A footprint based optimal characterization of intellectual property (IP) for more deterministic physical integration. The physical integration characteristics are based upon IP physical integration at an anchor point in a pre-defined IC platform. IP footprint characteristics are identified as fixed, variable or prioritized to each other, and bounding constraints are defined based on a set of characteristics for the IP, the platform characteristics and IC design requirements. The IP is physically synthesized using the bounding constraints. The synthesized IP is tested and the bounding constraints are iteratively modified until the characteristics of the synthesized IP are optimized/captured.

Integrated circuits are used in a wide range of electronic devices produced by a large number of device manufacturers. In practice, ICs are seldom manufactured (fabricated) by the electronic device manufacturer. Instead ICs are manufactured by an IC foundry to the specifications of the electronic device manufacturer. The design of the IC is usually the result of collaboration between the device manufacturer and the IC foundry.
The design and manufacture of an application-specific IC, or ASIC, is usually a long, highly detailed and intensive process, requiring development of a hardware description language (HDL) description of the design, usually in a synthesizable register transfer language (synthesizable RTL), synthesizing the RTL description to a technology library of components, specifying the placement of those components on the silicon platform or on the ASIC die, specifying the physical interconnection of those components, closing the required physical specifications such as functional timing power, area, etc., inserting circuits for manufacturing test, taping out the design, fabricating the circuit into a physical IC chip and testing the chip. Often, tests reveal that re-design is necessary to meet objectives, thereby requiring the process be repeated. The process is time consuming and costly.
To reduce the time and cost of development of ASICs, IC foundries have developed standard, or base, platforms containing silicon layers of an IC, but without some or all of the metal interconnection layers. The silicon layers are configured with metal interconnection into gates that can be configured into cells using tools supplied or specified by the IC foundry. The chip designer specifies designs that are realized using the supplied or specified tools through the addition of additional metal layers for the base platform. This effectively configures the chip into a custom ASIC employing the customer's circuit design and other intellectual property (IP). The IC foundry ordinarily supplies or specifies tools to the IC designer to enable the designer to quickly and accurately configure the base platform to a custom ASIC compatible with the foundry's fabrication technology. An example of such a configurable base platform is the RapidChip® platform available from LSI Logic Corporation of Milpitas, California. The RapidChip platform permits the development of complex, high-density ASICs in minimal time with significantly reduced design iteration, turn around time, manufacturing risks and costs.
One problem in any silicon development process is the effective physical integration of IP. IP is typically developed without regard to the specifics of the physical environment where it will eventually reside. A current approach is to apply margins to the design in hopes that they can be traded off during the physical integration process. One problem with this is that margins are often not representative of the actual problems incurred during physical integration. The result of this is that the physical integration of IP into the IC can be a highly iterative process in a very expensive, time consuming and late portion of the design process.
Each piece of IP has a set of physical characteristics that are associated with it. What is important for one piece of IP may not be for another piece of IP. Consequently, the set of characteristics that are important for one IP may be different from the set of characteristics that are important for another IP.
For example an IP circuit dealing with a defined protocol that operates at a specific frequency must operate at that frequency or it is of no use. However another piece of IP may be useful over a variety of frequency ranges. These frequency ranges are application specific. Other characteristics that may be important to a given IP include area, metal utilization, porosity, congestion etc. This example is illustrative only and there are numerous additional possible characteristics.
The context of a piece of IP is important when physically integrating the IP into a chip design. The context defines how the IP is driven in the chip design and how the characteristics of the integrated (placed) IP affect the IC design. The context is based in part on a specific positioning of the IP in the IC, and different positions for the IP may produce different contexts. Thus, one significant issue its whether or not the IP specific physical requirements can be met, given the context of a physical placement. Another significant issue is the effect that this piece of IP places upon the rest of the design given this context.
It is often the case that changes to the design must be made to achieve the physical implementation that is required. The changes can come in a variety of forms that range from architectural redesign in the RTL stage to altering the physical placement of the design. Any of the alternatives within this continuum of options can lead to multiple expensive iterations and delays.
Designers do not always take into account the environment in which the IP will be placed. For example, a piece of IP that can be placed in an area X if sufficient wiring levels and porosity are available might require a greater area if the IC includes a high content of memory, processor and/or other physical obstructions. Therefore, additional elements must be considered to define the context in which the IP will be used. Moreover, the importance of these elements may vary depending upon the context. Therefore, there is a need for a technique to characterize IP for physical integration into an IC and to selectively define the importance of elements of the characteristics for a given context.

Process and apparatus for characterizing intellectual property for integration into an IC platform environment


A battery includes a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and an electrolyte. The negative electrode includes an active material having grains and a binder having a reticulated structure. In this battery, spaces between the grains of the active material are filled with the reticulated structure of the binder.

The technology generally relates to a negative electrode, a battery, a battery pack, an electronic device, an electrically driven vehicle, a power storage device, and a power system.
In a negative electrode, a binder is typically so present that covers surfaces of grains of an active material. The active material grains, therefore, can only be bound to one another or bound to a current collector on part of their surfaces alone. This may result in poor contact between the grains and between the grains and the current collector. In order to arrest decline of desired close contact therebetween, it may be suggested to add a certain amount or more of the binder to a compound prepared for electrode. If the binder to be added is increased, however, the binder may be oversupplied to between the active material grains and between the active material grains and the current collector.
As a result, surfaces of the active material grains may be covered with the binder that does not participate in the binding action. Such binder-covered active material grains, if present, may inhibit conduction of ions, consequently increasing a battery's internal resistance. In case the internal resistance is thus increased, properties of the battery may be undermined, for example, charge-and-discharge efficiency, capacity, and output characteristics.

Negative electrode, battery, battery pack, electronic device, electrically driven vehicle, power storage device, and power system


Apparatus and methods for utilizing pressure exchangers as a source of pressure oscillations. An example method includes operating a plurality of pressure exchangers to pressurize a stream of fluid, injecting the pressurized stream of fluid into a wellbore extending into a subterranean formation, and controlling rotational speed and rotational position of a rotor of each of the pressure exchangers to control amplitude and/or frequency of pressure oscillations within the pressurized stream of fluid being injected into the wellbore.

A variety of fluids are used in oil and gas operations. Fluids may be pumped into the subterranean formation through the use of one or more high-pressure pumps. Dirty fluids, such as solids-laden fluids containing insoluble abrasive solid particles, can reduce functional life and increase maintenance of the high-pressure pumps.
Pressure exchangers provide a way to exchange pressure energy between two fluid flows. An example pressure exchanger has a rotating rotor with multiple flow cavities, channels, or other chambers. The rotor rotates in a housing via a fluid-lubricated bearing. Disc valves at opposing ends of the pressure exchanger intermittently seal corresponding ends of the chambers between alternating passage of different ports of each disc valve. Fluid flow entering each chamber is directed along a small, off-axial vector, thus imparting rotation to the rotor.
As the rotor rotates, each chamber is in turn connected to a source of dirty fluid via a dirty fluid input port of one of the disc valves, such that the dirty fluid enters each chamber as the chamber passes the dirty fluid input port. As the rotor further rotates, each chamber is then connected to a source of high-pressure clean fluid via a clean fluid input port of one of the disc valves, such that the high-pressure clean fluid enters each chamber as the chamber passes the clean fluid input port, and an interface between the dirty fluid and the clean fluid is pushed away from the clean fluid input side, thus pressurizing and then ejecting the dirty fluid as further rotation causes the chamber to pass a dirty fluid discharge port of one of the disc valves. The now depressurized clean fluid may then be ejected as further rotation causes the chamber to pass a clean fluid discharge port of one of the disc valves. The cycle may be repeated continuously to form a continuous stream of pressurized dirty fluid.
In the application of rotary pressure exchangers in the field of hydraulic fracturing, cementing, drilling, and cuttings injection, the piping networks utilized during such operations comprise inherent or attendant resonant modes or frequencies. These modes are often excited by pressure oscillations (i.e., fluctuations, pulsations) generated by various wellsite equipment. During operation, the pressure exchangers generate attendant medium frequency pressure oscillations caused by the rotary valves (e.g., rotors) of the pressure exchangers. Such pressure oscillations may cause damage to the piping network and downstream tools and equipment.

Pressure exchanger pressure oscillation source


The present invention addresses the need to ensure that clinical tests for urobilinogen in urine are properly working. The invention specifically provides a novel liquid urobilinogen composition which remains stable in liquid form for eighteen months and a method for making the same.

