendicular recording system is now extensively studied for improving thermal stability and enhancing recording density in which magnetization is perpendicular to the magnetic layer plane. Also being studied is a so-called longitudinal recording system in which magnetization is along the track direction, which is a principal scanning direction. The perpendicular recording system particularly involves a problem of noise from a soft magnetic layer of a recording medium. A possibility has been suggested that this type of noise can be reduced by giving the soft magnetic film anisotropy in a circumferential or radial direction. In a perpendicular recording medium with coercivity higher than 7 kOe, the writing process becomes difficult because the magnetic field intensity generated by the write head is not enough to treat that high coercivity. This problem can be addressed by reducing the coercivity by growing magnetic particles of the recording layer in a tilted direction rather than in a right angle direction, and tilting the major axis of the magnetic particles. Thus, tilting the direction of the incident particle beam to the substrate is useful in a perpendicular recording system as well.
The above-described method, which uses a mask, however, involves a problem that only a fraction of the total of emitted particles reach the substrate by traveling through the slits or holes in the mask. Therefore, the deposition speed of the magnetic film is slow, the performance of the film is not satisfactory, and the deposition process takes a long time. Since the particles trapped on the mask are useless, the efficiency of target utilization is low. Consequently, one target allows the production of only a small number of substrates. Since the particles attached to the mask may become harmful dust, frequent cleaning of the mask is required. These unfavorable facts increase the costs of manufacturing recording media.
In the method, to tilt one of the axes of the target and relative to that of the substrate as shown in prior art FIG. 9(b), nearer portion 32a is situated with a smaller distance between the substrate and the target, while farther portion 32b is situated with a larger distance between them. Thus, a large difference in the distance to the target occurs on the substrate surface. As a result, a homogeneous film cannot be deposited. The efficiency of target utilization is also low. By the method to shift the relative positions of the axes of the target and the substrate as shown in prior art FIG. 9(a), many particles do not enter the substrate and are useless, resulting in a low efficiency of target utilization. In addition, the above-described methods cannot give magnetic anisotropy in a circumferential direction of the substrate.

Target for sputtering and a method for manufacturing a magnetic recording medium using the target

Fuji Electric Device Technology Co., Ltd.


In the fuel nozzle, the fuel is circulated in a helical path around the interface of a stem of the fuel nozzle and a flange for increase the cooling.

In a gas turbine engine, fuel burns within the combustor to generate heat so as to provide energy to the turbine section of the engine. The generated heat being very intense, some of it tends to spread to parts surrounding the combustor, such as the fuel nozzles. A number of these fuel nozzles is provided around the combustor to supply fuel. Oftentimes, fuel flowing in the fuel nozzles remove some of the heat therein and prevent their temperature from rising during a high power operation. However, when the flow of fuel is reduced after a high power operation, such as during a descent of an aircraft, the internal temperature of the entire fuel nozzles may increase. Accordingly, O-rings provided at the inlet of the fuel nozzles are made of a material capable of withstanding these high temperatures. High-temperature O-rings, however, are significantly more costly than O-rings made of rubber or other materials with a lower thermal resistance. Given the number of fuel nozzles in a gas turbine engine and the number of O-rings that must be used at each fuel nozzle inlet, room for improvements in fuel nozzle designs exists.


A filter press includes a frame, a hydraulic system for compressing and releasing filter plates, the filter plates, a filter chamber, a feed pump, a high-pressure clean water pump, a control system, a rotating plate, a cake removal knife, a squeeze disc, a squeeze disc sleeve, a drive shaft, a brake, a left pull rod, a right pull rod, a pull rod disc, a connector and clutches. The filter cake in the entire filter press can be removed without opening the filter plates in sequence. The filter cake washing is carried out in an enclosed room in a normal direction and a reverse direction, which can not only maintain the dryness and cleanness of the working environment, but also can effectively collect, process treat and recycle the washing water, thus achieving the zero discharge of waste water to meet the environmental requirements at a low cost.

The filtering process of current filter presses requires that a significant external force be exerted to tightly press the filter units. When the feed pump is deactivated, the filter cake is forced under pressure to pass through membranes, or is directly removed by opening the filter plates in sequence for washing. Alternatively, some prior devices vibrate the filter plates or disengage the filter cloths from the filter plates in sequence to remove the filter cake. Washing the filter cake is typically done in an open space where it is difficult to maintain the ambient in a dry and clean condition. Using open spaces for washing also presents inconveniences and adds expense relating to the treatment, use and recycling of the washing water. The filter cake discharge and washing are labor intensive, time consuming and thus have low efficiency as well. Other shortcomings of prior solid-liquid filtering systems and methods are related to the materials themselves. The membranes are expensive and have a short service life. And compressed air used to force-squeeze the filter cake requires large and cumbersome mechanical equipment that takes up needed operation space and produces excessive noise.


A cutter for cutting flexible material held on a roll thereof. The cutter has a frame that mounts a drop in roll of flexible material and a drop in tensioning roller in an open end of the frame. The cutter has a cutting area that is generally enclosed and houses a plurality of slitting knives and a tear off cutting blade. The cutting area has an entrance and exit slot for the material with the slitting knives slitting the material as it passes through the cutting area. The slit material can exit through the exit slot. After a predetermined length has been pulled forwardly relative to the cutting blade the slit material can be cut into pieces by tearing it against the cutting blade. A length determining gage allows pieces of a precise length to be cut. The material is pulled through the cutter by a set of feed rollers contained within the cutting area.

In the embroidery field, a backing material made from a flexible felt or fabric type material is used on the back of the item being embroidered to receive the stitching. The size of the required piece of backing material varies depending on the size of the area receiving the embroidery. The user must cut a piece of backing material of approximately the right size and use it behind the area being embroidered. Thus, there is often a need in this field, as in many others, to cut a square or rectangular piece of material from a bolt or roll of such material.
Prior to this invention, the typical way of cutting a piece of backing material was to pull the material off the roll by hand and to then use a pair of scissors to manually cut the material both widthwise and lengthwise. While effective, this method was time consuming and clumsy. It is difficult to precisely cut the material using only scissors. It is difficult to accurately measure the material before cutting.
Various machines are known from various fields for slitting material provided on rolls. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,818 to Stringfellow discloses a machine for slitting felt used as a roofing material. U.S. Pat. No. 3,971,279 to Wright shows a machine for slitting columns of printed text from a roll of paper to use the text columns to paste up a page of newsprint. Wright includes a fixed cutting blade or bar for tearing off the paper at the end of the text columns.
Slitting and cutting machines such as Wright have various disadvantages. For example, they are generally hard to use and adjust. They have no provision for easily and accurately setting or adjusting the slitting knives or for measuring the width and length of the cut pieces. Accordingly, they would not be particularly usefully for cutting pieces of embroidery material, or similar flexible material, where one need is for simplicity and ease of use and another need is for accurately cut pieces of material.


The present invention is a photographic element which includes a support, at least one light sensitive silver halide layer superposed on the support, and a protective overcoat layer overlying the light sensitive silver halide layer. The protective overcoat layer includes a hydrophilic binder and permanent matte particles. The permanent matte particles are greater than 80 mole percent isobutyl methacrylate.

It is conventional to incorporate finely powdered grains or matting agents into the protective layer of a photographic element to increase the surface roughness to achieve the following: (1) reduce self-adhering of the material, (2) reduce sticking of the material to manufacturing and processing devices, (3) improve the antistatic properties of the material, and (4) improve the vacuum adhesiveness of the material in contact exposure to prevent Newton's rings. The matting agents are commonly very small particles of organic or inorganic materials, such as silicone dioxide, magnesium oxide, titanium dioxide, calcium carbonate, poly(methyl methacrylate), poly(vinyltoluene), poly(methyl methacrylate-co-methacrylic acid), and so on.
Matting of the protective layer suffers, however, from various disadvantages. For example, it reduces the transparency of the photographic elements after processing, increases the graininess of the picture, and causes scratches.
In recent years, rapid processing and high temperature drying after processing have become common practice for photographic materials. The high temperature dried films, for example 60.degree. C. (harsh drying), tend to aggravate ferrotyping which results from close contact, especially under elevated humidity and temperature. When ferrotyping is sufficiently severe, the resulting prints are unacceptable. Films dried at lower temperatures, for example 40.degree. C. (mild drying), tend to show much less ferrotyping. The reason for this difference is not understood.
Also, in recent years, the conditions under which the photographic materials are manufactured or utilized have become even more severe, either because their application have become extended, for example, in an atmosphere of high humidity and high temperature, or because the methods for their preparation have been advanced, for example, the use of high speed coatings, high speed finishing and cutting, and fast processing, or because their emulsion layers have been progressively thinned. Under these conditions, the aforementioned photographic materials are more severely scratched.
Therefore a foremost objective of this invention is to provide a photographic element with excellent image quality, and superior resistance to sticking and ferrotyping between front and back sides even at high temperatures and in moist environments, while still providing improved resistance to scratching.

