Modular thermal truss plates carry heat in multiple directions. Framing around an array of flat heat pipes provides mechanical and thermal connections to other truss plates, and a base, such as a satellite, thereby supporting thermally active equipment. Walls sandwich banks of flat heat pipes and may bond to a honey comb, metal core conducting heat between multiple walls. Each bank of flat heat pipes passes heat best in one direction, and may be formed of corrugated copper sheets spaced apart by a metal mesh, such as an expanded metal or screen, also stamped or otherwise formed into a corrugated configuration. Joining methods (e.g., brazing, soldering, etc.) increase stiffness, pressure containment, and strength, by binding the two layers of metal sheet to one another.

1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to heat transfer and, more particularly, to novel systems and methods for heat transfer through flat heat pipes covering large areas with respect to their length.
2. The Background Art
Heat transfer is the mechanism by which refrigeration systems maintain a cool region within a hotter region. Heat transfer is also the mechanism by which energy is carried from points of generation such as furnaces and the like to areas to be heated, such as materials, space heating, or the like. Heat transfer is driven by a difference in temperature between a material at a comparatively higher temperature driving energy to a material (e.g., location or object) at a lower temperature to receive that energy. In all cases of heat transfer, the temperature difference between the high temperature region or object and the lower temperature region or object is a driving potential for the transfer of heat, whether linear or non-linear in effect.
Typically, heat transfer deals with the resistance to heat transfer through various materials, spaces, and so forth. The study of radiation, conduction, and convection seeks to identify the controlling parameters that govern the relationship between the temperature differences, heat transferred, material properties, distances, areas, and the like. Thus, in general, it is desirable to minimize the thermal resistance in order to maximize heat transfer from a region of higher temperature to a region of lower temperature. Similarly thermal resistance is to be maximized in order to minimize heat transfer. To the extent that thermal resistance is reduced, more heat may be transferred with a comparatively lesser temperature difference.
Electrical equipment has always required consideration of heat transfer to remove the heat generated by electrical resistance losses. Likewise, in systems such as satellites, spacecraft, and the like, the importance of maintaining low temperatures in certain equipment, such as sensors creating or recording images, and the like may require unique combinations of temperatures and thermal resistance.
Meanwhile, mechanical connections and distances required to remove heat may be substantial. Moreover, structural requirements for mechanical support may be substantial, requiring support against the 'g-forces' or acceleration forces of launch and other movements. In fact, heat transfer and mechanical support are often at odds, wherein what is good for one is poor for the other. The result is tradeoffs that poorly serve one or both.
Finally, space is not without traffic of particles and various objects, within a broad range of sizes, from dust to satellite to asteroid sizes. These may be either naturally occurring or man-made. Space junk, small meteoric objects, and other projectiles may penetrate a surface of a satellite, permanently disabling mechanical, fluid, electrical, and other systems contained therein.
Thus, it would be an advance in the art to develop a more effective heat transfer system, particularly one that would be adaptable to satellite use, having much lower weight than earthbound and previous satellite systems. It would be an advance to provide reduced thermal resistance, permitting temperature differentials less than are presently known in the art of satellite, and even less than those of many earthbound systems.
It would be a further advance in the art to create a comparatively strong structural support system, compared to prior art systems of equivalent weight in satellites and earthbound systems. It would be a further advance if such as system would support robust heat transfer, having comparatively better heat flux per degree of temperature differential than prior art satellite systems of comparable weight.
It would be a yet further advance to provide redundancy against failure in cases of mechanical damage, such as penetration by space debris or other objects. This could be significantly more valuable than earthbound systems, where such protection is not required at comparable weights to those of satellites.

Thermal control, truss-plate apparatus and method


A wound dressing is provided. The wound dressing includes a moisture-transmissible backing layer having a first major surface, a second major surface, and a backing layer perimeter; an absorbent hydrophilic adhesive adhered to at least a portion of the second major surface of the backing layer, the absorbent hydrophilic adhesive comprising an absorbent hydrophilic adhesive perimeter; an antimicrobial agent disposed in the absorbent hydrophilic adhesive; a porous layer having a first side adhered to the absorbent hydrophilic adhesive, a second side, and a porous layer perimeter; and a second hydrophobic adhesive adhered to the second side of the porous layer. The second major surface has a first hydrophobic adhesive disposed thereon proximate the backing layer perimeter. 100% of the absorbent hydrophilic adhesive perimeter is overlapped by the backing layer. At least 50% of the porous layer perimeter is overlapped by the absorbent hydrophilic adhesive.

Transparent film dressings are widely used as protective layers over wounds because they facilitate healing in a moist environment while acting as a barrier to contaminating liquids and bacteria. The films are also used as surgical drapes because of their barrier properties. Dressings and drapes fitting the above description are available under a number of trade names such as TEGADERM™ (3M Company, St. Paul, Minn.), BIOCLUSIVE™ (Johnson & Johnson Company, New Brunswick, N.J.), and OP-SITE™ (T.J. Smith & Nephew, Hull, England).
In addition, the length of time over which the medical dressings may remain in place over wounds may be limited by many factors. Among the factors that may limit the usable life of a medical dressing is the accumulation of fluids within the wound. Some medical dressings have included the use of negative pressure wound therapy in which fluids are removed from the beneath the wound dressings without requiring removal of the dressings from the patient. Dressings adapted for delivery of negative pressure wound therapy (such as those described in, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,969,880; 5,261,893; 5,527,293; and 6,071,267 (all to Zamierowski)) often have constructions that can compromise the sterility of the wound over which they are placed. These effects can be compounded by wounds on or around irregular surfaces, such as the knee, elbow, shoulders, heel, and ankle.
Control of bacteria on the skin and in the wound are important factors for minimizing surgical site infections and improving healing of both acute and chronic wounds. However, high concentrations of some antimicrobial agents that effectively reduce bacteria on the skin are too toxic to the cells that are required for wound healing. Hence a dressing is needed that can effectively reduce bacteria on the skin and not harm cells required for wound healing.

Wound dressing with multiple adhesive layers


A method and apparatus for identifying defective partially manufactured semiconductor wafers in a manufacturing line is described, wherein defects caused by silicon erosion created by over-etching the wafer can be detected. The method described herein is based on an in-line test of selected structures, such as FETs, located in the kerfs that surround the integrated circuit chips. Leakage current between the gate and the source-drain region is measured at FETs in each kerf. Based on the measurement, a leakage current map is created and compared to a standard map. In accordance with this comparison and to the distribution of patterns of leakage currents, it is determined whether or not the wafer is defective. This determination is performed in the kerfs after formation of the gate and source-drain regions, and prior to the wafer being completed. By detecting defective wafers at an early stage, considerable manufacturing resources are saved.

