Disclosed are compounds of the formula (I): wherein R3, R4, R5, R9, and R10 are selected from the group consisting of H and groups or atoms other than H, and R6 and R8 are halo or hydrogen; X1, X2, and X3 are independently O or S; provided that R9 and R10 are not simultaneously H, when all of X1, X2, and X3 are O; and of the formula (II) wherein R11-R14 are selected from the group consisting of H and groups or atoms other than H; X4-X9 are independently O or S; n and m are 0 or 1 but m and n cannot be 0 simultaneously; R15-R24 can be H or any substituent so long as the compound of formula II upon hydrolysis provides a fluorescent compound. These compounds are useful as substrates with high specificity for organophosphatase particularly human paraoxonase and bacterial organophosphorus hydrolase. Also disclosed is a method for detecting and/or measuring the paraoxonase activity in a fluid comprising contacting the fluid with a fluorescent substrate and measuring the fluorescence of the fluorescent product formed.

Enzymatic degradation of organophosphates (OPs) is performed by specialized enzymes including bacterial organophosphorus hydrolase (OPH) and mammalian paraoxonase. Paraoxonase also referred to as, arylesterase (EC 18.104.22.168) is a 43 kDa molecular weight calcium dependent ester hydrolase that catalyses the hydrolysis of a broad range of esters such as OPs, and unsaturated aliphatic and aromatic carboxylic esters. Its name derives from the ability of this protein to hydrolyze paraoxon, the toxic metabolite of the insecticide parathion. In addition to paraoxon, paraoxonase is able to detoxify a number of other insecticides, e.g. diazonin, as well as the potent nerve gases sarin and soman that target acetylcholinesterase (AChE). The paraoxonase gene (PON) family consists of at least three members: PON1, PON2 and PON3, which are located on the human 7q21.3-22.1 chromosome. No significant endogenous expression of PON2 and PON3 genes has been detected. Most PON1 expression takes place in the human liver; from there the protein is secreted into blood where it circulates associated with high density lipoprotein (HDL) particles. Paraoxonase has the unusual property that the mature protein retains its hydrophobic N-terminal signal peptide, which is used as an anchor for association with HDL. The enzyme has three potential N-linked sites and carbohydrate accounts for approximately 16% of its molecular mass.
There is a significant variation in paraoxonase activity in the human population, which is a result of polymorphism in the PON1 promoter that leads to different levels of expression, as well as polymorphism in gene sequence that leads to allele forms of protein with different specific activity. Both types of polymorphisms are quite common among the human population generating a range of paraoxonase serum activity in the population. The apparent molecular mass of serum paraoxonase varies as the result of heterogeneous glycosylation.
Neither the function nor natural substrate(s) for paraoxonase have yet been identified. One possible substrate is oxidized low density lipoprotein (LDL) [1-3]. Paraoxonase has been shown both to prevent formation of oxidized LDL and to hydrolyze LDL-derived oxidized phospholipids. Since accumulation of oxidized LDL is one of the key factors in development of atherosclerosis, paraoxonase activity may correlate with development of this disease. For example, Shih et al demonstrated that PON1 −/− mice were extremely sensitive to diet-induced atherosclerosis in comparison with wild type mice. Since there is a significant variation in paraoxonase activity among the population, evaluation of paraoxonase levels of individuals may have a significant diagnostic value, predicting the chances, development and prognosis of atherosclerosis.
Another possible natural substrate is lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or mediators of septic shock. It has been shown that high density lipoprotein (HDL) can inactivate LPS [4]. Moreover, intraperitoneal injection of mice before and up to 2 hours after LPS administration afforded protection against septic shock [5]. In addition, PON-1 knockout mice are extremely sensitive to LPS [6].
Paraoxonase is able to hydrolyze a number of OP toxins in vitro, and the ability of paraoxonase to protect animals in acute OP poisoning has been extensively studied. Injection of purified paraoxonase protected animals against OP toxicity [7, 8]. Further proof of the ability of paraoxonase to protect animals has been obtained from studies on PON1 "knock-out" mice. Destruction of the PON1 gene by knock-out technology creates mice that lack paraoxonase. Compared to wild type littermates, PON1 deficient mice were extremely sensitive to the toxic effects of chlorpyrifos, an OP. Thus, monitoring of paraoxonase activity may help to evaluate a person's ability to withstand OP poisoning associated with deployment of chemical weapons.
Consequently, monitoring blood levels of paraoxonase may be used to identify a predisposition to atherosclerosis, sepsis and OP poisoning. However, the absence of a robust test for detection of paraoxonase levels in blood has significantly delayed progress in studying the diagnostic value of paraoxonase. There are two major options for detection of this enzyme activity. The first is a change in optical density and the second the generation of a fluorescent product.
Currently, the most common substrates for paraoxonase used in research are paraoxon and phenylacetate. Paraoxonase catalyzed hydrolyses of paraoxon leads to release of nitrophenol, which can be detected by monitoring adsorption at 405 nm. This reaction is used to measure paraoxonase activity in fundamental and clinical research. The main disadvantages of this substrate are the low Vmax of hydrolysis, which results in relatively low sensitivity and, due to its toxicity, paraoxon requires special handling conditions. The arylesterase activity of paraoxonase is usually measured through hydrolysis of phenylacetate. This reaction has a much higher Vmax, than the Vmax of paraoxon hydrolysis; however, phenylacetate is also hydrolyzed by a number of other esterases in cell extracts and serum samples, which significantly decreases the specificity of detection. In addition, the detection of phenylacetate hydrolysis is based on monitoring adsorption at 270 nm making paraoxonase detection difficult, or impossible, in protein rich solutions or in extracts containing detergents like Triton X-100.
The OPH gene was originally found in two soil microorganisms, Pseudomonas diminuta and Flavobacterium sp. It has been suggested that this enzyme evolved recently in these bacteria in response to industrial soil contamination with organophosphate compounds. Like paraoxonase, OPH catalyzes a broad range of organophosphate esters including sarin and VX. Due to this activity these organisms may have additional utility in decontamination of OPs in the environment. In this context a sensitive and robust assay would be necessary to confirm expression of OPH in the presence of a large excess of phosphatase activity. Thus, it is essential that the substrate has very little or no affinity for phosphatases.
The foregoing shows that there exists a need for detecting organophosphatase activity including paraoxonase with high specificity and sensitivity. There exists a need for substrates with high specificity for OPH and paraoxonase. The advantages of the present invention as well as inventive features will be apparent from the detailed description of the embodiments of the invention provided herein.

Fluorescent substrates for detecting organophosphatase enzyme activity


An electrical connector mounted on a PCB (printed circuit board) includes an insulating housing having a receiving room and a plurality of contacts retained in the insulating housing. Said insulating housing has a tongue portion and a peripheral wall surrounds said tongue portion which defines said receiving room. Each contact includes a U-shaped contacting portion received in said receiving room, a vertical holding portion retained in an inner surface of said peripheral wall and a connecting portion connecting with said contacting portion and said holding portion. Said connecting portion has a linear leading surface which is formed slanted towards said contacting portion downwardly in order to provide a smooth mating process with a mating connector.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector mounted on a PCB (printed circuit board).
2. Description of Related Art
An electrical connector for mating with a mating connector is widely used in electronics device nowadays. As disclosed in JP. Pat. No. 3707016B2, an electrical connector assembly for connecting two PCBs comprises a plug and a receptacle. Said receptacle includes a rectangular insulating housing and a plurality of contacts retained in said insulating housing. The insulating housing has two pairs of peripheral walls and a tongue portion formed therebetween. Said peripheral walls and said tongue portion defines a receiving room and a plurality of passageways for receiving said plug and said contacts respectively. Each contact of the receptacle has a U-shaped contacting portion received in said receiving room, a vertical holding portion engaged with a peripheral wall of said insulating housing, a connecting portion connecting said U-shaped contacting portion with a top end of said vertical holding portion, and a soldering portion extending out of the insulating housing from a bottom end of said vertical holding portion. Said plug comprises a housing and a plurality of terminals retained on a sidewall of the housing. Said terminal has a U-shaped contacting beam which is arranged on an inner surface and an outer surface of the sidewall of the plug. During the process of assembly between said plug and said receptacle, said sidewalls and said U-shaped contacting beam arranged thereon of the plug are inserted into said receiving room of the receptacle in order to engage with said U-shaped contacting portion of the receptacle electrically. As shown in FIG. 1 of JP. Pat. No. 3707016B2, the contact of the receptacle might which fails to provide a smooth mating with said terminal of the plug. Moreover, the contact of said receptacle may be cracked if the mating force is too much strong.
So it is necessary to provide a new electrical connector to solve the problems above.

Electrical connector having improved contacts therein


A device and method for encoding bits to symbols for a communication system are described. In one embodiment, a method for encoding bits to symbols for a communication system includes receiving a set of N-bit data to be transmitted, where N is an integer, generating side scrambling values using a polynomial, scrambling the set of N-bit data using the side scrambling values to produce scrambled data, mapping the scrambled data to a particular set of M symbols from a plurality of sets of M symbols, where M is an integer and M is smaller than N, and outputting the particular set of M symbols for transmission over a transmission medium. Other embodiments are also described.

