A transcoding apparatus and associated methodology of transcoding a first video stream into a second video stream, is provided. A separator extracts a video transport stream packet including the first video stream, a non-video transport stream packet, and timing information from a first transport stream. The timing information indicates a time at which the non-video transport stream packet is formed and the first transport stream relative to the video transport stream packet. A memory is provided to store the timing information. A conversion unit generates the second video stream based on the first video stream. A multiplexer multiplexes a converted video transport stream packed including the second video stream and a converted non-video transport stream packet based on the stored timing information to generate a second transport stream, including the second video stream.

In the satellite digital television broadcasting and the ground-wave digital television broadcasting which is going to start soon, a transport stream (will be referred to simply as "TS" hereinafter) conforming to the MPEG (Moving Pictures coding Experts Group) 2 systems (ISO/IEC 13818-1) (will be referred to as "MPEG-2" hereinafter), is used as the broadcast wave. TS as the broadcast wave has multiplexed therein a video stream, audio stream and other data stream.
When TS as the digital television broadcast wave is recorded into a recording medium, a bit rate changer as shown in FIG. 1 is used to reduce the code bit rate for a to-be-recorded TS if the data recording rate into the recording medium is lower than at a bit rate at which the TS is to be recorded. Note that since the bit rate changer functions to convert the code bit rate, it is a kind of transcoder for converting codes of an input stream.
A TS demultiplexer 1 included in the bit rate changer shown in FIG. 1 separates an input TS via an input terminal IN into a video stream VS and audio stream AS and supplies them to an MPEG video decoder 2 and MPEG audio decoder 4, respectively.
The MPEG video decoder 2 decodes the supplied video stream VS to provide a video signal and supplies the video signal to an MPEG video encoder 3. The MPEG video encoder 3 will encode the supplied video signal to a video stream having a predetermined bit rate by the MPEG method, and supply the encoded video stream to a TS multiplexer 6. On the other hand, the MPEG audio decoder 4 decodes the supplied audio stream AS supplied to provide an audio signal and supplies the audio signal to an MPEG audio encoder 5. The MPEG audio encoder 5 will encode the supplied audio signal to an audio stream having a predetermined bi rate by the MPEG method, and supply the coded audio stream to the TS multiplexer 6. The TS multiplexer 6 will multiplex the video stream supplied from the MPEG video encoder 3 and the audio stream supplied from the MPEG audio encoder 5 to provide a TS′ having a reduced bit rate. The TS′ is delivered at an output terminal OUT.
However, the conventional bit rate changer shown in FIG. 1 is disadvantageous in that when an input TS contains any elementary streams not conforming to MPEG-2, the TS, once separated into elementary streams, cannot be re-multiplexed. For example, a private stream such as a data stream used in the digital television broadcasting is not conforming to MPEG-2, and each of service providers uniquely sets necessary buffer size and bit rate for multiplexing. No multiplexing is possible when the TS multiplexer 6 does not understand the buffer model for a stream to be multiplexed. Therefore, it is difficult to multiplex a private stream such as data stream for example except when the buffer model of the stream is already known.
Also, the conventional bit rate changer shown in FIG. 1 has a problem that it can change the bit rate of a transport stream TS having multiplexed therein one video stream VS and one audio stream AS, each conforming to MPEG-2 but cannot change the bit rate of a TS having multiplexed therein one video stream VS and a plurality of audio streams AS.

Transcoding apparatus, method and medium


A process for manufacturing a printing head is able to maintain an appropriate connection between a substrate and flying leads. The process includes a connecting step of connecting electric connection terminals of a substrate and flying leads provided on an electric wiring basic material and a mounting step of mounting a unit consisting of the electric wiring base material and the substrate connected together, on a printing head main body. During the connecting step, the substrate and each flying lead are electrically connected together with a predetermined distance between them. During the mounting step, the unit is fixed to the printing head main body so that the distance between each of the electric connection terminals of the substrate and the electric wiring base material is shorter than the predetermined distance. This forms a slack shape of each flying lead.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a printing head in which a resin or metal material is used to form ink ejecting nozzles. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an printing head in which when a flying lead portion of a substrate having ejection energy generating elements is electrically connected to a flexible wiring base material having a flying lead terminal portion, the substrate having the energy generating elements is connected to the electric wiring base material having the flying leads with the flying lead terminal portion slacked.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printing head used in an ink jet printing apparatus is provided with a printing element substrate from which ink droplets are ejected. The printing element substrate has a plurality of energy generating means (for example, heaters) that generate energy required to eject ink through ink ejection orifices, electric wiring such as Al which supplies power to each energy generating element; the energy generating elements and electric wiring are formed by a film forming technique. A plurality of ink channels and ejection orifices corresponding to printing elements are also formed by a photolithography technique.
The printing element substrate connects to an electric wiring base material that applies an electric signal for allowing ink to be ejected to the printing element substrate. The electric wiring base material and printing element substrate are connected together using flying leads connected to the electric wiring base material. In this case, to maintain the connection between the printing element substrate and the electric wiring base material, the flying leads need to be slacked.
The substrate having the energy generating elements and the electric wiring base material are laminated to an ink supply member or an ink supply supplementing member. The electric connection portion and flying lead portion are then fixed using a sealing material or the like. Consequently, heat resulting from these steps thermally expands the ink supply member and ink supply supplementing member to pull the laminated electric wiring base material away from the electric connection portion. At this time, if the flying leads are insufficiently slacked, the electric connection portion or flying lead portion may be loaded and disadvantageously cracked or destroyed.
Such a technique as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 5-218141 (1993) is known as a method for forming a slack shape in the flying lead portion. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 5-218141 (1993) presses an elastomer such as silicone rubber against flying leads (inner leads) of an electric wiring base material (TAB tape) electrically connected to a substrate (semiconductor pellet). The flying lead portion is thus bent and slacked.
Another known method for forming a slack shape in the flying lead uses a male mold and a female mold to pre-form a slack shape in the flying lead portion.
However, the conventional technique presses the elastomer or the like against the flying leads electrically connected to the substrate to mechanically bend the flying leads in crank form. This may heavily load the electric connection portion and locally concentrate stress in the flying leads. In particular, if the pitch and width of the flying leads decrease with increasing density of connection terminals of the substrate, the load on the flying leads and electric connection portion further increases. This may make the flying leads or their connection portions more likely to be destroyed, for example, cracked or cut. Furthermore, if an elastomer or the like is pressed against the flying leads, it must be durable.
On the other hand, if a male mold and a female mold are used to form a slack, molding is usually difficult because of the very small size of the flying leads. Further, continuous operation reduces the lifetime of the molds, thus making reliability likely to be degraded. This requires the molds to be frequently replaced, thus disadvantageously increasing manufacturing costs.


The condition of a seabed 200 and the condition of tidal currents near the seabed 200 are investigated in advance to examine the number of filter units (FUs) 50 and the position where the FUs 50 are to be installed. Then, piles 12b as a base of a foundation are provided so as to be supported by a bearing layer. A plurality of FUs 50 are installed in close contact with each other between the seabed 200 and each pile 12b. Then, a formwork 12e for a base slab portion 12a is installed on the upper ends of the piles 12b. Concrete is placed in the formwork 12e to form the base slab portion 12a. Then, a tower 11 is fixed to the upper end of the base slab portion 12a.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods for constructing a foundation for an offshore wind power generation system for generating electrical power from offshore wind energy, where the foundation holds the wind power generation system above the sea surface, and supports a tower that extends down to a level close to the seabed. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods for constructing a foundation for a wind power generation system having piles or a caisson as a base.
2. Description of the Background Art
Offshore wind power generation systems typically generate electrical power by generators by using rotation of wind turbines by offshore winds. Such a wind power generation system is supported on the upper end of a tower that extends from a foundation provided on the seabed, to a position in the air through the sea surface. That is, the wind power generation system is supported by the foundation provided on the seabed. Such a foundation for supporting a wind power generation system and a tower is disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-194792 of unexamined applications. According to Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-194792 of unexamined applications, a wind power generation system and a tower are supported by a foundation, which includes a plurality of steel pipe piles, a base receiving frame made of a steel plate, and a base block made of reinforced concrete. The plurality of steel pipe piles are respectively positioned at the vertexes of a regular polygon as viewed in plan, and are driven into the seabed. The base receiving frame is fixed on the plurality of steel pipe piles, and has holes at the positions corresponding to the steel pipe piles, for respectively inserting heads of the steel pipe piles therethrough. The base block is fixed on the base receiving frame, and has holes for respectively inserting therethrough the heads of the steel pipe piles protruding from the base receiving frame. A base end of the tower is fixed on the base block so that the center of the tower is positioned at the center of the regular polygon.
As described above, the wind power generation system and the tower are supported by the foundation. However, foundations having an insufficient bearing force may cause, for example, damage to the wind power generation system due to the failure to suppress vibration generated in the wind power generation system, and collapse of the tower due to propagation of the generated vibration to the tower.
Conventional foundations for supporting a wind power generation system and a tower have the following problems.
Since the steel pipe piles driven into the seabed serve as resistance to the tidal currents, an excess flow is generated around the steel pipe piles near the seabed. Such an excess flow causes a phenomenon called "scouring," a phenomenon that the seabed is worn away and chipped off, near the steel pipe piles driven into the seabed. This gradually scoops out accumulated earth and sand and exposes the steel pipe poles, whereby the bearing force as a foundation can be reduced.
In an undersea part of the tower located below the sea surface, the steel pipe piles under the sea are subjected to tidal waves, whereby a moment is generated near the seabed in the foundation. This can produce a gap between each steel pipe pile and the surrounding ground, whereby the bearing force as a foundation can be reduced.
More over, the wind power generation system and an aerial part of the tower located above the sea surface are subjected to offshore winds, whereby a moment is generated near the seabed in the foundation and this can reduce the bearing force as a foundation, as in the above phenomenon.