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for in-line testing a semiconductor wafer in the process of fabricating Very Larger Scale Integrated (VLSI) circuits and, more specifically, to a method and apparatus for automatically identifying during the front-end phase of a manufacturing line, the presence of defects, e.g., caused by silicon erosion.
The fabrication process of VLSI circuits includes a large number of manufacturing steps where defects may be created, leading to a circuit malfunction or low performance. Defects are attributable to a variety of causes, for instance, particles included in the photoresist, contamination introduced during a manufacturing step and silicon erosion. The latter is known to significantly affect the characteristics of semiconductor devices, particularly to FETs, creating an undesired high resistance in the source-drain region. Silicon erosion may be created during the following manufacturing steps. A gate stack, including a gate oxide and a polysilicon gate electrode, is formed on a silicon substrate followed by re-oxidation of the surface of the substrate to form a re-oxidized silicon layer. Sidewall spacers, including silicon nitride (Si3N4) or silicon dioxide (SiO2) are then formed on both sides of the gate stack for aligning ion implantation into the source and drain regions. The process of forming spacers includes the deposition of silicon nitride or silicon dioxide layers and etching the deposited layers. This etching is typically achieved by way of reactive ion etching (hereinafter referred to as "RIE"). Throughout the process of forming the spacers, the re-oxidized silicon layer is exposed to RIE, thereby reducing the thickness of the layer. Particularly, in the source and drain regions which are not covered by sidewall spacers, part of the re-oxidized silicon layer may be etched through into the silicon substrate. As a result, part of the silicon is removed, causing a defect in the silicon substrate.
FIG. 1A shows a cross-section of a conventional semiconductor wafer where no silicon erosion is observed. The structure includes gate stacks 110 on channel regions 132 formed on the silicon substrate 102. The gate stacks 110 consist of polysilicon electrodes 126 and silicon oxide layers 122 intervening between the silicon substrate 102 and the polysilicon electrodes 126. Re-oxidized layers 120 cover the side walls of the gate stacks 110 and extend to cover the edges of the source-drain regions 104. Spacers 112 are deposited adjacent to the side walls of the gate stacks 110. The respective spacers include sub-layers to form the spacers multilayer structure. The level of the upper surfaces 142 of the source-drain regions 104 coincide with the upper surface 144 of the silicon substrate.
FIG. 1B illustrates a cross-section of the semiconductor device in which silicon erosion 198 is seen in the source-drain region 154. Dotted line 192 shows the desired level of the upper surface of the silicon substrate 152 after formation of spacers 162. In the silicon erosion layer 198, the actual level of the surface of the silicon substrate 152 is lowered below the desired level 192 due to the unwanted removal of silicon. The depth of the defect in the silicon erosion may be as larger as 5 nm. Such silicon erosion leads to a high resistance of the source-drain region 154. The increase in resistance is caused by a high concentration of doping located near the surface.
In accordance with conventional manufacturing practices, the wafer test and evaluation of the wafer is performed after completing the wafer, as will be described hereinafter.
Manufacturing a semiconductor VLSI begins with setting a silicon wafer on a production line. Subsequent processes can be broadly classified into wafer processing, assembling and testing. The wafer process typically includes a front-end of the line (FEOL) process, a back-end of the line (BEOL) process, followed by a good chip/wafer (G/W) test of the wafer. During FEOL, an epitaxial layer, an isolation layer, a well, a gate insulating layer, a gate electrode, spacers adjacent the gate electrode and source drain regions are sequentially formed on the wafer. Then, the surfaces of the source-drain regions are silicided. Next, the manufacturing process moves to BEOL where metal wiring is provided above the semiconductor structure on the wafer, followed by a passivation layer formed on the topmost layer, completing the wafer.
The wafer is evaluated based on inspection techniques, such as the G/W test, followed by assembly and test. The G/W test identifies the good (or bad) semiconductor chips formed on the wafer. It is performed subsequent to completing the wafer, and follows the formation of all the elements, such as semiconductor structures, interlayer dielectric, electrode contact metallization, that are necessary for the subsequent back-end of the line.
The G/W test generally consists of the following steps. First, the wafer is positioned on a stage for inspection. A probe card is then applied to the wafer, and inspection probes are brought in contact with respective contact pads on the IC chips formed in the wafer. Next, input signals are applied to the IC chips through the inspection probes to observe the electrical signals as seen at the primary outputs of the ICs. Depending on the responses, it is determined whether or not respective ICs on the wafer have the desired characteristics and performance. However, as previously mentioned, silicon erosion may already have been created in an earlier process, e.g., during the formation of the spacers adjacent the gate stack, before forming the upper structures, such as interlayer dielectric and electrode contact metallization. Although, as mentioned previously, silicon erosion causes a significant deterioration in performance and characteristics of the ICs, wafers including bad chips cannot be identified until the wafer process terminates, i.e., in the G/W test following the BEOL phase. This results in a waste of resources by completing bad wafers to their very end.
In addition to the final G/W test of the wafer, other in-line tests are typically performed during the wafer process in real-time by using structures formed in unoccupied spaces between the IC chips on the wafer. By way of example, and referring to FIG. 2, there is shown wafer 200 and a partially enlarged view thereof. In the upper section of the figure, grid lines 252 represent unoccupied spaces. During the dicing process subsequent to BEOL, the wafer is cut alongside unoccupied spaces between the individual IC chips. Some of the unoccupied spaces 252 include test regions 211, 212, 213, referred to "kerfs". In the lower portion of the figure, kerfs are represented by shaded rectangles between IC chips 201, 202, 203. The kerfs are subject to the same process manufacturing steps as the semiconductor structures in the IC chips. Therefore, an examination of the electrical characteristics during the wafer process and the occurrence of defects created in IC chips adjacent the respective kerfs can be determined. These are characteristic of defaults found anywhere in the wafer.
FIG. 3A shows a block diagram of a typical system to perform an in-line test. The system includes a tester 302, a space transformer 304 and an inspection probe 312. The tester 302 is computer driven and is set to execute an in-line test program. The tester 302 is connected to space transformer 304 via communication line 303. The space transformer 304 is further attached to inspection probe 312 via a driving mechanism 310 which couples the communication line 303 between the space transformer 304 and the inspection probe 312. The tester 302 controls the space transformer 304 in accordance with the program. In response to a request from the program, the space transformer 302 moves the inspection probe 312.
FIG. 3B shows an enlarged view of a section of the inspection probe 312 and kerf 390 illustrated in FIG. 3A. The inspection probe 312 is equipped with electrodes 362, 364, 366, 368, 370 spanning from the bottom surface of the inspection probe 312 opposite to the upper surface of the wafer 300. Electrodes are connected to the tester 302 through lines 303, 310 and space transformer 304 so that the tester can apply desired voltages to the electrodes in accordance with the program, allowing the tester to detect signals from the electrodes. The kerf 390 further includes a semiconductor structure 301 for testing and portions of the semiconductor structure connected to conductive pads 322, 324, 326, 328, 330.
In accordance with the in-line test program, inspection probe 312 is positioned to make contact with electrodes 362, 364, 366, 368, 370 and corresponding conductive pads 322, 324, 326, 328, 330. The tester 302 applies a predetermined input through the electrodes to the semiconductor structure 301 and observes the response signals from the semiconductor structure 301 through the conductive pads and electrodes. By analyzing the response signals, the program determines the condition of the wafer 300 in the production line.
According to conventional in-line testing, the presence of undetected defective devices leads to a considerable expenditure of resources to complete the formation of defective devices, followed by testing and identification in a wafer map.
Accordingly, there is a distinct need in industry for a method of identifying and a system for enabling such a methodology to eliminate defective devices early in the manufacturing process in order to increase the throughput and avoid wasting resources on devices that will eventually be scrapped. Therefore, it is desired to identify bad wafers in earlier stage of the wafer process.
Following are listed several patents that address various aspects of the aforementioned problems.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,673,640 to Naruoka describes a method of evaluating a crystal defect in a thin film SOI layer using an in-line test. Crystal defects are elucidated by transferring metal into the defects, followed by irradiation by laser beam of the SOI layer to cause excess carriers. The excess carriers are separated by applying a voltage to an interface between each defects and silicon of the SOI layer so that the excess carries are turned into an electric current. By measuring the electric current, defects in the SOI layer are evaluated. However, the patent does not mention the distribution of the measured currents in the SOI layer nor evaluates the defects based on the measured current distribution.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,350,636 to Lee et al. discloses a method for forming suicide test structures to monitor and evaluate the quality of semiconductive junctions after the formation of a silicide layer over the junction. The patent discloses specially designed test structures formed for in-line testing in the kerf of an IC wafer. A test structures is designed to measure the bulk junction leakage by having a silicide contact layer spaced away from the junction edge. The remainder of the test structure measures the edge related junction leakage, and is provided with a serpentine edge which the silicide layer extends to, and plural interior openings. However, the patent does not describe a test structure having a source-drain region between polysilicon gate stacks, which allows measurement of leakage current between the polysilicon gate stack and the source-drain region.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,315,574 to Kamieniecki et al. discloses an apparatus to perform real-time, in-line testing of semiconductor wafers during a manufacturing process. A source of light impinges upon the wafer as the wafer passes to an adjacent probe assembly, and the apparatus measures various electrical characteristics of the wafer based on the surface photo-voltage induced by light. There is no description of leakage current voltage between the gate stack and the source-drain region or use of the measured leakage current to determine the quality of the wafer.

Early detection test for identifying defective semiconductor wafers in a front-end manufacturing line

International Business Machines Corporation


An imaging apparatus connectable to a client apparatus via a network includes an imaging optical system, an image sensor, an infrared cut filter (IRCF) driving circuit that inserts and retracts an IRCF into and from an optical path of the imaging optical system, and a communication circuit that receives, from the client apparatus, an automatic insertion and retraction control command for causing the imaging apparatus to automatically control insertion and retraction of the IRCF and additional information about insertion and retraction of the IRCF. The communication circuit transmits, to the client apparatus, operation information indicating which of cases the imaging apparatus uses the additional information received by the communication circuit. The cases include a case where the IRCF is inserted into the optical path, a case where the IRCF is retracted from the optical path, and both the cases where the IRCF is inserted and where the IRCF is retracted.

Some conventional imaging apparatuses are capable of performing visible light shooting and infrared shooting with an infrared cut filter inserted into and retracted from an optical path of an imaging optical system, and are also capable of performing low-illuminance shooting with gains for color signals, used for white balance adjustment, raised (PTL 1).
The above-mentioned imaging apparatuses are generally configured to perform shooting under visible light when the infrared cut filter is inserted into the optical path of the imaging optical system and to perform shooting under infrared light when the infrared cut filter is retracted from the optical path of the imaging optical system. Also, the above-mentioned imaging apparatuses are capable of reducing the number of times of insertion and retraction of the infrared cut filter by increasing sensitivity with gains for color signals, used for white balance adjustment, raised.
Furthermore, the above-mentioned imaging apparatuses are capable of decreasing undesirable images being captured due to the movement of an infrared cut filter, by reducing the untimely insertion and retraction of the infrared cut filter.

Imaging apparatus, client apparatus, imaging system, method for controlling imaging apparatus, method for controlling client apparatus, and method for controlling imaging system for controlling sensitivity using the insertion and retraction of an infrared cut filter into and from an optical path


The present invention includes a fluorescent compound that can detect an activity, such as an enzymatic activity, and exhibits quenching. The fluorescent compound can include a fluorescent protein, such as an Aequorea-related green fluorescent protein. The fluorescent compound can include a substrate site for an enzymatic activity such as a kinase activity, a phosphatase activity, a protease activity, and a glycosylase activity. The fluorescent compound of the present invention can be used to detect such enzymatic activities in samples, such as biological samples, including cells. The present invention also includes nucleic acids that encode the fluorescent compounds of the present inventions, and cells that include such nucleic acids or fluorescent compounds.