Photographic element having a protective overcoat


Provided is a doubly-fed induction generator system and a self-test method for the active crowbar circuit of the doubly-fed induction generator system. The invention is featured by using the controller of the doubly-fed induction generator system to carry out a self-test procedure to detect the loop current of the active crowbar circuit for determining if the active crowbar circuit can be turned on and off normally. Also, the rotor-side converter and the active crowbar circuit of the doubly-fed induction generator system are forbidden to turn on simultaneously during the execution of the self-test procedure.

The contemporary wind turbine principally employs a doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) as the major wind generator. When the power grid is abnormal and the voltage of point of common connection (PCC) is sagged, the doubly-fed induction generator has to keep connected to the grid until the grid returns to the normal state, thereby riding through this low-voltage period (zone). Therefore, the doubly-fed induction generator generally is required to have the function of low-voltage ride-through (LVRT). Nowadays, the most common LVRT technique applied to the doubly-fed induction generator is active crowbar circuit. The active crowbar circuit is used to protect the rotor-side circuitry of the doubly-fed induction generator by shorting it and absorbing the inrush current flowing in the rotor-side circuitry of the DFIG when the voltage of the grid is sagged and a transient over-voltage condition and over-current condition are occurred to the rotor-side circuitry of the DFIG accordingly.
The conventional active crowbar circuit is connected in parallel with the rotor of the doubly-fed induction generator, and includes a rectifier bridge and an IGBT (insulated-gate bipolar transistor) switch as well as a resistor for absorbing the inrush current. Each rectifier arm of the rectifier bridge is consisted of two serially-connected diodes, and the IGBT switch and the absorption resistor are placed on the DC side of the active crowbar circuit. In addition, in order to ensure that the active crowbar circuit can turn on and off normally, the active crowbar circuit has to carry out a self-test procedure after the doubly-fed induction generator is powered on for detecting if the active crowbar circuit can operate normally. The conventional self-test method for active crowbar circuit includes the following types. The first type of the self-test method is to detect if the voltage of the rectifier bridge of the active crowbar circuit is zero. However, the disadvantage of such type of self-test method is that the voltage across the bridge arm is uncertain due to the parasite capacitors when the IGBT switch of the active crowbar circuit is turned off. Therefore, the threshold voltage for testing if the IGBT switch is turned on is difficult to design, and a voltage sensor is needed for voltage detection. The second type of self-test method is to detect the current of the active crowbar circuit to determine if the IGBT switch of the active crowbar circuit is turned on. However, such type of self-test method also has some disadvantages. This is because the resistance of the active crowbar circuit is generally very small, e.g. smaller than 1Ω. If the rotor-side converter and the IGBT switch of the active crowbar circuit are turned on simultaneously by the PWM signal, it will cause the over-current problem to the rotor-side converter.
Hence, the applicants endeavor to develop a doubly-fed induction generator system and a self-test method for the active crowbar circuit thereof. With the invention, the active crowbar circuit of the doubly-fed induction generator system can be self-tested without causing the over-current problem to the rotor-side converter of the doubly-fed induction generator.

Doubly-fed induction generator system and the self-test method for the active crowbar circuit thereof


The present invention relates to a device for continuously regulating the erection of a tandem axle of a vehicle or a self-moving working machine having a vehicle frame and at least one drive axle, wherein a tandem drive axle with a movable tandem axle housing is respectively disposed at the ends of the drive axle, and the torque introduced by the drive axle is mechanically distributed to the wheels disposed in the tandem axle housing through the drive tandem axle. Therein, the drive axle is coaxially connected to the drive tandem axle through a ball ramp device, wherein the ball ramp device is comprised of a first ball ramp disk connected to an end of the drive tandem axle opposing an end of the drive axle, and a second ball ramp disk disposed in an axially displaceable manner at the end of the drive tandem axle, and the distance L between the second ball ramp disk and the first ball ramp disk is increased by a torque of the drive tandem axle counteracting the drive torque, wherein the second ball ramp disk is operatively connected to a piston, and a pressure with a value of P1 is produced in a volume by the axial movement of the second ball ramp disk, wherein P1 is passed to a control valve, and the control valve controls the level of a system pressure P3 or P4 depending on P1, and a resulting pressure with the value of P2 serves for controlling a compensating device for achieving a compensating torque counteracting the erection effect. The invention further relates to a method for continuously regulating the erection of a tandem axle of a vehicle or a self-moving working machine.

The present invention relates to a device for continuously regulating the erection of a drive tandem axle of a vehicle or a self-moving working machine having a vehicle frame and at least one drive axle, wherein a drive tandem axle having a movable tandem axle housing is respectively disposed at the ends of the drive axle, and the torque introduced by the drive axle is mechanically distributed through the drive tandem axle to the wheels disposed in the tandem axle housing. The invention further relates to a method for continuous regulation of the erection of a tandem axle of a vehicle or a self-moving working machine.
Such devices for regulating the erection of a drive tandem axle of a vehicle or a self-moving working machine are known. Tandem axles or also boogie axles have the disadvantage that the axle beam erects more or less independently of transmission ratios and the geometrical ratios when a torque is introduced. Thereby, non-uniform distribution of the wheel load between the front and rear wheels results, which are disposed at the respective ends of the axle beams.
Thereby, it occurs that at least one of the wheels loses road grip or the load on soil is greatly reduced, respectively. Since the described tandem axles are mainly used in forest machines, tipping trucks and graders, which especially operate in pathless terrain, this results in great restrictions during operation of the corresponding vehicles and in different tire wear.
In order to prevent the mentioned erection effect, in known devices, a transmission of 1:1 or nearly 1:1 is used in the axle beam. However, this is disadvantageous in that the components within the axle beam have to transmit a high torque and thus are appropriately largely dimensioned. Therefore, such axle beams become very expensive, heavy and lose ground clearance. Further known devices for preventing an erection effect of a tandem axle use a double planetary gearing or a measuring gearing and use the back torque thereof to reduce the erection effect. Corresponding devices are described in DE-A1-19802371 and in DE-A1-4120801. However, these devices are disadvantageous in that the back torque is not able to be adjusted in its magnitude and is always proportional to the input torque. An erection effect, which can also be desirable in some driving situations, is not able to be caused. The front or rear wheel of the tandem axle, respectively, is not able to be intentionally lifted by this mechanism.
Another device known from the prior art is described in DE-A1-19616405. This device uses hydraulic cylinders attached externally between a tandem box and the vehicle frame and pressurized with pressure that is switched proportionally to the operational pressure of a driving hydraulic motor. However, this is disadvantageous in that the external hydraulic cylinders are susceptible, since they are exposed to the environmental influences. Additionally, the installation between vehicle frame and tandem beam is expensive and restricts the independent freedom of movement of the tandem axle. Distinct control of the left and right sides is not possible.
Finally, DE-U1-20217910 describes a device for regulating the erection of a tandem axle, wherein a housing of a pressurizable rotary piston cylinder is fixedly connected to an axle housing of a drive axle, and a movable piston of the rotary piston cylinder drives a succeeding planetary gearing having a planetary axle and planet pinions, wherein the planetary axle of the planetary gearing is fixedly connected to the axle housing or the housing of the rotary piston cylinder, and the planet pinions act on a toothed wheel connected to a tandem axle housing. By interposing a rotary piston cylinder and the planetary gearing succeeding the rotary piston cylinder, it is possible to exert a predefined pressure on the tandem axle housing and to either counteract an erection effect of the tandem axle or to perform active lift of the tandem axle. Therein, the rotational direction of the rotary piston is reversed by the planetary gearing upon pressurization such that corresponding counter-torques act on the tandem axle housing. However, this device is disadvantageous in that also herein the predefined and controllable pressure is always in a fixed ratio to a theoretically occurring erection torque. Separate regulation of the erection effect of the individual tandem axles considering the respectively occurring actual torques is not possible.
Therefore, it is the object of the present invention to provide a device and a method for continuous regulation of the erection of a tandem axle of a vehicle or a self-moving working machine, which reliably prevents the unwanted erection of the tandem axle to a predeterminable extent on the one hand, and allows for separate regulation of the erection effect of the individual tandem axles considering the respectively occurring actual torques on the other hand.
This object is solved by a device and a method for continuous regulation of the erection of a tandem axle having the features of the independent claims 1 and 11.
Advantageous developments are described in the respective dependent claims.