When a stream of pulse amplitude modulate (PAM) signals is transmitted through a serial point-to-point communication medium with passive high pass filters in the form of transformers or any high pass filter, the received signal at a receiver will be DC free as the high pass filters attenuate the low frequency components of the PAM signal. If a stream of the PAM signals is not DC free, then the DC of the stream begins to shift towards either positive voltage or negative voltage from the nominal. This phenomenon is called baseline wander (BLW), which occurs normally due to the high pass nature of the network transformers or any form of high pass filter and the symbols used for data transmission without frequent positive and negative voltage transitions. When BLW occurs, the bit error rate (BER) performance of a system deteriorates. The most common solutions to improve the baseline wander phenomenon are: 1) compensating the BLW by regenerating the approximate DC value of the transmitted signal in the local receiver, 2) compensating the BLW by estimating an equivalent DC value of the transmitting signal in the local transmitter before sending a stream of PAM signals (this may not result effective since it is a feed forward approach), and 3) using a bit-to-symbol mapping technique with sufficient positive and negative voltage transitions of symbols at the transmitter.
For the first solution, conventional techniques use a baseline wander compensating unit, which is also called a baseline wander circuit, at a receiver that compensates for the change in DC level of the received signal. Using this solution, the compensation of the BLW is done effectively in the digital domain using a digital signal processing (DSP) algorithm. Thus, the use of a baseline wander circuit in a high speed serial communication system increases the cost in terms of silicon area and power consumption of the receiver circuit.
For the second solution, the approach is based on feed forward, and thus, it may not result as an effective solution.
For the third solution, conventional bit-to-symbol mapping techniques do provide sufficient positive and negative voltage transitions of symbols at the transmitter to increase the BER performance of the system. However, there is a need for a bit-to-symbol mapping technique to further increase the BER performance of a serial communication system.
A device and method for encoding bits to symbols for a communication system are described. In one embodiment, a method for encoding bits to symbols for a communication system includes receiving a set of N-bit data to be transmitted, where N is an integer, generating side scrambling values using a polynomial, scrambling the set of N-bit data using the side scrambling values to produce scrambled data, mapping the scrambled data to a particular set of M symbols from a plurality of sets of M symbols, where M is an integer and M is smaller than N, and outputting the particular set of M symbols for transmission over a transmission medium. Other embodiments are also described.

Device and method for encoding bits to symbols for a communication system


A greeting or announcement card includes integrated picture mailer and frame. An illustrative embodiment of the card is made by die cutting thick paper stock. The card includes front and back portions disposed side-by-side, and a middle portion disposed under the back portion. Adhesive strips cover the inside of the back portion or of the middle portion. When the card is assembled, it is folded along a line to bring into contact the inside surfaces of the middle and back portions, forming a holding pocket open on one side. A picture can be inserted into the pocket and viewed through an aperture in the middle portion. After insertion, the front portion is folded towards the pocket, and the card is mailed. The card's recipient tears off the front portion, and pulls on a precut tab in the back portion, forming a picture frame with an easel-like stand.

In this age of instant messaging, email, and almost omni-present cellular telephones, human need for signs of attention remains unabated. People still like to receive-and send-tangible mementos and signs that someone cares enough to spend a few minutes and a token amount in a gift shop to purchase a card, scribble a few words, and drop it in a mailbox. Many occasions present opportunities for such gestures, including civic and religious holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, weddings, mother's and father's days, confirmations, bar mitzvas, professional and sport achievements, and a myriad of other events. Quite often, a sender wants to include something extra with the card. Sometimes, it is a check in a money holder. Often, it is a picture.
Many people like to send pictures of themselves or of their loved ones, pictures of events that they have witnessed, or pictures of places that they have visited. With the advent of digital photography and the widespread use of personal computers, a person may be able to take a picture and print it out on the same day. Under fresh impression of an event, the person is likely to want to share the picture with others. Mailing the picture in an envelope accompanied by a greeting or announcement card is an option likely to cross his or her mind.
If the card's recipient wants to display the picture, the recipient would need to buy a picture frame, and mount the picture in the frame. By the time the recipient gets around to doing this, the warm feelings occasioned by the receipt of the picture may subside, or the picture may be lost, folded, soiled, or otherwise made unsuitable for display. Moreover, the recipient may want to display the picture only temporarily, rather than permanently. In this case, the recipient may not want to incur the associated expenditures of money for the frame and effort for the mounting of the picture. On the other hand, the recipient can be quite impatient, and want to display the picture immediately. What grandparent would not want to put a framed picture of a newborn grandchild on the nightstand right away, without waiting?

Greeting and announcement cards with integrated picture mailer and frame


A hydraulic brake system for a motor vehicle with redundant braking pressure regulation is presented. The brake system comprises a first functional unit having at least one first electrical braking pressure generator which is designed to generate a braking pressure at each of a plurality of wheel brakes, and further having a valve assembly per wheel brake. The valve assembly can be actuated for braking pressure regulation at the corresponding wheel brake in order to couple a first wheel brake associated with the valve assembly either to the first braking pressure generator or to an unpressurized reservoir for hydraulic fluid. The brake system also comprises a second functional unit having at least one second electrical braking pressure generator which is designed to generate a braking pressure at each of a subset of the wheel brakes. The output of the second braking pressure generator is arranged downstream, as seen from the first braking pressure generator, of the valve assembly associated with the corresponding wheel brake. The second functional unit is also designed to perform braking pressure regulation at each wheel brake of the subset redundantly in relation to the first functional unit.

Conventional motor vehicle electrohydraulic brake systems according to the brake-by-wire (BBW) principle comprise an electrical braking pressure generator, which in normal braking operation generates the braking pressure at the wheel brakes of the motor vehicle. A vehicle deceleration requested by the driver at a brake pedal is detected by sensor in this case and converted into a control signal for the electrical braking pressure generator.
In order to be able to still build up a braking pressure at the wheel brakes in the event of failure of the electrical braking pressure generator, brake systems according to the BBW principle usually comprise a master cylinder in addition, via which hydraulic fluid can likewise be conveyed to the wheel brakes. In normal braking operation the brake pedal is decoupled from the master cylinder, wherein a braking pressure is built up at the wheel brakes exclusively by means of the electrical braking pressure generator. In emergency braking operation, on the other hand, thus if the electrical braking pressure generator fails, for example, the decoupling of brake pedal and master cylinder is cancelled. In this case the driver can then generate a braking pressure at the wheel brakes himself by means of the brake pedal then acting on the master cylinder.
Emergency braking operation is also termed push-through (PT) operation on account of the cancelled decoupling of brake pedal and master cylinder. The opportunity granted to the driver of being able to build up a braking pressure at the wheel brakes via the master cylinder in PT operation creates a redundancy that is indispensable with respect to safety considerations.
Motor vehicle brake systems for autonomous or semi-autonomous driving must also be designed redundantly. However, it cannot be assumed in such cases that the driver is located in the vehicle (e.g. in remote controlled parking, RCP, mode) or that the driver can immediately actuate a brake pedal for PT operation (e.g. when looking away from the traffic situation).
It is required for this reason that, as well as a functional unit that provides an electrically actuatable main braking function, brake systems for autonomous or semi-autonomous driving comprise another functional unit, which implements an electrically actuatable auxiliary braking function in a redundant manner.

Hydraulic brake system for a motor vehicle and method for operating and testing same


Display systems with multifunctional digitizer module board. A shield film is integrated on a digitizer sensor board to form a multifunctional digitizer module board with lower thickness and weight. In the multifunctional digitizer module, a digitizer sensor board senses position of a position pointer or finger contact on a surface and a shield film is integrated on one surface of the digitizer sensor board by semiconductor process to screen out external noise. A display panel is disposed above the multifunctional digitizer module board and coupled thereto, displaying images.

The invention relates to display systems, and more particularly, to display systems with multifunctional digitizer module board.
Many types of touch sensing devices, like digitizers etc. currently are used on or in conjunction with computer displays. Such touch sensing devices measure the position of position pointer or finger contact on the sensor surface and generates coordinates for interaction with the computer, for example in selecting icons on the display, menu items, editing images, and feedback for input of hand-drawn characters and graphics.
Such touch sensing devices may use any number of technologies, including capacitive sensing, resistive sensing using a conductive overlay sheet, infrared sensing, acoustic wave sensing, and piezoelectric force sensing. Digitizers which use hardwired handheld position pointer such as pens typically use electromagnetic, electrostatic, resistive, or sonic pulse sensing.
Touch sensing devices responsive to human contact are typically used for cursor control, such as selection of display icons and menu items or responsive to position pointer (usually a hardwired pen) are used to create or trace drawings, blueprints, or original art. These touch sensing devices are also used for character or handwriting recognition. It is therefore desirable that the touch sensing devices reproduce the path of the position pointer by some visual means to provide visual feedback.
Some of these touch sensing devices are responsive to both user and position pointer contact, thereby providing the convenience of position pointer-based input, for example when writing on the screen, as well as the ease of touch input, which does not require position pointer.
FIG. 1 is a structural diagram of a conventional display device with a digitizer. As shown, the display device 200 comprises a top glass cover 210, the liquid crystal display (LCD) panel 220, a back light module 230, a reflector 240, the digitizer sensor board 250, a shield film 260, a back frame 270 and a position pointer 280. The top glass cover 210, the LCD panel 220, the back light module 230, the reflector 240, the digitizer sensor board 250, the shield film 260 and the back frame 270 are assembled as a laminated construction, and the digitizer sensor board 250 and the position pointer 280 constructing a digitizer. The LCD panel 220 and the digitizer sensor board 250 are coupled to an external host system via differential interfaces, such as two flexible printed circuit boards (FPCs). FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of a conventional display system 100 which comprises LCD module 110 and digitizer module board 120. The LCD module 220 and the digitizer module board 120 are coupled to the host system 130 via corresponding interfaces 112 and 122 respectively. The digitizer module board 120 requires an oscillator 124 disposed in the microcontroller 126 to generate scan timing signals (not shown) for the selection circuit 128, thereby performing scan operation of digitizer sensor array 129. Because the reflector, the digitizer sensor board, a shield film and a back frame in the conventional display system are separate components and the LCD panel and the digitizer sensor board require differential interfaces coupled to an external host system, the conventional display system presents higher cost, thickness, and weight.