The present invention generally relates to compositions and methods for the detection of activities, such as enzymatic activities, using fluorescent compounds that are modified by the activity such that they exhibit a change in their sensitivity to quenching.
Fluorescent compounds have been used in the art to detect a wide variety of biological phenomenon, such as changes in ion concentration, specific binding reactions, subcellular localization, and enzymatic reactions. In the case of detecting changes in ion concentration, specific binding reactions, and subcellular localization, the fluorescent compound is used as a label to detect such specific binding or localization. In some cases, the fluorescence of the fluorescent compound is altered after an enzyme has acted on the fluorescent compound or a molecule binds with the fluorescent compound. For example, the activity of beta-galactosidase on the substrate fluorescein di-beta-D-galactopyranoside causes an increase in fluorescence of the substrate (Molecular Probes Catalogue, Sixth Edition, p.208 (1996)). Likewise, the action of beta-lactamase on CCF2-AM causes the compound to change fluorescence from green to blue due to an uncoupling of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) (Tsien and Zlokarnik, WO 96/30540, published Oct. 3, 1996). Protease activity can also be detected by the action of a protease on a fluorescent compound that uncouples FRET of the fluorescent compound (Tsien et al., WO 97/28261, published Aug. 7, 1997).
The detection of enzymatic reactions is important for the study of biological phenomenon, cellular biology, medical diagnostics, and drug discovery. Several classes of enzymes have been implicated in disease states, such as proteases for HIV and kinases for cancer. Drug discovery preferably uses living cells to detect compounds that can alter the activity enzymes involved in such disease states. However, ex vivo methods can also be used in drug discovery
Protein kinases and phosphatases have particularly been recognized as one of the more important general mechanism of cellular regulation. Protein phosphorylation commonly occurs on three major amino acids, tyrosine, serine or threonine. Changes in the phosphorylation state of these amino acids within proteins can regulate many aspects of cellular metabolism, regulation, grown and differentiation. Changes in the phosphorylation state of proteins, mediated through phosphorylation by kinases, or dephosphoryation by phosphatases, is a common mechanism through which cell surface signaling pathways transmit and integrate information into the nucleus. Given their key role in cellular regulation, it is not surprising that defects in protein kinases and phosphatases have been implicated in many disease states and conditions. For example, the over-expression of cellular tyrosine kinases such as the EGF or PDGF receptors, or the mutation of tyrosine kinases to produce constitutively active forms (oncogenes) occurs in many cancer cells (Durker et al. Nature Medicine 2:561-556 (1996)). Protein tyrosine kinases are also implicated in inflammatory signals, and defective Thr/Ser kinase genes have been demonstrated to be implicated in several diseases such as myotonic dystrophy, cancer and Alzheimer""s disease (Sanpei et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 212:341-346 (1995); Sperger et al., Neurosci. Lett. 197:149-153 (1995); Grammas et al., Neurobiology of Aging, 16:563-569 (1995); Govani et al., Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 777:332-337 (1996)).
The involvement of proteases, protein kinases, protein phosphatases, and other classes of enzymes in disease states makes them attractive targets for the therapeutic intervention of drugs. In fact, many clinically useful drugs act on protein kinases or phosphatases. Examples include cyclosporin A, a potent immunosuppresent that binds to cyclophilin. This complex binds to the Ca++/calmodulin-dependent protein phosphatase type 2B (calcineurin), inhibiting its activity, and hence the activation of T cells. Inhibitors of protein kinase C are in clinical trials as therapeutic agents for the treatment of cancer (Clin. Cancer Res. 1:113-122 (1995)) as are inhibitors of cyclin dependent kinase (J. Mol. Med. 73:509-514 (1995)).
The number of known enzymes, such as kinases and phosphatases, are growing rapidly as the influence of genomic programs to identify the molecular basis for diseases have increased in size and scope. These studies are likely to implicate many more genes that encode enzymes that are involved in the development and propagation of diseases in the future, thereby making them attractive targets for drug discovery. However, current methods of measuring enzyme activity, such as protein phosphorylation and dephosphorylation, have many disadvantages which prevents or limits the ability to rapidly screen for drugs using miniaturized automated formats of many thousands of compounds. In the case of phosphatases and kinases, this is because current methods rely on the incorporation and measurement of 32P into the protein substrates of interest. In whole cells this necessitates the use of high levels of radioactivity to efficiently label the cellular ATP pool and to ensure that the target protein is efficiently labeled with radioactivity. After incubation with test drugs, the cells must be lysed and the protein of interest purified to determine its relative degree of phosphorylation. This method requires high numbers of cell, long preincubation times, careful manipulation, and washing steps to avoid artifactal phosphorylation or dephosphorylation. Furthermore, this approach requires purification of the target protein, and final radioactive incorporation into target proteins is usually very low, giving the assay poor sensitivity. Alternative assay methods, such as those based on phosphorylation-specific antibodies using ELISA-type approaches, involve the difficulty of producing antibodies that distinguish between phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated proteins, and the requirement for cell lysis, multiple incubations, and washing stages which are time consuming, complex to automate, and potentially susceptible to artifacts.
Fluorescent molecules are attractive as reporter molecules in many assay systems because of their high sensitivity and ease of quantification. Recently, fluorescent proteins have been the focus of much attention because they can be produced in vivo by biological systems and can be used to trace and monitor intracellular event without the need to be introduced into the cell through microinjection or permeabilization. The green fluorescent protein of Aequorea victoria is particularly interesting as a fluorescent indicator protein. A cDNA for the protein has been cloned (Prasher et al., Gene 111:229-233 (1992)). Not only can the primary amino acid sequence of the protein be expressed from the cDNA, but the expressed protein can fluoresce in cells in vivo.
Fluorescent proteins have been used as markers of gene expression, tracers of cell lineage, and as fusion tags to monitor protein localization within living cells (Rizzuto et al., Current Biol. 6:183-188 (1996)); Cubitt et al., TIBS 20:448-455 (1995); U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,048 to Tsien et al, issued Apr. 29, 1997). Furthermore, mutant versions of green fluorescent protein have been identified that exhibit altered fluorescence characteristics, including altered excitation and emission maxima, as well as excitation and emission spectra of different shapes. (Heim, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91:12501-12504 (1994); Heim et al., Nature 373:663-665 (1995); U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,048, Tsien et al., issued Apr. 29, 1997; WO 97/28261 to Tsien et al, published Aug. 7, 1997; PCT/US 97/12400 to Tsien, filed Jul. 16, 1997; and PCT/US 97/14593 by Tsien, filed Aug. 15, 1997). These proteins add variety and utility to the arsenal of biologically based fluorescent indicators.
There is thus a need for assays for enzymes, such as those involved in protein phosphorylation, that are sensitive, simple to use, useful in living cells, and adaptable to high throughput screening methods. Preferably, such assays would not utilize radioactive materials so that the assays would be safe and not generate hazardous wastes. The present invention addresses these needs, and provides additional benefits as well.

Fluorescent protein sensors of post-translational modifications


An object detection apparatus, a program, and an integrated circuit enable the contour of an object to be detected in an appropriate manner in an image including an object and its background with almost no contrast between them in a predetermined direction of the image. A vertical direction edge extraction filter in a filtering unit extracts, from an input image, a contour component in a first direction (e.g., vertical direction) of the image. A horizontal direction continuity detection unit in the filtering unit detects, in a second direction (e.g., horizontal direction) perpendicular to the first direction, the continuity of the contour component extracted by the vertical direction edge extraction filter. An object area detection unit detects (estimates) the contour of the object in the image based on the continuity of the contour component in the second direction (e.g., horizontal direction) detected by the horizontal direction continuity detection unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for processing images, and more particularly, to a technique for detecting an object in an image.
2. Description of the Background Art
Various techniques have been developed to identify an object (target) in a captured image by using an edge extraction process. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-288798 (hereafter referred to as "Patent Literature 1") describes a technique for identifying (extracting) a target with high accuracy in a different image with a different contrast between a target (e.g., an automobile) and its background (e.g., a parking place). With the technique described in Patent Literature 1, the image in which edges have been extracted is subjected to predetermined processing assuming the background includes more image areas with low brightness than the target. With this technique, the captured image first undergoes an edge extraction process to generate an edge extracted image. The pixel values of the edge extracted image are then divided by the brightness values of the original image to generate an image in which edges have been enhanced. Even for an image in which the contrast between a target and its background is low, such edge enhancement generates an edge enhanced image including appropriately enhanced edges when the background includes more image areas with low brightness. With the technique described in Patent Literature 1, the target is identified (extracted) from the edge enhanced image. This enables a target to be identified (extracted) with high accuracy in a different image with a different contrast between a target (e.g., an automobile) and its background (e.g., a parking space).
However, the technique in Patent Literature 1 assumes that the background includes more image areas with low brightness, and thus may fail to identify (extract) an object (target) in an appropriate manner in an image with a particular background. The technique in Patent Literature 1 may also fail to detect the contour of a target in an appropriate manner in an image in which the target and its background have almost no contrast in a predetermined direction of the image. This may disable an object (target) to be identified (extracted) in an appropriate manner.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an object detection apparatus, a program, and an integrated circuit that enable the contour of a target to be detected (estimated) in an appropriate manner even in an image in which the target and its background have almost no contrast in a predetermined direction of the image.

Object detection apparatus, object detection method, storage medium, and integrated circuit


In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for tracking modified files on a virtual machine including the steps of identifying an altered disk sector, associating the altered disk sector with code that is operated in a virtual machine, and causing a malicious code scan to be performed on the code.