Device and method for continuous regulation of the erection of a tandem axle


The electrical characteristics of a transistor including an oxide semiconductor layer are varied by influence of an insulating film in contact with the oxide semiconductor layer, that is, by an interface state between the oxide semiconductor layer and the insulating film. A first oxide semiconductor layer S1, a second oxide semiconductor layer S2, and a third oxide semiconductor layer S3 are sequentially stacked, so that the oxide semiconductor layer through which carriers flow is separated from the gate insulating film containing silicon. The thickness of the first oxide semiconductor layer S1 is preferably smaller than those of the second oxide semiconductor layer S2 and the third oxide semiconductor layer S3, and is less than or equal to 10 nm, preferably less than or equal to 5 nm.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor and a manufacturing method of the semiconductor device.
In this specification, a semiconductor device means a device which can function by utilizing semiconductor characteristics, and an electrooptic device, a semiconductor circuit, and an electronic device are all semiconductor devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, semiconductor devices have been developed to be used mainly for an LSI, a CPU, or a memory. A CPU is an aggregation of semiconductor elements each provided with an electrode which is a connection terminal, which includes a semiconductor integrated circuit (including at least a transistor and a memory) separated from a semiconductor wafer.
A semiconductor circuit (IC chip) of an LSI, a CPU, or a memory is mounted on a circuit board, for example, a printed wiring board, to be used as one of components of a variety of electronic devices.
A technique for manufacturing a transistor by using an oxide semiconductor film for a channel formation region, or the like has been attracting attention. Examples of such a transistor include a transistor in which zinc oxide (ZnO) is used as an oxide semiconductor film and a transistor in which InGaO3(ZnO)m is used as an oxide semiconductor film. A technique in which a switching element, such as a transistor, in which a channel formation region is formed in an oxide semiconductor film is used for manufacturing an active matrix display device has also been developed.
Patent Document 1 discloses a three-layer structure in which a first multi-component oxide semiconductor layer is provided over a substrate, a one-component oxide semiconductor layer is stacked over the first multi-component oxide semiconductor layer, and a second multi-component oxide semiconductor layer is stacked over the one-component oxide semiconductor layer.
Non-Patent Document 1 discloses a transistor having a stack of oxide semiconductors.

Semiconductor device including oxide semiconductor layer

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


Methods and apparatus to provide rounding of a binary integer are described. In one embodiment, a value that indicates whether a divisor divides a binary integer is extracted from a product of the binary integer and a scaled approximate reciprocal of the divisor.

The present disclosure generally relates to the field of electronics. More particularly, an embodiment of the invention relates to rounding of binary integers.
When performing arithmetic computations, some computers may use circuitry that operates on binary bits. Some applications (such as financial applications) may, however, operate on decimal integers, and in some situations the results of any division or rounding may need to be accurate.
To provide an accurate result, decimal numbers may be represented in binary form. For example, seven bits (e.g., "1111111") may be used to represent the decimal number "127" in its binary form. Such a binary representation may allow the circuitry designed for binary operations to perform certain tasks (such as addition and multiplication) relatively quickly, but using the same circuitry for rounding decimal numbers (e.g., such as in a division by 10 or 100) may result in performance loss, in part, because it may involve several computational cycles. Alternatively, decimal numbers may be represented through binary coded decimal (BCD) encoding, where four binary bits are used to represent each decimal integer. Accordingly, twelve bits may be used to represent the decimal number "127" instead of seven bits discussed previously. However, while BCD representations may ensure correctness in some situations, these representations may also result in performance loss, in part, because the logic circuitry would have to operate on a relatively larger number of binary bits.


A flat spring of a vehicular seat is elastically supported by means of supporting springs that extend in accordance with the load of an occupant. The seat has displacement sensors, first-stage determination step, second-stage determination step, and third-stage determination step. The displacement sensors output electrical signals corresponding to the respective elongations of the springs. The first-stage determination step determines the occupant in the seat in accordance with voltage values delivered from the displacement sensors. The second-stage determination step determines whether or not the result of determination by the first-stage determination step is maintained for a given period of time. The third-stage determination step compares the result of determination by the second-stage determination step with the preceding result of determination and specifies the occupant in accordance with the result of the comparison.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a seat used in a vehicle, such as an automobile, and more particularly, to an occupant discriminating method therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to a known method that is described in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-180353, for example, the load of an occupant in a seat of a vehicle is detected to recognize occupancy of the seat, in order to control an airbag and seatbelt retracting properly.
Further, an occupant discrimination control method is proposed to discriminate the state of occupancy of a seat that has a load receiving member, which is attached to the frame of a seat cushion by means of springs. According to this control method, loads that act at least on the front, rear, left-hand, and right-hand parts of the load receiving member are detected, and the sum total of the loads is obtained. This sum total is compared with a threshold value for occupant determination to discriminate the size of the occupant. Furthermore, the differences between the loads that act individually on the front and rear parts of the load receiving member and between the loads that act individually on the left- and right-hand parts are compared with their corresponding threshold values.
In some cases, however, a vehicle may be swung by the irregularities of a road surface, change of the course, etc., and a seated occupant may move his/her body as the vehicle runs. In the conventional occupant discrimination control method, as described above, the occupant is determined in accordance with only the detected values of the loads that act on the front, rear, left-hand, and right-hand parts of the seat cushion. According to this method, however, the occupant may be wrongly determined owing to vibration that acts on the vehicle and the occupant's behavior.

Occupant discriminating method for vehicular seat


The present invention is an device and method for providing an improved transducer for musical instruments.

No prior art can be found which discloses the present invention. No patents, no publications and no known application disclose the method or apparatus of the present invention,
The prior art has produced many varieties of effective transducers for stringed instruments, however all suffer from one major drawback and that is the ease with which they can be properly placed on an instrument so as to given an undistorted signal. Except for the present invention, all existing, known or commercial transducers are very sensitive to the precise placement of the transducer on the surface of an instrument. This factor gives rise to considerable frustration and to the expenditure of many hours of tedious labor. The attaching process itself is also a problem, in that, as the attaching method can affect the result and commonly results in the production of a very distorted and unacceptable output signal. The effective distances involved are commonly measured in less than 0.001″. Currently it requires patience, days or weeks of effort and considerable experience to properly place a transducer on an instrument. Further, many of the adhesives require 24 hours to 72 hours to fully dry, thus extending the time required for installation.
This placement problem has been long standing for many decades and is completely resolved by the present invention. The present invention is a new transducer, which can be placed over a much larger area on the instrument, an enlarged sweet spot, with the welcome result of allowing relatively quick installation and the avoidance of creating unwanted distortion. For a given model or type of instrument, an experienced technician can routinely and effectively place this new transducer on a stringed instrument in 5 to 10 minutes.
The new transducer can be affixed using any of a wide variety of adhesives and the, issue of drying time is not a concern. Given the fact that the components which are or which may be utilized in implementing the present invention are currently in common use for this type of application, references are given below so as to elaborate upon the unexpectedly superior performance realized by the present invention when compared with existing technologies.
Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 6,706,957, Steven L. Merkel, deals with means associated with a slotted guitar fretboard and thus is not applicable to the present invention.
Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 6,689,948, Heikki Eero Raisanen, refers to a transducer that is "uniform throughout its length" and thus is inapplicable to the present invention. Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 6,689,943, Michael D. McGuire, Jr, refers to a device that is built into the instrument and therefore is not applicable to the present invention.
Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 6,605,771, Lloyd R. Baggs, relies upon a series of gaps which are monitored and from which detection occurs. The application is remote from the present invention.
Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 6,476,309, Giovanni Gaglio, refers to a magnetic pickup that is employed in a distinguishable manner from the present invention.
Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 6,271,457, Willairn Hudak, recites a means dependent upon a pair of sensors that support a mechanical interface, which is a technology, unrelated to the present invention.
Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,018, Arnie Lazarus, at last we are dealing with a device, which is somewhat similar to the present invention in many ways to include placement, power supply, signal extraction and sensor type. Although this device has been in used for about 3 decades, it is extremely sensitive to placement and is the precise type of transducer, which has created such difficulties when being installed. It does not teach the present invention.
All of these transducers lack the favorable characteristics of the present invention. The referenced patents, all of which are typical of the patents found in the field of transducers, fail to realize or to teach the advantages of the present invention.

Abstract: It an object of the present invention to provide a transducer which, because of its design, can be placed on or within a musical instrument quickly and effectively.

Abstract: It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a transducer which is effective over an enlarged area or sweet spot.

Abstract: It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a transducer with increased gain.

Abstract: These and other objects an advantages of the present invention will become clear to those skilled in the art in view of the description of the best presently known mode of carrying out the invention and the applicability of the preferred embodiment as described herein and as illustrated in the several figures of the drawings.


A blockchain of transactions may be referenced for various purposes and may be later accessed by interested parties for ledger verification and information retrieval. One example method of operation may include extracting obligation data from one or more of documents and rules, identifying transaction data from one or more blockchain transactions, creating one or more transaction contexts based on the transaction data, comparing the obligation data to the transaction data to identify whether the one or more transaction contexts are subject to the obligation data, and creating a notification including a current compliance status between the transaction contexts and the obligation data.

The blockchain may be used as a public ledger to store any type of information. Although, primarily used for financial transactions, the blockchain can store any type of information including assets (i.e., products, packages, services, status, etc.). The blockchain may be used to securely store any type of information in its immutable ledger. Decentralized consensus is different from the traditional centralized consensus, such as when one central database used to rule transaction validity. A decentralized scheme transfers authority and trusts to a decentralized network and enables its nodes to continuously and sequentially record their transactions on a public "block," creating a unique "chain" referred to as the blockchain. Cryptography, via hash codes, is used to secure the authentication of the transaction source and removes the need for a central intermediary.
In today's highly regulated and global environment, organizations have to comply with compliance, regulatory policies, and industry standards for most all products and services offered by such organizations. It is often challenging to design a transaction system ingested with all the obligations. Moreover, regulatory policies or industry standards are constantly experiencing changes, but transaction systems may not be able to respond to the changes quickly.