Method for constructing a foundation for a wind power generation system


The present invention is directed to a low-power input buffer comprising an inverter coupled to receive a first safe voltage range to a first node and coupled to provide an output signal, and a low-power circuit coupled to receive a second safe voltage range and coupled to control a voltage at the first node in response to the output signal and the second safe voltage range. The first and second safe voltage ranges preferably are equivalent. The low-power circuit includes series transistors coupled to the first node and responsive to the voltage at the output node. The low-power circuit further includes a transistor coupled between the first and second nodes and responsive to an input voltage. A method of operating an input buffer comprises the steps of pulling up a voltage of a first node in response to voltages of a second node and an output node and pulling down the voltage at the first node and the second node in response to an input voltage to provide low power consumption and a high impedance input.

Integrated circuits are becoming more dense as the dimensions of semiconductor devices decrease. The decreased dimensions also provide for faster devices that require less power to operate. In particular, present generation semiconductor devices, such as transistors, operate on less voltage (.about.3.3V) than the previous generation voltage (5V). One benefit of having lower operating voltage, and consequently lower power consumption, is that demands on the power supply is decreased. This is especially important where the portability of an electronic device incorporating these semiconductor devices is desired. The power supply, such as a battery, can be smaller or would last longer.
Many electronic devices and components, however, still incorporate integrated circuits consisting of semiconductor devices that use a higher voltage (5V). Thus, applications may arise where both low and high voltage integrated circuits are connected together. An integrated circuit operating on a lower voltage must then to receive an input at the higher voltage. However, the structural integrity of the thin film oxide will suffer if exposed to voltage potentials in excess of the maximum rated supply, typically 3.6V to 4.0V. A 5 volt drop from the gate to the drain, source or substrate will tend to breakdown this oxide. A long-term reliability issue will result, with the oxide breakdown eventually causing catastrophic damage to the transistor.
Referring to FIG. 1, an input buffer 100 is illustrated. A lead 105 couples an input pad (not shown) to an n-channel transistor 110. A gate of n-channel transistor 110 is coupled to a voltage supply (not shown) via a lead 115. A substrate of n-channel transistor 110 is coupled to a reference supply (not shown) via a lead 120.
A node 125 is coupled to gates of a p-channel transistor 130 and an n-channel transistor 135. A source and a substrate of p-channel transistor 130 is coupled via a lead 140 to the voltage supply. A source and a substrate of n-channel transistor 135 is coupled via a lead 145 to the reference supply. A node 150 is coupled to drains of p-channel transistor 130 and n-channel transistor 135. Node 150 is coupled to a circuit (not shown) via a lead 155.
For input buffer 100 in a 0.5 .mu.m process technology, assume that threshold voltage for p-channel transistor 130 is about -0.9V and the voltage supply provides 3.3V. By using n-channel transistor 110, the voltage at node 125 will have a maximum voltage swing that ranges from 0V to about 2.8V as the input pad voltage transitions from 0V to 5V. The voltage at node 125 reaches 2.8V due to the body effect of n-channel transistor 110. P-channel transistor 130 is prevented from conducting since its gate voltage is greater than its source voltage minus its threshold voltage (2.8>3.3-0.9). Thus, static power is not dissipated through the stack consisting of p-channel transistor 130 and n-channel transistor 135.
The body effect causes the threshold voltage of a transistor to increase as the source to substrate voltage increases for an n-channel transistor and decrease for a p-channel device. Body effect is roughly constant over different processing technologies.
For input buffer 100 in a 0.35 .mu.m process technology, assume that threshold voltage for p-channel transistor 130 is about -0.6V. The voltage at node 125 will have a maximum voltage swing that ranges from 0V to about 2.7V as the input pad voltage transitions from 0V to 5V. The voltage at node 125 reaches 2.7V due to the body effect of n-channel transistor 110. Unlike the 0.5.mu.m technology example, p-channel transistor 130 conducts since its gate voltage is about the same as the source voltage minus its threshold voltage (2.7.about.3.3-0.6). Thus, static power is dissipated through the stack consisting of p-channel transistor 130 and n-channel transistor 135. Furthermore, since buffer 100 typically has large device sizes, the static current dissipated through the stacked transistors can be substantial.
Other devices compensate for this dissipated static current. However, these devices unfortunately cause contention with the input voltage so that a high impedance input is not achieved. Such a high impedance is a requirement for CMOS input buffers.
There exists, then, a need for an input buffer that can receive a high voltage input and yet dissipate low power. This buffer will also provide a high impedance input. The present invention meets this need.


A micro-electro mechanical system (MEMS) device is provided. The MEMS device includes a cap substrate and a MEMS substrate bonded with the cap substrate. The MEMS substrate includes a first movable element and a second movable element. The MEMS device also includes a first closed chamber between the MEMS substrate and the cap substrate, and the first movable element is in the first closed chamber. The MEMS device further includes an outgassing layer in the first closed chamber. In addition, the MEMS device includes a second closed chamber between the MEMS substrate and the cap substrate, and the second movable element is in the second closed chamber.

The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) has experienced rapid growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs where each generation has smaller and more complex circuits than the previous generation. In the course of IC evolution, functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while geometric size (i.e., the smallest component that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased. Such advances have increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing ICs. For these advances, similar developments in IC processing and manufacturing are needed.
Micro-electro mechanical system (MEMS) devices have recently been developed. MEMS devices include devices fabricated using semiconductor technology to form mechanical and electrical features. The MEMS devices may include a number of elements (e.g., movable elements) for achieving mechanical functionality.
MEMS applications include motion sensors, pressure sensors, printer nozzles, or the like. Other MEMS applications include inertial sensors, such as accelerometers for measuring linear acceleration and gyroscopes for measuring angular velocity. Moreover, MEMS applications may extend to optical applications, such as movable mirrors, and radio frequency (RF) applications, such as RF switches or the like.

Structures and formation methods of micro-electro mechanical system device

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


Disclosed herein is a method and apparatus for monitoring, identifying and determining the breathing cycle of an individual from processed acoustic signal waveform data. The breathing sounds of an individual are recorded using a microphone and digitized such that the breathing sounds may be plotted. The data is segmented and transformed to form a plurality of segments representative of a frequency spectrum. The frequency spectrum data is transformed so as to produce magnitude bins and the sum of lower magnitude bins and the sum of higher magnitude bins are determined in a sampling of segments. A Bands Ratio is determined from the sum of lower magnitude bins and the sum of higher magnitude bins in the sampling of segments. A first bands ratio is then determined within a given segment and compared to the mean bands ratio. If the first bands ratio of the given segment is greater than the mean bands ratio by at least a predetermined multiplier, the given segment is labeled as inspiration. If the first bands ratio of the given segment is less than the mean bands ratio by at least a predetermined multiplier, the given segment is labeled as expiration.

Respiratory disorders are known to disturb sleep patterns. For example, recurrent apneas and hypopnea lead to intermittent hypoxia that provokes arousals and fragmentation of sleep, which in turn may lead to restless sleep, and excessive daytime sleepiness. Repetitive apnoeas and intermittent hypoxia may also elicit sympathetic nervous system activation, oxidative stress and elaboration of inflammatory mediators which may cause repetitive surges in blood pressure at night and increase the risk of developing daytime hypertension, atherosclerosis, heart failure, and stroke independently from other risks. There remains a need for improved methods for monitoring, identifying and/or determining breathing cycles, in order to obviate these risks.

Method and apparatus for monitoring breathing cycle by frequency analysis of an acoustic data stream


An exemplary light guide plate (500) includes: a light incident portion (51) for receiving a light; a light reflecting portion (52) for reflecting the light input through the light incident portion; and a light emitting portion (53) opposite to the light reflecting portion, for outputting the reflected light. The light incident portion includes a first diffractive optical element (512) located thereat. The first diffractive optical element includes a plurality of protrusions (512a) each having a curved surface, with the protrusions being arranged symmetrically opposite to each other across a central axis of symmetry of the first diffractive optical element. The light emitting portion may include a second diffractive optical element (532) located thereat. The second diffractive optical element includes a plurality of elongate protrusions, with the protrusions being arranged symmetrically opposite to each other across a central axis of symmetry of the second diffractive optical element.