1. Field
The present invention is related to computer configuration, and more specifically to the sharing of information between virtual machines.
2. Description of the Related Art
A computer, as a physical computing machine, may be partitioned or multiplexed into a plurality of virtual computing machines, where each virtual computing machine runs its own operating system. One of the reasons for implementing a virtual computing machine configuration is to establish multiple isolated virtual machines on a single hardware platform. In order to maintain isolation amongst these virtual machines, there is typically no sharing of information or software resources between the virtual machines. However, since all virtual machines on a given physical platform must ultimately share the same hardware resources, such as processing and physical memory resources, there may be limits to how many virtual machines may accommodated on a single physical platform. Today's computing systems, such as server systems, may have requirements for implementing a virtual computing machine configuration with numbers of virtual computing machines beyond what is currently practical especially in terms of security software and associated processing duplication for each virtual machine. There exists a need for techniques that increase the number of virtual computing machines that may be accommodated on a single physical computing machine platform.

Modified file tracking on virtual machines


A diagnostic method for solenoid valves includes detecting, at excitation of the solenoid, a variation rate of the supply voltage of the solenoid and comparing it with a predetermined value, generating an error signal if the variation rate is lower than the predetermined value, otherwise, detecting characteristics of the waveform of the solenoid current over a time interval between a moment of excitation of the solenoid and a moment wherein the movable core reaches end-stroke position, comparing the detected characteristics with threshold values, generating an alarm signal if the detected characteristics are lower than the threshold values, otherwise calculating the value of solenoid resistance and comparing it with a minimum resistance value and a maximum resistance value when the solenoid current is in steady state, and generating an alarm signal if the solenoid resistance value is lower than the minimum resistance value or greater than the maximum resistance value.

As illustrated in the example in FIG. 1, a solenoid valve 1, or electromagnetic valve, is typically composed of an electromagnet 10 and a valve body 12, wherein one or more orifices are made.
The electromagnet 10 comprises a solenoid 102 wherein is situated and slidable a movable core 104 made of ferromagnetic material. The flow through an orifice of a fluid intercepted by the solenoid valve, e.g. compressed air, is blocked or allowed by the movement of the movable core 104 when the solenoid is electrically powered or is deactivated.
When the solenoid 102 is powered, the movable core 104 directly opens the orifice of a normally closed valve (NO) or closes the orifice of a normally open valve (NO). When the solenoid is deactivated, a spring 106 returns the core to the original position thereof.
The valve operates in a pressure range from 0 bar to the maximum pressure rating. The force required to open the valve is proportional to the cross-section of the orifice and the pressure of the fluid.
In the field of pneumatics for industrial automation, the performance of pneumatic components is increasingly high and must be guaranteed over time. In some applications, pneumatic components need to be replaced as soon as performance declines.
In particular, there is an increasing need to monitor the behavior of solenoid valves to detect possible malfunctions or a significant reduction in the performance thereof.

Diagnostic device and method for solenoid valves


A calibration and rectification method includes arranging a monitor vertically relative to the optical axis of the stereo camera; displaying 3D patterns, similar to patterns obtained by projecting pattern images of various postures produced by a panel virtually located in front of the stereo camera, onto the monitor through a 3D graphical technique; and the stereo camera acquiring the 3D patterns displayed on the monitor to perform calibration and rectification, thereby correcting images of the stereo camera.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera calibration and rectification method and apparatus for a stereo camera, and more particularly, to a camera calibration and rectification method and apparatus for a stereo camera, which is capable of performing calibration and rectification at high speed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, the largest factor which causes a person to feel a three-dimensional (3D) effect is an effect of a spatial difference between left and right retinas, which occurs when the left and right eyes of the person see one object in different directions. A stereo camera using such an effect acquires different images through left and right lenses thereof, and displays a 3D image.
FIG. 1 shows a photograph of a stereo camera.
The stereo camera is implemented by using two left and right lenses and hardware for calculating 3D information. When a person sees an object through the eyes, the brain analyzes the object in 3D manners. In this ways, the stereo camera acquires left and right images of a space through the left and right lenses, and calculates 3D information of an object from the left and right images.
The stereo camera requires calibration and rectification to represent a 3D space.
Referring to FIG. 2, the calibration is to calibrate a distortion of the lenses and a tilt of an image sensor in the stereo camera. Referring to FIG. 3, the rectification is to precisely adjust a horizontal arrangement of the left and right lenses of the stereo camera.
The calibration is performed by the following process: a panel having cross stripes with a constant size is positioned at an arbitrary distance from the camera, and the camera acquires a plurality of pattern images based on various postures as shown in FIG. 2, and performs a calculation to extract calibration parameters from the acquired image information.
A camera calibration method which is currently used most frequently has been proposed by Zhengyou Zhang (refer to "A Flexible New Technique for Camera Calibration" (IEEE Trans, PAMI, Vol. 22, No. 11, November, 2000, pp. 1330-1334)).
Furthermore, the rectification is to acquire a rectification parameter using the calibration parameters of the left and right cameras.
FIG. 5 illustrate an imaged plane before and after rectification.
A left side of the FIG. 5 illustrates an imaged plane before rectification, and A right side of the FIG. 5 illustrates an imaged plane after rectification.
The rectification is performed to satisfy a condition where the optical axes of the left and right cameras of the stereo camera are parallel to each other as shown in FIG. 5, and to satisfy an epipolar constraint. A point W in the space is projected onto points M1 and M2 of left and right images. At this time, a plane represented by the points W, M1, and M2 is referred to as an epipolar plane, and a line segment at which the epipolar plane and an image plane meet each other is referred to as an epipolar line. The epipolar constraint is where a correspondence point to one point of a left side of the FIG. 5 exists on the epipolar line of a right side of the FIG. 5, and is a very important condition for the stereo camera.
A rectification method which is used most frequently has been proposed by Fusiello (refer to "A compact algorithm for rectification of stereo pairs" (Machine Vision and Applications, pp. 16-22, Vol. 12, 200.) by A. Fusiello, E. Trucco, A. Verri).
Referring to FIG. 3, before the rectification, a correspondence point to one point of the left image of FIG. 3 does not appear on an epipolar line (red horizontal line) of the right image. After the rectification, however, a correspondence point to one point of the left picture exists on the epipolar line of the right image.
FIG. 4 shows a panel disposed in various postures to acquire pattern images.
Referring to FIG. 4, the pattern images are acquired by tilting the panel having predetermined patterns displayed thereon in various directions in front of the camera, and the patterns may include check patterns with a constant distance therebetween, like a chessboard. During this process, the panel may be moved to acquire an image, and then postured in different positions and directions to acquire images.
Such a process has been manually performed, and dozens of minutes are required for acquiring the final calibration parameters.
When a stereo camera is manufactured, the camera calibration and rectification process requires the largest amount of time, and may become the largest factor which reduces productivity in mass production.
FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing a conventional calibration and rectification method for a stereo camera.
At step S610, a panel having grid patterns displayed thereon is prepared.
At step S620, a plurality of images of the panel are manually acquired from the left and right cameras as shown in FIG. 4.
At step S630, calibration for the left and right cameras is performed to acquire calibration parameters.
At step S640, a rectification parameter is acquired from the calibration parameters of the left and right cameras.
At step S650, the calibration and rectification parameters are applied to the stereo camera.
At step S660, an image to which the calibration and rectification parameters are applied is checked.
In the conventional calibration and rectification method, the pattern images in various postures are acquired by manually tilting the panel at an arbitrary angle in front of the camera at the step S620, and the calibration and rectification parameters are then calculated. Accordingly, since the manual operation requires a long time, the time required for the calibration and rectification of the stereo camera inevitably increases.

Method and apparatus for high-speed calibration and rectification of a stereo camera


A laser range finder has a nonlinear crystal. The nonlinear crystal is disposed between a first and a second lens of between an infrared laser source and a second beam splitter. The laser range finder utilizes harmonic generation and is stable against a vibration and/or a shock.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a laser range finder, and more particularly, to a laser range finder which measures the range of a target by measuring the time it takes for a laser light to be reflected from the target.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The structure of a typically conventional laser range finder is shown in FIG. 1 which has been presented herein for the purpose of distinguishing the improvement in the invention in detail. The conventional laser range finder is designed so as to employ two light sources, namely, a light emitting diode (LED 30) for collimating a target, and an infrared ray laser 10 to measure the distance between the target and the viewer's eye.
The light emitted from the LED 30 is converted to parallel light and then reflected on a third beam splitter 12, followed by an expansion through a beam expander composed of a first lens 14 and a second lens 16.
Thereafter, the light passes through a first beam splitter 18 and is then reflected on a corner cube 20. The light thus reflected is then retro-reflected by the splitter 18 and entered, via a telescope 24, the viewer's eye 26.
A front surface 18A of the first beam splitter 18 is coated with a dielectric material so that the surface 18A can induce a full reflection by the infrared ray and a partial reflection by the visible light. A rear surface 18B of the splitter 18 is anti-reflection coated for visible light. Since the beam splitter 18 is inclined at a 45.degree. angle to the optical axis, the light emitted from the laser 10 is reflected on the first beam splitter 18 and directed toward a target 22. Then, after the light is reflected from the target 22, it is reflected on a second beam splitter 32 and then entered into a detector 34.
With the conventional laser range finder as described hereinabove, it is possible to measure an accurate distance only when the positions of the third lens 28 and the third beam splitter 12 are constantly maintained. However, the conventional laser range finder has the disadvantage that when the positions of the third lens 28 and/or the third beam splitter 12 are altered and shifted during moving, or due to a vibration and/or a shock, the traveling direction of the light of the LED differs from that of the laser resulting in the occurrence of errors in the measurement of the distance; thus, it is difficult to obtain an accurate measurement of the distance. PG,4