Cognitive regulatory compliance automation of blockchain transactions

International Business Machines Corporation


Systems and methods are provided for using an electric machine as a generator to control boost during an engine cold start. In one example, a method may include receiving a request to increase an engine load during the engine cold start, determining an available capacity of a battery, operating the electric machine as a generator to increase the engine load with an electrical load, and responsive to the available capacity of the battery being less than a charge threshold, charging the battery with the electrical load while generating an increased boost pressure with an electric boosting device by powering the electric boosting device via the battery, and coordinating an amount of the increased boost pressure to compensate the electrical load. By increasing the engine load during the engine cold start, an exhaust gas temperature may be increased to achieve catalyst light-off.

Diesel engines may provide high torque and increased fuel economy as compared to gasoline engines. However, the temperature of diesel exhaust gases is lower than that of many gasoline engines. Therefore, it may take longer for a catalyst in an exhaust system of the diesel engine to reach a temperature threshold where high catalyst efficiency is achieved (e.g., a catalyst light-off temperature) after an engine cold start. Further, many diesel engines are turbocharged to increase engine output, and exhaust gas heat is extracted by the turbocharger. Consequently, even less exhaust gas heat may be available to light off the catalyst. As a result of prolonging an amount of time before the catalyst reaches its light-off temperature, in some examples vehicle emissions may be increased.
Other attempts to address expediting catalyst light-off in diesel engine systems include increasing a load of the engine during the cold start. One example approach is shown by Peters et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,657,315. Therein, an electric motor/generator is used to generate a negative torque during cold start conditions in order to increase the load on the engine. The increased load increases exhaust mass flow and heat, thereby reducing a light-off time of a catalytic converter.
However, the inventors herein have recognized potential issues with such systems. As one example, a system battery may be unable to accept additional charge when its state of charge (SOC) is greater than a threshold amount (e.g., the system battery is fully charged). Therefore, the SOC of the system battery at engine start may not enable the prolonged charging that may occur when using the electric motor/generator to increase the engine load and thereby achieve catalyst light-off.
Accordingly, the inventors herein have provided systems and methods to at least partly address the above issues. One example includes a method including receiving a request to increase an engine load during an engine cold start, determining an available capacity of a battery, operating an electric machine as a generator to increase the engine load with an electrical load, and responsive to the available capacity of the battery being less than a charge threshold, charging the battery with the first electrical load while generating an increased boost pressure with an electric boosting device (e.g., turbocharger) by powering the electric boosting device via the battery, and coordinating the an amount of the increased boost pressure to compensate the electrical load. In this way, the electric machine may be used to increase the load on the engine to expedite catalyst heating during an engine cold start even when the battery is fully charged.
In one example, a target boost pressure may be determined based on an electrical load to be consumed by the electric boosting device. However, in some examples, the electric boosting device may generate a boost pressure different from the target boost pressure. Thus, one or more of an intake throttle and a bypass valve of a turbine of the electric boosting device may be adjusted to match the boost pressure to the target boost pressure. In additional or alternative examples wherein the turbine is a variable nozzle turbine (VNT), an aspect ratio of the VNT may be adjusted. In this way, the electric boosting device may consume charge from the battery to generate boost pressure in a controlled manner, thereby helping to maintain emissions during the engine load increase. In some examples, excess boost pressure may be used to retard ignition timing, improving fuel economy and thereby reducing emissions.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.

Systems and methods for controlling boost during an engine cold start


A near-adiabatic engine has four stages in a cycle: a means of near adiabatically expanding the working fluid during the downstroke (expansion stroke); a means of cooling the working fluid at Bottom Dead Center (BDC); a means of near adiabatically compressing that cooled fluid from the lower pressure/temperature level at BDC to the higher level at Top Dead Center (TDC); and finally, a means of passing that working fluid back into the high pressure/temperature source in a balanced condition with minimal resistance to that flow.

The most efficient heat engines up to this disclosure, Stirling engines, invented 200 years ago, lose 30% efficiency because they expand and compress their internally cycling working fluid from the volumes incasing their heating exchanger and cooling reservoir, and hence their fluid is heated and cooled near-isothermally during the strokes so that some of the added heat cannot be fully converted to its full work output potential.
Ever since, thermodynamic specialists have sought ways to retrieve this balance. The Second Law states that heat always flows from a higher to a lower level. Some specialists have confused this quest to retrieve the balance by misinterpreting the Second Law of Thermodynamics to mean a fluid cannot be cycled from a low to a high energy level. In fact, to be near-adiabatic, a bolus of cycled working fluid must be cycled to a higher level before being reheated, batched back into the engine and expanded. This disclosed near-adiabatic engine does not pass its heat from a low to a high level, breaking the Second Law. Rather its working fluid is cycled from a lower pressure condition to a higher pressure condition in a balance of forces much like a boat passes through a canal lock. When raised, in this disclosure, the raised level is used to power the next downstroke (expansion stroke). But, after cycling, heat is added to that cycled fluid from an outside source.
Overall thermal efficiencies of typical four-stroke spark-ignited piston engines are in the ˜20-30% range while four-stroke diesels achieve 30-40% range. The primary source of inefficiency in these engines is the loss of sensible enthalpy in the exhaust. This is less of a problem in closed cycle engines such as Stirlings where efficiencies of up to ˜38% have been demonstrated in automotive applications. However, the performance of these engines suffers from the fact that a significant portion of heat is added during the power-stroke (expansion phase of the cycle) and during the recompression phase, thus increasing the entropy during the cycle. This effect is a direct consequence of how the displacer piston transfers fluid between the working cylinder and the hot and cold reservoirs. Hundreds of billions of dollars-worth of heat energy could be converted into electricity every year, if a cost-efficient heat-driven generator is developed. The Carnot principle indicates that a set amount of energy is available within a given temperature range that can be converted from heat to power if a way can be found to efficiently convert it.


A valve assembly configured to maintain a seal during thermal cycling includes a valve body defining a flow passage, and a fluid control member disposed in the flow passage for controlling the flow of fluid. An actuating shaft is interconnected with the fluid control member for moving the fluid control member. A housing including an internal wall defining a shaft bore is connected to the valve body, and the actuating shaft extends through the shaft bore with the internal wall of the housing radially spaced from the actuating shaft to define a sealing cavity. A seal is located within the sealing cavity for inhibiting fluid flow between the actuating shaft and the housing. The seal includes a plurality of first surfaces and the housing defines a plurality of opposed surfaces such that sealing contact of the seal with the actuating shaft and the housing is maintained during thermal cycling.

The invention relates to a valve seal of a valve assembly.
As discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,758 to Bramblet, it has been known to use a "fire-resistant" packing including a first set of packing rings of elastomeric material and a second set of packing rings of graphite composition to provide a valve stem seal at both normal operating temperature conditions and abnormally high temperature conditions.
As discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,326,074 to Spock, Jr. et al., in valves designed for use in environments subject to thermal cycling, it has been known to dimension a sealing cavity to compensate for thermally induced relative dimensional changes between metallic structural members and sealing materials.


[Problem] To propose a hybrid lens unit comprising a hybrid lens and a guide component which can be manufactured with a low cost and a method thereof.

A hybrid lens, in which a thin aspherical resin layer is formed on a curved surface of a spherical glass lens, has been used in a situation with the need of a complicated aspherical shape, a large-diameter lens, or an aspherical meniscus lens, which is difficult to be formed of a glass lens.
In general, a glass lens has high environmental capability, and hence the glass lens less deteriorates in optical performance over the temperature, humidity, ultraviolet rays, etc., as compared with a resin lens. However, if the aspherical lens is manufactured with glass as described above, the glass has many limitations upon manufacturing. Owing to this, a hybrid lens using a spherical glass lens, which is relatively easily manufactured, is widely used.
As described above, the hybrid lens is used instead of the aspherical glass lens. Patent Literature 1 discloses an imaging hybrid lens as an example of positively employing the hybrid lens to address the problem of heat resistance. The imaging hybrid lens can resist a reflow step with lead-free solder when the imaging hybrid lens is mounted on an electronic component. The hybrid lens is a glass-resin hybrid lens formed of optical glass and energy-curable resin having a high heat resistance.
Also, Patent Literature 2 discloses a method of manufacturing a hybrid lens with a low cost by forming many resin-layer lens surfaces collectively on a plane parallel glass wafer with a size of several inches, then bonding the wafer with a sensor wafer, then cutting the wafers, and providing camera modules. Such a camera module is called wafer-scale camera module. Also, such a lens manufactured as described above is called wafer-scale lens.

Method of manufacturing hybrid lens unit

Abstract: [Means for Solving the Problems] A method of manufacturing a hybrid lens unit includes the following steps of; (a) preparing a guide component having a through hole, and a plane parallel glass plate formed of optical glass; (b) fixing the plane parallel glass plate to at least one of surface of the guide component so that the plane parallel glass plate is accommodated in the guide component; and then (c) forming a resin lens on at least one of surfaces of the plane parallel glass plate by applying and curing energy-curable resin.