In clinical testing and diagnostics, many reagent strips used to analyze urine contain tests for urobilinogen. Urobilinogen is a reduction product of bilirubin which itself is formed from the degradation of the red blood cells. Normally, there is little or no urobilinogen excreted into the urine unless a pathological condition exists.
The presence of abnormally high levels of urobilinogen in a patient's urine is possibly indicative of hepatic diseases, hemolytic diseases and biliary obstruction. In particular, the determination of abnormally high urobilinogen levels is particularly useful for detecting the early stages of hepatitis. The commercially available Multistix.RTM. reagent strips of Bayer Corporation, Elkhart, Ind., is a typical example of such reagent strips. The reagent test pad condenses urobilinogen with diethylaminobenzaldehyde under acidic conditions to produce the diethylaminobenzylidenyl urobilinogen responsible for the optical signal. As part of normal quality control, the clinician must be assured that the urobilinogen test is working properly by employing a positive control for the test which mimics the urobilinogen material in a patient sample. A specified amount of urobilinogen is thus added to synthetic or fresh urine that is free of endogenous urobilinogen to produce a control solution. This control solution is then used to monitor the accuracy and precision of urine urobilinogen tests.
Traditionally, liquid urobilinogen is synthesized artificially by reducing bilirubin using a catalyst such as sodium amalgam, vanadium or platinum. There have, however, been problems with these traditional methods of synthesis. Sodium amalgam, for instance, is unstable and causes environmental pollution through mercury contamination. Vanadium and platinum are readily oxidizable, expensive and require special equipment when used as catalysts for bilirubin reduction.
Alternately, Raney nickel, copper or iron can be used to reduce bilirubin to urobilinogen. Raney catalysts are powdered metals of nickel, copper, or iron prepared from an alloy of the metal and aluminum by dissolving the aluminum in an alkali solution. Urobilinogen produced by utilizing a Raney catalyst requires lyophilization to ensure extended stability. Specifically, 10% or more of liquid urobilinogen produced by reduction with a Raney catalyst degrades significantly in one day even under refrigeration. Lyophilization is an extra step that adds additional costs and labor to urobilinogen production. Lyophilization also forces the clinician to expend additional time reconstituting the lyophilized powder. Such reconstitution may sacrifice precision quantification of urobilinogen content when the product is reconstituted. Furthermore, the protocol involving Raney catalysts is relatively tedious to perform because the reduction reaction must be performed at 10.degree. C. or lower to effect a reaction.
Given the limitations of the existing methods of producing both lyophilized and liquid urobilinogen and the inherent problems associated with a product which must be stored in lyophilized form, there is a clear need for a method of producing a stable liquid urobilinogen composition which can be produced safely, easily and inexpensively.

Stable liquid urobilinogen control composition


An image processing device is provided that can precisely measure the photographing position or posture of a photographing device or the coordinates of an object based on sequentially changing photographed images. A series of sequentially photographed images are acquired, from which feature points are extracted. The feature points are tracked and correlated. Stereo images are selected from the series of photographed images correlated. Images selectable as stereo images are grouped into a group of images, from which stereo images are selected, before an orientation and a 3D measurement are performed. The images are grouped according to the distance from the object to the photographing position or the photographing magnification. Images with abrupt changes are removed so as to improve the measurement precision.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image processing device and method. More particularly, the present invention relates to an image processing device and method for measuring the coordinates of a photographing device or an object by keeping track of a dynamic image of the object taken when the photographing device moves relative to the object.
2. Related Art
There is known a technique to measure the position of a photographing device by continuously photographing an object while the photographing device is moving relative to the object. When the photographing device is actually mounted on a moving body such as a car or held in a hand of a person for photographing, however, stable images cannot always be obtained because of the sway of the car or the person, twists and turns of the road, or bumps and potholes on the road surface. Thus, it is necessary to correct vertical sway, magnification, direction and tilt for each frame. On other hand, for the case where a stationary object is photographed with a stationary photographing device, there is disclosed a 3D (three dimensional) measurement technique to precisely and automatically search for corresponding points for measurement. (See Patent Document 1.)
[Patent Document 1] JP-A-2003-264852 (paragraphs [0018] to [0073], FIGS. 1 to 11, etc.)
In order to measure the 3D coordinates of a photographing device or an object based on moving images, it is necessary to find, on two or more frames of the moving image, feature points (this may be referred to as characteristic points) corresponding to each other, or identical points on the object (hereinafter referred to "corresponding feature points") and to keep track of them. The photographing position or the 3D coordinates of the object are finally calculated from the corresponding feature points of a selected pair of images, or stereo images. A problem has been found with the calculation, however, that solutions with stable precision cannot be easily obtained if the photographing distance (magnification), photographing direction or baseline length of the stereo images changes.
Thus, it is required to provide a technique that can precisely measure the photographing position or posture of a photographing device or the coordinates of an object even for sequentially changing photographed images, such as moving images, by removing inappropriate photographed images, which might deteriorate the measurement precision of 3D measurements, by developing the technique to photograph a stationary object with a stationary photographing device described above for application to the case where one or both of them are mobile.
The objective of the present invention is to provide an image processing device and method that can precisely measure the photographing position or posture of a photographing device or the coordinates of an object based on sequentially changing photographed images, such as moving images.


A polymer blend comprising:. a) a syndiotactic monovinylidene aromatic polymer, PA1 b) a polyamide, PA1 c) a compatibilizing polymer for a) and b), PA1 d) a rubbery polyolefin impact modifier, optionally extended with an oil, PA1 e) a domain forming rubbery polymer, PA1 f) a polar group functionalized rubbery polyolefin, and PA1 g) optionally, a compatibilizing polymer for a) and d).

The present invention relates to toughened blends of syndiotactic monovinylidene aromatic and amide polymers.
Blends of syndiotactic monovinylidene aromatic polymers, e.g. syndiotactic polystyrene (SPS) and polyamides, e.g. nylon, are known in the art, having excellent impact and heat resistance. Typically, these types of blends are toughened using various rubbery polymers. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,890 issued to Nakano et al. discloses a resin composition containing SPS, nylon and optionally a rubbery block polymer. Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,219,940 discloses SPS and polyamide blends, optionally containing block or grafted rubbers. U.S. Pat. No. 5,270,353 discloses blends of SPS with nylon toughened with block and maleated block copolymers. However, block copolymer rubbers are expensive and add significant cost to the blends.
Therefore, there remains a need to obtain more cost effective toughened SPS/polyamide blends while maintaining good impact and heat resistant properties.


A portable and removable commode seat, for a first embodiment, comprises a commode seat and a series of extendable and foldable legs secured to the commode seat and extending therefrom. When the legs are extended generally vertically from the commode seat, the commode seat can be placed over a conventional commode and utilized without the person ever coming in contact with the underlying fixed commode. After use, the legs can be folded to extend adjacent the underside of the commode seat for convenient handling or storage. A modification thereof is commode seat having plural J-shaped supports to rest on and be supported by the conventional commode. In each case, a preferred feature is the provision of plural, thin, peelable and removable sheets of paper, or other suitable material, overlying the seating surface to allow the user thereof to expose a fresh and germ free surface when desired.

People are well-aware of the normal conditions that exist in public restrooms. In short, the general public cannot depend on public restrooms to be clean and sanitary. In fact, experience indicates that public restrooms are not generally clean and sanitary throughout. It is not uncommon to find the floors of such public restrooms dirty and even wet with urine in and around urinal and commode areas. Further, toilet paper is often missing. Paper-type toilet seat covers are available in some public restrooms but on average one cannot rely on such commode seat covers being readily available in public restrooms. Even when available, commode seat covers are relatively thin sheets of paper, and frankly, the general public is skeptical as to whether such really affords any protection at all.
One of the problems faced by the general public in frequenting public restrooms is that of germs. Obviously, commode seats, upper commode rims and the commode in general will carry a host of germs and even bacteria. This is indeed a significant danger to the general public, especially older people, women and children.
The prior art offers some early attempts at meeting the needs noted above. This early prior art is reflected in the following patents:
a) U.S. Pat. No. 1,563,236, to Smith, teaches a portable toilet seat which utilizes a pair of U-shaped pivotal legs, pivotal from the underside of a circular toilet seat.
b) U.S. Pat. No. 1,379,374, to Wagner, relates a folding chair having a seat with a central commode opening, and four individually pivotal legs.
c) U.S. Pat. No. 1,223,065, to Meyer, discloses a portable toilet seat similar to that taught by Smith.
d) DE Pat. No. 1,051,467, to Elgin, teaches a child's fixed stool which is adapted to be positioned over a conventional toilet.
Despite these prior art efforts, there continues to be a need for a portable commode seat that can be easily carried by the general public when they are traveling, and which can be used in public toilet areas to avoid germs and other harmful bacteria and the like. The manner by which such needs are met will become clearer in the following specification.