Disclosed herewith is a semiconductor module manufacturing apparatus capable of reducing occurrence of warping of the wiring substrate, etc., as well as occurrence of failures of bonding between the wiring substrate and semiconductor chips, etc. without lowering the productivity. The semiconductor module manufacturing apparatus employs a batch reflowing process that heats one, two, or more wiring substrates and at least two or more semiconductor chips or semiconductor devices simultaneously. After the heating process, the semiconductor chips or semiconductor devices are heated and bonded on the wiring substrate. The apparatus includes at least a stage for chucking the wiring substrate fixedly; a heat source for heating the semiconductor chips or semiconductor devices out of contact therewith; and a controller for controlling the heating value of the heat source.

A semiconductor module includes semiconductors, etc., each consisting of many circuit elements such as transistors, resistors, capacitors, etc. that are mounted on a wiring substrate and wired to each another so as to achieve required operations and functions. Various methods are employed for such wiring between each semiconductor chip and the wiring substrate. For example, one of the methods is wire bonding that uses gold wires and another is a flip chip method that bonds each semiconductor chip directly to the surface of an object wiring substrate. At the back side of the wiring substrate having the semiconductor chip, etc. are formed external terminals with solder balls.
A high density packaging technology includes two techniques: one is SoC (System on Chip) and the other is SiP (System in Package). The SoC enables a plurality of functions to be integrated into one system on a silicon chip and the SiP enables the functions of a memory, a CPU (Central Processing Unit), etc. to be integrated into one package. At present, attention is paid to the SiP technique as a supplemental technique for the SoC. Hereunder, there will be described how the flip chip method is applied to the SiP technique. FIGS. 3 and 4 show an example of a package structure obtained by applying the flip chip method to the SiP technique. In FIGS. 3 and 4, connection terminals (solder bumps 313) of a semiconductor chip 301 are disposed in accordance with the concept of area (full grid) arrangement. Actually, however, one or two rows of them at the outer periphery may be disposed in accordance with the concept of peripheral arrangement.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a semiconductor module having a semiconductor chip 301 mounted on a wiring substrate 303, as well as another semiconductor chip 302 stacked on the chip 301 by a chip stacking technique. The chip 302 is connected to the wiring substrate 303 of a base package with a wire 305. The semiconductor chips 301 and 302 are covered by mold resin 309. Under the wiring substrate 303 are provided solder balls 315. In FIG. 4, the semiconductor module has the semiconductor chip 301 mounted on the wiring substrate 303, then another semiconductor package 309 is stacked on the wiring substrate 303 by a PoP technique to be described later. In any of the cases shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the wire bonding method can be employed. However, in order to correspond to signal processings that are speeded up more and more, the flip chip method should preferably be employed to connect the signal terminals to the wiring substrate 303.
The PoP (Package on Package) technique is one of the SiP techniques and used to stack packages one upon another. When compared with the chip stacking technique, at present the PoP technique has such merits as yield improvement, as well as productivity improvement and cost reduction achieved by easiness of test performance. The PoP technique also has other merits such as easiness of problem analysis in troubles occurrence and fast and high density packaging realized by a co-packaging method employed for passive parts. Furthermore, the PoP technique also enables packages sold on the markets to be mounted together, so its application is diversified. And the PoP technique can also correspond to various module forms and shapes flexibly, thereby improving the flexibility in module designing.
The flip chip method enables fast processings and effective utilization of wire bonding are as favorably. On the other hand, the flip chip method requires high temperatures for packaging processes and the temperature, when it is cooled to the room temperature, comes to change significantly in a wide range. Consequently, the thermal expansibility difference between the semiconductor chip and the wiring substrate becomes remarkable; thereby the semiconductor chip and the substrate are apt to warp significantly. In case of the wire bonding method, the temperature required for processes is about 150° C. In case of the flip chip method, the required temperature becomes 200° C. or over in some cases. Particularly, now that the number of terminals often exceeds 500 pins in most advanced semiconductor chips, solder is required to connect those pins with use of the flip chip method. And if the Pb solder is used, the required heating temperature becomes 220° C.
Furthermore, in case of the flip chip method, processes are varied among the semiconductor chips and among the materials used for the junctions of the wiring substrates. The processes employed in the flip chip method are roughly divided into two. One is the local reflow process, which uses such techniques as pressure bonding or the like to bond the surface of each semiconductor chip is faced to an object wiring substrate and bonded thereon. The other is the batch reflow process, which puts a plurality of such objects as semiconductor chips on multiple forming wiring substrates or a plurality of wiring substrates and they are flown together into a reflowing oven as are, thereby they are heated and bonded together respectively.
The local reflow process is described in various documents. JP-A-2004-47670 (Patent document 1) describes a method for pressing a heated semiconductor chip onto a substrate chucked and retained on a stage. The patent document 1 also describes a means for forcibly cooling the substrate from the side of the stage. JP-A-2000-260827 (Patent document 2) describes how to keep a temperature of an object circuit substrate lower than a temperature of an object semiconductor chip with use of a cooling device provided on a stage used to retain circuit substrates. As described in the patent documents 1 and 2, the methods reduce the difference of thermal expansibility between the substrate and the semiconductor chip, thereby preventing the package from warping. JP-A-HEI9-219417 (Patent document 3) describes a method for suppressing such package warping by heating and cooling so that the thermal profile becomes approximately the same between the substrate and the semiconductor device to be mounted on the substrate. Furthermore, JP-A-2000-294602 (Patent document 4) describes a method for directly heating an object chip entirely with use of a laser beam, thereby preventing the object package from warping and unstable connection.
In case of the local reflow process, wiring substrates can be fixed on a stage for heating and bonding, so the process can assure favorable connection for packages. Thus bonding failures cannot occur so easily between wiring substrates and semiconductor chips, which otherwise might occur due to warped wiring substrates in heating processes. In spite of this, bonding is required for each semiconductor chip, so the process is disadvantage in productivity. And in any of the methods described in the above four patent documents, the local reflow process is employed, so the productivity is low.
On the other hand, in case of the batch reflow process, a plurality of wiring substrates are disposed on a stage and a plurality of semiconductor chips are put on those substrates respectively, then they are flown together into a reflow oven, so the process is favorable in productivity. In this case, wiring substrates put on a belt conveyer are just transferred continuously; the substrates are not fixed on the belt conveyer. Consequently, bonding failures occurrence is still anticipated between semiconductor chips and wiring substrates due to the packages warped in a heating process. JP-A-2004-119594 (Patent document 5) describes a method for two or more ICs mounted on a substrate are put between one flat pressing part and one wiring substrate supporting part, then those two ICs are bonded onto the substrate together through an elastic part. Furthermore, JP-A-2005-203664 (Patent document 6) describes a method that uses a jig capable of correcting warping of wiring substrates. Even through, each of those methods described above still requires methods for preventing warping to be caused by a heating process without lowering the productivity to eliminate such bonding failures that might otherwise occur between semiconductor chips and wiring substrates. Particularly, now that wiring substrates are being thinned more and more, warping in heating processes comes to increase. And thinner semiconductor modules are kept required for mobile phones, etc., so bonding failures are becoming more serious problems.

Method and apparatus for manufacturing semiconductor module


The present invention is a computer housing with a low noise cooling system. The computer housing is comprised of two principal members, a cover and a base. Both a left surface and a right surface of the cover are perforated with vents to allowing the passage of air through the housing. The base additionally incorporates two air intake holes with a power source for the computer disposed over these air intake holes. The passage of air through the housing is facilitated through the use of three fans. These three fans are attached directly to the power source, and each of these fans operates at a different fan speed. The fan speeds are additionally adjusted in response to the outside ambient temperature. In operation, air enters the computer housing of the present invention through the vent array on the left surface of the cover, and the air intake holes in the base. The air is then channeled under the power source, dissipating the heat generated by the power source, blown across the components in the housing, and passed out of the housing through the vent array disposed on the left surface of the cover. The flow of air from one of the fans is advantageously deflected and channeled with a deflector.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer housings and computer cooling systems, and more particularly, to a computer housing with a low-noise cooling system.
2. Related Applications
This application is related to copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/882,804, filed May 14, 1992, entitled "Modular Circuit Board Placement System," and copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/883,533, filed May 15, 1992, entitled "Quick Connect Modular Unit Retainer Assembly with Damping."
3. Description of the Related Art
Computers typically utilize numerous components which generate heat. If not dissipated properly, this heat tends to degrade the performance of the computer, and under certain circumstances, can cause system failure. A desktop computer, for example, typically incorporates within a single housing numerous heat-producing components, including a power source, memory boards, a motherboard, one or more processors, and disk drive devices. The heat generated by these components is frequently dissipated through the use of an air cooling system in which air is passed through the computer housing from top to bottom, bottom to top, bottom to side, front to back, or a combination thereof. A fan typically facilitates the passage of air through the housing.
The dissipation of heat in a desktop computer becomes particularly significant when the capabilities of an existing desktop computer are enhanced with, for example, a new power source which provides greater power to the computer, or the use of more boards, or more processors. The need to enclose a greater number of components, each of which generates a greater amount of heat, within the same, or smaller size housing presents substantial heat dissipation problems.
Any design for a computer cooling system must further consider the problem of noise generated by the operation of the cooling system. High noise levels are undesirable to a computer user, tending to adversely affect user productivity and health. The operation of a large fan operating at a high speed within a desktop computer, for example, tends to cause an unacceptably high level of noise. Accordingly, a cooling system for a computer system should ideally provide dedicated and sufficient cooling at a low noise level.