There is disclosed a silver halide color photographic material which comprises a hydrophilic colloid layer, on a paper base, containing a compound selected from the group consisting of sparingly water-soluble epoxy compounds represented by formula (I), (II), or (III) given below and a dye-forming coupler in a layer on a base wherein the pH of raw paper is 5 to 9. ##STR1## wherein R.sup.1, R.sup.2, and R.sup.3 each represent an alkyl group or a halogen atom, L.sup.1 and L.sup.2 each represent a divalent aliphatic organic group, M represents an oxygen or nitrogen atom, A represents a polyvalent linking group, a, b, and c each are an integer of 0 to 4, x and y each are a real number of 0 to 20, l is 1 or 2, and m is an integer of 2 to 4.

When color photographic materials are stored as records semipermanently, it is demanded that the extent of light-fading and dark-fading be suppressed as much as possible and that the color balance of three-color fading among the yellow, magenta, and cyan dye images be retained as in the initial state. However, sometimes when color photographic materials are stored in an environment high in humidity, the dark-fading of the yellow dye image is greater than the dark-fading of the other two colors, which greatly deteriorates the image quality.
When the so-called pyrazoloazole magenta couplers, represented by those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,540,654 and 4,882,266, were put in practice, color prints became available that give good sensitometry and good color reproduction in red, are stained less, and are excellent in image preservability.
On the other hand, yellow couplers conventionally used have such defects that the maximum absorption wavelength of the dye to be formed is situated on the long wavelength side for the absorption characteristics preferable for color reproduction and that the absorption in the long wavelength region over 500 nm does not decrease sharply to zero, and therefore these yellow couplers are unsatisfactory to obtain color reproduction excellent for hues such as yellow and green. To obviate such problems, it is considered to use couplers that give a yellow dye whose maximum absorption wavelength is relatively on the short wavelength side, as disclosed, for example, in JP-A ("JP-A" means unexamined published Japanese patent application) No. 173499/1926.
However, when the above magenta coupler, in particular, a magenta coupler having a suitable coupling speed, and the above short wavelength-type yellow coupler are used, although the obtained color photograph is high in density, low in fogging, and excellent in color reproduction, it has been found that when the color photograph is stored for a long period of time, the density of the magenta in the yellow image becomes high, raising a problem of mixing of colors during the storage of the image, and therefore it is desired to favorably keep excellent color reproduction even during the storage of images.
To solve these problems, for example, JP-A Nos. 50048/1989, 50049/1989, and 4041/1986 disclose the use of cyclic ether compounds or epoxy group-containing compounds, but although it is recognized that these compounds are effective to a certain extent for the improvement of dark-fading of yellow dye images due to heat and humidity, the improvement is still insufficient.

Silver halide color photographic material


According to one embodiment, a method is disclosed for designing an integrated circuit by a computer including an input unit, a memory unit, a calculating unit, and an output unit. The method can include storing a design model in the memory unit. The design model has parameters of physical quantities of active elements, passive elements, and an interconnection pattern included in the integrated circuit. The design model has an algorithm generating a circuit layout from values of the parameters. The method can include inputting the values of the parameters based on a first design specification of the integrated circuit by the input unit, generating a first circuit layout of the active elements, the passive elements, and the interconnection pattern by the calculating unit using the design model from the values of the parameters received by the input unit, and outputting the first circuit layout by the output unit.

The manufacture of memory, such as non-volatile memory in an integrated circuit begins with generating a circuit layout from a design specification for the memory, determining exposure conditions from the circuit layout, and designing an exposure mask that corresponds to the exposure conditions. The exposure mask is then used to perform photolithography and etching to form each layer structure such as a semiconductor layer, interconnection layer, and the like thereby completing the memory.
In recent years, in conjunction with higher density of integrated circuits, optimizing the exposure conditions and processing conditions have become critical. For example, when designing the exposure mask to optimize exposure conditions and processing conditions used by the exposure mask, it often becomes necessary to change the design specification. In the manufacture of an integrated circuit, it is important that optimal exposure conditions and processing conditions that match the design specification are obtained in a short period of time.

Method and apparatus for generating circuit layout using design model and specification


A printer or copier system with at least one of a pre-processing unit and a post-processing unit, comprises a printing unit that generates a print image on a carrier material. An operating unit is connected via a data line with the printing unit. The operating unit outputs at least one graphical user interface on a display for operation of the printing unit. At least one processing unit is connected with at least one of the printing unit and the operating unit for processing of the carrier material such that data are transferable between the processing unit and at least one of the printing unit and the operating unit. In the processing unit, data are stored that are transferred to at least one of the printing unit and the operating unit with which the graphical user interface is activated at least for operation of the processing unit.

The disclosure concerns a printer or copier system with a pre-processing unit and/or a post-processing unit in which a common control panel is provided for a printing unit and a processing unit. The disclosure also concerns a method for the operation of a printer or copier system with a pre-processing unit and/or a post-processing unit as well as an operating unit for the operation of a printer or copier system with a pre-processing unit and/or a post-processing unit.
In known printer or copier systems, individual components (such as printers, pre- and post-processing units) in what are known as printer or copier paths respectively have a separate control panel whose user interface has been created for the respective component. Furthermore, electrophotographic printer or copier systems are known in which a common control panel is provided for a feeder unit and a print unit. The control panel has been operated with the aid of a special software that provides a common user interface for the feeder unit and the print unit. However, an exchange of the feeder unit with a feeder unit of another type is only possible when the software of the operating unit has been exchanged. An integration of further components of the print path is not possible in known electrophotographic printer or copier systems. Thus various components of the print path have different user interfaces with different operating philosophies. A simple and central operation of the print path is presently not possible in electrophotographic printer or copier systems.
A printer or copier in which the operation of accessory devices for pre- and/or post-processing can be mutually operated via a common operating unit of the printer or copier is known from the document DE 196 11 645 A1. Based on the sensor signals, a controller of the printer or copier generates corresponding signals for the control of various working devices within the printer or copier.
A printing system with two printers working in tandem operation is known from the document DE 198 36 745 A1, whereby at least the control panel computer of the first printer and second printer are connected with one another via a data line. The document is a disclosure document of a patent application by Océ Printing System GmbH. A control unit of the first printer and a control unit of the second printer are also connected with one another via a data line. Changed setting values are automatically directly transmitted to the other control unit, such that other parameters can be adapted in the second control unit with the aid of the transmitted adjustment value.
From the document US 2001/0055492, a printer or copier is known in which a user interface for a supervisor is also provided over a network with the aid of a web server. In particular settings of the printer or copier can thereby also be set simply from a remote location.

Control panel for a printer or copier system with front and/or rear processing units and integrated control panel in a printer server