The semiconductor device according to this invention is characterized by a package structure of a semiconductor substrate 100 equipped with a photoelectric converting portion, wherein a light-shading means 104 is arranged in an area corresponding to at least the photoelectric converting portion on the side of the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate.

This application is a Divisional of application Ser. No. 10/620,461, filed on Jul. 17, 2003 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,332,783 , the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference and for which priority is claimed under 35 U.S.C. § 120.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method for manufacturing the same, and more particularly to a semiconductor device having a photoelectric converting portion such as a solid-state image pick-up device.
2. Description of the Related Art
The solid-state image pick-up device inclusive of a CCD (charge coupled device) has been increasingly required to decrease its size in view of the necessity of its application to a portable telephone and digital camera.
As a typical example of the application, a solid-state image pick-up device has been proposed which is provided with a micro-lens in the light receiving area of a semiconductor chip. Specifically, it is proposed to downsize the solid-state image pick-up device provided with a micro-lens in the light receiving area by integrally packaging a hermetic-sealing portion between the light receiving area and micro-lens of the solid-state image pick-up device (JP-A-7-202152).
Such an arrangement can reduce the packaging area, and optical components such as a filter, lens, prism, etc. can be bonded onto the surface of the hermetic sealing portion. Thus, down-sizing of the package can be accomplished without deteriorating the light-gathering capability of the micro-lens.
However, such an arrangement also presents various problems.
In mounting the solid-state image pick-up device, in order to take out a signal externally, the solid-state image pick-up device mounted on a supporting substrate is subjected to electric connection and sealing by e.g. bonding.
In order to satisfy the demand for improvement of resolution, various peripheral circuits are required. Where substrates for the peripheral circuits are stacked, a problem of noise due to signal transfer from the peripheral circuits to the solid-state image pick-up device or from the solid-state image pick-up device to the peripheral circuits has become obvious. Therefore, reduction in the wiring length is an important problem to be solved.
In order to enhance the driving speed, in recent years, the semiconductor chip has been low-profiled to about 200 μm. Correspondingly, the problem of reduction in the strength of the semiconductor chip or mixing of an erroneous signal in the output signal from the solid-state image pick-up device, which is attributable to the penetration of a circuit pattern such as a bump on the rear surface of the semiconductor chip through the semiconductor chip, has become serious.
This problem also occurs in other various photoelectric conversion devices such as a photo-sensor having a pin structure. This problem is a very serious problem in recent years when the low-profiling of the semiconductor chip has been advanced explosively.

Method of manufacturing a semiconductor device with light shading means


Novel fluorescent precipitating substrates made from a class of fluorophores, generally including quinazolinones (quinazolones), benzimidazoles, benzothiazoles, benzoxazoles, quinolines, indolines, and phenanthridines, having the general formula: ##STR1## where carbon atoms of --C.sup.1 .dbd.C.sup.2 -- are further joined so as to complete a first 5- or 6-membered aromatic ring which may contain at least one of the hetero atoms N, O or S,. where carbon atoms of --C.sup.4 --N.dbd.C.sup.3 -- are further joined so as to complete a second 5- or 6-membered aromatic ring that contains at least the nitrogen between C.sup.3 and C.sup.4 and may contain at least one additional hetero atom N, O or S, PA1 where the first and second aromatic rings may be joined by a 5- or 6-membered bridging ring that contains at least the C.sup.2 from the first aromatic ring and the C.sup.3 from the second aromatic ring, which bridging ring may be saturated or unsaturated and may contain a hetero atom N, O, or S, PA1 where each of the first and second aromatic rings may be fused to at least one additional aromatic ring that may contain at least one of the hetero atoms N, O or S, and PA1 X.sub.fl is covalently linked to the oxygen --O-- at C.sub.1.. where each of said aromatic rings may be further modified by substitution of any hydrogens on an aromatic carbon by substituents that are halogen, nitro, cyano, aryl, lower alkyl (1-4 carbons), perfluoroalkyl (1-4 carbons), or alkoxy (1-4 carbons), or any combination thereof; and