Computer housing with low noise cooling system


A vortex flow blower including a blower casing having an annular flow passageway extending from an inlet port for receiving fluid to an outlet port for discharging the fluid, the outlet port being disposed adjacent to the inlet port, and an impeller accommodated in the blower casing for producing a vortex flow of the fluid in the annular flow passageway. The vortex flow blower is configured for enabling at least one of noise reduction pressure increase and reduction of power requirements of the vortex flow blower, by providing at least one of sectional area reducer for reducing a sectional area of the annular flow passageway which annular flow passageway includes an annular groove disposed in facing relation to vanes of the impeller, and a partition wall partitioning a part of the circumference of the annular groove so that the inlet port and the outlet port being provided at opposite end portions of the annular groove partitioned by the partition wall with the sectional area reducer is disposed at a position of the annular passageway located between the outlet port of the annular passageway and a midpoint between the inlet port and the outlet port of the annular passageway, and an auxiliary flow supply path for supplying an auxiliary flow of the fluid introduced to the annular flow passageway from the inlet port so as to conduct the fluid in a direction to form the vortex flow.

The present invention relates to the construction of a vortex flow blower for improving performance thereof when such vortex flow blower is operated as a centrifugal gas pump or a centrifugal fluid pump such as a WESCO pump.
This type of vortex blower as a centrifugal pump is generally provided with an impeller having a large number of vanes and disposed in an annular flow path, an inlet or suction port and an outlet or discharge port both communicate with the interior of the annular flow path, and a partition wall for partitioning the section from the discharge port to the suction port through a very small gap with respect to a vane passing path. Gas or liquid (both will be generically called "fluid" hereinafter) which has been introduced from the suction port is rotated and pressurized in the form of a vortex flow in the annular flow path by rotating the impeller disposed in the same path, and the fluid is then discharged from the discharge port.
In prior art single-side impeller type centrifugal pumps, as described for example in Laid-Open Japanese Patent Application No. 51-70512, an annular groove in a casing is made nearly in a semi-elliptical form expressed by d<(D2-D1)/4 where D2 is the outside diameter of the annular groove, D1 is inside diameter, and d is depth, thereby preventing the reverse flow of a fluid. It is, therefore, possible to provide a small-volume but high-static pressure centrifugal blower.
Also, in prior-art double-side blade-type centrifugal pumps, the annular groove of the casing is provided with an annular projection on the outer periphery of the annular groove as described in Laid-Open Japanese Patent Application No. 49-135209, thereby improving pump output performance by preventing occurrence of a breakaway flow.
The prior art described above are concerned with producing a high static pressure within a range of small air volume, and a construction required for noise reduction is not taken into consideration. Furthermore, such above-described prior art having projections and shallow grooves provided all around the annular groove, have such a problem as a decrease in the sectional area of a portion extending from a suction port of the annular groove to a suction-discharge center and accordingly a decrease in the air volume. This decrease in the sectional area of this position hardly contributes toward the noise reduction.
Additionally, while the above-described type of a centrifugal pump is relatively easy to handle and therefore is utilized in various fields there is another problem related to such structure. More particularly, the impeller rotates continuously and the fluid which has been introduced from the suction port is rotated and pressurized in the form of a vortex flow in the annular flow path, then is carried to the discharge port by the action of the partition wall. At this time, as, for example, disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid Open No. 91308/76, a portion of the fluid is allowed to remain between adjacent vanes of the impeller and is thereby conveyed to the suction portion side, which fluid portion will hereinafter be referred to as "carry-over flow". The carry-over flow passes the partition wall and is conveyed to the suction side while the rotation thereof is suppressed. On the suction side, the pressurized carry-over flow is released throughout the entire vane width and expands substantially uniformly in the flow path. As a result, the amount of fluid which is introduced decreases accordingly, that is, an effective amount of fluid conveyed decreases, and hence the characteristic thereof remains poor.
As mentioned above, the fluid of a large rotation and high pressure on the discharge port side flows out from the discharge port. But according to an analysis made by the present inventors, it turned out that the carry-over flow not only decreases an effective amount of fluid conveyed, but also operates disadvantageously in the following point. Once the carry-over flow of high pressure is released on the suction port side, it is released throughout the entire vane width in this position and expands substantially uniformly without rotation in the flow path. As a result, this expanded flow is mixed with fluid introduced from the suction port without changing the length of wetted perimeter and causes disturbance in the fluid introduced from the suction port. Due to this disturbance, the fluid introduced from the exterior through the suction port cannot form a rotating flow in the flow path portion near the suction port, and only after passing this mixing region, it forms an effective rotating flow. According to an experimental measurement made by the present inventors, this mixing region was about 40.degree. in terms of the angle of circumference from the suction port to the discharge port side. In the conventional centrifugal pumps, therefore, a rotating flow cannot be formed at an angle corresponding to such mixing region, i.e., about 40.degree., so it is impossible to raise the pressure and hence the pressure is low. It became clear that this had a bad influence on the improvement of characteristics and also became clear that such disturbance badly affected the generation of noise.
It is a well-known fact that the disturbance of fluid causes the deterioration of performance also in hydraulics and aerodynamics.


A piezoelectric transducer is mounted in a housing. An impedance matching layer is provided between the piezoelectric transducer and the housing. The impedance matching layer includes high-permittivity regions that have a first permittivity, and low-permittivity regions that separate the high-permittivity regions and have a second permittivity. The second permittivity is lower than the first permittivity.

Acoustic transducers are used for a variety of purposes, including in the oil field. A focused planar transducer, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,462, which is owned by the assignee of the instant application, allow acoustic illumination with focus and depth of field. Transferring energy from an acoustic transducer to fluids in a borehole is a challenge.