A method for retransmitting high-speed packet data in a transmission apparatus of a mobile communication system that simultaneously performs Automatic Retransmission reQuest (ARQ) that retransmits an ARQ packet reconfigured by allocating a sequence number to data delivered from an upper layer, and Hybrid Automatic Retransmission reQuest (HARQ) that multiplexes a plurality of ARQ packets into one HARQ packet and performs repeated retransmission on the HARQ packet within a maximum retransmission limit value. A transmitting HARQ entity checks a missing ARQ packet and sends a Negative Acknowledgement (NACK) for the missing ARQ packet to a transmitting ARQ entity. The transmitting ARQ entity receives an Acknowledged (ACK) for ARQ packets from a receiving ARQ entity, detects at least one missing ARQ packet according to the NACK and the ACK, configures a retransmission packet with the detected ARQ packet, and retransmits the retransmission packet.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a mobile communication system, and in particular, to an efficient retransmission apparatus and method for high-speed data processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Universal Mobile Telecommunication Service (UMTS) system is a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) asynchronous mobile communication system that is based on Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and General Packet Radio Services (GPRS), both of which are European mobile communication systems, and uses Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA).
In the 3GPP, now in charge of UMTS standardization, Long Term Evolution (LTE) is under discussion as a next generation mobile communication system of the UMTS system. LTE is technology for realizing high-speed packet based communication at about 100 Mbps. Several LTE schemes are now under discussion. For example, LTE schemes include a scheme of reducing the number of nodes located in a communication path by simplifying architecture of networks, and another scheme of maximally approximating wireless protocols to wireless channels.
An LTE system uses Hybrid Automatic Retransmission reQuest (HARQ) to increase transmission efficiency of high-speed packets, and because the LTE system cannot meet various Quality-of-Service (QoS) conditions only with HARQ, outer Automatic Retransmission reQuest (ARQ) can be performed in an upper layer.
HARQ, as used herein, refers to a technique of soft-combining previously received data with retransmitted data without discarding the previously received data, thereby increasing a reception success rate. More specifically, a HARQ receiving entity determines presence/absence of an error in a received packet and then sends an Acknowledged (HARQ ACK) signal or a Non-Acknowledged (HARQ NACK) signal to a transmitting entity according to the presence/absence of an error. Therefore, the transmitting entity performs retransmission of the corresponding HARQ packet or transmission of a new HARQ packet according to the HARQ ACK/NACK signal. That is, the HARQ technique is characterized by soft-combining a retransmitted packet with a previously received packet, thereby reducing an error occurrence probability.
However, ARQ refers to a technique of checking sequence numbers of received packets and issuing a retransmission request for a missing packet according to the check result, without performing a soft-combining operation between a previously received packet and its retransmitted packets. It is considered that because ARQ and HARQ both serve to recover errored packets, there is no need to operate both of them together. However, because it is hard to obtain a sufficiently low packet error ratio only with HARQ, both ARQ and HARQ should be simultaneously performed in most packet services, for the following reason. That is, as the HARQ ACK/NACK signal is a 1-bit signal, if a HARQ NACK signal is misconceived as a HARQ ACK signal (HARQ NACK/ACK error), the corresponding packet can be completely lost in a HARQ level. As a result, reliability of the HARQ ACK/NACK signal acts as an important factor in determining a packet error ratio in the HARQ level. Therefore, in a mobile communication system employing both HARQ and ARQ, an ARQ transmitting entity can perform fast retransmission using HARQ transmission information.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show a structure of a general radio protocol and an associated packet structure, respectively. The radio protocol of FIG. 1A is composed of ARQ layers 120 and 125, a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer 130, and a physical layer 140. The ARQ layers 120 and 125 can be configured independently for every service, and they satisfy the QoS through an ARQ operation.
An upper layer #1 110 and an upper layer #2 115 are protocol stacks, each of which is configured independently for each individual service. For example, an upper layer can be a protocol stack of an Adaptive Multi Rate (AMR) coder/decoder (codec)—Real Time Protocol (RTP)—User Diagram Protocol (UTP)—Internet Protocol (IP) (codec/RTP/UDP/IP) or a File Transfer Protocol (FTP)—Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)—IP (FTP/TCP/IP). The MAC layer 130 is connected to a plurality of ARQ layers 120 and 125, and multiplexes a plurality of ARQ packets into one HARQ packet. Further, the MAC layer 130 performs a HARQ operation on the multiplexed HARQ packet. The physical layer 140 performs an operation of transmitting and receiving the HARQ packet over a wireless channel. An ARQ packet is a packet reconfigured by allocating sequence numbers so an ARQ operation can be performed on the data delivered from the upper layer. The HARQ packet means a unit packet which is actually transmitted and received on a wireless channel through a HARQ operation.
The ARQ packet of FIG. 1B includes an ARQ packet header 161 composed of a Sequence Number (SN) 163, size information 164 and framing information 165, and a payload 162 to which actual data delivered from the upper layers 110 and 115 are allocated.
For example, if an IP packet 150 has been delivered from the upper layers 110 and 115 to the ARQ layers 120 and 125 of FIG. 1A, the ARQ layers 120 and 125 can transmit the IP packet 150 completely or partially according to wireless channel situation or scheduling situation. A process of reconfiguring an IP packet 150 delivered from the upper layers 110 and 115 in an appropriate size is herein called 'framing', and the framing information 165 is the information with which a receiving entity can restore a packet reconfigured in an appropriate size to the original upper layer packet (IP packet). The sequence number 163 is a sequence number sequentially assigned to the ARQ packet 160, and the size information 164 is the information indicating a size of the ARQ packet 160. The ARQ layers 120 and 125 perform an ARQ operation of storing or assembling ARQ packets using the sequence number 163.
A HARQ packet 170 is composed of a multiplexing header 171 and a payload. The multiplexing header 171 includes multiplexing information of the ARQ packet 160. For example, an identifier of a corresponding one of the ARQ layers 120 and 125 can be the multiplexing information. The payload is composed of more than one multiplexed ARQ packet 160. The radio protocol structure shown in FIG. 1A and the packet structure shown in FIG. 1B can be commonly applied to a base station and a terminal.
FIG. 2 shows a general HARQ operation in HARQ architecture between a transmitting entity and a receiving entity. In a general uplink packet service, a terminal serves as the transmitting entity and a base station serves as the receiving entity. On the contrary, in a general downlink packet service, a terminal serves as the receiving entity, and a base station serves as the transmitting entity. In the following description, therefore, the transmitting entity and the receiving entity should not be limited to one of the terminal and the base station.
In FIG. 2, because various types of services can be provided to one terminal, the transmitting entity includes a plurality of upper layers 280 and a multiplexing block 275, and the receiving entity includes a plurality of upper layers 205 and a demultiplexing block 210. The upper layers 205 and 280 can be regarded as, for example, a set of services using the same QoS, and for convenience, the flow that has occurred in one upper layer will be referred to below as a 'QoS flow'.
The multiplexing (MUX) block 275 serves to insert multiplexing information into the data generated by the several upper layers 280 and to deliver the resulting data to a HARQ block 272. On the contrary, the demultiplexing (DEMUX) block 210 performs an operation of delivering multiplexing information of the data provided from a HARQ block 212 to the appropriate upper layers 205.
The HARQ blocks 212 and 272, devices for performing a HARQ operation, are each made up of several HARQ processors. A HARQ processor is a unit device in charge of transmission/reception of a HARQ packet. A transmitting HARQ processor (i.e. a HARQ processor in the transmitting entity) takes charge of transmission and retransmission of user packets, and a receiving HARQ processor (i.e. HARQ processor in the receiving entity) takes charge of reception of a HARQ packet and transmission of a HARQ Acknowledgement (HARQ ACK)/HARQ Negative Acknowledgement (HARQ NACK) signal.
The HARQ blocks 212 and 272 exist in pairs in the transmitting entity and the receiving entity, and each of the HARQ blocks 212 and 272 includes a plurality of HARQ processors, thereby enabling continual transmission/reception. An operation of the HARQ processor includes transmitting a HARQ packet, receiving HARQ ACK/NACK information in response thereto, and performing retransmission on the HARQ packet according to the HARQ ACK/NACK information. For example, therefore, if there is only one HARQ processor, the transmitting entity, after transmitting user data, cannot transmit another packet until it receives HARQ ACK/NACK information for the user data. However, when several HARQ processors are provided, while one processor waits for a HARQ ACK/NACK, other processors can transmit data. This makes continuous transmission/reception possible.
A basic operation of the HARQ processor is as follows.
A transmitting HARQ processor, any one of HARQ P1 250, HARQ P2 260, HARQ P3 265 and HARQ P4 270, channel-codes and transmits data received from the multiplexing block 275, and stores the channel-coded data in a buffer (not shown) for later retransmission. The transmitting HARQ processor discards (flushes) the data stored in the buffer upon receipt of ACK information for the data, and performs retransmission on the data upon receipt of NACK information for the data.
On the contrary, a receiving HARQ processor, any one of HARQ P1 215, HARQ P2 220, HARQ P3 225 and HARQ P4 230, channel-decodes the data received over a physical channel, and determines presence/absence of an error through a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) operation of checking whether there is any error detected from the data. In presence of an error, the receiving HARQ processor stores the data in a buffer (not shown), and sends a HARQ NACK signal. Thereafter, if retransmitted data for the data is received, the receiving HARQ processor soft-combines the retransmitted data with the data previously stored in the buffer, and then determines again presence/absence of an error in the soft-combined data. If it is determined that there is still an error, the receiving HARQ processor sends a HARQ NACK signal and repeats the above process. However, if it is determined that there is no error, the receiving HARQ processor sends a HARQ ACK signal and delivers user data to the demultiplexing block 210.
The HARQ operation can increase its reliability by retransmitting an errored HARQ packet and performing soft-combining thereon in this manner. However, it is inefficient to achieve a very low Block Error Rate (LBER) only with the HARQ operation.
This is caused by the following two reasons.
1. If there is an error in a HARQ ACK/NACK signal, the HARQ processor fails to detect the error.
2. Because HARQ transmission/retransmission is performed within a relatively short time, a HARQ processor fails to acquire time diversity gain. For example, if a terminal falls in deep fading for several tens of milliseconds, the terminal can hardly successfully transmit a HARQ packet through HARQ retransmission. In order to make up for the limit of the HARQ operation, there is a need to perform an ARQ operation. With reference to FIG. 3, a description will now be made of an operation of performing HARQ with use of ARQ.
FIG. 3 illustrates possible problems occurring when HARQ and ARQ operate independently according to the prior art. In FIG. 3, an ARQ operation is performed by transmitting ARQ layers 361, 362 and 363 (i.e. ARQ layers in the transmitting entity) and receiving ARQ layers 311, 312 and 313 (i.e. ARQ layers in the receiving entity). The transmitting ARQ layers 361, 362 and 363 each store an ARQ packet in a retransmission buffer for its possible retransmission, even after transmitting an upper layer packet delivered from an upper layer.