In general, an LCD apparatus has advantages over a CRT (cathode ray tube) type display apparatus in respect of its low weight and small size. The advantage of an LCD derives from its use of liquid crystal for providing images. The liquid crystal is controlled by an electric field. Under an applied electric field, liquid crystal molecules are oriented in a predetermined direction parallel to a direction of the electric field. Light transmittance for providing images varies according to the orientations of the liquid crystal molecules.
The LCD apparatus requires a light source to transmit light through the liquid crystal. The quality of the displayed images depends on a uniformity of the light provided to the liquid crystal, and on a brightness of the light provided to the liquid crystal.
In general, the light source provides a uniform surface light. The light source is typically a backlight assembly. An LGP is a vital component of the backlight assembly. A basic function of the LGP is to change a propagation direction of light introduced into the LGP through a light incident surface thereof, so that the light is emitted from a light emitting surface of the LGP. In one kind of LGP, the light incident surface is roughly perpendicular to the light emitting surface. A simple transparent LGP of this kind is capable of re-directing light, but only to a limited extent. The emitted light provided may have unsatisfactory brightness. Hence, various LGPs having a plurality of tiny reflectors on a surface opposite to the light emitting surface have been devised.
FIG. 11 shows a backlight assembly with another kind of conventional LGP. The LGP includes a cavity formed at a light incident surface thereof. A light emitting diode (LED) is received in the cavity. Thus most light emitted from the LED is introduced into the LGP, and light energy is efficiently utilized. However, a thickness and a weight of the LGP have to be undesirably large. In addition, because the LED is located inside the LGP, it is difficult to dissipate heat generated by the LED. The LED is liable to overheat and fail.
FIG. 12 shows part of another backlight assembly with another kind of conventional LGP. A light coupling element such as a lens is provided between a point light source and the LGP. However, the backlight assembly is not compact, and the relative positions of the various light-emitting and optical components must be fixed with high precision.
What is needed is an LGP having high light energy utilization and a compact configuration.

Light guide plate and surface light source using same


A simulation apparatus that performs parallel execution of multiple logical processes obtained by modeling a plurality of components included in a system to be simulated. The apparatus includes: (i) a condition generating unit configured to generate, on the basis of communication delays between the multiple logical processes, constraint conditions to be satisfied by initial time shifts given to the multiple logical processes and look-ahead times each to be permitted by a message sent from a logical process serving as a communication source to a logical process serving as a communication destination to permit look-ahead; and (ii) a solver unit configured to solve an optimization problem that satisfies the constraint conditions and minimizes overhead in communication of messages between the multiple logical processes, and obtain the initial time shifts of the multiple logical processes and the look-ahead times between the multiple logical processes.

The present invention relates to a simulation apparatus, a simulation method, and a program.
Simulations of large-scale electronic control systems, such as automobiles, robots, and planes, have been executed by generating a simulation program using a conventionally known simulation modeling system, and without using expensive hardware for emulation. In this case, an electronic control system to be simulated is modeled as multiple functional blocks, which are executed in parallel to improve the speed of execution.

Simulation apparatus, simulation method, and program

International Business Machines Corporation


A pen cap for closing on a ball-point pen to prevent ink leakage, the pen cap including a cap body, a sealing cap covered on the cap body, and a ball valve mounted inside the cap body within the sealing cap and moved between inside ribs in the cap body and inside ribs in the sealing cap. Closing the pen cap on the pen causes excessive air to pass through an air passage formed by gaps among the inside ribs to the outside of the pen cap via an exhaust hole on the sealing cap, and the air passage is closed when the writing tip of the pen is engaged into a tapered hole on one cylindrical rod projecting from the ball valve.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pen cap for a ball-point pen, and more particularly to a pen cap with pressure relief means which enables excessive air pressure to be released when the cap body of the pen cap is closed on the pen and, which prevents an ink leakage when completely closed on the pen.
When a pen cap is closed on a ball-point pen, inside air cannot escape out of the pen cap, therefore the pressure of air inside the pen cap is greatly increased when the pen cap is fully closed on the pen, causing ink to leak out of the pen. In order to eliminate this problem, there is provided a pen cap with pressure relief means. This structure of pen cap, as shown in FIG. 1, comprises a cap body 10 having an inner barrel 101 and an exhaust hole 102 at the center of the closed outer end of the inner barrel 101, a spring 20 mounted within the inner barrel 101, a socket 40 mounted within the inner barrel 101 and supported on the spring 20, and a rubber gasket 30 fastened to the socket 40 at one end. When the pen cap 10 is closed on the pen, excessive air pressure is released out of the pen cap through the exhaust hole 102. When the pen cap 10 and the pen are firmly fastened together, the writing tip of the pen is stopped at the rubber gasket 30 and retained inside the socket 40 in an air tight manner. This structure of pen cap eliminates an ink leakage. However, this structure of pen cap is expensive to manufacture, and complicated to assemble.


Methods are disclosed herein for fabricating integrated circuit interconnects that can improve electromigration. An exemplary method includes forming a first metal layer of an integrated circuit and forming a second metal layer of the integrated circuit. The first metal layer includes a first conductor electrically coupled to a second conductor, and the second metal layer includes a third conductor electrically coupled to the first conductor. The first conductor, the second conductor, and the third conductor are configured, such that electrons flow from the second conductor to an area of the first conductor where electrons flow from the third conductor to the first conductor.

Semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) use metallic interconnects to connect individual devices on a chip. A major challenge to the continued scaling of IC technologies is the electromigration (EM) failure of the metallic interconnects. EM refers to the phenomenon of electric current induced metal self-diffusion. Stated briefly, EM is the transport of material in a conductor arising from the momentum exchange between the electron currents (the "electron wind" force). EM induced material depletion will lead to the development of tensile stress, while accumulation leads to the development of compressive stress at blocking boundaries. A backflow flux originates from the stress gradient and counters the EM flux. If the stress exceeds a critical value required for void nucleation, the line will fail. It is important to assess IC metallization reliability because of the high current densities that circuit interconnects carry. For example, thin film IC interconnects carry relatively high current densities in the range of 105 to 106 A/cm2, which leads to a large flux of atoms in the direction of electron flow. Therefore, there is a need to design and/or manufacture ICs that can withstand the EM impact for the target product lifetime at the target current density.
In one approach, dummy vias (or via plugs) are added to a conductor. A dummy via is non-functional—it does not form part of a signal line. A dummy via is also passive—it is not biased to any voltage. A dummy via is connected to the conductor at one end, and is left floating at the other end. The dummy via becomes a passive atomic reservoir for the conductor. Such approach generally has minor impact on EM because the top surface of the conductor is not the dominant EM diffusion path. Studies have shown that vias are places of atomic flux divergence, making them a primary EM reliability concern. In another approach, dummy lines are added to a conductor by extending the width of the conductor at various places. Such dummy lines become passive atomic reservoir for the conductor. Such approach has its own drawback. When the conductor's current changes direction, a previous passive atomic reservoir may become a passive atomic sink, which worsens the lifetime of EM. Accordingly, improvements in these areas are needed.

Enhancing integrated circuit density with active atomic reservoir

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.