Acoustic transducer with impedance matching layer


A memory gate stack in a high density memory core has spaces on the order of less than 0.25 microns using conventional deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography techniques by depositing a layer of silicon oxynitride over a plurality of layers, and a thin resist layer overlying on the silicon oxynitride layer. The resist layer has a thickness sufficient to withstand removal during etching of the silicon oxynitride layer, for example about 3,000 Angstroms to about 4,000 Angstroms. The silicon oxynitride layer has a sacrificial portion having a thickness at least about 500 Angstroms, and a stop-layer thickness, used for spacer formation following etching of the memory gate, of at least 1,000 Angstroms. The use of silicon oxynitride as an antireflective coating layer in combination with the thin resist optimizes the resolution of DUV lithography, enabling formation of spacers having widths less than about 0.24 microns. In addition, the sacrificial layer of the silicon oxynitride layer enables self-aligned etching of the plurality of layers to form the memory gate stack, while maintaining sufficient thickness for spacer formation.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to semiconductor devices and manufacturing processes, and more particularly to methods and arrangements associated with a multi-purpose graded silicon oxynitride cap layer in non-volatile memory semiconductor devices.
2. Background Art
A continuing trend in semiconductor technology is to build integrated circuits with more and/or faster semiconductor devices. The drive toward this ultra large-scale integration (ULSI) has resulted in continued shrinking of device and circuit features. As the devices and features shrink, new problems are discovered that require new methods of fabrication and/or new arrangements.
A flash or block erase Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (flash EEPROM) semiconductor memory includes an array of memory cells that can be independently programmed and read. The size of each memory cell, and therefore the memory array, is made small by omitting select transistors that would enable the cells to be erased independently. The array of memory cells is typically aligned along a bit line and a word fine and erased together as a block. An example of a memory of this type includes individual metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) memory cells, each of which includes a source, drain, floating gate, and control gate to which various voltages are applied to program the cell with a binary 1 or 0. Each memory cell can be read by addressing it via the appropriate word and bit lines.
An exemplary memory cell 8 is depicted in FIG. 1A, viewed in a cross-section through the bit line. Memory cell 8 includes a doped substrate 12 having a top surface 11, and a source 13a and a drain 13b formed by selectively doping regions of substrate 12. A tunnel oxide 15 separates a floating gate 16 from substrate 12. An interpoly dielectric 24 separates floating gate 16 from a control gate 26. Floating gate 16 and control gate 26 are each electrically conductive and typically formed of polysilicon.
On top of control gate 26 is a silicide layer 28, which acts to increase the electrical conductivity of control gate 26. Silicide layer 28 is typically a tungsten silicide (e.g., WSi.sub.2), that is formed on top of control gate 26 prior to patterning, using conventional deposition and annealing processes.
As known to those skilled in the art, memory cell 8 can be programmed, for example, by applying an appropriate programming voltage to control gate 26. Similarly, memory cell 8 can be erased, for example, by applying an appropriate erasure voltage to source 13a. When programmed, floating gate 16 will have a charge corresponding to either a binary 1 or 0. By way of example, floating gate 16 can be programmed to a binary 1 by applying a programming voltage to control gate 26, which causes an electrical charge to build up on floating gate 16. If floating gate 16 does not contain a threshold level of electrical charge, then floating gate 16 represents a binary 0. During erasure, the charge is removed from floating gate 16 by way of the erasure voltage applied to source 13a.
FIG. 1B depicts a cross-section of several adjacent memory cells from the perspective of a cross-section through the word line (i.e., from perspective A, as referenced in FIG. 1A). In FIG. 1B, the cross-section reveals that individual memory cells are separated by isolating regions of silicon dioxide formed on substrate 12. For example, FIG. 1B shows a portion of a floating gate 16a associated with a first memory cell, a floating gate 16b associated with a second memory cell, and a floating gate 16c associated with a third memory cell. Floating gate 16a is physically separated and electrically isolated from floating gate 16b by a field oxide (FOX) 14a. Floating gate 16b is separated from floating gate 16c by a field oxide 14b. Floating gates 16a, 16b, and 16c are typically formed by selectively patterning a single conformal layer of polysilicon that was deposited over the exposed portions of substrate 12, tunnel oxide 15, and field oxides 14a and 14b. Interpoly dielectric layer 24 has been conformally deposited over the exposed portions of floating gates 16a, 16b, and 16c and field oxides 14a and 14b. Interpoly dielectric layer 24 isolates floating gates 16a, 16b and 16c from the next conformal layer which is typically a polysilicon layer that is patterned (e.g., along the bit line) to form control gate 26. Interpoly dielectric layer 24 typically includes a plurality of films, such as, for example, a bottom film of silicon dioxide, a middle film of silicon nitride, and a top film of silicon dioxide. This type of interpoly dielectric layer is commonly referred to as an oxide-nitride-oxide (ONO) layer.
The continued shrinking of memory cells, and in particular the basic functions depicted in the memory cells of FIGS. 1A and 1B, places a substantial burden on the fabrication process to deposit and subsequently pattern a layer stack to form a floating gate-control gate structure, without causing adverse effects within the resulting memory cells. Of particular concern, is the limited resolution encountered during photolithography. In particular, the memory gate stack, illustrated in FIG. 1A, uses conventional photolithography techniques that typically require a resist thickness of typically 8,000 to 9,000 Angstroms. In addition, the thickness of the resist mask is reduced during etching of the layer stack including layers 28, 26, 24, and 16. Hence, the relatively thick layer of photoresist is necessary in order to ensure that the resist mask pattern is preserved during etching of the layer stack.
Use of a mask pattern having a resist thickness of 8,000 to 9,000 Angstroms, however, substantially limits the resolution of the conventional deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography techniques. Specifically, although DUV lithography may be used to form a gate having a width of around 0.25 microns, the depth of the resist of about 8,000 to 9,000 Angstroms limits the depth of field resolution during resist patterning, such that the spaces between the resist line are a minimum width of about 0.3 microns. Hence, the ability to increase the density of memory cells in a memory array by reducing the spacing between memory gates is limited by conventional DUV photolithography techniques.

Method for etching memory gate stack using thin resist layer


A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and device that assists with reducing memory fragmentation in solid state devices includes identifying an allocation area within an address range to write data from a cache. Next, the identified allocation area is determined for including previously stored data. The previously stored data is read from the identified allocation area when it is determined that the identified allocation area comprises previously stored data. Next, both the write data from the cache and the read previously stored data are written back into the identified allocation area sequentially through the address range.

Repeated writing data sets to, and erasing data sets from, a data storage medium causes storage space to be used inefficiently and this phenomenon is called fragmentation within the data storage medium. Fragmentation within the data storage mediums phenomenon reduces storage capacity, and increases access and read times. Fragmentation occurs when a computing device does not allocate enough contiguous storage space to encode a complete data set as a single sequence, and instead divides the data set into portions which are encoded in gaps between other data sets. Typically, these data storage medium gaps arise because an earlier data set was deleted, or excess space was allocated to another stored data set. The degree to which a data storage medium is fragmented heavily dependent upon the size and number of data sets stored on it.
To address the fragmentation issue, prior technologies uses the technique of defragmentation where the datasets written to a data storage medium is rearranged such that segments of each data set are written contiguously. Unfortunately, the technique used in the prior technologies fails to significantly reduce fragmentation and are time consuming, memory intensive operations that can significantly reduce the performance of a computer system while being executed.

Methods for minimizing fragmentation in SSD within a storage system and devices thereof


A fluid pump assembly includes a rotatable component that can be rotated about an axis and a static vane assembly located adjacent to the rotatable component. The static vane assembly includes a circumferential surface axially spaced from the rotatable component, and one or more vanes extending from the circumferential surface toward the rotatable component. The one or more vanes are configured to produce a radial load on the rotatable component when the rotatable component is rotating about the axis and a fluid is present between the static vane assembly and the rotatable component.

The present invention relates to vane assemblies suitable for use in fluid pumps, and more particularly to static vane assemblies for producing radial loads on turbopump components.
Rocket engines can utilize turbopumps to deliver propellants to an injector assembly in the combustion chamber. Such turbopumps have rotors that rotate as the turbopump operates, and impellers that rotate as part of the rotor to increase the pressure of propellants or propellant mixtures. It is desired to obtain a low, steady synchronous vibration response during turbopump operation. However, for a variety of reasons, a particular turbopump may produce an undesired sub-synchronous response. Sub-synchronous vibration responses can be caused, at least in part, by insufficient radial loading on a given bearing set of the turbopump.
Undesired asynchronous vibration response issues could be addressed in a number of ways. However, many potential solutions are overly complex, insufficiently robust, or are otherwise undesirable, for instance, resulting in an unsatisfactory turbopump performance loss. As one example, the rotor bearings could be redesigned, but redesigns of rotor bearings are difficult and complex. Moreover, flow inlets and outlets create load vectors that could be optimized relative to undesired vibrations, but optimal inlet and outlet flow paths may undesirably increase engine size and/or mass and may provide optimal design "windows" (i.e., tolerances on desired vibration characteristics) that are too small to be practical.


The invention provides reagents and methods for detecting pathogen infections in human samples. This detection utilizes specific proteins to detect the presence of pathogen proteins or abnormal expression of human proteins resulting from pathogen infections. Specific methods, compositions and kits are disclosed herein for the detection of oncogenic Human papillomavirus E6 proteins in clinical samples.