Detection of enzyme activity is useful in the analysis of a biological or chemical sample, such as whole organisms, cells or cell extracts, biological fluids, or chemical mixtures. For example, information about metabolism, disease state, the identity of microorganisms, the success of a genetic manipulation, or the quantity of toxins, can be gained from evaluating the activity of certain enzymes. Furthermore enzyme conjugates are often used as sensitive bioanalytical tools for detection of analytes.
Enzyme activity is often detected through the use of a synthetic substrate. The endogenous substrates of an enzyme are used in designing synthetic substrates. Several glycosidase enzymes are known to target specific glycosides (R-O-Gly) to yield the corresponding carbohydrate and an organic alcohol or phenol (R-OH). Phosphatase enzymes catalyze the conversion of certain phosphate monoesters (R-O-P(O)(OH).sub.2) to inorganic phosphate (Pi) and an organic alcohol (R-OH). Similarly, organic alcohols or phenols result when sulfatase enzymes liberate inorganic sulfate from some sulfate monoesters (R-O-SO.sub.3 H) or when guanidinobenzoatase enzymes hydrolyze aryl esters of p-guanidinobenzoic acid (R-O-(C.dbd.O)-C.sub.6 H.sub.4 -NH-(C.dbd.NH)-NH.sub.2). Carboxylic acid esters (R-O-(C.dbd.O)-R') are hydrolyzed by esterase enzymes to alcohols and acids. Cytochrome enzymes oxidize aryl alkyl ethers to give the phenol and an aldehyde or acid.
Most phosphatase and sulfatase enzymes are nonselective for the structure of the alcohol. Two types of phosphatase enzymes have been identified, however, that have different optimal pH for their enzymatic activity (pH optima about 10 and about 5 respectively). The aryl sulfatase enzyme most closely resembles the acid phosphatase in pH optimum and substrate turnover. Guanidinobenzoatase is a cell surface protease characteristic of several human tumor cell lines, which is not detectable in normal human cell strains. Esterases have structural requirements that range from those that hydrolyze esters of the lower carboxylic acids (usually<about 4 carbons) to the "lipase" enzymes that optimally hydrolyze esters of the longer carboxylic acids (usually>about 8 carbons). There are several cytochrome enzymes (isoenzymes) that differ in their ability to metabolize aryl ethers depending on the source of the enzyme. Table 1 lists some commonly investigated enzymes and their target groups.
TABLE 1 __________________________________________________________________________ REPRESENTATIVE ENZYMES E. C. NO. ENZYME TARGET GROUP __________________________________________________________________________ 22.214.171.124 .alpha.-Glucosidase .alpha.-D-Glucose 18.104.22.168 .beta.-Glucosidase .beta.-D-Glucose 220.127.116.11 .alpha.-Galactosidase .alpha.-D-Galactose 184.108.40.206 .beta.-Galactosidase .beta.-D-Galactose 126.96.36.199 .alpha.-Mannosidase .alpha.-D-Mannose 220.127.116.11 .beta.-Mannosidase .beta.-D-Mannose 220.127.116.11 N-Acetyl-.beta.-glucosaminidase .beta.-D-N-Acetyl-Glucosamine 188.8.131.52 .beta.-Glucuronidase .beta.-D-Glucuronic Acid 220.127.116.11 .beta.-D-Fucosidase .beta.-D-Fucose 18.104.22.168 .alpha.-L-Fucosidase .alpha.-L-Fucose 3.2.1.-- .beta.-L-Fucosidase .beta.-L-Fucose 220.127.116.11 L-Iduronidase .alpha.-L-Iduronic Acid 22.214.171.124 Cellulase .beta.-D-Cellobiose 3.2.1.-- .alpha.-Arabinopyranosidase .alpha.-L-Arabinopyranose 220.127.116.11 .beta.-Xylosidase .beta.-D-Xylose 184.108.40.206 .alpha.-N-Acetyl-neuraminidase .alpha.-D-N-Acetyl-neuraminic acid (Sialic acid) 3.1.1.-- guanidinobenzoatase aryl esters of p-guanidinobenzoic acid 220.127.116.11 alkaline phosphatase aryl or alkyl phosphate monoesters 126.96.36.199 acid phosphatase aryl or alkyl phosphate monoesters 126.96.36.199 aryl sulfatase aryl sulfate monoesters 126.96.36.199 4-nitrophenyl phosphatase aryl phosphates __________________________________________________________________________
The synthetic substrates for many enzymes, including those in Table 1 as well as many esterases and cytochrome enzymes, are consistently based on the same organic alcohol or phenolic precursors, differing only by the nature of the leaving group (e.g. phosphate, sulfate, guanidinobenzoate, carboxylic acid, carbohydrate, or alkyl alcohol). The synthetic substrate should not inhibit the enzymatic reaction so that the enzyme can produce enough product so that it can be detected (enzyme amplification of the detection product). Most synthetic substrates have been designed so that the presence of the enzyme (or enzyme conjugate) results in a detectable phenolic product, e.g. formation of a soluble colored or fluorescent product or formation of a precipitate.
Common substrates that yield soluble chromogenic (but nonfluorescent) products include phosphate or sulfate monoesters or glycosides of o-nitrophenol, p-nitrophenol, thymolphthalein and phenolphthalein. Fluorogenic substrates derived from such phenols as various 7-hydroxycoumarins, 3-O-methylfluorescein, 8-hydroxypyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid, flavones or various derivatives of .alpha.- or .beta.-naphthols typically yield soluble fluorescent products. Although assays based on fluorescent products are generally preferred because of their greater sensitivity, they are deficient in a number of properties for analytical measurement of enzyme activity in vivo and in vitro.
None of the reported fluorogenic substrates that yield soluble products are optimally detected below a pH of about 6. With many substrates it is necessary to adjust the pH of the dye product to above 10 to obtain the maximum fluorescence efficiency. Assays that require such a change in pH or the addition of other development reagents are not readily adapted for highly automated analytical procedures. In addition, soluble reaction products, whether fluorescent or colored, readily dill use away from the site of activity, especially in in vivo applications.
Certain substrates for phosphatase, sulfatase and some glycosidase enzymes are known to yield colored precipitates that are not fluorescent. The best known of these are 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl phosphate (BCIP) [Leary, et al., PROC. NATL. ACAD. SCI. 80, 4045 (1983)], 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl galactoside (X-Gal), several other "X-glycosides" that are similar to X-gal and the corresponding 5-bromo-4-chloroindolyl sulfate [Wolf, et al., LAB. INVEST. 15, 1132 (1966)]. Following enzymatic hydrolysis, the colorless 3-hydroxyindole intermediates are converted to insoluble indigoid dyes by oxidation with a second reagent or more slowly by molecular oxygen.
Menton, et al., PROC.SOC.EXP.BIOL.MED. 51, 82 (1944), introduced a two step technique in which certain phenolic products, liberated by hydrolytic enzymes, are subsequently coupled to a diazonium salt. The technique yields chromophoric, but nonfluorescent, diazo dye products. Burstone, ENZYME CHEMISTRY AND ITS APPLICATIONS IN THE STUDY OF NEOPLASM, pg. 160 (Academic Press 1962) introduced simplified simultaneous and post-coupling azo dye techniques using naphthol-AS-phosphates and sulfates, as the enzyme substrates.
A modification of the two step technique Ziomek, et al., HISTOCHEM. CYTOCHEM. 38 (3), 437 (1990), reportedly yields a red fluorescent azo dye precipitate that is useful for histochemical demonstration of phosphatase activity. The coupling reaction of the diazo color-forming reagent must be accomplished at an alkaline pH. While this pH may be adequate for histochemical detection of alkaline phosphatase activity, it does not permit continuous detection of the activity of acid phosphatase and aryl sulfatase enzymes and is suboptimal for detection of .beta.-galactosidase (pH optimum 7.2), since these enzymes all have extremely low activity in alkaline medium. Furthermore, the diazo coupling reaction is not specific for the phenols formed by the enzymatic reaction. Therefore the presence of intrinsic phenolic contaminants in the test solution or the biological fluid can yield false positive signals. All of the above methods suffer from weak and somewhat nonspecific fluorescent staining of enzyme activity.
Enzyme-amplification techniques are used in histochemistry and cytochemistry to localize specific antigens by microscopy. Success of this technique depends on an efficient site-specific deposit of enzymatic products that contrast well with the underlying cellular structures. Colored precipitate formed by hydrolysis of known chromophoric precipitating substrates such as X-gal can be well visualized at discrete loci in cells or tissues using light microscopy, if the sample has appreciable quantities of the target molecules. It has been reported that the chromophoric precipitating substrate for alkaline phosphatase, when coupled with a digoxigenin-labeled probe and anti-digoxigenin conjugated with alkaline phosphatase, can stain nerve growth factor MRNA at a higher sensitivity and resolution than a standard isotope label method [Springer et al., HISTOCHEM. AND CYTOCHEM. 39, 231 (1991)]. However, the enzymatic products from the chromophoric substrates are not sufficient to form a visible precipitate that contrasts well with cellular structures when a single molecule of the analyte must be detected, because the chromophoric signal is insufficient for detection. The fluorescent precipitate of this invention, in contrast, provides a more easily detectable signal in smaller amounts.
In recent years, numerous nonradioactive approaches have been developed and refined for in situ hybridization [Jiopman et al., MOLECULAR NEUROANATOMY, pp 43, Elsevier Science Publishers (1988)]. All of these nonradioactive techniques are generally able to detect specific MRNA in situ without difficulty. In contrast, the nonradioactive methods for detecting a specific gene which exists in few or even single copies in a cell's genome using biotinylated probes, require oligonucleotides that contain several thousand bases in order to allow for sufficient incorporation of the biotin (or other) label. In practical terms, any probe shorter than about 2,000 bases will not result in visible signals sufficient to detect few or single copies in the cell genome utilizing either the colored precipitates or fluorescence microscopy. The need for a probe of such long length severely limits the ease and flexibility of the probe design because preparation involves such time-consuming techniques. Because of their stronger accumulated signal, the substrates of this invention can be used with shorter oligonucleotide probes.
The substrates of this invention also differ significantly from substrates previously described in that most known fluorogenic substrates yield products that are appreciably fluorescent only in the solution phase, whereas the preferred substrates from this invention are virtually nonfluorescent except in the solid phase. In addition they yield insoluble, highly fluorescent products without requiring addition of a color-developing and precipitating reagent. Furthermore, the subject substrates are specific for a particular enzymatic activity, and are optimally reactive at or below physiological pH. As a result of these characteristics, the substrates of this invention can detect the activity of a wide variety of enzymes and enzyme-related analytes, in living cells, in extracts of living cells, in biological fluids, in biopsy samples, in vivo and in vitro, without requiring any preprocessing of the samples by concentration, centrifugation, or filtration and without addition of secondary reagents.
Some of the fluorescent dyes used to prepare the subject substrates are already known, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,169,129 2-Ortho-hydroxy-phenyl-4-(3H)-quinazolinones to Rodgers, et al. (1965) (quinazolinones); Hein, et al., The Use of Polyphosphoric Acid in the Synthesis of 2-Aryl- and 2-Alkyl-substituted Benzimidazoles, Benzoxazoles and Benzothiazoles, J. AM. CHEM. SOC. 79, 427 (1957) (benzimidazoles, benzoxazoles and benzothiazoles); and Neumann & Langhals, A Simple Synthesis of Dihydroxybipyridyls, SYNTHESIS 279 (Apr. 1990) (dihydroxybipyridyls). It has been recognized that several of the dyes have very low solubility, particularly in water, and that the compounds are fluorescent in the solid state. The large Stokes shift characteristic of some compounds in this class of dyes has also been described. There have been several studies of the fluorescence mechanism of this class of compounds which has been related to a high degree of photostability. Catalan., et al., Photoinduced Intramolecular Proton Transfer as the Mechanism of Ultraviolet Stabilizers: A Reappraisal, J. AM. CHEM. SOC. 112, 747 (1990); Sinha & Dogra, Ground State and Excited State Photographic Reactions in 2-(o-Hydroxyphenyl)benzimidazole, CHEM. PHYSICS 102, 337 (1986); Orlando, et al., Red- and Near-infrared-luminescent Benzazole Derivatives, CHEM- COMM. 23, 1551 (1971); and Williams & Heller, Intramolecular Proton Transfer Reactions in Excited Fluorescent Compounds, J. PHYS. CHEM. 74, 4473 (1970). None of the references, however, indicate the use of these dyes as fluorogenic substrates.
Orlando, et al., supra at 1552, citing Williams & Heller supra noted that replacement of an o-hydroxyphenyl group by an o-methoxyphenyl group results in nonfluorescent benzazoles. An alkoxy group was the only blocking group described in the reference, however, and there was no indication that blocking groups could be selected to monitor the presence or activity of enzymes.

Enzymatic analysis using substrates that yield fluorescent precipitates


Provisioning storage resources for customers from a distributed grid of disparate storage systems is presented herein. A storage tier component can sort, based on attributes of heterogeneous computer-readable storage media, the heterogeneous computer-readable storage media into tiers of storage to facilitate provisioning a portion of storage space of a tier of the tiers for a computing resource. Further, the storage tier component can receive an input from a device for provisioning of the portion of the storage space of the tier, and configure, based on the input, a storage resource to facilitate access between the portion of the storage space of the tier and the computing resource. Furthermore, a tracking component can create an account associated with a customer that is associated with the device to facilitate tracking and/or limiting of utilization of the portion of the storage space of the tier by the customer.