The invention provides an information recognition apparatus for recognition of an address or the like which can recognize recognition object information, which is inputted in the form which does not have punctuations or element designations, at a high speed and with a high degree of accuracy. An element word recognition unit detects element word candidates of each information element of recognition element information and likelihoods of the element word candidates. A record number acquisition unit retrieves a record storage unit to acquire, for each element word candidate detected by the element word recognition unit, a record number of a record including the element word candidate. A likelihood calculation unit calculates likelihoods of the records using corresponding likelihood counters. A result discrimination unit discriminates a record to be determined as a recognition result of the recognition object information based on count values of the likelihood counters, and a result extraction unit extracts a record to be determined as a recognition result from the record storage section based on a result of the discrimination of the result discrimination unit.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an information recognition apparatus for recognizing a series of pieces of information such as an address or customer transaction data which is composed of a plurality of information elements for each of which a predetermined number of words each of which can make an information element are determined making use of a character recognition technique or a speech recognition technique.
2. Description of the Related Art
An address, customer transaction data or the like is composed of a plurality of information elements. For example, an address is composed of such elements as an urban or rural prefecture, a municipal district name, a street name, a square (block, sub-block and house numbers), a building name, a room number and so forth, and customer transaction data is composed of a customer number, an individual name and so forth. Further, for an address, customer transaction data or the like, a predetermined number of element words which may possibly make such elements are determined for each element. For example, the element words which may possibly make an urban or rural prefecture name in Japan are totalling 47 words such as Tokyo-to, Hokkai-do, Osaka-fu and Akita-ken.
If it is tried to recognize an address, customer transaction data or the like using a character recognition technique or a speech recognition technique, with any recognition technique available at present, it is impossible to recognize all words correctly and uniquely. Further, some element word may possibly be omitted when data are inputted. Accordingly, if words obtained as a result of recognition are merely outputted, some error in recognition or lack of some element may possibly occur.
Thus, it is a common practice to collate a result of recognition with data registered in advance to raise the accuracy in recognition. One of such systems is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. Heisei 1-113865 wherein, for all customers, customer transaction data including an account number and a customer name written in predetermined places of a cutform upon transaction by a customer are stored in advance into a customer information storage unit, and in order to recognize customer transaction data written on another cutform by the customer later, an account number and a customer name written on the cutform are recognized using a hand written character recognition technique, and then a result of the recognition is compared with the customer transaction data of all customers stored in the customer information storage unit to detect all customer transaction data likelihoods. Thereafter, customer transaction data to be determined as a recognition result is determined based on the likelihoods of the customer transaction data.
Another system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. Heisei 4-328692 wherein elements which are paired with each other such as an individual name and `kana`-letters attached to Chinese letters of the individual name are registered in a word dictionary unit, and in order to recognize an individual name and attached `kana`-letters written in a predetermined place or places (frame or frames), a plurality of candidate characters and all of the pairs registered in the word dictionary unit are collated with each other to detect likelihoods of the pairs registered in the word dictionary unit. Then, the candidate characters are registered into a candidate word table in a descending order of the likelihood.
In the systems described above, information of all of actually existing recognition objects each of which can be represented by a combination of element words is stored in advance in a storage unit, and when to recognize information of a recognition object, a result of recognition by a character recognition technique is collated with all of the recognition object information stored in advance in the storage unit to calculate likelihoods of the recognition object information. Further, the two systems described above presuppose that elements of recognition object information are written in a predetermined column or frame.
The systems described above have the following problems.
First, the systems described above cannot be applied to an application wherein kinds of element words are not designated by a column or frame in advance. For example, when it is tried to recognize a freely written character train such as an address on a mail matter or to recognize an address or the like based on a speech recognition technique, neither the kinds of element words nor the character punctuations or word punctuations are settled with the address or the like. Accordingly, if it is tried to apply the systems to such application, it is required to assume all character punctuations, word punctuations and kinds of elements and effect collation processing of all possible combinations of them with all information stored in the storage unit. This requires a large amount of processing and is not therefore practical.
Second, with the systems described above, since a result of recognition of an element word is compared directly with element words in the storage unit, where the same word appears several times in the storage unit, the same likelihood calculation processing is performed several times accordingly. Thus, the systems are disadvantageous in that the efficiency is low.
Third, several elements have different representations. For example, in regard to an address, for representation of the name of a place by characters, such different representations as "" (Tsukuba-shi) and "" (Tsukuba-shi) are possible, and for representation of a square such as a block number, a sub-block number and a house number, numerals of "kanji" (Chinese character) and Arabic numerals are used. In order for the systems described above to allow use of such different representations, it is required to store all of possible representations in the storage unit. This requires a large storage capacity for the storage unit and deteriorates the efficiency in likelihood calculation processing very much.

Information recognition apparatus for recognizing recognition object information


The present invention features a shoe enlargement device for stretching a user's shoe comprising an expansion device having a toe piece and a heel piece. The toe piece is connected to the heel piece via an enlargement screw, wherein turning the enlargement screw moves them closer together or farther apart. The first half of the toe piece and the second half of the toe piece can be moved closer together or farther apart via an anchor piece, a first roller bar, and a second roller bar.

The present invention features a shoe enlargement device for stretching a user's shoe to accommodate his/her foot more comfortably. The shoe enlargement device comprises a generally foot-shaped expansion device having a toe piece and a heel piece, wherein the toe piece comprises a first half and a left half separated by a cavity. The toe piece is removably attached to the heel piece via an enlargement screw, wherein the enlargement screw extends outward from the heel piece and screws into an anchor piece disposed in the cavity of the toe piece. The enlargement screw allows the toe piece and the heel piece to be separated. A user can turn the enlargement screw to move the toe piece and the heel piece either closer together or farther apart, depending on how much he/she wishes to stretch his/her shoe.
Any feature or combination of features described herein are included within the scope of the present invention provided that the features included in any such combination are not mutually inconsistent as will be apparent from the context, this specification, and the knowledge of one of ordinary skill in the art. Additional advantages and aspects of the present invention are apparent in the following detailed description and claims.


A circuit for controlling a power converter includes an SR switching device, a light load detection circuit generating a load detection signal in response to a conduction signal and an operation mode signal, and an SR driver generating a control signal having a value according to the load detection signal and provide the control signal to the SR switching device. A method of controlling a power converter includes generating a load detection signal in response to a conduction signal and an operation mode signal and generating a control signal having a value according to the load detection signal. The control signal has a first value when the load detection signal is asserted and has a second value when the load detection signal is de-asserted.

The present disclosure relates, in general, to electronics, and more particularly, to circuits and method for providing power to electronic devices. Such circuits may use Synchronous Rectification (SR) circuits, in which an Alternating Current (AC) supply voltage is rectified using one or more switching devices, such as transistors, that are switched on and off synchronously with the AC supply voltage.
The switching devices may be controlled by signals from an SR control circuit. When each of the switching devices is turned on or off in response to a control signal from the SR control circuit, conduction loss and switching loss of the switching devices may lead to a reduction in power efficiency of the circuits including the SR control circuit and the switching devices.

Adaptive control of synchronous rectifier switching device

SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC


Watch bands described herein include electrochromic features that provide adjustable color control based on an applied voltage to offer a variety of colors and color combinations to be displayed by a single band. The user or a control system can control, select, and/or adjust one or more colors of the watch band for visual display. Accordingly, a variety of colors can be displayed at different times without requiring different watch bands for each color or color combination. The color changing features can be used as a visual output of information from the watch to the user.

Portable electronic devices have become increasingly popular, and the features and functionality provided by portable electronic devices continue to expand to meet the needs and expectations of many consumers. For examples, watches and other wearable electronic devices offer an increasing range of functions that are useful for users.
Users may desire the ability to customize their watch bands to express variety and style. Some existing watches offer the user with an ability to remove and exchange different watch bands for customization. The embodiments described herein are directed to watch bands that provide enhanced color adjustment capabilities.


A semiconductor device including a memory cell having a control gate electrode and a memory gate electrode formed via a charge accumulation layer with respect to the control gate electrode is provided which improves its performance. A control gate electrode which configures a memory cell, and a metallic film which configures part of the memory gate electrode are formed by a so-called gate last process. Thus, the memory gate electrode is configured by a silicon film corresponding to a p-type semiconductor film being in contact with an ONO film, and the metallic film. Further, a contact plug is coupled to both of the silicon film and the metallic film which configure the memory gate electrode.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a manufacturing method therefor, and is particularly available in, for example, the manufacture of a semiconductor device having a nonvolatile memory.
As nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices capable of electrically writing and erasing, an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory) has been widely used. These memory devices typified by a flash memory widely used at present respectively have a conductive floating gate electrode or a trapping insulating film surrounded by an oxide film under a gate electrode of a MISFET, and takes a charge accumulated state at a floating gate or the trapping insulating film as memory information and reads out it as a threshold value of a transistor. The trapping insulating film refers to an insulating film capable of accumulating charges and includes a silicon nitride film or the like as one example. The trapping insulating film shifts the threshold value of the MISFET according to the injection/emission of charges into or from an area for such charge accumulation and is allowed to operate as a memory element. As the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device using the trapping insulating film, there is a split gate type cell which uses a MONOS (Metal Oxide Nitride Oxide Semiconductor) film.
There has been described in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Laid-Open No. 2011-29631) that a gate electrode of a memory cell which configures a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device is configured by a two-layered film of a nondoped polysilicon layer and a metal material electrode layer.

Manufacturing method of semiconductor device and semiconductor device


A method for categorizing documents is disclosed. The words composing the documents are tagged according to their parts of speech. A first group of features is selected corresponding to one of the parts of speech. The documents are grouped into clusters according to their semantic affinity to the first set of features and to each other. The clusters are refined into a hierarchy of progressively refined clusters, the features of which are selected based on corresponding parts of speech.