Laser range finder using a nonlinear crystal

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology


When an armature plate is attracted to a rotor so that the turning force of the rotor is transmitted to the armature plate, the turning force of the armature plate is transmitted to a main shaft via a plate spring. An angle (hereinafter referred to as a slope angle) formed between the plate spring and the armature plate is set so as to be not smaller than 10° and not larger than 63°. Therefore, since the slope angle is larger than the slope angle (about 3°) of the general electromagnetic clutch, the torque increase effect increases about 5 percent as compared with the general electromagnetic clutch, and also an excessive pressing force of the plate spring does not develop.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electromagnetic clutch for intermittently transmitting the turning force of an external driving source such as an engine to a driving machine such as a compressor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as an electromagnetic clutch of this type, an electromagnetic clutch described, for example, in Japanese Utility Model Publication 7-35830 has been known.
The electromagnetic clutch described in this Publication is constructed so as to have an electromagnetic coil, a rotor rotated by an external driving source, an armature plate facing to the rotor with a clearance provided therebetween, a connecting member connected to a main shaft, and a plate spring for connecting the armature plate to the connecting member.
When the electromagnetic coil is in a deenergized state, the elastic force of the plate spring is given so as to separate the armature plate from the rotor, so that the turning force of the rotor is not transmitted to the armature plate.
On the other hand, when the electromagnetic coil is energized, the armature plate is attracted to the rotor against the elastic force of the plate spring, so that the armature plate is connected to the rotor. By the connection of the two elements, the turning force of the rotor is transmitted to the armature plate, and then the turning force of the armature plate is transmitted to the connecting member via the plate spring. As a result, the turning force of the connecting member is transmitted to the main shaft.
In the case where the external driving source is an automotive engine, and the main shaft is a rotating shaft of a compressor, the compressor is operated intermittently by the intermittent engagement of the electromagnetic clutch.
However, in the above-described conventional electromagnetic clutch, the connection force between the armature plate and the rotor relies on only the magnetomotive force of the electromagnetic coil. As a result, when a compressor with a high torque capacity is manufactured, it is difficult to reduce the weight of electromagnetic clutch and to save electric power because the electromagnetic coil and the rotor inevitably become large in size. Also, since a larger size of the electromagnetic coil increases the self-inductance, the clutch disengages poorly. Therefore, when the armature plate separates from the rotor, a very loud separation sound is emitted. Further, since the magnetomotive force of the electromagnetic coil is large, when the armature plate is connected to the rotor, the time taken until the synchronization of the armature plate with the rotor is short (the armature plate is connected to the rotor in an instant). As a result, a problem arises in that the turning force of the rotor is transmitted to the armature plate as an impact force, so that an adverse influence is exerted on the internal parts of the compressor.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products are provided where fluid, such as a blood sample, is entered into a microfluidic channel in a microchip where the microfluidic channel possesses a micro/nanopillar array for sorting molecules by size. When the fluid passes through the micro/nanopillar array it is separated into particles of interest or particles not of interest or both. When particles of interest are lit by a light source via a first waveguide in the microchip connecting the light source to the microfluidic channel, then lighted particles of interest can be detected by an optical detector via a second waveguide in the microchip connecting the optical detector to the microfluidic channel. The information from the optical detector can be analyzed further by connecting the microchip to a mobile computing device with its own processing abilities or abilities via the internet or cloud.

This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention disclosed below. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived, implemented or described. Therefore, unless otherwise explicitly indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Investigating the constituents of chemical and/or biological samples typically requires advanced machinery to separate the samples into component parts so as to identify them. For example, investigating blood plasma can require drawing a quantity of blood and then having the blood transported to a laboratory where an operation such as centrifuge separation is done to distinguish the components present therein. Such laboratory work can be a time-consuming process. Time delays also are incurred by transporting the sample to the laboratory and reporting back to the medical professional who ordered the blood test and back to the patient. Even for simple chemical separation, similar laboratory and reporting delays may be present as well as the requirement for large-scale laboratory equipment.
Abbreviations that may be found in the specification and/or the drawing figures are defined in the text.

Smartphone compatible on-chip biodetection using integrated optical component and microfluidic channel with nanopillar array


Disclosed are apparatus and methods for inspecting or measuring a specimen. A system comprises an illumination channel for generating and deflecting a plurality of incident beams to form a plurality of spots that scan across a segmented line comprised of a plurality of scan portions of the specimen. The system also includes one or more detection channels for sensing light emanating from a specimen in response to the incident beams directed towards such specimen and collecting a detected image for each scan portion as each incident beam's spot is scanned over its scan portion. The one or more detection channels include at least one longitudinal side channel for longitudinally collecting a detected image for each scan portion as each incident beam's spot is scanned over its scan portion.

Generally, the industry of semiconductor manufacturing involves highly complex techniques for fabricating integrating circuits using semiconductor materials which are layered and patterned onto a substrate, such as silicon. Due to the large scale of circuit integration and the decreasing size of semiconductor devices, the fabricated devices have become increasingly sensitive to defects. That is, defects which cause faults in the device are becoming increasingly smaller. Each device needs to be fault free prior to shipment to the end users or customers.
Various inspection and metrology systems are used within the semiconductor industry to detect defects on a semiconductor reticle or wafer. Some conventional optical inspection tools locate defects on patterned wafers by scanning the surface of the wafer with a tightly focused laser spot and measuring the amount of light scattered by the illuminated spot on the wafer. Dissimilarities in the scattering intensity between similar locations in adjacent dies are recorded as potential defect sites. Other types of metrology systems are used to measure various characteristics, such as critical dimension (CD) on a reticle or wafer.
There is a continuing need for improved inspection and metrology systems, including scanning type systems.


A method for converting a vapor phase continuous digester to a hydraulic digester including the steps of: operating the vapor phase digester in a vapor phase mode wherein a chip slurry enters the vessel of the digester through a lower chip inlet port, moves up through a top separator, discharges from an upper chip discharge chute of the separator to an upper vapor region of the vessel and falls to a liquor filled region of the vessel; ceasing the flow of the chip slurry to the separator; establishing a chip slurry flow path to an upper portion of top separator, and filling the vessel with liquor and chips such that the chip discharge chute is immersed in liquor.

Digesters are pressure cooking vessels used to process cellulosic fibrous material, such as wood chips. The digester applies pressure and cooking liquor to process the chips into cellulose pulp from which paper products may be made. A digester vessel is generally a vertical column often having a height greater than 100 feet (about 30 meters). There are essentially two types of continuous digesters: a hydraulic digester and an dual-phase or vapor-phase digester (hereinafter referred to as a vapor-phase digester). A hydraulic digester is a pressure-resistant vessel which is filled with comminuted cellulosic fibrous material and liquid.
The vapor-phase digester includes a pressure vessel that is partially filled with a slurry of the cellulosic fiber and cooking liquor and has a super-atmospheric steam zone (also referred to as the gas zone) above the slurry. The gas in the vapor zone is compressible The pressure within a vapor-phase digester is typically determined by the pressure of the gas at the top of the digester.
Traditionally, wood chips are introduced into hydraulic and vapor phase digesters via mechanical top separators. However, the top separator for a hydraulic digester have typically been different than top separators for vapor-phase digesters. The top separators for both types of digesters have an input port coupled to a feed system. Wood chips, or other comminuted cellulosic fibrous material, are typically fed to continuous digester via the feed system and top separator. The feed system typically includes equipment for de-aerating, heating, pressurizing, and introducing cooking liquor to the chips before transferring a slurry of chips and liquor to the digester. Top separators have conventionally served to introduce chips into a digester and to extract cooking liquor from the input chip slurry. Top separators are used in hydraulic and vapor phase digesters.
In a hydraulic digester, the input slurry of chips and liquor is introduced to a top separator having a downward-directed screw-type conveyor. In the vapor-phase digester, the slurry of chips and liquor is transferred to a screw-type conveyor which moves the slurry upwards so that the chips and liquor overflow the top of the conveyor and fall freely in the steam-filled atmosphere of the digester. This upward flow and overflow of chips and liquid is suited to the vapor-phase digester because it prevents the escape of gas as the slurry is introduced to the digester while providing a weir-type reservoir for removing excess liquid. The top separator for a vapor-phase digester is known in the art as an "inverted top separator".
In a vapor-phase digester, the wood chips are typically heated by exposure to steam as the chips are introduced to the steam-filled zone at the top of the digester. A vapor-phase digester directly exposes chips to steam for heating by having a chip level that is above the level of the liquid in the digester. The chips are exposed to steam as they are distributed in the vessel by a top separator device and as they rest on the top of the chip pile.
In a vapor phase digester, the chips are "cooked" as they move from the top of the chip pile and progress down into the slurry through the digester vessel. The inverted top separator is mounted in the top section of the digester. The top section of the vessel contains a vapor portion, and the portion of the vessel below the vapor is filled with a liquid-chip slurry.
Top separators for hydraulic and vapor phase digesters remove excess liquid from the slurry. The removed liquid. e.g., liquor, is returned to the feed system (e.g. conventional high pressure feeder) as a source of slurrying liquid. The functions of the top separators for hydraulic and vapor phase digester are similar, but they have distinct applications to their respective type of digester.
The top separator is one of the few major components of a digester vessel that has conventionally had a substantially different construction depending on whether the separator is for a hydraulic or vapor phase digester. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,332,954 and 6,325,889. In a hydraulic digester, the top separator has an upper inlet for the chip slurry, a downwardly turning screw conveyor, a bottom chip discharge and the entire separator sits on top of a cone. The cone and the bottom of the separator form a top to the liquid and chip filled portion of the hydraulic digester vessel. In a vapor phase digester, the top separator is mounted directly in the gas filled portion of the vessel (without an underlying cone), has a bottom chip slurry inlet, an upwardly turning screw conveyor, and an annular chip discharge chute at the top of the separator.
Other than the top separator, the major components of the digester, e.g., vessel wall, screens, outlets and liquor piping, are generally common to both types of digesters. There are other differences between the structure of a vapor phase and hydraulic digesters, as is discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,174,411 and 5,882,477. In view of the differences between the top separators and other differences, vapor phase digesters have in the past not been interchangeable with or convertible to hydraulic digesters, and vice versa. However, there is a long felt need for commonality of components between the digester types and for an ability to convert one type of digester to another.