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosis in women and is linked to high-risk human papillomavirus infection 99.7% of the time. Currently, 12,000 new cases of invasive cervical cancer are diagnosed in US women annually, resulting in 5,000 deaths each year. Furthermore, there are approximately 400,000 cases of cervical cancer and close to 200,000 deaths annually worldwide. Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are one of the most common causes of sexually transmitted disease in the world. Overall, 50-75% of sexually active men and women acquire genital HPV infections at some point in their lives. An estimated 5.5 million people become infected with HPV each year in the US alone, and at least 20 million are currently infected. The more than 100 different isolates of HPV have been broadly subdivided into high-risk and low-risk subtypes based on their association with cervical carcinomas or with benign cervical lesions or dysplasias.
A number of lines of evidence point to HPV infections as the etiological agents of cervical cancers. Multiple studies in the 1980's reported the presence of HPV variants in cervical dysplasias, cancer, and in cell lines derived from cervical cancer. Further research demonstrated that the E6-E7 region of the genome from oncogenic HPV 18 is selectively retained in cervical cancer cells, suggesting that HPV infection could be causative and that continued expression of the E6-E7 region is required for maintenance of the immortalized or cancerous state. The following year, Sedman et al demonstrated that the E6-E7 genes from HPV 16 were sufficient to immortalize human keratinocytes in culture. Barbosa et al demonstrated that although E6-E7 genes from high risk HPVs could transform cell lines, the E6-E7 regions from low risk, or non-oncogenic variants such as HPV 6 and HPV 11 were unable to transform human keratinocytes. More recently, Pillai et al examined HPV 16 and 18 infection by in situ hybridization and E6 protein expression by immunocytochemistry in 623 cervical tissue samples at various stages of tumor progression and found a significant correlation between histological abnormality and HPV infection.
Current treatment paradigms are focused on the actual cervical dysplasia rather than the underlying infection with HPV. Women are screened by physicians annually for cervical dysplasia and are treated with superficial ablative techniques, including cryosurgery, laser ablation and excision. As the disease progresses, treatment options become more aggressive, including partial or radical hysterectomy, radiation or chemotherapy. A significant unmet need exists for early and accurate diagnosis of oncogenic HPV infection as well as for treatments directed at the causative HPV infection, preventing the development of cervical cancer by intervening earlier in disease progression. Human papillomaviruses characterized to date are associated with lesions confined to the epithelial layers of skin, or oral, pharyngeal, respiratory, and, most importantly, anogenital mucosae. Specific human papillomavirus types, including HPV 6 and 11, frequently cause benign mucosal lesions, whereas other types such as HPV 16, 18, and a host of other strains, are predominantly found in high-grade lesions and cancer. Individual types of human papillomaviruses (HPV) which infect mucosal surfaces have been implicated as the causative agents for carcinomas of the cervix, anus, penis, larynx and the buccal cavity, occasional periungal carcinomas, as well as benign anogenital warts. The identification of particular HPV types is used for identifying patients with premalignant lesions who are at risk of progression to malignancy. Although visible anogenital lesions are present in some persons infected with human papillomavirus, the majority of individuals with HPV genital tract infection do not have clinically apparent disease, but analysis of cytomorphological traits present in cervical smears can be used to detect HPV infection. Papanicolaou tests are a valuable screening tool, but they miss a large proportion of HPV-infected persons due to the unfortunate false positive and false negative test results. In addition, they are not amenable to worldwide testing because interpretation of results requires trained pathologists.
Conventional viral detection assays, including serologic assays, sandwich ELISA assays and growth in cell culture, are not commercially available and/or are not suitable for the diagnosis and tracking of HPV infection. Recently, several PCR (polymerase chain reaction)-based tests for HPV infections have become available. Though the tests provide the benefit of differentiating oncogenic from non-oncogenic infections, they are fairly expensive to administer and require highly trained technicians to perform PCR and/or luminometer assays. In addition, PCR has a natural false positive rate that may invoke further testing or procedures that are not required. Since the oncogenicity of HPV has been shown to be protein based, early detection of HPV DNA or RNA may lead to unnecessary medical procedures that the body's immune system may solve naturally.
The difficulties in detecting oncogenic HPV in human samples (e.g., a sample of a tumor) using traditional methods are numerous. For example, detection of E6 protein using antibodies is difficult because E6 that is made in a human cell contains a number of structural modifications, e.g., disulfide bonds and phosphate groups, that cause wild-type E6 protein made in bacterial systems, or chemically synthesized E6 peptides, to not recognize E6 protein in human cells. Further, since oncogenic E6 proteins do not share an epitope that distinguishes them from non-oncogenic E6 proteins, a single antibody cannot be used for the detection of all oncogenic E6 HPV strains.
The detection and diagnosis of disease is a prerequisite for the treatment of disease. Numerous markers and characteristics of diseases have been identified and many are used for the diagnosis of disease. Many diseases are preceded by, and are characterized by, changes in the state of the affected cells. Changes can include the expression of pathogen genes or proteins in infected cells, changes in the expression patterns of genes or proteins in affected cells, and changes in cell morphology. The detection, diagnosis, and monitoring of diseases can be aided by the accurate assessment of these changes. Inexpensive, rapid, early and accurate detection of pathogens can allow treatment and prevention of diseases that range in effect from discomfort to death.
The following publications are of interest: Munger (2002) Front. Biosci. 7:d641-9; Glaunsinger (2000) Oncogene 19:5270-80; Gardiol (1999) Oncogene 18:5487-96; Pim (1999) Oncogene 18:7403-8; Meschede (1998) J. Clin. Microbiol. 36:475-80; Kiyono (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 94:11612-6; and Lee (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 94:6670-5. In addition, the following patents and patent applications are of interest: Bleul, U.S. Pat. No. 6,322,794; Cole, U.S. Pat. No. 6,344,314; Schoolnik, U.S. Pat. No. 5,415,995; Bleul, U.S. Pat. No. 5,753,233; Cole, U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,723; Cole, U.S. Pat. No. 5,648,459; Orth, U.S. Pat. No. 6,391,539; Orth, U.S. Pat. No. 5,665,535; Schoolnik, U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,239.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A Universal Serial Bus flash memory unit having an electrically conductive housing includes a spring that provides an electrically conductive, low-resistance pathway between the housing and the metal shell of the Universal Serial Bus connector so that electrostatic charge can directly discharge from the housing to the metal shell instead of discharging through electronic components within the housing.

This invention relates generally to the use and structure of removable nonvolatile memory devices, particularly those having standardized connectors for interfacing with other electronic systems.
Electronic circuit cards, including non-volatile memory cards, have been commercially implemented according to a number of well-known standards. Memory cards are used with personal computers, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), digital still cameras, digital movie cameras, portable audio players and other host electronic devices for the storage of large amounts of data. Such cards usually contain a re-programmable non-volatile semiconductor memory cell array along with a controller that controls operation of the memory cell array and interfaces with a host to which the card is connected. Several of the same type of card may be interchanged in a host card slot designed to accept that type of card. However, the development of the many electronic card standards has created different types of cards that are incompatible with each other in various degrees. A card made according to one standard is usually not useable with a host designed to operate with a card of another standard. Memory card standards include PC Card, CompactFlash™ card (CF™ card), SmartMedia™ card, MultiMediaCard (MMC™), Secure Digital (SD) card, a miniSD™ card, Subscriber Identity Module (SIM), Memory Stick™, Memory Stick Duo card and TransFlash™ memory module standards.
Small, hand-held re-programmable non-volatile memories have also been made to interface with a computer or other type of host through a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector. These are especially convenient for users who have one or more USB connectors available on the front of their personal computers, particularly if a receptacle slot for one of the above identified memory cards is not present. Such devices are also very useful for transferring data between various host systems that have USB receptacles, including portable devices. Mechanical and electrical details of the USB interface are provided by the "Universal Serial Bus Specification," revision 2.0, dated Apr. 27, 2000. USB connectors generally feature a metal shell surrounding an opening that contains pins, the metal shell connecting to ground when inserted into a USB receptacle. There are several USB flash drive products commercially available from SanDisk Corporation under its trademark "Cruzer®." USB flash drives are typically larger and shaped differently than the memory cards described above.
Removable memory units (cards, USB flash drives and other units) are generally provided with a standardized connector. In some cases, such connectors are susceptible to damage. A cap may be used to cover such a connector so that it is protected. However, where such covers are separable from the memory unit, they may be lost or damaged easily. One alternative is to provide a connector that retracts into the housing of the memory unit for protection. Examples of such units include Cruzer® Titanium USB flash drives from SanDisk Corporation. In order to provide physical protection, the housing of a flash drive may be made of a metal, such as steel, stainless steel, aluminum, titanium, zinc, a suitable alloy or any other suitable metal.
A unit with a retractable connector generally has a feature on the outside of its housing that allows a user to manually slide the connector between a retracted position and an extended position. In the retracted position, the connector is contained within the housing and is protected by the housing. In the extended position, the connector extends through an opening in the housing so that it may be plugged into a receptacle. Such an opening is generally made somewhat larger than the connector so that there is some clearance around the connector to allow it to freely extend and retract without significant friction or binding.
Under normal circumstances, some electrostatic charge can develop on the conductive housing which may lead to Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) issues. ESD is a discharge of transient charge that may develop on a conductive housing or on a body that is in electrical contact with the housing, causing the housing to be at higher electrical potential with respect to ground requiring a ground path to discharge. Hence many electrical/electronic systems are furnished with ESD protection circuits. These circuits prevent an unwanted transient charge that may develop on a conductive housing from jumping onto sensitive components within the memory system and hence prevent the damage or failure of memory devices. One way to design for ESD protection is to provide a ground path to chassis (PC) ground via a metal shell of a connector.
A conductive spring provided between the connector and the housing provides an electrically conductive pathway between the housing and the metal shell of the connector. Thus, the housing and the metal shell are kept at the same potential. When the connector is connected to a receptacle, the metal shell is connected to ground and any charge on the housing is discharged through the conductive spring to the conductive shell. In this way, the memory system is protected from damaging electrostatic discharge. In one example, the conductive spring is formed integrally with the metal shell of the connector.
Additional aspects, advantages, features and details of various aspects of the present invention are included in the following description of exemplary embodiments thereof, which description should be taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
All patents, patent applications, articles, manuals, standards, specifications, other publications and things referenced herein are hereby incorporated herein by those references in their entirety for all purposes.


An adaptor (10) for a fastening tool (12) having an attachment portion (18) for coupling the adaptor (10) to the fastening tool and a support (14, 16) for coupling a mounting bracket (26) to the adaptor (10), arranged so as to hold the mounting bracket (26) relative to a substrate and allow a fastener from the tool to be driven through the mounting bracket to secure the mounting bracket to the substrate (52). A holder for holding an item to facilitate attachment of said item to a substrate by a fastener, wherein the holder magnetically retains the item in a position to receive the fastener from a fastener tool. A method of securing a mounting bracket to a substrate including the steps of coupling the mounting bracket (26) to an adaptor (10) which is arranged so as to hold the mounting bracket relative to a fastening tool (12), supporting the mounting bracket in position relative to the substrate (52), and operating the tool to drive a fastener through a mounting portion of the mounting bracket to secure the mounting bracket to the substrate.

It has been previously proposed to house electrical wires within a conduit in the form of a plastic tube or piping for running the wires between locations. For example, electrical wires conducting mains electricity may be run along the outside wall of a building between power points and/or fixed electrical fittings in this way. The wires are commonly sheathed within PVC piping or some other form of conduit to protect and insulate the wires. The conduit is commonly mounted to a substrate by mounting brackets fastened to the substrate at spaced intervals. Mounting brackets used for this purpose typically have a holding portion and a mounting portion integrally attached to the holding portion. The holding portion is shaped such that, in use, the holding portion extends around the conduit so as to hold the conduit in place between the mounting bracket and the substrate. The mounting portion is provided with an aperture through which a fastener can be inserted so as to fasten the mounting bracket to the substrate. The fastener may be in the form of, for example, a nail, bolt or screw. When the fastener is in the form of a screw, an anchor (for example a plastic anchor) may be used to assist in retaining the screw within the wall, particularly in the case where the wall is of a material (Such as brick, concrete or plaster) susceptible to failure when an axial load is applied to the screw.
Typically, mounting brackets of the above type are installed by manually supporting the mounting bracket over the conduit with the holding portion of the mounting bracket extending around an outside surface of the conduit so as to locate the conduit and mounting bracket in position ready for fastening. The fastener is then inserted through the aperture of the mounting bracket and into the substrate behind the mounting bracket, thus fastening the mounting bracket to the substrate. It is dangerous to use a powered fastening tool, such as a gas-actuated or powder-actuated fastening tool, to fasten mounting brackets in this way as, with the mounting bracket being supported manually in position during driving of the fastener through the mounting bracket, there exists a risk of accidentally driving a fastener through the hand used to support the mounting bracket in place. It is safer to manually insert a fastener through the aperture in the mounting bracket such as by manually driving a screw through the aperture and into the substrate of the wall using a screwdriver, however such manual insertion of fasteners is slow. Moreover, the fastening of mounting brackets in this way commonly requires two people, a first person to hold the mounting bracket and conduit in place and a second person to insert the fastener, making the process time-consuming and labour-intensive.
Examples of the present invention seek to overcome or at least alleviate one or more disadvantages of conventional methods of fastening wires housed in a conduit to a substrate.