The intensive growth of the World Wide Web (e.g., Web) as a widely accessible source of textually formatted data demands a way of organizing the plethora of documents available thereon into categories to simplify finding and accessing them. There have been two main methods of so organizing such Web-based text documents.
One method to organize Web-based text documents is by manual categorization. This is achieved by humans manually sifting through the documents to be organized, ascertaining their content, and so categorizing them. Manual categorization of Web-based text documents however may be problematic in certain instances.
Manual categorizing may sometimes seem laborious, tedious, time consuming, and accordingly, expensive. Further, given the high and growing speeds at which such documents are produced and other attributes of open ended Web-based text document generation, it may be difficult for humans performing this task to cope manually with the proliferation of new text documents on the Web.
Further, the results of a number of studies agree that manual document categorization may also sustain the subjectivity of human decision making in categorizing. Thus, even where the humans performing manual categorization are all experts in their fields, they may be prone to make nuanced decisions often quite different from each other. Even the same human may display nuanced differences in her/his categorization at different times due to physical and/or psychological factors such as fatigue, comfort, illness, mood, distraction, preoccupation, etc. Such subjective factors may result in categorization inconsistencies, possibly even errors and omissions.
Owing to the possible problems and impracticality of the manual system, techniques effectuating the automated categorization of Web-based text documents have become important and popular during the past decade of the growth of the Web and access thereto. Automated categorization offers improvement. Automated categorization may be applied with either pre-defined categories or unknown categories. With predefined categories, automated classification is a matter of learning a classification model for each category (e.g., class) from a labeled set of examples (e.g., training set) by use of a supervised machine learning algorithm. However, this automated technique is limited to such pre-defined categories, which may not always be practicable for full classification.
Beside needing to know the categories beforehand, automated categorization with pre-defined categories may be problematic because the training set needs to be created by labeling examples. The training set must also be sufficiently exhaustive to fully reflect the degree of variety within a category, which is often impracticable and self-limiting. This may especially be impractical with rich categories, such as documents constituting technical literature.
If the training set is not sufficiently exhaustive, omissions and errors may occur. For example, when an automated classifier using this technique finds a document that does not fully reflect the possibly insufficiently determined category attributes, it may fail to classify it as a part of the category, or it may mis-categorize it entirely.
Further, the level of training required for the mechanism to see and recognize patterns (e.g., to achieve effectiveness), may render this method also somewhat laborious, lengthy, and expensive. This may become especially difficult with documents constituting technical literature, and/or other particularly rich categories.
When categories are not known beforehand, automated categorization of text documents may be more difficult than the automated technique used with predefined categories. This owes to the fact that the categories themselves must be discovered from the document collection. Thus, automated techniques applied in a milieu of unknown categories must first discover the categories by use of an unsupervised machine learning algorithm (e.g., there is no training set). Only then may they begin further classification. This is extra work.
Conventional categorizing techniques attempt to group documents using the documents' vocabulary in its entirety and applying term-goodness criteria. However, this produces somewhat flat groupings that are effectively blind to the semantics of features, resulting in sometimes relatively meaningless groupings whose semantic coherence is at best non-obvious. The attempted solution conventionally applied to this issue is dimensionality reduction.
One example is latent semantic indexing. Unfortunately however, this solution is often not satisfactory; the problem sometimes carries over. Groupings thus formed still sometimes suffer meaninglessness and lack of obvious semantic coherence. Another example is using certain phrases and not others. While some improvement in grouping meaningfulness is occasionally obtained in this way, more often the resulting groupings lack sufficient specificity.
Thus, there exist numerous problems associated with the prior art methods for automatically categorizing documents where the categories are unknown, including the generation of coherent groupings and obfuscation of contextual relationships or other semantic coherence within groupings.

Method for categorizing documents by multilevel feature selection and hierarchical clustering based on parts of speech tagging

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A thermal printer includes a heat sink in which a latent-heat-type heat storage sheet in which a plurality of heat storage materials are added to a base material is attached to a thermal conduction plate. The thermal conduction plate provided in contact with the thermal head. Each of the heat storage materials starts to melt if absorbed heat reaches a predetermined temperature, and the heat storage sheet stores heat while being maintained at a fixed temperature, while each of the heat storage materials melts. A radiation portion that is subjected to surface processing for improving the radiation rate of the heat storage sheet is provided on the surface of the heat storage sheet.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermal printer including a heat sink that removes the heat of a thermal head.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a thermal printer that makes a plurality of heat-generating elements, which are provided in a thermal head, generate heat selectively on the basis of recording data, thereby recording an image, such as a desired character or a figure, on a recording medium, is often used as an output unit of a computer or the like.
FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view showing an example of the conventional thermal printer. As shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of heat-generating elements 23 are arranged in parallel in a thermal head 22 in a conventional thermal printer 21. Also, such a thermal printer 21 makes each heat-generating element 23 generate heat selectively on the basis of input recording data, thereby making the ink of an ink ribbon (not shown) melt or sublimate and transfer to a recording medium so as to record a desired image.
If excessive heat is applied to each heat-generating element 23 in such a thermal printer 21, there is a possibility that ink may be melted or sublimated excessively. As a result, poor transfer of ink may occur, so that it is impossible to record a good image.
Thus, in the conventional thermal printer 21, in order to prevent heat from being excessively applied to each heat-generating element 23, a cooling structure is used that removes the heat applied to each heat-generating element 23 using a heat sink 25.
The heat sink 25 in this cooling structure has a thermal conduction plate 26, and one end of the thermal conduction plate 26 is attached to one face of the thermal head 22. Further, in this cooling structure, a cooling fan 27 that can circulate the air inside and outside a housing 28 of the thermal printer 21 is disposed in the vicinity of the heat sink 25.
Also, in the thermal printer 21 including such a cooling structure, the heat stored in the thermal head 22 is removed by being conducted to the thermal conduction plate 26. Further, in the thermal printer 21, heat is emitted by sending air by means of the cooling fan 27 to thereby emit the heat conducted to the thermal conduct ion plate 26, and heat is radiated by circulating the air inside the housing 28 of the thermal printer 21 heated by the heat emitted from the thermal conduction plate 26, and discharging the air to the outside of the housing 28. Accordingly, the cooling structure of the thermal printer 21 cools the thermal head 22.
The above-mentioned conventional thermal printer is disclosed in JP-A-2004-142357.
In recent years, the demand for reduction in size and thickness of the thin thermal printer 21 has increased. However, in the cooling structure of the thermal printers 21 as mentioned above, the cooling fan 27 is used to emit the heat of the thermal conduction plate 26 and emit the heat inside the thermal printer 21 to the outside of the thermal printer 21, and an installation region for the cooling fan 27 is needed. Therefore, there is a problem in that it is difficult to make the thermal printer 21 small and thin. Further, according to the thermal printer 21 that cools the heat sink 25 using the cooling fan 27, in order to make the heat of the thermal conduction plate 26 efficiently emitted into the air by air blowing by the cooling fan 27, it is necessary to circulate air inside the housing 28. For this reason, a space for efficiently circulating air inside the housing 28 is needed. Accordingly, it is difficult to make the thermal printer 21 smaller and thinner. Moreover, in the conventional thermal printer 21, the thermal head 22 may be heated to a temperature more than a predetermined temperature by performing recording operation continuously. In such a case, there is a possibility that poor transfer of ink may occur as mentioned above, and recording of a good image cannot be obtained. Therefore, there is also a problem in that cooling of thermal head 22 should be awaited, and the working efficiency of recording may be lowered.
On the other hand, a cooling structure of the thermal printer 21 that removes the heat of the thermal head 22 without using the cooling fan 27 in order to make the thermal printer 21 thin and small has also beens considered. However, in the conventional cooling structure in which the cooling fan 27 is not used, it is necessary to make the heat sink 25 large so that cooling performance may not be lowered. For this reason, there is a problem that it is eventually difficult to make the thermal printer 21 thin and small.


A loading probe for use in testing transducers includes an elongated body capable of simulating the normal acoustic impedance presented to a transducer to be tested by the medium in which the transducer is to operate. The main body of the loading probe has a tube made from a rigid material, and a rod having an elongated convergent portion extending into the interior of the tube so as to define a cavity which has a varying cross section. The cavity houses a core of material having a close match of acoustic impedance with the material of the tube and rod but a higher acoustic loss factor. The cavity is sealed. The active end of the loading probe carries a piezoelectric element having a planar form, and a protective end cap is bonded to the active end of the loading probe to enclose the piezoelectric element.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns the testing of transducers such as piezoelectric transducers. In order to test such transducers it is necessary to simulate the normal acoustic impedance presented to them in the medium in which they are intended to operate. One application involving the use of transducers is in generating or detecting acoustic signals under water.
2. Description of the Related Art
In British Patent Specification No. 2217952B there is described a loading probe or rod for use in testing transducers and which comprises an elongated body capable of simulating the normal acoustic impedance presented to a transducer to be tested by the medium in which the transducer is to operate, the rod having a bore in its main body portion containing a core of material having a close match of acoustic impedance with the material of the rod but a higher acoustic loss factor. In this prior specification a preferred embodiment of the rod is manufactured from an acrylic polymer and has a tapered bore in its main body portion.
However, this arrangement has proved difficult and expensive to manufacture and the present invention is concerned with meeting this problem.
British Patent Specification No. 2192514 discloses a measurement probe for carrying out the same type of measurement operation and in which a piezo electric transducer is mounted in the main body of the probe after the impedance matching network. The present invention is also concerned with providing a measurement probe or loading rod which can give more accurate results than that disclosed in the aforesaid prior specification.