Method for converting a digester for use as a gas phase and hydraulic phase continuous digester


Disclosed is a process for producing non-blocking slats of normally tacky amorphous propylene copolymers. The process entails coextruding the normally tacky amorphous propylene copolymer with a low viscosity polyolefin such as a polyethylene wax forming a core of amorphous propylene copolymer covered with a sheath of polyethylene wax. The coextruded article is cooled, cut (while exposing less than 40 percent of the core) and then coated with a non-tacky powder; thereby, forming non-blocking slats. Disclosed is also a novel amorphous propylene copolymer composition containing no more than 90 weight percent propylene and up to 70 weight percent of an alpha olefin comonomer having a needle penetration greater than 70 to less than 100 dmm at 23° C. and a Brookfield Thermosel Viscosity below 1000 cP at 190° C.

Amorphous polyolefins are well known and are very useful in adhesives, roofing compositions, cable filing, cable flooding, and caulks and sealants. Amorphous polyolefins are produced and then transferred or shipped in many different forms for incorporation into final compositions. Amorphous polyolefins are generally tacky at room temperature and have a low degree of crystallinity and therefore are not easily formed into powders or pellets for shipment. Amorphous polyolefins are generally transferred in the molten state in large containers or small and large blocks packaged in a release coated paper container and in some instances as small slats coated with a non-tacky substance packaged in corrugated containers.
A preferred form to transfer amorphous polyolefins is in the bulk molten form. The bulk molten form is preferred due to its low processing cost. However, the bulk molten form is shipped in large containers such as tank cars and many end users do not have the capability to unload or store these large quantities of molten amorphous polyolefins. However, the use of the solid block form of amorphous polyolefin is very labor intensive, requiring the end user to remove the coated paper prior to blending. The paper is often adhered to the APO and difficult to remove and also generates solid waste. The larger solid form i.e. 50 pound package is generally preferred over the 20 pound package due to the reduced time spent to remove the package from around the block per any given amount of amorphous polyolefin. Due to the difficulties associated with the molten or block forms, many end users would prefer amorphous polyolefin packaged in an economical and easy to use solid form.
Compounders or end users of the amorphous polyolefin prefer forms of the solid amorphous polyolefin that are easy to handle. Amorphous polyolefin pellets would be most desirable, however, their production is very difficult and they are not commercially available. Thus, of the available forms, amorphous polyolefin slats are generally the form most preferred and easiest to handle. However, it was discovered that some amorphous polyolefins cannot even be formed into slats.
It has been found that certain polymeric compounds that are inherently "soft and tacky" such as certain amorphous polypropylene copolymers are extremely difficult to process into the form of usable slats. These materials must then be produced and sold in some other less desirable form.
EASTOFLEX E1003 from Eastman Chemical Company is one such amorphous propylene ethylene copolymer in that it is a low viscosity (less than 1000 cP at 190° C.) amorphous propylene copolymer with a relatively high comonomer (ethylene) content. These characteristics make the material very soft and pressure sensitive. The material is so soft, that it cannot be considered a "solid" at room temperature (23° C.). This, in combination with its tack, make the polymer extremely difficult to handle as anything but a molten liquid. For this reason, an alternate method for handling materials like E1003 is needed.
As stated above a normal means to handle an amorphous polyolefin or hot melt adhesive is to pour the molten material into a silicone coated release container in the form of a block. It is easy enough to fill materials like E1003 into this type of carton, but not so easy to remove them from the container. E1003 will not release from silicone coated release paper at typical ambient conditions. The polymer has very low cohesive strength and would rather stick to the release paper than to itself. It's low cohesive strength is represented by its low tensile strength (less than 150 kPa). Another indication of an APOs tensile strength is its needle penetration value. The higher the needle penetration value, the softer and weaker the polymer and E1003 has a needle penetration value greater than 95 dmm at 23° C.
Another problem with trying to use materials like E1003 with this type of package is that one needs to physically grab the material while trying to separate the release coated container from the E1003. Since E1003 is not a solid at typical ambient conditions, one cannot grab the material to pull it away from the carton. It sticks to hands, gets between fingers and still does not separate from the release coated container. One way to get around this problem is to cool the product to <0° C. to harden (strengthen) the polymer before removing it from the container. This works fine except that a large freezer is required to store significant quantities of materials like E1003 and the final product is used molten, thus cooling the product right before melting it is a waste of time and energy.
The current method of packaging materials like E1003 is to put it into a release lined fiber drum. The drum is designed to be used with a "drum unloader", where a heated platen is inserted into the drum and pumps the material off as it melts. However, most end users do not have this type of equipment because of their high cost. So, most end users try to cut through the drum, pry it open and dig out the E1003. This is extremely difficult, very labor intensive and messy.
Another common method of processing amorphous polyolefins and hot melt adhesives is to extrude the materials, quench cool them then cut or chop them into their final physical form (slats). However, some amorphous polyolefins, such as E1003 are difficult to extrude, cut or chop, because they are too soft and tacky after melt extruding and quench cooling that they do not feed well into the cutting device (deform under the pressure of the take up device) or they deform under shear forces in the cutter or chopper and gum up or wrap the cutting blade(s). The majority of amorphous polyolefins slat (term for coextrusion of amorphous polyolefins with non-tacky polyolefin material) very well. In general, butene and hexene copolymers slat at lower rates than propylene homopolymers and ethylene copolymers with needle penetrations less than 40 dmm at 23° C.
In light of the above, it would be very desirable to be able to produce a solid form of low viscosity, low tensile strength, tacky amorphous propylene copolymers that is convenient to use and does not require the labor to unwrap.

Process for coextruding a tacky amorphous propylene copolymer composition with a low viscosity polyolefin and article prepared thereby


Microprocessor architecture for an address translation unit which provides two levels of memory management is described. Segmentation registers and an associated segmentation table in main memory provide a first level of memory management which includes attribute bits used for protection, priority, etc. A page cache memory and an associated page directory and page table in main memory provide a second level of management with independent protection on a page level.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of address translation units for memory management, particularly in a microprocessor system.
2. Prior Art
There are many well-known mechanisms for memory management. In some systems, a larger address (virtual address) is translated to a smaller physical address. In others, a smaller address is used to access a larger memory space, for instance, by using bank switching. The present invention relates to the former category, that is, where larger virtual address is used to access a limited physical memory.
In memory management systems, it is also known to provide various protection mechanisms. For example, a system may prevent a user from writing into an operating system for perhaps even from reading the operating system to external ports. As will be seen, the present invention implements a protection mechanism as part of a broader control scheme which assigns "attributes" to data on two distinct levels.
The closest prior art known to Applicant is that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,484. This patent describes the memory management and protection mechanism embodied in a commercially available microprocessor, the Intel 286. This microprocessor includes segmentation descriptor registers containing segment base addresses, limit information and attributes (e.g., protection bits). The segment descriptor table and the segment descriptor registers both contain bits defining various control mechanisms such as privilege level, types of protection, etc. These control mechanisms are described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,484.
One problem with the Intel 286 is that the segment offset is limited to 64k bytes. It also required consecutive locations in physical memory for a segment which is not always easy to maintain. As will be seen, one advantage to the inverted system is that the segment offset is as large as the physical address space. Yet, the invented system still provides compatibility with the prior segmentation mechanism found in the Intel 286. Other advantages and distinctions between the prior art system discussed in the above-mentioned patent and its commercial realization (Intel 286 microprocessor) will be apparent from the detailed description of the present invention.

Virtual memory management method and apparatus utilizing separate and independent segmentation and paging mechanism


A method of decreasing the toxicity of chemical therapeutic agents administered in cancer chemotherapy including adminstration to a patient undergoing chemotherapy. This reduction in toxicity can be accomplished by administering an effective amount of S-3-(3-methylaminopropylamino)propyl dihydrogen phosphorothioate. Methods of inducing mucolytic activity and reducing toxicity of acetominophen overdose are also discussed. Such activities are induced through the administration of S-3-(3-methylaminopropylamino)propyl dihydrogen phosphorothioate.