Providing disparate computer-readable storage resources that are located across multiple data centers for computing resources is complex, as conventional storage technologies utilize technical staff to manage, allocate, etc. such storage resources for hundreds, thousands, etc. of diverse computing resources. Further, such conventional storage technologies are error prone and economically limiting.
The above-described deficiencies of today's computer-readable storage environments and related technologies are merely intended to provide an overview of some of the problems of conventional technology, and are not intended to be exhaustive, representative, or always applicable. Other problems with the state of the art, and corresponding benefits of some of the various non-limiting embodiments described herein, may become further apparent upon review of the following detailed description.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Global management of tiered storage resources


After formation of a sandwich over a substrate of a layer of silicon dioxide (3) followed by a layer of silicon (1) having a pad oxide (7) thereon and a patterned silicon nitride layer (9) over the pad oxide, the unmasked portion of the pad oxide and silicon are removed to provide mesas of silicon with silicon nitride thereover and possibly removal of some of the buried oxide layer. A flowable insulator (15), preferably silsesquioxane (H.sub.x SiO.sub.1.5, where x.ltoreq.1, depending upon the level of polymerization) in a contaminant-free, high purity solvent which is later removed during an annealing step, is placed over the exposed surface such that it fills the voids between the mesas of silicon with silicon nitride thereon and extends over the nitride. The flowable insulator, due to its flowability, provides a generally planar surface. The flowable insulator is etched back and a cap oxide (17) is optionally deposited over the etched back insulator layer. The cap oxide layer (if used), some insulator and nitride are then etched away, leaving the pad oxide over the silicon. The processing is then completed by removing the pad oxide, growing a gate oxide and then forming the gate and source drain electrodes and/or other processing techniques that may be required to provide the final device.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to mesa isolation and, more specifically, to a method of mesa isolation and the isolated mesa structure.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The procedure generally used for mesa isolation in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology is to provide an oxide (insulator) layer which becomes a buried layer after a layer of silicon is formed thereon and then etching the silicon to form silicon mesas on the buried layer with portions of the buried layer being exposed. A major problem with the above-described mesa isolation scheme utilized in current silicon on insulator (SOI) processes is that the exposed buried oxide insulator is reduced in thickness during processing. This reduction in the buried oxide insulator thickness leads to possible exposure of type II buried oxide defects, such defects causing short circuits between the substrate beneath the buried oxide and an electrical conductor such as polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) on the reduced thickness buried oxide. The thinning of the buried oxide also leads to high interconnect capacitance, thereby reducing one of the major advantages of SOI technology. It is therefore apparent that a process which will minimize such buried oxide thinning and/or compensate for such buried oxide thinning is highly desirable.

Mesa isolation Refill Process for Silicon on Insulator Technology Using Flowage Oxides as the Refill Material


A quantum dot manipulating method and a generation/manipulation apparatus are provided which can control the size of a large number of generated quantum dots on or below the order of percent which is required for optical applications of the dots.

A lot of research work is in progress to investigate, and find applications (e.g., super low threshold laser and quantum entanglement) for the peculiar physical properties of quantum dots (especially, semiconductor quantum dots) as a typical example of nanosized structures.
Typically, quantum dots are produced by (1) self-assembly into particles in chemical reaction or (2) MBE. The latter is a method of growing an extremely thin crystal film (equivalent to a thickness of a few atoms) on a wafer of a different semiconductor, such as silicon.
It is expected that the quantum dot will find applications in wide ranges of fields from computer-related fields to biotechnology. To use quantum dots in these fields, preferably, they have uniform diameters. Challenges for the applications include the development of technology that controls quantum dot size and arrangement.
A known technology that can control the size and arrangement of generated quantum dots is (3) a combination of MBE and a probe microscope for those quantum dots produced by one of the methods (Fujitsu Corp.; see "Proceeding of International Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors 2002").
However, with this conventional technology, it is difficult to manipulate a large number of generated quantum dots efficiently.
Specifically, methods (1) and (2) are hardly capable of controlling the variations in the diameter of a large number of generated quantum dots to a value on the order of a few percent or less which is required for optical applications of quantum dots.
In method (3), MBE is used in combination with a probe microscope. An advantage of the method is that nanometer-sized quantum dots can be directly produced by manipulating the probe. Each probe can however manipulate only one dot. No more than a few probes can be used at a time. The fastest probe microscope normally takes about 0.1 seconds to make a single scan. Assuming, as an example, a process time of 0.1 seconds for each dot and the simultaneous use of 10 probes, about 100 dots can be processed in one second. This translates into the need for a fairly extended period of time if one wants to control variations in diameter of numerous quantum dots with method (3). The process efficiency is low.
The present invention, conceived in view of these issues, has an objective to provide a semiconductor quantum dot manipulating method and production/manipulation apparatus capable of controlling the size of a large number of generated semiconductor quantum dots to a value on the order of a few percent or less which is required for optical applications of the dots.

Quantum dot manipulating method and quantum dot production/manipulation apparatus

Abstract: Quantum dots are generated by shining a dot production laser (4a) onto a solid object (3) in a quantum dot production/manipulation apparatus (1) containing superfluid helium (7) therein. A dot manipulation laser (5a) is shone onto the generated quantum dots to manipulate the quantum dots.


The invention relates to a method for controlled braking of an electrically powered lifting action in the event of a failure, such that at least one of the nominal values for “rotational direction” and/or “operating speed” and/or “door position” and/or “motor capacity” and/or “motor current” is ascertained and compared with an actual value, and such that a motorized braking process or motorized stopping process is triggered by a departure of the actual value from the nominal value that lies outside a predetermined range. In addition the invention relates to a device for applying said method.

The invention relates to a method for controlled braking of a door in the event of a breakdown, that is, in case of a failure of a mechanical component, with the help of the electromotive drive unit of the door.
With electronically powered doors customary today, such as rolling doors, overhead doors, sectional doors, or swinging doors, the door's mechanics are frequently arranged in such a way that the electromotive drive unit of the door is not required to power the full weight of the door. For this purpose the doors, depending on their construction and design, are equipped with various devices such as spring elements, cables, and counterweights, which ensure what only a part of the energy required for motion needs to be directed by means of the electromotive drive, and which can be summarized under the general category of balancing devices.
As soon as a balancing device of this type breaks down, for instance because a spring breaks or a rope connected with the counterweight tears, the result can be an undesired, uncontrolled, and dangerous downward motion, the so-called collapse, of a door.
Doors known in the art, the construction and power unit are designed in such a way that a balancing device can be dispensed with. With these doors, an additional electromechanical braking device frequently ensures that the door is held in the resting position after the power is switched off. With a malfunctioning of the braking device, for instance through eroded brake pads, with these doors as well the result can be a crash of the door.
Combinations of balancing device and electromechanical braking devices are also known in the art. Here the electromechanical braking device, for instance, has the task of rapidly bringing to a standstill a door that is in motion, for instance in case a holding point is reached, and of holding the door securely in this position until such time as another drive command is executed.
In the case of a defect in the braking device, a door in some cases cannot reach the desired holding position or the holding position is not held as long as desired, but instead the door slowly and unintentionally starts to leave the position.
To prevent a collapse of the door, various mechanical solutions are known in the art, such as those described in DE 37 01 251 C2, DE 38 14 275 C2, DE 41 38 711 C2, or DE 198 55 697 C2, and in which, for instance by means of pre-tensioned springs or centrifugally activated mechanical devices, additional braking devices are triggered or actuated, which more or less brake the door, for instance in the lateral tracks of the door, or which act mechanically on the door shaft in order to stop the uncontrolled motion of the door.
All technological solutions known in the art for preventing a door collapse for emergency braking have the disadvantage that additional mechanical devices are required whose functionality in most cases can only be tested with great difficulty during a normal life cycle of a door, and in which, in case of an intentional or unintentional triggering, can only be recognized with difficulty, the reason of the triggering of the device. With a few devices known in the art, in addition, it is impossible to recognize that they are in the triggered state, so that the user of the door facility can recognize the supposed cause of failure only after extensive searching.
The electrical power units for doors in common use today, the so-called door drivers, consist as a rule of an electric motor, which most often takes the form of a reasonably priced asynchronous AC induction motor, and which in most cases is directly connected with a flange-mounted gearbox, whereas the gearbox often takes the form of a so-called worm gear.
It is also customary in the art to feed door drive motors by a frequency converter, so that the door can be operated with different speeds and in order to maintain the possibility for gentle actuation and stopping of the door.
The frequency converter in this case, according to the state of the art, is a component of a complex door controller, which, besides comprising the frequency converter, also has at least one device with which the position of the door can be continuously ascertained. In patents DE 295 13 962 U1 and DE 101 42 431 B4, door controllers of this type, with integrated frequency converter and connected position sensors, are described.
Also reported in the art (DE 196 45 811 C2) is a control device for emergency switch-off. This control device from the art comprises a lifting tool. In lift operation this is intended to avoid any excess load on the lift machinery in the event of a breakdown, for instance from the load being caught. For this purpose any exceeding of a boundary value in the lift process is captured. This device from the art has the disadvantage that an additional capturing device for the mechanical excess load must be provided; for instance, a cable tension sensor is provided in the form of a load cell.
The technical problem that underlies the invention consists in providing a method by which the collapse of a door can be prevented without requiring additional devices on the door or the door driver that can be produced therefore with the devices door driver, door controller, frequency converter, and position sensor that are already available in the art. In addition the invention aims to provide a method that can, at least temporarily, assume the functioning for a defective electrical braking device of the door, and that reliably allows the signaling of a defective balance and/or braking device. In addition, a method is provided for applying the method.