Loading probe for use in testing transducers


A vehicular coupler comprises a head for coupling to an opposed, generally identical coupling head of a vehicle for mechanically connecting two vehicles together. Such coupler includes a beam member for connecting to the underside of one of such vehicles. A housing is slideably connected to the beam member and a cushioning device is connected to the coupling head. The coupling head has a rearward extension located in the housing. Primary shear bolts or pins extend through walls of the housing and into the rearward extension of the cushioning device. Secondary shear bolts or pins extend through the beam member and into the housing. Retaining bolts are secured to the housing and have upper portions located above an upper surface of the housing. A longitudinal relief area is provided in the beam member, with the upper portions of the retaining bolts being located in the relief area. The relief area terminates at a predetermined location in the beam member to provide a ledge for engagement with and retention of the upper portions of the retaining bolts when the primary and secondary shear bolts or pins are sheared in two and the coupling head and housing are moved forwardly relative to the beam member.

The present invention relates, in general, to couplers for mechanically connecting together adjacently disposed ends of a pair of mass transit type rail vehicles and, more particularly, the invention relates to couplers that include a drawbar/draft gear appliance that prevents damage to such vehicles and provides dissipation of energy to vehicle frames during a collision and, still more specifically, the present invention provides couplers which include extended free travel beneath the cars so that collision energy absorbing members of a car are not interfered with in a collision, the invention including further a towing feature after release mechanisms have been operative in the collision process.
Prior to the development of the present invention, mass transit type railway cars have been constructed with a soft, or collapsible, coupler apparatus so that engaging portions of the apparatus of two such railway cars may accordion, or collapse, under the force of a collision. These railway cars require couplers having a substantial distance of relief travel during collision in order to prevent damage to both the couplers and to the railway cars.
Drawbar/draft gear release mechanisms are presently used to provide the required extended free travel. The release mechanisms can include a primary shear device (bolts) to permit the railway cars to come together so that anti-climbers on the ends of the cars are effective to prevent the end of the trailing railway car from overriding the lead railway car. A secondary release mechanism can provide a telescoping drawbar to release at a higher buffing force then the primary shear device.
However, with presently existing release designs, it is not possible to tow a mass transit type railway car after the release mechanisms have functioned without the drawbar portions separating. Damaged railway cars thus have to be towed from the end opposite the collision, or be pushed, to a location where maintenance on the cars can be effected.
It is, therefore, one of the primary objects of the present invention to provide a coupler with an extended emergency release and towing feature which will allow a damaged mass transit type railway car to be towed from its damaged end after its drawbar/draft gear appliance releases.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a coupler with an extended emergency release and towing feature in which the towing can be made directly through the drawbar/draft gear appliance without having to separate damaged cars and without having to push such cars to a maintenance location.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a coupler with an extended release travel by use of secondary release bolts, or pins, after which the above towing feature is present for moving damaged cars.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a coupler with an extended emergency release and towing feature in which the coupler can be readily retrofitted onto existing mass transit type railway cars.
The above objectives are accomplished, according to one embodiment of the invention, by use of a beam member located for pivotal connection to the underside of a railway vehicle and a housing slideably connected to the beam member. Cushioning means are connected to a coupling head of a car. The coupling head has a rearward extension located in the slideable housing. Primary shear means, such as bolts, extend through the walls of the housing and into the rearward extension of the cushioning means and such car coupler. Secondary shear means, such as another set of bolts, extend through the beam member and into the slideable housing. A third set of xe2x80x9cretentionxe2x80x9d bolts are located in the lower housing but have an upper portion, such as heads of the bolts, located in a horizontal slot or recess provided in the upper beam member. The slot, or recess, is forwardly terminated to provide a ledge against which the upper heads, or portions, of the retaining means can engage when the coupler head is translated forwardly, thereby pulling the lower housing with the coupler head such as when the damaged car or cars are towed. Thus, the upper head portions of the retention means in combination with the horizontal slot, or recess, and its forward edge provide means for towing after the primary and secondary shear devices have been sheared in two in a collision.

Coupler with extended emergency release and towing feature


An apparatus and method for transferring input/output information between a host computer and a peripheral device via fiber optic medium using the existing standard protocol designed to employ parallel electrical transmissions. In this manner, all of the advantages of fiber optic transmission, including EMI protection, lower power dissipation, small serial fiber optic cables, etc., are achieved without the need to modify any other system hardware or software elements. In the preferred mode, the Block Multiplexer Channel standard interface is modified for fiber optic transmission of both bus and tag information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to transfers of data between host computers and peripheral devices and more particularly relates to such transfers which utilize a fiber optic transmission medium.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been known for some time to transfer digital data between peripheral equipments and host computers. The earliest and most popular medium for such transfers is electrical energy, which flows within a circuit including portions of the host computer, peripheral devices, and interconnecting electrical cables. These data transfers may be serial in nature, which transmit one data bit at a time, or parallel, in which a number of data bits are transmitted simultaneously.
For a given switching speed of an individual electrical circuit, the parallel approach is inherently faster because it transfers multiple data bits simultaneously. This has meant that serial transmissions have tended to be limited to low data rate information paths or to long distances wherein the cost for parallel transmission is prohibitively expensive. Therefore, most modern day data transfers between host computers and associated peripheral devices utilize parallel electrical transmission. A typical protocol for such transmissions is the popular Block Multiplexer Channel (i.e. BMC) utilized by Unisys Corporation. This highly efficient approach transfers data as parallel bytes (along with error detection bits) over a first parallel cable and control signals over a second parallel cable. Because these two cables transfer data and control signals only in one direction, a second pair of cables is usually needed for transfers in the opposite direction. The technique provides an effective transfer rate in each direction of nearly 4.5 MB/sec.
A second medium which is gaining popularity for data transmission is fiber optics. In this approach, the digital data is converted to pulses of light which are transferred over a special light conducting fiber optic cable. Because this transmission medium does not experience the same distributed capacitance which delays electrical transmissions, higher data rates can generally be achieved for a given transmission energy. In fact the data transmission rates tend to be sufficiently high, that serial fiber optic transmissions can be utilized to replace parallel electrical transmissions for many host computer to peripheral device transfers.
However, the conversion of historically parallel electrical transmission paths to newer serial fiber optic transmission paths tends to result in the use of protocols which are different and incompatible with the older parallel systems utilizing the electrical medium. These incompatibilities result from the basic differences in the media, conversion from parallel to serial transmission, and different methods of generating and using control signals. In most cases this means that the advantages of fiber optic transmission tend to be limited to systems which are newly designed around these unique requirements.
For some applications, it is desirable to retrofit existing systems with fiber optic transmission for one or more data links between host computer and peripheral devices. The typical manner of providing such a retrofit is to design and fabricate an interface device for both host computer and peripheral device ends of the transmission path. A general characteristic of such interface devices is that they contain sufficient memory to buffer a complete transmission or logical portion thereof, to permit ease of conversion from the existing electrical protocol to the new fiber optic protocol.
Functionally, a first parallel data transmission is made to the buffer within the interface device from the parallel electrical transmission link. After the data has been stored in the buffer memory, a second serial transmission is made over the fiber optic medium between the buffer memory of the first interface device and the buffer memory of the second interface device. Yet a third data transmission is made from the buffer memory of the second interface device via a parallel electrical cable to the receiving device (i.e. host computer or peripheral device). This results in three separate transmissions of the same data, each with its own control signals and protocol.

Fiber optic bus and tag adapter for block multiplexer channel


The present invention is directed to a positioning apparatus for use during a surgical procedure, which may involve the repair of a vessel. The positioning apparatus in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention may comprise a delivery assembly and a distensible member having at least one expansible member. The expansible member has a distal end and a proximal end, wherein the proximal end is interposed with the delivery assembly. The positioning apparatus, by way of the at least one expansible member, is used to position an object within a vessel that may or may not be aneurismal.