Cancer chemotherapy has been practiced for many years with many different therapeutic agents. A major drawback of this therapy scheme is the toxicity of the chemotherapeutic agents. Agents capable of destroying invading cancer cells are unfortunately often quite toxic to normal cells. Thus, employers of and recipients of chemotherapeutic techniques have a great need for either non-toxic (to normal cells) therapeutic agents or additional agents capable of decreasing the toxicity of chemotherapeutic agents. The present invention is directed toward an agent for decreasing the toxicity of a wide spectrum of chemotherapeutic agents.
Dihydrogen phosphorothioate compounds are known to be effective as antiradiation agents. See U.S. Pat. No. 3,892,824 to Piper et al and Sweeney, A Survey of Compounds from the Antiradiation Drug Development Program of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command, published by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington D.C. (1979).
Also, many disease conditions such as cystic fibrosis involve an increase in the viscosity of sputum in a patient suffering therefrom. Thus, methods of decreasing that viscosity are in demand.

Method of reducing chemotherapy toxicity using (methylaminopropylamino)propyl dihydrogen phosphorothioate


A small, portable, non-intrusive device that detects the occurrence of an electrostatic discharge (ESD) during the handling, transporting, and testing of static sensitive electronic parts. It can be used to locate grounding problems in assembly equipment and is useful during repairs and assembly of electronic equipment. A preferred use is in the manufacture of semiconductor devices and the equipment containing these devices which are sensitive to ESD occurrences.

It is well known today that electrostatic discharge damage to electronic components and assemblies is a significant cause of semiconductor degradation and failure. Electrostatic discharge damage involves two conductors or semiconductors of different charge levels coming into close proximity of each other and the one of higher potential discharging to the one of lower potential to bring about equalization of charge. There exists in the market today a contact ESD event detector built by Zero Static Systems, Inc., which must be clipped on a particular device to be monitored and, after an ESD event, changes color and must be manually reset to be used again. It is also known to use an AM radio to detect static discharges. However, the radio's insensitivity to single event signals and, indeed, noise suppression circuits, cause it to be useful only for detection of higher levels of ESD. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a non-contact static discharge event detector that has an impedance matched input antenna circuit that would pass through and amplify single-event received signals and suppress carrier-based RF signals and radiation from microprocessor-based electronic circuitry.

Non-contact, electrostatic, discharge detector


An operating hinge for a seat and seat lid of a toilet bowl, simply constructed and capable of controlling the angular moment of the seat and lid to softly stop them in place at their respective predetermined ends of pivoting stroke, provided. The operating hinge comprises a hinge case to be installed to a body of a toilet bowl, a shaft provided rotatably inside the hinge case to support the seat and seat lid, a stationary cam secured inside the hinge case and having formed therein a central hole through which the rotating shaft is axially penetrated, a cam provided inside the hinge case in a vis-vis relationship with the stationary cam and having formed therein a central hole through which the rotating shaft is axially penetrated, to be slidable on, and rotatable with, the rotating shaft, and a resilient member for urging the rotatable sliding cam toward the stationary cam, further comprising, to more positively control the rotation of the rotating shaft, a rubber ring fitted on the rotating shaft to abut the inner wall of the hinge case, a viscous oil applied between the periphery of the rubber ring and the hinge case inner wall the rubber ring abuts, and a screw for adjusting a pressure the rubber ring applies to the inner wall of the hinge case.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toilet bowl, and more particularly, to a hinge suitably usable for opening and closing a seat and seat lid of a toilet bowl.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of hinges for opening and closing, or operating, a seat and seat lid of a toilet bowl have been proposed so far. Typical ones of such hinges include a combination of a shaft rotatable as the toilet seat and lid are pivoted for opening or closing, with a cam mechanism incorporating a compression spring and which acts on the shaft, a combination of a rotating shaft and a torsion spring which acts to cancel a torque of the shaft being rotated in a predetermined direction, a combination of a rotating shaft and a rotation damper, etc.
The combination of a rotating shaft with only a cam mechanism incorporating a compression spring and which acts on the shaft is advantageous in that a matching can easily be attained between a torque generated when the seat and lid is operated and an angular moment of the seat and lid. For a large rotating torque, however, the entire structure should be designed larger.
The combination of a rotating shaft with only a torsion spring which acts on the shaft has an advantage in that a small structure can create a large rotating torque. Since it creates a rotating torque which will increase and decrease linearly, however, no easy matching is possible between the rotating torque and an angular moment of the seat and lid which will depict a sine curve, and it is difficult to elaborately fit the movement of the seat and lid as necessary to the rotating torque and also to appropriately control the movement of the seat and lid in each of the operating steps.
Further, the combination of a rotating shaft with only a rotation damper has an disadvantage that it is difficult to elaborately fit the movement of the seat and lid as necessary to the rotating torque and to appropriately control the movement of the seat and lid in each of the operating steps and that the seat and lid being opened or closed cannot easily be halted in an intermediate angular position and braked at a predetermined angular position the seat and lid have reached during each of the operating strokes, for example.

Operating hinge for seat and seat lid of toilet bowl


Systems and methods herein provide improved, high-throughput multiphoton imaging of thick samples with reduced emission scattering. The systems and methods use structured illumination to modify the excitation light. A reconstruction process can be applied to the resulting images to recover image information free of scattering. The disclosed systems and methods provide high throughput, high signal-to-noise ratio, and high resolution images that are depth selective.

Since its invention, multiphoton fluorescence microscopy has become a standard imaging technique used to study biological systems in part due to its relative simplicity and intrinsic optical sectioning. Examples of multiphoton fluorescence microscopic systems are described in International Patent Publication No. WO 2006/127967, filed May 25, 2006 by P. T. C. So et al., the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference. For a multiphoton fluorescence microscope, the effective excitation point spread function (PSF) is proportional to the square of the light intensity. This optical sectioning capability has allowed such microscopes to uncover significant new structural and functional information in biological systems in diverse areas such as early cancer detection, brain activity, and cell signaling. Despite its utility, however, conventional multiphoton microscopy is slow because the diffraction-limited size of the laser beam that scans over a region of interest. The imaging speed is limited by the speed of raster scanning due to the signal-to-noise ratio requirements for a single pixel. This limited imaging speed hinders the study of fast dynamics of biological events, such as neuronal activity, that occur at a faster time scale than the raster rate of the scanning components.
Widefield temporal focusing microscopy (TFM) was developed over the last decade to overcome this limitation. While a point scanning method achieves local excitation by spatially focusing light, temporal focusing manipulates the femtosecond pulse duration, which is compressed only in the focal plane. Outside the focal plane, the stretched pulse duration reduces beam intensity, which correspondingly lowers the multiphoton excitation efficiency and results in fewer photons originating from out-of-focus locations. Another distinction of temporal focusing is the use of a camera or pixelated detector while the point-scanning method generally uses a photomultiplier tube. Point-scanning typically collects emission photons using a photomultiplier tube (PMT) regardless of the location of the originating scattering event and assigns the detected photons to one pixel. Conversely, temporal focusing allows for recording of images using a pixelated camera instead of just a single pixel at a time. However, scattered photons can contribute to photons counted in adjacent pixels resulting in degradation of the image. This degradation limits the use of temporal focusing in deep tissue imaging applications.

Systems and methods to reduce scattering in temporal focusing multiphoton microscopy


In a speech recognition system for performing voice dialing, an inventive connected digit recognizer is employed to recognize a sequence of spoken digits. The inventive recognizer generates the maximum-likelihood digit sequence corresponding to the spoken sequence in accordance with the Viterbi algorithm. However, unlike a prior art connected digit recognizer, the inventive recognizer does not assume that a digit model in a sequence can be followed by any digit model with equal probability. Rather, the inventive recognizer takes into account, for each digit model being decided on, a conditional probability that that digit model would follow a given digit model preceding thereto.

In communication, data processing and similar systems, a user interface using audio facilities is often advantageous especially when it is anticipated that the user would be physically engaged in an activity (e.g., driving a car) while he/she is operating one such system. Techniques for recognizing human speech in such systems to perform certain tasks have been developed.
In particular, techniques for recognizing a sequence of spoken digits to perform voice dialing in such equipment as mobile phones, cellular terminals and computer-telephony integrated (CTI) systems are well-known. One such technique is a connected digit recognition technique involving use of Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). For details on this technique, one may refer to: L. Rabiner, "A Tutorial on Hidden Markov Models and Selected Applications in Speech Recognition," Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 77, No. 2, February 1989, pp. 257-285.
In accordance with the connected digit recognition technique, individual digits are each characterized by an HMM, and a Viterbi algorithm is used to identify an optimum sequence of HMMs which best matches, in a maximum likelihood sense, the unknown, spoken connected digit sequence. The Viterbi algorithm forms a plurality of sequences of tentative decisions as to what the spoken digits were. These sequences of tentative decisions define the so-called "survival paths." The theory of the Viterbi algorithm predicts that these survival paths merge to the "maximum-likelihood path" going back in time. See G. D. Forney, "The Viterbi Algorithm," Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 761, No. 3, Mar. 1973, pp. 268-278. In this instance, such a maximum-likelihood path corresponds to a particular digit sequence which maximizes a cumulative conditional probability that it matches the unknown, spoken sequence given the acoustic input thereof. This particular digit sequence is referred to as the "maximum-likelihood digit sequence."
In practice, the sequences of tentative decisions each have a probability score (normally expressed in logarithm) associated therewith, which is updated to reflect the cumulative conditional probability as the tentative decisions are made along the sequence. Based on the respective probability scores of the sequences, the maximum-likelihood digit sequence is identified in accordance with a dynamic programming approach. For details on this approach, one may refer to: H. Ney, "The use of a One-Stage Dynamic Programming Algorithm for Connected Word Recognition," IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, Vol. ASSP. 32, No. 2, April 1984, pp. 263-271. In addition, a number of the next best sequences, relative to the maximum-likelihood sequence, may further be identified based on their probability scores, and can be of different lengths (i.e., different numbers of digits in the sequences). All of these sequences including the maximum-likelihood digit sequence are then subject to further processing including validity tests (e.g., one based on duration) to eliminate unreasonable candidates. The most likely and reasonable digit sequence is thus identified and presumed to be the spoken sequence.
The recognition accuracy of a prior art connected digit recognizer, and thus the accuracy of voice dialing, invariably decreases as the digit sequence length increases. In a noisy environment, the recognition accuracy of a long digit sequence, e.g, 7 to 10 digits long, which is typical of a phone number, is undesirably low. The uncertainty to the recognizer of the actual number of digits in the sequence also contributes to the inaccuracy of voice dialing.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a speech recognition system capable of accurately recognizing connected digits to perform voice dialing effectively.