Method for controlled braking of a door and device for applying said method


Improved internal combustion engine, particularly, an improved two-stroke, diesel aircraft engine. A first improvement includes a wrist pin/connection rod assembly. A plurality of fasteners extend through a wall of a wrist pin and into a wrist pin insert to secure the wrist pin to a cradle-like portion of a connecting rod. A second improvement includes a fuel injection system which cools fuel injectors with overflow fuel from a fuel pump. The overflow fuel is warmed as it cools the fuel injectors, thereby preventing ice-build up on a fuel filter in cold weather as the overflow fuel is recirculated to the fuel pump. A third improvement includes a new cylinder head cooling arrangement. The cylinder head and a cooling cap define an annular cooling passageway. Cooling fluid flows through the annular cooling passageway to cool the cylinder head. The cooling cap includes an inlet port and an outlet port which are not diametrically opposed. Accordingly, the annular cooling passageway includes a restricted portion to ensure cooling fluid flows completely around the annular cooling passageway to better cool the cylinder head. The cooling cap is adjustably mounted on the cylinder head, so that the cooling cap can be coupled to a cooling jacket independent of the location of the cylinder head on the engine or cylinder block, as when the cylinder head threads into the engine block. The same clamping device used to connect the cooling cap to the cylinder head can be used to secure the fuel injector to the cylinder head. A fourth improvement includes a cross-feed cooling passageway extending between multiple cylinder banks to provide thermal coupling between the cylinder heads and the lower crankcase of the engine, and to provide a safety arrangement for continued cooling fluid flow at least in the event a thermostat in communication with a cooling jacket should fail.

The present invention relates generally to internal combustion engines. More particularly, the present invention relates to two-stroke, diesel aircraft engines.
As generally known, the overall operation, reliability and durability of internal combustion engines depends on a number of design characteristics. One such design characteristic involves the piston pin or wrist pin/connecting rod connection. Uneven wear, excessive deflection or other structural deformities of the wrist pin will adversely affect the performance of an engine. Another design characteristic involves providing adequate cooling for fuel injectors. Generally, fuel injectors are in close proximity to the high heat regions of the combustion chambers. Without proper cooling, a fuel injector can malfunction and, in some cases, completely fail. Another design characteristic involves sufficiently cooling the cylinder heads. Thermal failure or cracking of a cylinder head results in costly repairs to the engine. Yet another design characteristic involves providing coolant to cooling jackets in multiple cylinder engines having a plurality of cylinder banks. Inadequate flow or obstructed flow of the coolant through the cooling jacket can result in engine failure.


A collision prevention detector (22), and a method therefor, to be mounted on a vehicle (10), transmits a sequence of transmissions of IR signals. The signals are transmitted in sequences alternating between at least one at the right and to the left positioned LED (24, 26, 34, 36), when both signals provide a return/reflected signal to IR-receiver an object (12) is determined as present within the area/zone from the point where the transmitted signals intersect/cross. Sequencing of signals makes it possible to position a return signal from an object (12), as one of the signals has to confirm the other signal to provide a warning signal. Moreover, a first set of LED's detects objects in a near-field zone (40) of the vehicle, and a second set detects objects beyond the first field in a far-field zone (42), whereby at least two sets of the LED's are positioned to the right and to the left.

Statistics show that approximately 20% of all accidents are related to lack of vision in the "Dead Angle" or "Blind Spot" of a vehicle. This means that approximately 800.000 accidents in the western world are related to this cause every year. Impacts of this category, diagonally from behind and by surprise cause serious damage to vehicle passengers traveling in the cars involved in accidents.
A lack of vision in the dead angle or blind spot is a serious traffic and security problem, which up to date has not been presented a technically satisfactory solution. The course of events, when a vehicle is impacted from behind, laterally or diagonally is often causing serious damage to passengers. These types of impacts conventionally cause a rotation movement which in its turn often dislocates the driver and passengers from their normal position in the seats and hence diminish effects from seat-belts and airbags. This leads to risks for severe damage and high risks for disabilities and paralysis.
Much has been accomplished over the years to improve the range of vision for the driver of a vehicle. Although, the blind spot or the dead angle still constitutes a problem. Solutions introduced up to now have not achieved a clear cut aid for specific detection of other vehicles in for instance the blind spot. Some of the solutions are technically too complicated and hence too expensive to be attached as a feature on standard vehicles.
Spherical mirrors or divided mirrors have not provided the desired results either. When addressing the issue of blind spot detection it is very important to take into consideration the human capacity of perception and interpretation of an image in a question of instants. The image or traffic scenario perceived with a glimpse in the rear mirrors must be clear and not exposed to second thoughts, doubts or interpretation problems. A warning should hence only comprise what is not seen or perceived at longer distances in the mirror. An overlapping, interfering or unclear information will only confuse, cause doubts and eventually an erratic maneuver by the driver, e.g., two images of the same vehicle. A device that provides warning signals for vehicles clearly seen in the rear mirror, will eventually on one hand create false positives. The driver believes that the vehicle(s) seen in the mirror are causing the alarm, while an unseen vehicle is located in the blind spot. On the other hand there is a risk that a device with longer detection area will diminish the frequency of looking in the mirrors, since drivers eventually will rely on the warning device. A warning device should not replace frequent looks in the mirror. This will increase risks and deteriorate traffic security rather than improve security.
By cross analyzing available statistics it is although fair to assume that approximately 20% of accidents involving personal injury are related to the blind spot problem. This means that approximately 250.000 accidents per annum in the EU are related to blind spot situations. This figure extrapolated to the rest of the western world and Japan would give an approximate of 800.000 accidents pro year.
Systems utilized for preventing collision, include those using video camera detection, which suffer sever drawbacks by not being able to measure distances.
The applicant of the present invention holds the Swedish Patent with the publication No. 520 360, which concerns blind spot detection combined with wheel angle detection compared to vehicle speed, and vehicle direction indications for trigging an alarm. This patent corresponds to the international application PCT/SE00/02564 with publication No. WO 01/45067.
It is appreciated that the detector of the present invention is not restricted to a blind spot detector, but also covers detectors for sensing objects in front of a vehicle and when reversing it. Furthermore, the detector can be mounted on the side of a vehicle or at any suitable place on a vehicle in order to perform as an object detector.