An aneurysm is a ballooning of the wall of an artery resulting from the weakening of the artery due to disease or other conditions. Left untreated, the aneurysm will frequently rupture, resulting in loss of blood through the rupture and death.
Aortic aneurysms are the most frequent form of arterial aneurysm and are life threatening. The aorta is the main artery, which supplies blood to the circulatory system. The aorta arises from the left ventricle of the heart, passes upward and bends over behind the heart, and passes down through the thorax and abdomen. Among other arterial vessels branching off the aorta along its path, the abdominal aorta supplies two side vessels to the kidneys, the renal arteries. Below the level of the renal arteries, the abdominal aorta continues to about the level of the fourth lumbar vertebrae (or the navel), where it divides into the iliac arteries. The iliac arteries, in turn, supply blood to the lower extremities and perineal region.
It is common for an aortic aneurysm to occur in that portion of the abdominal aorta between the renal arteries and the iliac arteries. This portion of the abdominal aorta is particularly susceptible to weakening, resulting in an aortic aneurysm. Such an aneurysm is often located near the iliac arteries. An aortic aneurysm larger than about 5 cm in diameter in this section of the aorta is ominous. Left untreated, the aneurysm may rupture, resulting in rapid, and usually fatal, hemorrhaging. Typically, a surgical procedure is not performed on aneurysms smaller than 5 cm because presently no statistical benefit exists in performing such procedures.
Aneurysms in the abdominal aorta are associated with a particularly high mortality rate; accordingly, current medical standards call for urgent operative repair. Abdominal surgery, however, results in substantial stress to the body. Although the mortality rate for an aortic aneurysm is extremely high, there is also considerable mortality and morbidity associated with open surgical intervention to repair an aortic aneurysm. This intervention involves penetrating the abdominal wall to the location of the aneurysm to reinforce or replace the diseased section of the aortic aneurysm. A prosthetic device, typically a synthetic tube graft, is used for this purpose. The graft serves to exclude the aneurysm from the circulatory system, thus relieving pressure and stress on the weakened section of the aorta at the aneurysm.
Repair of an aortic aneurysm by surgical means is a major operative procedure. Substantial morbidity accompanies the procedure, resulting in a protracted recovery period. Further, the procedure entails a substantial risk of mortality. While surgical intervention may be indicated and the surgery carries attendant risk, certain patients may not be able to tolerate the stress of intra-abdominal surgery. It is, therefore, desirable to reduce the mortality and morbidity associated with intra-abdominal surgical intervention.
In recent years, apparatus and methods have been developed attempting to treat an aortic aneurysm without the attendant risks of intra-abdominal surgical intervention. Among them are inventions disclosed and claimed to endovascular and endoluminal prosthetics. These prosthetics appear to be promising but are significantly restricted. Primarily, current prosthetics are limited by the prosthetic's degree of similarity to the diseased vascular or luminal vessel the prosthesis will replace. The size, location, position, and specific geometry of the aortic aneurysm, however, is dependent on an individual patient and very often, aortic aneurysms occur in close proximity to, if not along, lateral branching vessels. The specific geometry between the abdominal aorta and iliac arteries, and extent of disease infestation, and the integrity of the vessel wall are often determinant factors in the availability and use of known prosthetics.
Besides being able to accommodate size, location, position, and specific geometry of a patient's aneurysm, the prosthetic needs to be positioned appropriately within the vessel containing the aneurysm to a branch vessel for sealing purposes. In order to position the prosthetic graft to accommodate the branching vessels, the use of anchoring members, expandable support grafts, radially expandable regions, trunk sealing cuffs, and the use of hardening agents have tried solve this problem. The variability between patients, however, is a limiting factor.
Current mechanisms to solve the positioning problem fall short in adapting to the individual patient, which results in inefficient and ineffective prosthetics. Additionally to position the prosthetic graft, the graft may need to be moved anteriorly or posteriorly once inserted. Known positioning mechanisms fail to provide a way to allow for adjustment of the prosthetic graft around the branching vessel area. Similarly, known positioning mechanisms may require a short occlusion of blood flow, although the occlusion of blood flow results in irreparable damage to tissues and organs. Hence, although in recent years certain techniques have been developed that may reduce the stress, morbidity, and risk of mortality associated with surgical intervention to repair aortic aneurysms, none of the systems that have been developed effectively treat the aneurysm and exclude the affected section of aorta from the pressures and stresses associated with circulation.
What is needed, therefore, is a variable expansible member system that provides an adjustable surface to be moved and size to be increased or decreased wherein an object within a vessel can be maneuvered into a position where further manipulations of the object can be employed. Specifically, the variable expansible member system could be used to maneuver a prosthetic aortic graft anteriorly or posteriorly during a surgical procedure. The variable expansible member system may also be used, for example, to maneuver a prosthetic graft such that the graft can be attached around an orifice of a branching artery where flow is essential to the function of critical organs.
It is therefore an advantage of some, but not necessarily all, embodiments of the present invention to provide a variable expansible positioning apparatus for maneuvering an object within a vessel.
It is another advantage of embodiments of the present invention to provide an apparatus for maneuvering the position of a surgical component, such as a prosthetic graft, for attachment to a vessel wall.
It is yet another advantage of embodiments of the present invention to provide an apparatus for maneuvering a surgical component for attachment around an orifice of a branching artery.
It is another advantage of embodiments of the present invention to provide an apparatus for positioning a surgical component without occluding blood flow.
Additional advantages of various embodiments of the invention are set forth, in part, in the description that follows and, in part, will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from the description and/or from the practice of the invention.


An image display apparatus and a method for operating the same are disclosed. The method for operating the image display apparatus includes displaying a home screen including at least one card object including a content list, displaying a card object generation screen if card object generation input is received, and, if at least one content item displayed on the card object generation screen is selected, adding the selected content item to a card object to be generated. Therefore, it is possible to increase user convenience.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image display apparatus and a method for operating the same, and more particularly, to an image display apparatus and a method for operating the same, which are capable of increasing user convenience.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image display apparatus functions to display images to a user. A user can view a broadcast program using an image display apparatus. The image display apparatus can display a broadcast program selected by the user on a display from among broadcast programs transmitted from broadcasting stations. The recent trend in broadcasting is a worldwide transition from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting.
Digital broadcasting transmits digital audio and video signals. Digital broadcasting offers many advantages over analog broadcasting, such as robustness against noise, less data loss, ease of error correction, and the ability to provide clear, high-definition images. Digital broadcasting also allows interactive viewer services, compared to analog broadcasting.

Image display apparatus and method for operating the same


The present disclosure relates to techniques for managing navigation alerts. The disclosure generally describes an exemplary technique whereby a first device, such as a smartphone, coordinates the timing or sequence of alerts for a navigation instruction on the first device and on a second device, such as a smartwatch. In some examples, the second device presents an alert to a user indicating an event condition has been met before the first device presents a different alert to the user indicating that the same event condition has been met. The alert at the second device allows the user to anticipate the alert at the first device.

The use of an electronic device for turn-by-turn navigation route directions has increased significantly in recent years. The electronic device provides the user with turn-by-turn instructions as the user proceeds along the route. For example, the electronic device may indicate an instruction for the user to make a turn on the display. Alternatively, the electronic device may indicate an instruction for the user to make a turn using audio.


Antibodies that specifically bind PD-1 or antigen binding fragments thereof, polynucleotides encoding the antibodies or fragments, and methods of making and using the foregoing are useful in the treatment of an inflammatory or immune disorder.

PD-1 (Programmed Death-1; PDCD1) is an inhibitory receptor the belongs to the CD28/CTLA-4 family. PD-1 is a type I transmembrane glycoprotein that contains a single extracellular domain, and a cytoplasmic domain containing both an immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motif (ITIM) and an immunoreceptor tyrosine-based switch motif (ITSM). PD-1 is expressed on activated T cells, B cells, NK cells, and thymocytes, and on resting memory T cells including follicular helper T cells (TFH) and peripheral helper T cells (TPH). PD-1, upon engagement by its ligands PD-L1 or PD-L2, suppresses T cell functions through multiple mechanisms (Pauken & Wherry (2015) Trends in Immunology 36(4): 265-276). PD-1 engagement directly inhibits T cell receptor (TCR) signaling through co-localization with the TCR and subsequent induction of dephosphorylation of TCR proximal signaling molecules, inhibition of Ras/MEK/ERK pathway leading to inhibition of the cell cycle progression and T cell proliferation, inhibition of cell growth and survival and reprogramming of T cell metabolism through suppression of PI3K/AKT pathway, leading to the upregulation of the BATF transcription factor, and modulation of development, maintenance and function of regulatory T cells. PD-1 has also been proposed to increase T cell motility and to limit duration of interaction between T cells and target cells, thereby reducing the extent of T cell activation (Honda et al., (2014) Immunity 40(2):235-47).
Studies in PD-1-deficient mice have indicated that this pathway is important for both central and peripheral tolerance. PD-1 deficient mice on a C57Bl/6 background can develop spontaneous autoimmune disease symptoms including autoantibody production, glomerulonephritis and arthritis (Nishimura et al., Immunity 1999). These data indicate that PD-1 is negatively regulating immune responses.
Monoclonal antibodies against PD-1 and PD-L1 are approved therapies for the treatment of cancers such as advanced melanoma, advanced non-small cell lung cancer, and classical Hodgkin lymphoma. PD-L1 has been found to be upregulated on many different tumor types, and is able to inhibit the tumor-infiltrating PD-1+ T cells. Antagonist PD-1 or PD-L1 monoclonal antibodies reverse this suppression, allowing the T cells to become activated and attack the tumor. Thus, immune checkpoint blockade provides a way to enhance anti-tumor immune responses.
Although biologic anti-inflammatory therapeutics are available, there remains a need for improved anti-inflammatory drugs that can effectively suppress inflammation for the treatment of various immune disorders, for example rheumatoid arthritis, in which a significant portion of patients still do not respond adequately to therapy.

Antibodies that specifically bind PD-1 and methods of use


An O-ring membrane valve, including an O-ring, and a resealable membrane connected to the O-ring, the resealable membrane including a first surface, a second surface, and a slit extending from the first surface to the second surface. The O-ring membrane valve may be assembled with a fluid connector, the fluid connector including a body, having a first through-bore and a first groove arranged circumferentially within the first through-bore.