A machine output detection and control system includes machine metric logic that detects a plurality of quantity metrics, each quantity metric corresponding to sensor information associated with at least one mobile machine in a plurality of different mobile machines. The system also includes normalization logic that aggregates the plurality of different quantity metrics to generate, for each mobile machine, a normalized production unit that is normalized across the plurality of different mobile machines. Dependency logic correlates the normalized production unit, for each mobile machine, to a machine dependency that identifies an order in which the plurality of different mobile machines operate at a jobsite. Further, action signal logic generates an action signal, based on the correlation.

There are a wide variety of different types of equipment, such as forestry equipment, construction equipment, and agricultural equipment. These types of equipment are often operated by an operator and have sensors that generate information during an operation. These types of equipment can often communicate the sensor information to other machines. However, this sensor information is often used within the parameters of the sensing machine. In other words, the sensor information is machine-specific.
Forestry equipment can include a wide variety of machines such as harvesters, skidders, feller bunchers, forwarders, and swing machines, among others. Forestry equipment can be operated by an operator and have many different mechanisms that are controlled by the operator. The equipment may have multiple different mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electromechanical (and other) subsystems, some or all of which can be controlled, at least to some extent, by the operator. Some or all of these subsystems may communicate information that is obtained from sensors on the machine (and from other inputs). For instance, a feller buncher might cut stems and provide sensed information about the stems.
Current systems may experience difficulty in utilizing information that is typically expressed according to the parameters of a sensing machine. That is, current systems may experience difficulty in utilizing machine-specific information to control a wide variety of different machines to improve performance of the machines and increase productivity measures across an entire forestry operation.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

Controlling forestry machines across a jobsite


A quick connector includes a main member, a housing, a sliding member and an elastic member. The main member has a chamber therein, two bores, a check valve and an elastic device urging the check valve sealing the bore. The housing has a big end, a small end and a sloping section. The big end is connected to the bore of the main member. The sliding member has an elongated bore, first and second ring portions, a plurality of apertures, and balls received in the apertures. The sliding member is inserted into the housing via the small end with the first ring portion out of the housing, the second ring portion in the housing and the sloping section of the housing between the first ring portion and the second ring portion. The elastic member urges the sliding member distal to the main member initially.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power tool and more particularly, to a quick connector with properties of simple structure and easy operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional quick connector of a high-pressure hose includes an outer tube, a spring and a ball. To assemble a tube, user has to draw the outer tube backwards to leave a positioning portion for insertion of the tube. Next, the spring will return the outer tube when the outer tube is released.
To disassemble the tube, user has to draw the outer tube backwards again for removal of the tube, and then the outer tube is released. The conventional quick connector has no fatal problem, however, the way of assembling and disassembling the tube may have someway of improvement.


An internal mix air atomizing spray nozzle assembly having a nozzle body that defines a central liquid flow passage, an air guide for directing pressurized air within the nozzle, and a downstream air cap having an upstanding impingement post and a plurality of discharge orifice defining passages about the impingement post. The air cap passages each are oriented at compound angle with respect to a central axis for discharging atomized liquid flow streams in a conical spray pattern swirling in a predetermined rotative direction about the central axis, and the impingement post has a diffuser cap that defines a flat central liquid impingement surface and an outer annular array of non radial diffuser veins for directing the atomized liquid and pressurized air in a swirling fashion about the impingement post in the same relative direction as the swirling spray pattern from the air cap passages.

Internal mix spray nozzle assemblies are known that utilize pressurized air for breaking down liquid into relatively small size particles. Such spray nozzle assemblies have particular utility in gas scrubbing applications, such as where lime slurry or the like is atomized and sprayed into a discharging stream of combustion gases for removing sulfur dioxide or other combustion byproducts. For efficient combustion gas scrubbing, it is necessary that the slurry be atomized into a very fine liquid particle spray.
Such spray nozzle assemblies commonly direct the finely atomized liquid from a plurality of circumferentially spaced discharge orifices of an air cap of the nozzle so as to generate an outwardly expanding conical spray pattern. During operation, fine particles of the high pressure discharging flow streams from the plurality of discharge orifices can migrate inwardly back toward the nozzle and create a heavy buildup of particulate matter about the discharge orifices that choke off the spray and significantly degrade performance. This creates the need for frequent costly cleaning of the air cap of such buildup.
To minimize such build up, it is known to form the discharge orifices of the air cap at compound angles to the axis of the spray nozzle so as to impart a tangential like swirling action of the discharging sprays. However, the increased surface areas of such angled discharge orifices can be subject to substantial wear in only a few days, as depicted in FIG. 7 by the wear "w" in the discharge orifices of an air cap of a prior art spray nozzle assembly, necessitating costly field repair or replacement.

Spray nozzle assembly with impingement post-diffuser


A method and system for using a color scheme to communicate information associated with an event and related to the integration of software and hardware of a computing device creates a seamless user experience. A hardware element of the computing device is illuminated based on a color scheme associated with a corresponding software element. The color scheme may communicate information related to a functional feature of the computing device, personal preferences or brand extension.

Mobile communication devices include both software and hardware elements. A display may be used as a user interface to show software elements associated with the device. The user manipulates hardware elements of the device (e.g., a keypad) to enter data, execute commands, or otherwise interact with the software elements displayed on the user interface. Currently, the hardware and software elements of a mobile device are not fully integrated to present a unified experience with the device. What is required is the full integration of hardware and software to create a seamless mobile user experience.

Method and system for using a color scheme to communicate information related to the integration of hardware and software in a computing device


A method for self testing a multiband voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is described. A first frequency band in a VCO is selected. An N value is selected for a frequency divider that produces a tuning voltage for the VCO that is between a low tuning voltage limit and a high tuning voltage limit for the VCO. The N value is adjusted in one direction until the tuning voltage reaches one of the tuning voltage limits. This N value at the tuning voltage is a first limit value. The frequency bands are switched from the first frequency band to a second frequency band that is adjacent to the first frequency band.

Electronic devices (cellular telephones, wireless modems, computers, digital music players, Global Positioning System units, Personal Digital Assistants, gaming devices, etc.) have become a part of everyday life. Small computing devices are now placed in everything from automobiles to housing locks. The complexity of electronic devices has increased dramatically in the last few years. For example, many electronic devices have one or more processors that help control the device, as well as a number of digital circuits to support the processor and other parts of the device.
This increased complexity has led to an increased need for testing that can test digital circuits and/or digital systems. As technology advances, it may be more and more important that particular circuits and/or digital systems are reliable. Therefore, the testing used to verify or test various parts of devices, such as pieces of hardware, and/or software are also increasing in importance.
In many cases the equipment used to test a device is a separate piece of equipment than the device being tested. In some testing configurations, test equipment may monitor one or more functions of the device while the device performs the function(s). Therefore, the device and the test equipment may be monopolized for the duration of the testing. Furthermore, the test equipment may be expensive to use. In contrast, a self test may be performed in some configurations with little or no involvement required from test equipment. Benefits may be realized, therefore, by providing improved methods and apparatus for providing built in self tests for electronic devices and/or components used in electronic devices.

Systems and methods for self testing a voltage controlled oscillator


The fundamental concept of expressing brightness level of a geometric primitive is to control the number of rendered display elements, representing desired brightness level, in the geometric primitive as a fraction of the maximum number of display elements, representing the maximum brightness level, that can be placed in it. There are two approaches to achieve this control: Point-based Rendering and Intersection-based Rendering. In Point-based Rendering, a geometric primitive is converted into a representation of sampling points and then the sampling points are rendered. In Intersection-based Rendering, the intersections of a geometric primitive with the frame slices are rendered. The basic procedure to render a texture-mapped surface is to divide the surface into a number of regions, each region having a different intensity range, and then render each region with a different density of display elements to represent different brightness level. The procedure of rendering a 3D volume with gray scale distribution is similar.