Container diverter apparatus and method for displacement of selected containers on a conveyer for such purposes as rejection, sorting and the like. In accordance with the invention, a servo controlled actuator is positioned adjacent to the stream of containers on the conveyer, so as to be able to push selected containers to a different position across the width of the conveyer. The servo controlled actuator is controlled by a commanded position waveform, which may be tailored to the containers being deflected and which may be readily changed for different containers by use of a look-up table. Detection of the precise initial position of each container on the conveyer allows initial servoing of the actuator to a predetermined distance from the container prior to initiation of the ejection waveform, resulting in fast and precise displacement of selected containers in a highly reliable and very repeatable manner. Various embodiments are disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of container handling apparatus, and in a preferred embodiment to empty and full container handling apparatus as used in the food and beverage industries.
2. Prior Art
The preferred embodiments of the present invention are intended for use in the food and beverage industries for changing position, across the width of a conveyer, of selected containers for such purposes as separating containers which are somehow unsatisfactory from the main line, sorting of containers and the like. Accordingly, only the prior art relating to the food and beverage industry will be discussed herein. Further, the word "container" as used herein is used in a very general sense, whereas the words "bottles" and "cans" are each used in their more natural limiting sense, the latter being used to provide greater specificity to the description of preferred embodiment of the invention. It should be noted however, that the description of the preferred embodiments with respect to bottles and cans is in general directly applicable to containers of substantially all kinds.
In the beverage industry, particularly the soft drink and beer industries, large quantities of empty cans and glass and plastic bottles proceed along a conveyor system through processing steps to obtain properly filled, sealed and labeled product ready for shipment. In this equipment, conveyor speeds on the order of 1000 to 2000 containers per minute are common. By their nature, automatic inspection functions at various positions along this processing line must have associated therewith some method and apparatus for automatically diverting unacceptable containers from the main conveyor line as required.
One general type of container diverter system which has been used in the prior art, and is of the general type used in the present invention, is a system wherein the containers proceed typically adjacent one side of a relatively wide conveyor. Selected containers which are to be diverted are then momentarily contacted from the side to push the same to the other side of the conveyor, the undiverted containers proceeding onto a first outflow conveyor and the diverted containers proceeding to a second outflow conveyor.
One type of actuator which has been used with such systems has been a simple pneumatic actuator, triggered at the appropriate time in a bang-bang fashion to divert selected containers without in any way interfering with the travel of either the prior or the next container, unless of course that one is to be diverted also. Such a diverter is functional, though has certain disadvantages. Because it is preferable to have the diverter reasonably close to the container before it is fired, and typically lines run containers of different size at different times, conversion of the line to a different size container normally requires physical readjustment of the location of the actuator as well as the changing of the spacing of the fences defining the container path to the diverter. Further, adjustments of air pressure, etc. may also be required to accommodate filled containers of different sizes, which thus have different weights. Also, if the container is to be diverted because a prior inspection machine determined it had no cap or seal, the violence of the bang-bang type operation will usually cause spillage of some of the contents, making a mess on the conveyor system. Because such diverters can tend to stick, they must be driven fairly hard, as a minimum, to be sure they will reliably operate.
Also, container diverting systems using compressed air actuators, particularly at high speed, have some tendency to cause a container, particularly a beverage bottle, to turn over, which will let the container roll to undesirable positions across the conveyor, perhaps jam on the fence dividing the two outfeed conveyors, or cause other problems downstream in the equipment if the container successfully negotiates the intended outfeed conveyor.
Another type of diverter currently in use has a series of fingers of different lengths arranged along the conveyor so that the fingers may be extended into the path of a container on the conveyor to define a sort of inclined plane to divert the container to the other side of the conveyor. Since if all fingers were extended at the time, the fingers would span considerably more than the diameter of one container, the fingers must be extended and retracted in a sort of sequential manner so as to not interfere with the possible free travel of adjacent containers, on the assumption that the adjacent containers are likely not intended to be diverted. This system, too, is functional, though is mechanically complex and can require excessive maintenance. Also, actual systems of this type have only partially diverted containers from the main line, depending upon the velocity obtained during that partial diversion to carry a container the rest of the way across the conveyor. This, of course, makes the diversion conveyor-speed dependent, an undesirable characteristic, and because of only a partial positive diversion, will not satisfactorily operate down to zero conveyor speed as required during start up and shut down of the line for maintenance, to clear a problem or for container size change over.
Another container diverter system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,365. This system is somewhat similar to the foregoing in that the positive part of the container diversion occurs over a longer time than the time of passage of a single container. The same has the further advantage of being able to provide positive diversion for the full container diversion distance desired. However, it too is complex and requires considerable additional space to accommodate the mechanism required.


A system and method providing a programmable hardware device within a CPU. The programmable hardware device permits a plurality of instructions to be trapped before they are executed. The instructions that are to be trapped are programmable to provide flexibility during CPU debugging and to ensure that a variety of application programs can be properly executed by the CPU. The system must also provide a means for permitting a trapped instruction to be emulated and/or to be executed serially. Related Applications

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to data processors. More particularly, this invention relates to a system and method for providing programmable hardware instruction traps in a microprocessor.
2. Description of Background Art
When designing a data processor it is important to rigorously test the design before tape-out. Generally, such testing attempts to identify errors in functional characteristics of the data processor. However, due to time limitations it is not always feasible to fully test all functional characteristics of the data processor design before tape-out. Tape-out occurs when the physical database design for manufacturing the parts, e.g., the data processor, is released.
Occasionally, functional errors in the design of the data processor are not discovered until after tape-out. In this circumstance it is expensive to correct the design and produce new data processor parts. Functional errors can also occur because of a flaw in manufacturing that effects certain instructions.
A related limitation occurs with superscalar central processing units (CPUs). Many software application programs are not developed for use in a superscalar environment. When a superscalar CPU executes instructions in such an application program some instructions may not perform in the manner they were designed.
What is needed is a system and method for providing a programmable hardware device within a CPU that permits a plurality of instructions to be trapped before they are executed. The instructions that are to be trapped are programmable to provide flexibility during CPU debugging and to ensure that a variety of application programs can be properly executed by the CPU. The system must also provide a means for permitting a trapped instruction to be emulated and/or to be executed serially.

Programmable instruction trap system and method


Methods and systems for variable polarization wafer inspection are provided. One system includes one or more polarizing components position in one or more paths of light scattered from a wafer and detected by one or more channels of an inspection system. The polarizing component(s) are configured to have detection polarization(s) that are selected from two or more polarization settings for the polarizing component(s).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to methods and systems for variable polarization wafer inspection. Certain embodiments relate to optimizing one or more variable polarizing components for nuisance suppression.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following description and examples are not admitted to be prior an by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Inspection processes are used at various steps during a semiconductor manufacturing process to detect defects on wafers to promote higher yield in the manufacturing process and thus higher profits. Inspection has always been an important part of fabricating semiconductor devices such as ICs. However, as the dimensions of semiconductor devices decrease, inspection becomes even more important to the successful manufacture of acceptable semiconductor devices because smaller defects can cause the devices to fail.
Currently, in dark field wafer inspection tools, polarizing components are implemented in discrete configurations in the detection channels of the tools. Two polarization directions are available: S and P. On side channels, P is defined as the polarization direction perpendicular to the scattering plane (defined by the normal line of the scattering surface and the optical axis of the collection optics), S is defined as the polarization parallel to the scattering plane and perpendicular to the optical axis of the collection optics. On the center channel, there is no well-defined scattering plane, S is defined to be parallel with the S polarization of the illumination, and P is defined to perpendicular to S and the optical axis of center channel collection optics. In this definition, P of all three channels are parallel to one another. It is noted that these definitions are different from the academic definitions of S and P polarization of scattered light and will be used throughout this document. There is also a "none analyzer" that is simply a piece of non-polarizing silica glass.
There are also three discrete polarizations that could be selected for illumination: P, S, and C (circular). So, in total, 9 polarization combinations could be selected for any given combination of an illumination channel and a detection channel on current systems. During inspection recipe setup, polarization combinations are evaluated by comparing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of known defects. The polarization combination that results in the best signal to noise ratio (SNR) is chosen for the inspection recipe.
In practice, it has been shown that polarization plays a critical role in wafer inspection because of the highly polarized nature of light scattered from defects and wafer patterns. On the most difficult wafers, cross polarizations, P-S and S-P, are frequently used in illumination and detection to suppress wafer noise and enhance the SNR of defects.
The discrete polarization configurations used on current inspection systems have two limitations in defect detection. First, when the illumination is set to P polarization, S polarization for detection, in general, will not result in minimum noise from the wafer surface or pattern scattering as shown in experimental data and modeling. This limitation is an inherent result of spatial symmetry in the optical layout of illumination and collection optics, not a result of alignment or component imperfection. Hence, the SNR of defects is not truly optimized as intended.
Second, on some wafers, there are enormous amounts of nuisance defects (also referred to herein as nuisances) coexisting with the defects of interest (DOIs). On those wafers, the nuisance defects are real scattering sources but of no interest from the point of view of semiconductor process control. One example of this kind of nuisance defects is previous layer defects. Multiple types of wafers have shown this kind of issue. In general, different types of defects tend to exhibit different polarization dependencies. One potential solution to distinguish the DOIs from nuisance defects is to use polarization. But, the discrete polarization configurations on current systems significantly limit the capability of differentiating defects.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to develop methods and systems for suppressing nuisance defects in dark field wafer inspection.