Technique for effectively recognizing sequence of digits in voice dialing


A semiconductor integrated circuit provided with an (m×n)-bit output mode and an n-bit output mode and including a set of (m×n) I/O portions 103 for outputting signals to the outside, wherein data with a bus width of (m×n) bits are selected by a set of selectors 101 in the (m×n)-bit output mode so that the data with the bus width of (m×n) bits are outputted from the set of (m×n) I/O portions 103 whereas data with a bus width of n bits are multiply selected by the set of selectors 101 in the n-bit output mode so that the data with the bus width of n bits are outputted from the set of (m×n) I/O portions 103 while multiplexed in at least two I/O portions per bit. Every I/O portions which output one and the same bit are short-circuited externally to improve current drive capacity.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit having a plurality of output modes with variable bus widths.
2. Description of the Related Art
There was a semiconductor integrated circuit in which the output bit width can be changed in accordance with a device connected to the outside of the semiconductor integrated circuit. For example, in a semiconductor integrated circuit having a 16-bit bus mode and an 8-bit bus mode, sixteen outgoing I/O portions are provided so that the sixteen outgoing I/O portions output respective bits of 16-bit data in the 16-bit bus mode whereas eight I/O portions corresponding to less significant 8 bits are selected from the sixteen outgoing I/O portions in the 8-bit bus mode and used for outputting data while the output for more significant 8 bits is fixed or the input for more significant 8 bits is pulled down or up.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the configuration of I/O portions of a semiconductor integrated circuit according to the background art. The semiconductor integrated circuit according to the background art includes a set of AND circuits 701, a set of output buffers 702, and a set of outgoing I/O portions 703 (16 bits of IO0 to IO15). These constituent members 701 to 703 are separated into a group corresponding to more significant bits (IO8 to IO15) and a group corresponding to less significant bits (IO0 to IO7).
OUT0 to OUT15 are output signals generated by the internal operation of the semiconductor integrated circuit and outputted to the outside. MODE16B is an output mode switching signal. When MODE16B is high (H) in level, a 16-bit bus mode is selected. When MODE16B is low (L) in level, an 8-bit bus mode is selected. Specifically, when MODE16B is L, the output of the set of AND circuits is fixed to L to thereby select an 8-bit bus mode.
OE8H is an output control signal for controlling the set of output buffers 702 for the more significant bits. When OE8H is H, IO8 to IO15 are outputted normally. When OE8H is L, a half of the set of output buffers 702 corresponding to IO8 to IO15 become a high impedance state (HiZ). OE8L is an output control signal controlling the set of output buffers 702 for the less significant bits. When OE8L is H, IO0 to IO7 are outputted normally. When OE8L is L, a half of the set of output buffers 702 corresponding to IO0 to IO7 become HiZ.
In the 16-bit bus mode where MODE16B is H, OUT0 to OUT15 are outputted to IO0 to IO15 directly if OE8H is H and OE8L is H. In the 8-bit bus mode where MODE16B is L, the output for IO8 to IO15 is fixed to L if OE8H is H, but IO8 to IO15 are pulled down or up to pull-down or pull-up resistors if OE8H is L. When OE8L is H, OUT0 to OUT7 are outputted to IO0 to IO7 directly.
In this configuration, the quantity of data allowed to be outputted at once in the 8-bit output mode is a half of the quantity of data in the 16-bit output mode. For this reason, an output speed twice as high as the output speed in the 16-bit output mode is required in the 8-bit output mode for obtaining the same transfer rate as that in the 16-bit output mode. When such a high-speed operation is performed, increase in output current capacity is required.
As a technique for changing external output current capacity of a semiconductor integrated circuit, there has been heretofore proposed a semiconductor device having such a circuit configuration that transistor drive capacity can be changed on the basis of an external signal in order to improve the margin for test reading (e.g. see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 79056/1991).
As described above, if a constant transfer rate is required in data outputting in a semiconductor integrated circuit having a plurality of output modes with variable bus widths such as a 16-bit output mode and an 8-bit output mode, an output speed twice as high as that in the 16-bit output mode is required in the 8-bit output mode. There is a possibility that no mode but the 8-bit mode can be used for the structural reason of the external device. When such a high-speed operation is performed, the semiconductor integrated circuit cannot be operated normally if output current capacity is low.
The background-art technique for changing transistor drive capacity in the external output of the semiconductor integrated circuit is a technique by which transistor drive capacity can be lowered in order to improve the margin for test reading. The idea of changing external output current capacity in accordance with necessity is effective. This technique however has a disadvantage in that the external output circuit becomes complex because the transistor drive capacity is changed.


The present invention provides a sensing device for obtaining information of a test sample using an electromagnetic wave including a frequency region within a frequency region of 30 GHz to 30 THz, the sensing device comprising an electromagnetic wave transmitting portion including a plurality of transmission portions (4a, 4b) for propagating electromagnetic waves and detection portions (3a, 3c) for receiving and detecting the electromagnetic waves from the plurality of transmission portions (4a, 4b), in which at least one of the plurality of transmission portions (4a, 4b) is constructed such that the test sample (5, 6) can be placed in a portion affected by an electromagnetic wave propagating therethrough.

In recent years, nondestructive sensing techniques using an electromagnetic wave of millimeter-wave to terahertz (THz) wave frequencies (30 GHz to 30 THz) have been under development. An example of techniques now under development in application fields of the electromagnetic wave of such a frequency band is an imaging technique using a safe fluoroscopic apparatus alternative to an X-ray fluoroscope. In addition, examples of techniques now under development include a spectral technique for obtaining an absorption spectrum or complex dielectric constant of a material to examine the bonding state therein, a technique for analyzing biomolecules, and a technique for estimating a carrier concentration or mobility.
Up to now, a photoconductive device including antennas also serving as electrodes which are provided on a photoconductive film formed on a substrate is suitably used as an example of a THz wave generating means (see JP 10-104171 A). FIG. 8 shows a structural example of the photoconductive device. A substrate 130 has, for example, a silicon-on-sapphire structure treated with radiation. In the substrate 130, a silicon film which is a photoconductive material is formed on a sapphire substrate. An LT-GaAs film grown on a GaAs substrate at a low temperature is used as the photoconductive film in many cases. A dipole antenna 138 formed in a surface of the substrate includes a pair of dipole feeders 138a and 138b and a pair of dipole arm portions 139a and 139b. A light pulse is focused on a gap 133. When a voltage is applied across the gap 133, a THz pulse generates. When a light current is detected without the application of the voltage across the gap 133, the THz pulse can be detected. Here, the photoconductive device is a detector 132. The light current is detected by a current amplifier 134. A substrate lens 136 has a function of conducting coupling from a slab mode (substrate mode) of an electromagnetic wave confined in the substrate 130 to a radiation mode to free space, and a function of controlling a radiation angle of an electromagnetic wave propagation mode in space.
The above-mentioned structure is an example in which the electromagnetic wave is propagated through a space using a single photoconductive device. There has been also proposed a small functional device in which a semiconductor thin film serving as a photoconductive device and transmission paths for causing generated electromagnetic waves to propagate are integrated on a single substrate (see Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 80, No. 1, 7 Jan., 2002, pp. 154-156). FIG. 9 is a plan view showing the functional device. The functional device has a structure 164 in which a thin film composed of only a LT-GaAs epitaxial layer of the photoconductive device is transferred to a part of high-frequency transmission paths 165 and 163 formed on an Si substrate 160. In the structure 164, microstrip lines are formed on the substrate 160 so as to sandwich an insulator resin. A gap is produced in a part of the lines. The thin film of LT-GaAs is placed only under the gap. Driving is performed such that a laser beam is emitted from a surface side of the substrate 160 to the gap placed between metallic lines 161 and 165 through space propagation to propagate a generated THz electromagnetic wave to the lines. When a test sample 167 to be examined is applied to a filter region 166 having a resonant structure on the transmission paths, a change in propagation condition is detected from a portion 162 using an EO crystal. Therefore, the properties of the test sample 167 can be examined.
However, according to a method disclosed in Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 80, No. 1, 7 Jan. 2002, pp. 154-156, the amount of change in propagation condition of the terahertz-wave to the test sample is small. Therefore, a large amount of test sample is necessary. For the improvement of sensitivity, it is necessary to increase the strength of the electromagnetic wave. When a reference test sample is compared with a target test sample, it is necessary that data be obtained and stored for each step or that additional measurement be performed by sensing devices having different transmission paths. In this case, it is difficult to adjust a condition of measuring the reference test sample to the same condition as that of measuring the target test sample. Thus, it is difficult to accurately estimate the amount of change in the target test sample from the reference test sample.