The transmitting ARQ layers 361, 362 and 363 form an ARQ assembly clock and each configure as many ARQ packets as the amount of data that it will transmit for a transmission period. The transmitting ARQ layer can reach the amount of desired transmission data by generating several ARQ packets, or can generate one ARQ packet corresponding to the amount of desired transmission data. If a size of a desired ARQ packet is not identical to a size of the upper layer packet, the transmitting ARQ layer can deliver only a part of the ARQ layer by dividing the upper layer packet, or can deliver a plurality of upper layer packets. The transmitting ARQ layer configures the ARQ packet by inserting sequence number information, size information, and framing information into an upper layer packet. The transmitting ARQ layer stores the ARQ packet in a retransmission buffer for later retransmission after storing it to a lower layer. The lower layer may include a MAC layer, a HARQ layer 370, and a physical layer. The HARQ layer 370 multiplexes the received ARQ packets into a HARQ packet, and then transmits the HARQ packet in step 380 to the receiving entity over a physical channel.
The receiving ARQ layers 311, 312 and 313 are each composed of an assembly block, a reception buffer, and a retransmission management block. The physical layer receives a HARQ packet over a physical channel, and a MAC/HARQ layer 320 demultiplexes the received HARQ packet to restore ARQ packets, and delivers the ARQ packets to the corresponding receiving ARQ layers 311, 312 and 313. The reception buffer stores the ARQ packets received from the HARQ layer 320 according to their sequence numbers, and delivers assemblable ARQ packets to the assembly block. The ARQ retransmission management block checks sequence numbers of the ARQ packets stored in the reception buffer, and sends ARQ ACK signals for the normally received ARQ packets and ARQ NACK signals for the reception-failed ARQ packets to the transmitting ARQ assembly block of ARQ layers 361, 362 and 363 in steps 341, 342, 343. The ARQ assembly block reconfigures (reassembles) the original upper layer packet with the ARQ packets referring to framing headers of the ARQ packets delivered from the reception buffer, and then delivers the reconfigured upper layer packet to the upper layer.
Upon receiving the response signals (ACK/NACK signals) for the ARQ packets previously transmitted to the receiving ARQ layers 311, 312 and 313, the transmitting ARQ layers 361, 362 and 363 each discard the corresponding ARQ packet from the ARQ retransmission buffer in response to the ACK signal, and schedule retransmission of the corresponding ARQ packet in response to the NACK signal.
As described above, ARQ is performed on an ARQ packet by ARQ packet basis. The transmitting ARQ layers 361, 362 and 363 attach sequence numbers to ARQ packets before transmission, and the receiving ARQ layers 311, 312 and 313 check the sequence numbers of the received ARQ packets to determine whether there is any missing (reception-failed) ARQ packet. For example, if the receiving ARQ layers have normally received an ARQ packet with a sequence number #X and an ARQ packet with a sequence number #(X+2), but have failed to receive an ARQ packet with a sequence number #(X+1), the receiving ARQ layers send a request for retransmission of the ARQ packet with a sequence number #(X+1) to the transmitting ARQ layers. That is, the receiving ARQ layers send a NACK signal to the transmitting ARQ layers in response to the ARQ packet with a sequence number #(X+1), to issue a request for retransmission of the ARQ packet with a sequence number #(X+1).
A description will now be made of a HARQ operation performed independently of the ARQ operation in FIG. 3.
After transmitting a HARQ packet obtained by multiplexing a plurality of ARQ packets, if the transmitting HARQ layer 370 receives a HARQ NACK from the receiving HARQ layer 320, the transmitting HARQ layer 370 retransmits the HARQ packet. That is, upon failure to receive a HARQ ACK, the transmitting HARQ layer 370 repeats this operation as many times as a maximum number of retransmissions. If the transmitting HARQ layer 370 has failed to receive the HARQ ACK even after it has repeated the operation as many times as the maximum number of retransmissions, i.e. if the maximum retransmission limit occurs, the receiving HARQ layer 320 sends a HARQ ACK/NACK in step 382, perceiving the occurrence of the maximum retransmission limit, and the transmitting HARQ layer 370, after receiving the HARQ ACK/NACK, sends a request for retransmission of the corresponding packet to the ARQ layers 361, 362 and 363.
In this case, the transmitting HARQ layer 370 cannot perform retransmission until it receives an ARQ NACK. Therefore, when the HARQ maximum retransmission limit occurs, the transmitting HARQ layer 370 can hardly perform fast retransmission. Also, the receiving ARQ layers 311, 312 and 313 should send NACKs for all reception-failed ARQ packets, causing an increase in the wireless load and the ARQ NACK processing load. In addition, because the receiving ARQ layers 311, 312 and 313 use several types of ARQ ACK/NACKs, packet processing is complex in the ARQ layers. Further, while the HARQ layer 370 attempts retransmission, if the receiving ARQ layer sends a NACK, determining that an arbitrary ARQ packet is missing, then the HARQ layer 370 may perform repeated retransmission on the same ARQ packet. This defect causes deterioration in packet transmission/reception performance.
To solve the problem of FIG. 3, conventional technology proposes a method for efficiently operating a HARQ layer and an ARQ layer, which operate independently, as shown in FIG. 4. That is, a receiving HARQ layer 420 uses a method of providing information on success/failure in packet transmission to transmitting ARQ layers 461, 462 and 463.
Referring to FIG. 4, a transmitting HARQ layer 470 sends transmission failure information (Local NACK) and transmission success information (Local ACK) to the transmitting ARQ layers 461, 462 and 463 so they may determine whether there is a need for retransmission of the corresponding packet. The receiving ARQ layers 411, 412 and 413 do not use the ARQ ACK/NACK for a missing packet.
In other words, in FIG. 4, in order to solve problems of a load caused by an ARQ operation and possible occurrence of a repeated retransmission request due to the use of the HARQ layer, a transmitting entity and a receiving entity do not perform ARQ. Instead, the receiving HARQ layer 420 performs demultiplexing on the HARQ packet transmitted via the transmitting HARQ layer 470, and the corresponding ARQ layers 411, 412 and 413 perform error check on the received demultiplexed ARQ packets, and deliver the results to the receiving HARQ layer 420.
Therefore, the receiving HARQ layer 420 sends a HARQ NACK signal to the transmitting HARQ layer 470, causing the HARQ layer 470 to perform retransmission.
In addition, the receiving HARQ layer 420 performs HARQ NACK/ACK error detection, and if a HARQ NACK is recognized as a HARQ ACK due to its change, i.e. if it is determined that a HARQ NACK/ACK error has occurred, the receiving HARQ layer 420 sends a NACK/ACK error indicator to the transmitting HARQ layer 470. A process of sending a NACK/ACK error indicator will be described in FIG. 5.
Finally, upon receipt of a Local ACK from the transmitting HARQ layer 470, the transmitting ARQ layers 461, 462 and 463 can remove the corresponding ARQ packet from a retransmission buffer. However, upon receipt of a Local NACK reported from the transmitting HARQ layer 470, the transmitting ARQ layers 461, 462 and 463 prepare for retransmission of the corresponding ARQ packet.
FIG. 5 shows an operation of detecting a NACK/ACK error according to the prior art. In FIG. 5, a transmitting HARQ layer (or HARQ transmitting entity) 555 transmits, in step 510, a HARQ packet to a receiving HARQ layer (or HARQ receiving entity) 505 over a physical channel. The receiving HARQ layer 505 performs error detection on the received HARQ packet. If there is an error in the received packet, the receiving HARQ layer 505 sends, in step 520, a HARQ NACK to the transmitting HARQ layer 555. Even though the receiving HARQ layer 505 has sent the HARQ NACK, if the transmitting HARQ layer 555 transmits a new HARQ packet in step 530 instead of retransmitting the HARQ packet to the receiving HARQ layer 505, the receiving HARQ layer 505 considers, in step 540, that a NACK/ACK error has occurred for the previously sent NACK response signal. That is, when the NACK signal for the HARQ packet transmitted in step 510 experiences an error while it is transmitted over a wireless channel in step 520, the transmitting HARQ layer 555 recognizes the NACK signal as an ACK signal, and thus transmits a new HARQ packet in response to the ACK signal in step 530.
Upon detecting the NACK/ACK error in this way, the receiving HARQ layer 505 sends a NACK/ACK error indicator to the transmitting HARQ layer 555 in step 550.
FIG. 6 illustrates possible problems occurring when the conventional HARQ and ARQ operate as shown in FIGS. 3 to 5.
In FIG. 6, 'case 1' corresponds to a case in which a receiving ARQ layer 601 normally receives an ARQ packet 610 transmitted by a transmitting ARQ layer 608 in step 616. The ARQ packet 610 is delivered to the receiving ARQ layer 601, passing through a transmitting HARQ layer 605 and a receiving HARQ layer 603 in steps 612 and 616, respectivley.
After receiving a HARQ ACK indicating normal receipt of the transmitted packet from the receiving HARQ layer 603 in step 614, the transmitting HARQ layer 605 starts a timer, in step 630, with which the transmitting HARQ layer 605 waits for an NACK/ACK error indicator. Thereafter, if the timer expires in step 632, the transmitting HARQ layer 605 reports a Local ACK to the transmitting ARQ layer 608 in step 618.
Upon receipt of the Local ACK reported from the transmitting HARQ layer 605, the transmitting ARQ layer 608 can finally remove the packet from a retransmission buffer in step 620, determining that the corresponding ARQ packet has been normally received at the receiving ARQ layer 601.
'case 2' corresponds to a case in which packet transmission is failed, even though the transmitting HARQ layer 605 has attempted retransmission as many times as the maximum number of retransmissions in steps 640 to 650. In this case, the transmitting HARQ layer 605 reports a Local NACK to the transmitting ARQ layer 608 in step 652, and the transmitting ARQ layer 608 prepares to retransmit the corresponding ARQ packet in step 654.
'case 3' corresponds to a case in which a HARQ NACK is misconceived as a HARQ ACK in step 674. After receiving a HARQ ACK, the transmitting HARQ layer 605 starts a timer in step 676 with which the HARQ layer 605 waits for a NACK/ACK error indicator. Upon receipt of a NACK/ACK error indicator from the receiving HARQ layer 603 in step 678 before expiration of the timer, the transmitting HARQ layer 605 reports a Local NACK to the transmitting ARQ layer 608 in step 680. Upon receipt of the Local NACK, the transmitting ARQ layer 608 prepares to retransmit the corresponding ARQ packet.
This method has the following problems, although it has an advantage of not using the ARQ ACK/NACK.
1. The HARQ layer is complex in operation because it should determine presence/absence of a NACK/ACK error and perform the corresponding process.
2. Even though the receiving HARQ layer 603 has sent a HARQ NACK, if a new HARQ packet is received, the receiving HARQ layer 603 determines that there is a NACK/ACK error. However, if the transmission is failed, even though the transmitting HARQ layer 605 has sent the corresponding packet as many times as the maximum number of retransmissions, the transmitting HARQ layer 605 transmits a new HARQ packet. This case can hardly be distinguished from the case where the NACK/ACK error has occurred.
3. Because the transmitting HARQ layer 605 should always report a Local ACK for the successfully transmitted packet, the transmitting HARQ layer 605 and the transmitting ARQ layer 608 both increase in processing overhead.
4. There is no detailed scheme for sending the NACK/ACK error indicator.
5. There is no scheme for coping with the case where the NACK/ACK error indicator is missing or changes. In the case where the NACK/ACK error indicator is missing, if the timer expires while the transmitting HARQ layer 605 waits for the NACK/ACK error indicator, the transmitting HARQ layer 605 generates a Local ACK, determining that there is no NACK/ACK error.
Detailed schemes for solving the foregoing problems have not yet been proposed in current mobile communication systems. Therefore, a need exists for an efficient packet retransmission method for transmitting high-speed data taking the foregoing problems into account.