This invention relates generally to data rendering methods to enhance the image quality for volumetric 3D displays, particularly for displaying color or gray scale images on volumetric 3D displays using image sources with binary pixels. A volumetric 3D display displays 3D images in a real 3D space. Each "voxel" in a volumetric image locates actually and physically at the spatial position where it is supposed to be, and light rays travel directly from that position toward omni-directions to form a real image in the eyes of viewers. As a result, a volumetric display possesses all major elements in both physiological and psychological depth cues and allows 360° walk-around viewing by multiple viewers without the need of special glasses.
One typical category of volumetric 3D (V3D) displays generates V3D images by moving a screen to sweep a volume and projecting 2D images on the screen. V3D images thus form in the swept volume by after-mage effect. The screen motion can in general be rotating or reciprocating. Tsao U.S. Pat. No. 6,765,566 B1 describes a system with a screen that reciprocates by a rotary motion. (See FIG. 20 of the referred patent) In principle, this is to revolve the screen about an axis and sweep a volume while keeping the screen surface always facing a fixed direction. For convenience, this is called "Rotary Reciprocating mechanism". In Tsao U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,542, a volumetric 3D display with a Rotary Reciprocating screen and a Rotary Reciprocating reflector serving as a linear interfacing unit is described. (See FIGS. 2a, 4b and 5b and the specification of the referred patent) The Rotary Reciprocating reflector reciprocates by a similar Rotary Reciprocating mechanism in synchronization with the screen but at a speed of ½ of the speed of the screen. FIG. 1 illustrates such a V3D display system, in side view. It has three major portions: a rotary reciprocating screen unit 1511 (comprising a screen 11 mounted on rotary arms 1522); a high frame rate image projection system 15; and an optical interfacing mechanism 13 (comprising a single reflector 1321 mounted on rotary arms 1322). A stationary reflector 1502 folds the projection path. The set of rotary arms 1322 and the set of rotary arm 1522 rotate synchronously. The figure shows the screen at the top position. When the screen rotates to the bottom position 11A, the interfacing reflector rotates to position 1321A The projection path is from the projector 15 to the interfacing reflector 1321, then to the folding reflector 1502 and then to the screen. This projection path length is kept constant as the screen and the interfacing reflector rotate. Projection path 402 strikes the interfacing reflector 1321 at an oblique angle, therefore the sides of the resulted display volume 12 are of the shape of parallelogram. The high-frame-rate projector projects a set of 2D image frames onto the moving screen. The moving screen moves and therefore distributes the 2D image frames to corresponding positions in the space swept by the screen. Together, the spatially distributed 2D images form a volumetric 3D image.
In the above example of volumetric 3D display, the preferred image source for the projector is DMD (Digital Micro-mirror Device) or FLCD (Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Display). These are devices of black and white pixels. Using a single DMD or FLCD with a white or monochrome light results in a monochrome volumetric 3D display.
To create colors, one can use three DMDs or FLCDs, each illuminated by light of a different primary color. Alternatively, Tsao U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/882,826 (2001) describes a method of using a single panel to generate colors. The single panel is divided into 3 sub-panels and each sub-panel is illuminated by light of a different primary color. The images of the 3 sub-panels are then recombined into one at projection. However, because each pixel has only two levels (black and white), the combination of three panels or sub-panels can only generate limited amount of colors.
Such limitation on gray scale and color exists on many other types of V3D displays, as long as they are based on binary image sources.
Presenting levels of gray scale (or intensity or brightness) is important in image display. The capability of presenting high gray scale is the fundamental for presenting high level of colors, because colors are formed by mixing of a limited number of primary colors and gray scale capability also determines the brightness level of each of the primary colors. Gray scale presentation is also one major issue in displaying biomedical data, as medical imaging instrument such as X-ray CT scanner creates images of scales of intensity.
Therefore, methods must be devised to break this hardware limitation.
Tsao U.S. Pat. No. 6,765,566 describes a data processing method for volumetric 3D display including a step of converting a set of raw 3D data into a Viewable Data, which comprises three basic geometric forms: scattered points, curves (including lines) and surfaces. Scattered points can be used to render a surface or the interior of a region. Curves can be used to represent, in addition to curves, surfaces. And surfaces can be used to represents, in addition to surfaces, volumes bounded by them. Viewable Data of the three basic forms is then processed into a set of Displayable Data using various color combination methods. The Displayable Data can then be used to generate the optical image patterns to be projected and recombined and displayed in the volumetric 3D display. Tsao also describes a method of rendering a surface with color or gray scale by stacking closely multiple layers of sub-surfaces, each of a different primary color but a similar shape, called "color sub-surfaces" method.
This invention is to further develop the method of using scattered points for rendering lines, surfaces and volumes, in order to display volumetric 3D images with high level of colors or gray scales in space.
This invention is to provide a detailed algorithm of using scattered points to render a solid triangular surface of gray scale by controlling the size and the density of the scattered points. (Called "Simple Rendering", see Sec. 4.1 in Detailed Description)
This invention is also to provide a detailed algorithm for rendering a solid triangular surface with color or gray scale based on the "color sub-surfaces" method. This algorithm combines three basic controls to create high level of colors/gray scales: point size control, point density control and multiple sub-surfaces. (Called "Multi-layer Rendering" in Sec. 4.2)
This invention is also to provide the principle and the algorithm for rendering a surface with a given bitmap texture. This texture-mapping algorithm also combines the use of the three basic controls. This allows a volumetric 3D display based on binary pixels to display texture mapped surfaces with reasonable presentation of color or gray scale distribution and without sacrificing resolution. (See Sec. 5 Texture Mapping)
This invention is also to provide the principle and the algorithm of using points to render a 3D volume with distributed gray scale (or a similar property), by controlling the size and the density distribution of the scattered points. (Called "Voxel Mapping" in chapter 6) This allows a volumetric 3D display based on binary pixels to display 3D volume data with reasonable presentation of color or gray scale distribution and without sacrificing resolution.

Data rendering method for volumetric 3D displays


A structure for joining structural members is disclosed. The structure joins an end of a first member to a side of a second member by a coupling insert. The coupling insert has a web coupling portion that is received by the end of the first member and a tenon portion that is received by a transverse opening in the side of the second member. The web coupling portion and the tenon portion are connected by a base plate.

The advantages of hollow lineal structural members for use in fenestration are well known. For example, economically produced window sashes made from hollow extrusions of polymeric materials, such as PVC, provide adequate strength and appearance for many applications. A hollow extruded polymeric lineal member requires less material than would a comparable solid member, yet in many cases still provides adequate structural strength. In addition, once the extrusion die is in place, lineal members having even the most complex cross sectional profiles can be produced at a high rate, with relatively little waste. When greater structural strength is needed, as might occur in door panels, for example, reinforced polymeric materials, such as glass fiber reinforced hollow pultrusions, can be used.
The advantages of hollow polymeric lineals notwithstanding, the use of members made from such materials has presented some challenges, particularly in joining of such members to form a complete structure. This has been especially true in the joining of hollow pultruded members, since an advantage of pultruded members is that they can be made with relatively thin walls. Additionally, pultruded members typically utilize thermosetting polymers, which often tend to be brittle, and are typically not weldable. As a result, pultruded members may not be readily fastenable by conventional mechanical fasteners. In cases where a mitered corner can be used, right angle inserts, or corner keys, have proven useful. The corner keys are inserted into the ends of the lineal members and attached to the members by adhesives, mechanical fasteners, or combinations thereof. There are cases, however, in which mitered joints are not desirable. For example, it is often desirable to produce a fenestration component, such as a door panel or a window sash, from hollow structural members that maintain a traditional wood appearance, more specifically, the appearance of a wooden structure joined by mortise and tenon joints.


An internal combustion engine includes a cylinder, an exhaust, a fuel tank, an engine cover, a power take off configured to drive an implement, an electric starting system including a starter motor, a battery receiving port, and a rechargeable battery removably attached to the battery receiving port, and an electric start control module including a switch configured to be actuated by a release mechanism configured to put the implement in the ready-to-run condition and a controller coupled to the switch, wherein the switch is configured to provide a signal when the release mechanism is in the engaged position, wherein the controller is configured to receive the signal, wherein the controller it configured to turn on the starter motor to start the internal combustion engine upon receipt of the signal from the switch and an input from a run sensor confirming that the implement is in the ready-to-run condition, and wherein the rechargeable battery is configured to power the starter motor to start the engine.

The present invention generally relates to internal combustion engines and outdoor power equipment powered by such engines, such as lawn mowers, snow throwers, portable generators, etc. More specifically, the present invention relates to a starter system and energy storage system for an engine.
Outdoor power equipment may use an internal combustion engine to drive a tool of the equipment, such as a rotary blade of a lawn mower or an axial cam pump of a pressure washer. Typically the outdoor power equipment includes a brake mechanism that selectively prevents or stops rotation of the tool. The brake may stop a flywheel of the engine, correspondingly stopping the crankshaft and rotating tool coupled to the power takeoff of the crankshaft.
Starting the braked outdoor power equipment may be cumbersome, requiring release of the brake followed by activation of the engine. For lawn mowers and other types of outdoor power equipment, release of the brake may include rotating a bail to draw an inner-wire of a Bowden cable that lifts the brake mechanism. Then, activation of the engine typically further includes manually pulling a recoil starter rope or activating an electric starter for the engine. A need exists for a less-cumbersome and faster process to start the outdoor power equipment.
Furthermore, the outdoor power equipment may include the engine mounted to a frame or a base plate. If an electric starter is included, the starter motor is typically connected to an interface on the handle of the outdoor power equipment so that the operator may activate the starter motor while standing in an operational position, such as behind the handle. During assembly of the outdoor power, a power source, control circuitry, and wiring associated with the starter motor are coupled to the handle, the frame, and the engine, the attachment of which may be a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. A need exists for an engine having a starter motor that facilitates efficient assembly of the outdoor power equipment.