Fluid connectors are integral components for many applications, and especially for automotive applications. Since an automotive system is made up of various components such as a radiator, transmission, and engine, fluid must be able to travel not only within each component but also between components. An example of fluid traveling between components is the transmission fluid traveling from the transmission to the transmission oil cooler in order to lower the temperature of the transmission fluid. Fluid predominantly moves between components via flexible or rigid hoses which connect to each component by fluid connectors. Such fluid connectors typically include a retaining clip or snap ring carried on the fluid connector which is adapted to snap behind a raised shoulder of a tube end form when the tube end form is fully inserted into the fluid connector. Additionally, the fluid connector typically includes a membrane which retains the fluid within the component (e.g., prevents the transmission fluid from spilling out of the transmission). When the tube end form is inserted into the fluid connector, the membrane is punctured and allows the fluid to flow into the tube end form. However, when the tube end form is removed, the membrane does not reseal. Similarly, grease plugs do not allow the holes in which they are installed to reseal quickly and easily. Rather, the grease plug needs to be fully removed from the component in which they are installed to allow grease to flow both in and out of the component.
Thus, there has been a long-felt need for a fluid connector having a resealable membrane which reseals once the tube end form is removed from the fluid connector.

Fluid connector with resealable membrane valve


An ultrasonic range finder which can effectively suppress the influence of direct transmission waves is provided. An ultrasonic range finder according to the present invention comprises a transmitting ultrasonic sensor, a receiving ultrasonic sensor, and a case which holds both ultrasonic sensors mounted and separated on the same surface, wherein a foam member fabricated to contain air bubbles is provided between the ultrasonic sensors within the case and the foam member is exposed to the surface of the case. Each of the sections of the transmitting and receiving ultrasonic sensors (which are held within the case) are covered with a second foam member and the matching layer sections of the transmitting and receiving ultrasonic sensors project beyond the surface of the case.

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic range finder having a transmitting ultrasonic sensor and a receiving ultrasonic sensor, and, more particularly, a technique for suppressing the influence of direct transmission waves propagating from the transmitting ultrasonic sensor to the receiving ultrasonic sensor.
In addition, the present invention relates to an ultrasonic sensor, and, more particularly, to a technique for attenuating direct transmission waves propagating within a case by improving a holder structure of an ultrasonic vibrator.
Furthermore, the present invention relates to an ultrasonic vibrator, and, more particularly, to a material for fabricating an acoustic matching layer.

Ultrasonic range finder using ultrasonic sensor


A susceptor structure capable of discharging the atmosphere containing dopant species and filling a wafer pocket, without causing a large quantity of a raw material gas to flow from the front surface side of a susceptor to under the susceptor. The susceptor having an approximately round disk shape and having a concave wafer pocket on the front surface thereof for accommodating a wafer, comprises a gas inlet notch passing through from a side surface or a rear surface of the susceptor to the wafer pocket, and a gas discharge notch passing through from the wafer pocket to the side surface or the rear surface of the susceptor. A carrier gas is introduced from the gas inlet notch of the susceptor into the wafer pocket, as shown by arrow b and the gas present inside the wafer pocket is discharged from the gas discharge notch, as shown by arrow c, by using the rotation of the susceptor during epitaxial film growth.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an epitaxial wafer production apparatus, a susceptor structure, and an epitaxial wafer production method for the formation of an epitaxial layer on a wafer, and more particularly to an epitaxial wafer production apparatus, a susceptor structure, and an epitaxial wafer production method capable of suppressing the increase in dopant concentration in the peripheral edge portion of the front surface of the epitaxial wafer.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technology is known for the production of a silicon wafer which is free from crystal defects and has the desired resistivity by growing a crystal layer of silicon on the front surface of the wafer. For example, in the case of a wafer with a diameter of 200 mm and a thickness of 0.75 mm, such a silicon crystal layer is an ultra-thin layer with a thickness of about several microns. It is generally called an epitaxial layer, and an apparatus for forming the epitaxial layer called an epitaxial wafer production apparatus. Epitaxial wafer production apparatuses of a single wafer processing type, in which silicon wafers were processed one by one, have been used most often because of high quality of the film produced and easiness of film thickness control.
As shown in FIG. 1, in the epitaxial wafer production apparatus of a single wafer processing type, a susceptor 4 (wafer support) supporting one wafer horizontally is usually provided inside a treatment chamber 2. Further, a lift mechanism for moving a wafer 12 up and down with respect to the susceptor 4 is provided for transporting the wafer 12 on the susceptor 4. The lift mechanism comprises a plurality of lift pins 23 extending through the susceptor 4. The wafer 12 is carried on the upper ends of those lift pins 23, and the wafer 12 is lifted or lowered by moving the lift pins 23 up and down with respect to the susceptor 4. With such a lift mechanism, the wafer 12 carried by the hand of a transport arm and into the chamber 2 is moved on the susceptor 4 or, conversely, transferred from the susceptor 4 to the hand.
Further, the wafer 12 supported on the susceptor 4 has to be heated at a high temperature to grow an epitaxial film. For this reason, heat sources 8, 9 such as a plurality of halogen lamps (IR lamps) are arranged above and below the treatment chamber 2 to heat the susceptor 4 and the wafer 12.
The susceptor 4 is prepared by coating a silicon carbide SiC film on a carbon C substrate and plays a role of a liner base maintaining a uniform temperature over the entire wafer 12 when the wafer 12 is heated. As shown in FIG. 2, a recess called a wafer pocket, which is larger in size than the wafer 12 and has a depth of about 1-2 mm is formed in the upper surface of the susceptor 4 to accommodate, for example, a silicon wafer. The inner surface of the wafer pocket 13 has a tapered configuration so as to be in contact only with the outer peripheral portion of the wafer, and measures are taken to minimize the surface contact of the wafer 12 and the inner surface of the wafer pocket 13. An epitaxial layer composed of a silicon thin film is grown on the surface of the wafer 12 by accommodating the wafer 12 inside the wafer pocket 13 and holding the susceptor 4 in a carrier gas containing a raw material gas at the prescribed temperature. The raw material gas as referred to herein is a silicon source gas and a dopant gas.
A chlorosilane gas such as trichlorosilane SiHCl3 or dichlorosilane SiH2Cl2 is usually used as the silicon gas, and diborane (P type) and phosphine (N type) are usually used as the dopant gas. Those gases are introduced into the chamber together with hydrogen H2 as a carrier gas, and HCl is produced as a byproduct in the course of silicon epitaxy by a thermal CVD reaction on the front surface of the wafer. Therefore, though silicon epitaxy proceeds on the front surface of the wafer, a Si—H—Cl atmosphere is formed on the rear surface of the wafer by an overflow mainly caused by gas diffusion, and emission of dopant species from the rear surface of the wafer occurs in the Si—H—Cl atmosphere.
As a result, the atmosphere comprising dopant species and filling the wafer pocket 13 overflows onto the front surface of the wafer by diffusion, and the dopant concentration in the gas phase locally increases in the outer edge portion of the front surface of the wafer 12. As a result, an effect can be observed of the dopant concentration in the epitaxial layer being increased in the peripheral edge portion of the front surface of the wafer.
In order to prevent the above-described overflow of the atmosphere comprising dopant species and filling the wafer pocket 13 onto the front surface of the wafer, in accordance with the invention described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-223545, a hole 50 passing to the rear surface of the susceptor 4 is provided in the outermost peripheral portion of the wafer pocket 13, as shown in FIG. 16. Thus providing a hole 50 passing from the front surface to the rear surface of the susceptor 4 in the outermost peripheral portion of the wafer pocket 13 makes it possible to prevent the overflow of the atmosphere comprising dopant species and filling the wafer pocket 13 onto the front surface of the wafer 12 because the carrier gas containing the raw material gas and flowing on the front surface side of the susceptor 4 outflows to under the susceptor 4 through the hole 50.
According to the invention described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-223545, when the gas is caused to outflow from the front surface side of the susceptor 4 to under the susceptor 4, the raw material gas such as trichlorosilane SiHCl3 or dichlorosilane SiH2Cl2, which has a high reactivity, and HCl and amorphous Si obtained by decomposition in a gas phase flow out in a large amount together with the carrier gas into a lower chamber 7b.
Referring to FIG. 1, it is clear that the lower chamber 7b comprises a rotary drive mechanism, a lift mechanism, and a transport arm advancement channel for the wafer 12 and is very difficult to clean. The above-described introduction of the raw material gas and decomposition products results in a significant increase in maintenance time and causes a decrease in productivity. Further, the increase in maintenance cost also cannot be ignored.
Furthermore, because heating is also conducted by the heat source 9 from the side of the lower chamber 7b, contamination of the chamber inner wall degrades the uniformity and reproducibility of heating of the susceptor 4 and also causes a spread in the wafer quality.
The invention of the present application was created to resolve the above-described problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an epitaxial wafer production apparatus and a susceptor structure capable of discharging the atmosphere containing dopant species and filling the wafer pocket, without causing the flow of a large quantity of the raw material gas from the front surface side of the susceptor to under the susceptor.
Further, it is another object of the invention of the present application to provide an epitaxial wafer production apparatus and an epitaxial wafer production method which make it difficult for the raw material gas to flow from the front surface side of the susceptor to under the susceptor.

Epitaxial wafer production apparatus and susceptor structure