Retransmission apparatus and method for high-speed data processing


Defect management systems and methods are disclosed. A system for managing defects on an object includes an automatic defect classification (ADC) module, a lithographic plane review (LPR) module, and a defect progression monitor (DPM) module in communication with the ADC module and the LPR module. The DPM module is adapted to obtain information regarding a defect disposed on the object from the ADC module and the LPR module and determine if a repair or cleaning is needed of the object.

Semiconductor devices are used in a variety of electronic applications, such as personal computers, cell phones, digital cameras, and other electronic equipment, as examples. Semiconductor devices are typically fabricated by sequentially depositing insulating or dielectric layers, conductive layers, and semiconductive layers of material over a semiconductor substrate, and patterning the various material layers using lithography to form circuit components and elements thereon.
Lithography processes involve transferring a pattern from a lithography mask or reticle to a material layer on a semiconductor device. In some lithography methods, a layer of photoresist is applied over the material layer to be patterned, and the layer of photoresist is exposed to energy, such as light, through or reflected from the lithography mask. The layer of photoresist is then developed and used as a mask to etch away portions of the material layer.
If defects reside on the lithography mask, the defects can be transferred to the material layer on the semiconductor device, resulting in undesired patterns in the material layer. The undesired patterns on the semiconductor device can result in poor device performance, shorts or opens, and decreased device yields, depending on the type, location, and severity of the defect.
Defect detection on lithography masks is performed manually and thus there is a risk of human error, resulting in some defects being overlooked or being incorrectly detected. Furthermore, manual defect detection is time-consuming.
What are needed in the art are improved methods of detecting and managing defects of lithography masks and semiconductor devices.
Corresponding numerals and symbols in the different figures generally refer to corresponding parts unless otherwise indicated. The figures are drawn to clearly illustrate the relevant aspects of the embodiments and are not necessarily drawn to scale.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A fail-over system for memory is provided. The fail-over system for memory includes a virtual channel memory controller providing one or more virtual channel memories in a memory array. A memory fail-over controller coupled to the virtual channel memory controller provides memory fail-over data to the virtual channel memory controller. The virtual channel memory controller allocates one or more of the virtual channel memories to one or more fail-over memory channels in response to the memory fail-over data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data memory and more specifically to a fail-over memory that uses an existing active auxiliary memory system as a fail-over memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
Systems and methods for managing data memory failure are known in the art. These systems and methods include marking a section of a memory as faulty when it experiences an excessive number of errors or when uncorrectable errors arise, and downshifting the number of port configurations when there is a hard memory failure on one of two memory ports. These systems and methods require system rebooting, which results in service interruption. These systems and methods also result in the loss of significant segments of the memory.

System and method for allocating fail-over memory

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


The invention relates to a plate heat exchanger comprising a plurality of plates having flow channels, wherein a first plate has a front side having at least one flow channel for a first fluid and a second plate has a front side having at least one flow channel for a second fluid, and wherein the plates have through openings via which the flow channels for the same fluid are respectively connected to one another, wherein a front plate, which is placed in front of the front side of the first plate, has ports for the first fluid and for the second fluid, wherein an end plate forms the end of the aligned plates, wherein the plates and ports are formed from plastic, and wherein the plates are bonded or welded tightly together.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a plate heat exchanger comprising a plurality of plates having flow channels, wherein a first plate has a front side having at least one flow channel for a first fluid and a second plate has a front side having at least one flow channel for a second fluid, and wherein the plates have through openings via which the flow channels for the same fluid are respectively connected to one another.
2. Description of the Related Art
In pharmacy, biotechnology and in the food industry, gaseous or perhaps liquid mediums frequently have to be heated or cooled. In order to perform such thermal processes, heat exchangers are normally used. Heat is here transported from the warmer medium to the colder medium. The mediums are mutually separated. In this context, there is a need for heat exchangers which are very cheap in terms of material and production.
DE 10 2006 013 503 A1 discloses a plate heat exchanger comprising plates having a plurality of flow channels. A first plate here has at least one flow channel for a first fluid and a second plate here has at least one flow channel for a second fluid. The plates have through openings via which the flow channels for the same fluid are respectively connected to one another.
A drawback in this case is that the plates are mutually sealed in a relatively complex manner by means of seals, or, insofar as they are formed from a ceramic material, it is known to join them integrally in a complex process to form a monolithic block. Both apparatuses which are produced according to this process are correspondingly complex and expensive to make.
From EP 0 038 454 A2, a plate heat exchanger consisting of a multiplicity of extruded individual plates made of polycarbonate is known.
A drawback in this case is that the plates have no internal flow distributor or flow guide. Further complex components for the fluid distribution thus have to be provided. In the course of assembly, difficulties arise in ensuring a leak-tightness necessary for sterile applications.
The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a plate heat exchanger which is of simple and cost-effective configuration in terms of material and production.


A lens barrier mechanism of a lens barrel includes a cam ring including a forward-projecting portion; a linearly movable barrel provided outside the cam ring and moves linearly by rotating the cam ring; a barrier blade provided in the linearly movable barrel and movable in an operating plane orthogonal to the optical axis to open and close an opening at the front of the linearly movable barrel; and a barrier drive mechanism which opens and shuts the barrier blade when the lens barrel moves from/to the accommodated state to/from the ready-to-photograph state, respectively. A range of opening/shutting operation of the barrier blade extends radially outside an inner periphery of the forward-projecting portion. In the accommodated state, the forward-projecting portion intersects the operating plane of the barrier blade but is positioned outside the range of opening/shutting operation of the barrier blade.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens barrier mechanism incorporated in a lens barrel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lens barrels (photographic lenses) of compact cameras are generally provided with a lens barrier mechanism for shutting the front of a photographing optical system in an accommodated state (retracted state) of the lens barrel when no pictures are taken. As described in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication 2000-292670, a mechanism for controlling opening/shutting operations of a set of barrier blades (e.g., sector blades) of such a lens barrier mechanism via a cam ring used for driving lens groups is known in the art.
In this type of lens barrier mechanism, the barrier blades are shut by a spring biasing force and the barrier blades are opened by applying a force against the spring biasing force. Accordingly, in a lens barrel accommodated state, it is conventionally the case that any movable member such as a cam ring is prevented from entering into an operating plane in which the set of barrier blades opens and shuts to prevent the set of barrier blades from interfering with other members. However, to achieve a reduction in length of the lens barrel, the lens barrier mechanism has also been required to achieve a further improvement in efficiency of space utilization.