This invention is intended to enable performing a vehicle straight-line performance adjustment operation surely in a short time without the need of operator's skill. An actually moving state of a vehicle completed with an alignment adjustment is reproduced after the vehicle is mounted on rollers of a bench tester, and the side force of each of wheels at this time is measured, it is determined whether or not the measured side force is within a preset reference range, it is determined whether or not the side force of the wheel, which has been determined to be out of the reference range, is within the reference range when a toe angle of the wheel is corrected within a preset toe angle correction allowable range, the toe angle is corrected within the correction allowable range when it is determined that the side force falls within the reference range, and the side force is corrected to fall within the reference range, the side force of the each wheel after the toe angle is corrected is obtained, a drift amount of the vehicle is calculated from the obtained side force of the each wheel, and it is determined whether or not the vehicle has a good straight-line performance based on the calculated drift amount.

As a conventional vehicle straight-line performance adjustment method of this type, a method including determining a drift of a vehicle based on whether an input of a load cell that measures the side force is equal to or lower than a specified value or equal to or larger than the specified value, allowing an operator to adjust a balance so as to reduce the drift amount, and measuring the side force again is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H6-331505.
With such a conventional method, however, adjustment and measurement are performed several times repeatedly, so that an accurate adjustment value cannot be indicated to the operator. The adjustment operation, therefore, relies on the operator, with the result that an accurate drift amount cannot be acquired.
A technique for making an alignment adjustment so as to minimize a force in a roller rotation axis direction, measuring a stability with high accuracy, and enabling easily adjusting the straight-line performance of the vehicle without the need for each manufacturer to refer to a target alignment value set for each vehicle type is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H7-5076.
This conventional technique has, however, the following disadvantages. It is necessary to adjust all wheels so as to perform the alignment adjustment. It takes lots of time for an adjustment operation. Each manufacturer fails to refer to the target value set for each vehicle type.
A technique for detecting a moving amount of each abutment body that abuts on a side surface of a vehicle, and making a toe adjustment so that the moving amount is equal to or smaller than a certain value, wherein a vehicle toe adjustment is performed while a position of the abutment member is adjusted so that an abutment pressure of the abutment body is equal to each other on right and left side of the vehicle, is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H9-210863.
This technique has, however, the following disadvantages. The toe adjustment can be made in a free state equal to an actually moving state of the vehicle by abutting right and left abutment bodies on the vehicle with a constant force while moving the right and left abutment bodies. Similarly to the technique described in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H6-331505, therefore, an accurate adjustment value cannot be indicated to an operator. As a result, an adjustment operation relies on the operator, and an accurate drift amount cannot be acquired.
A technical theme of the present invention has been achieved in light of the conventional disadvantages. It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle straight-line performance adjusting method capable of performing an adjustment operation for a vehicle straight-line performance surely in a short time without the need of operator's skill.

Method of adjusting straight ahead traveling capability of vehicle


Methods and systems are provided for a printer controller in a printing system to flexibly define conditions for notification to one or more recipients of intervention states of the printing system. The time delay for transmitting escalated intervention notification message may be dynamically determined in accordance with present operating parameters of the printing system. Other aspects provide that the recipients of such messages and the form of such messages may be dynamically determined in accordance with present operating parameters of the printing system. Policy rules may define the predicate conditions for determining the timeout values for escalation and for determining the message format and recipients.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of printing systems, and in particular, to methods and systems for generating escalated intervention notifications for a printer based on dynamically changing parameters.
2. Statement of the Problem
Printing systems associated with data processing enterprises generally include a localized printer controller within the printing system. The printer controller controls overall operation of the printing system including, for example, host interfacing, page description language interpretation and rasterization, and lower level process control or interface features of the printing engine associated with the printing system. Host interaction may include appropriate adapters for coupling the printing system to one or more host systems utilizing one or more communication media and one or more communication protocols. Print jobs (often referred to as "raw print jobs") are received by the printing system from one or more attached host computer systems. The raw print jobs are generally encoded in the form of a page description language such as PostScript, HP PCL, IBM IPDS ("intelligent printer data stream"), etc. In addition, raw print jobs may be encoded as simple character streams (ASCII or EBCDIC) with no page description formatting associated therewith.
In addition, a printer controller of a printing system may include features to monitor status of the printing system to detect any status that requires operator intervention that is or may soon prevent continued operation of the printing system. For example, if the printing system is running low on toner or ink, operation may be paused until the ink or toner supply is replenished. Out of paper conditions, paper jam conditions, and many other exemplary states of the printing system that require operator intervention may be sensed by operation of the printer controller.
Simple network management protocol ("SNMP") and other device status and control protocols standardize communications between peripheral devices and management systems to permit exchange of notification messages therebetween. For example, when a printer controller of a printing system senses an intervention state of the underlying printing system, an SNMP exchange or other message exchange may notify the management system and/or an appropriate operator of the condition. In addition to SNMP exchanges, other messaging exchanges such as email, text messaging, so called "instant messaging", telephonic messaging, paging and the like have been employed to communicate the need for intervention to management systems and/or operators.
Though not specifically provided for in SNMP or other messaging protocols, some present intervention notification architectures allow for multiple messages to be sent to multiple receivers of a notification message. Such multiple transmissions allow multiple systems and/or operators to be notified of the intervention state. For example, a "key operator" and a "helpdesk representative" in an enterprise may both be notified regarding a particular intervention state of the printing system. Further, some known architectures allow for multiple intervention notification messages to be generated at different times—e.g., automatically escalating the status if a first notification message fails to resolve the problem. As presently practiced, a first notification message (or messages) may be sent when the intervention state is first sensed. If the condition is not addressed within a predetermined period of time, a second message (or a plurality of second messages) is sent to escalate the condition in hopes of clearing the condition to thereby allow continued operation of the printing system.
Though present notification architectures allow for some flexibility in generating and escalating the notification messaging, it remains an ongoing problem to provide still further flexibility in the type, number, timing and other aspects of notification messages, and especially escalated notification messages, generated from a printing system in response to sensing any of a variety of intervention states.

Notification escalation in printing systems using dynamically determined timeout values


The invention relates to a differential accelerometer micromachined in a plane plate, comprising a base and a differential measurement cell which includes a moveable seismic mass and two force sensors that are connected to the mass and to the base. Under the effect of an acceleration along Ox and/or Oy, Ox and Oy being directions orthogonal to the plane of the plate, the seismic mass is capable of undergoing linear displacement along a direction parallel to the acceleration, and has a center of gravity located at the intersection of a plane A1 perpendicular to the plane of the plate and passing through Ox and of a plane A2 perpendicular to the plane of the plate and passing through Oy; a first force sensor comprises, along Ox, two identical detection systems for a differential measurement of the linear displacement along Ox, and associated with each detection system a filtering system connected to the base, and a second force sensor comprises, along Oy, two other identical detection systems for the differential measurement of the linear displacement along Oy, and associated with each detection system a filtering system connected to the base, each filtering system allowing the associated detection system to move along a direction perpendicular to that of its detection without permitting it to move along its detection direction.

The invention relates to a microaccelerometer, that is to say an inertial micromechanical sensor dedicated to the measurement of accelerations, produced by micromachining techniques.
The field of the invention is that of flat monolithic accelerometers. The flat structure allows simple and inexpensive fabrication, especially by chemical etching processes. In addition, the fabrication can be collective.

Multiaxial micromachined differential accelerometer


A method for offloading a video portion of a video call form a cellular network to a WLAN is provided. The method can include a wireless communication device participating in a video call with a remote device over a connection between the wireless communication device and a cellular network. The video call can include a first video stream carried over a first bearer on the cellular network and an audio stream carried over a second bearer on the cellular network. The method can further include the wireless communication device establishing a connection between the wireless communication device and a WLAN; performing a call setup procedure with the remote device to establish a second video stream over the WLAN; terminating the first video stream; and using the second video stream and the audio stream to continue the video call.

Many modern wireless communication devices include cameras enabling the devices to support video calls, which can include both video and audio. These video calls can be established and supported over modern cellular networks, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks, which can support packet switched data at a sufficient rate to support streaming video. However, video calls are relatively data intensive sessions, which can be costly to users when performed over cellular networks, as cellular network operators often impose data caps and/or data charges on subscribers for data usage over cellular networks.
Many wireless local area networks (WLANs) offer free data usage to users. As such, many users prefer to use a WLAN connection to perform data intensive operations, such as video calls when WLAN access is available. However, as WLAN coverage is not universal, many data sessions are established over cellular networks by necessity when a user is not within coverage range of a WLAN to which he or she has access privileges. Some wireless communication devices support offloading of cellular data traffic to a WLAN connection when a device comes within WLAN coverage so as to mitigate cellular data charges. However, offloading a real time session, such as a video call, can be problematic, as using existing techniques to offload a video call to a WLAN can result in a noticeable call interruption and/or call drops.

Offloading a video portion of a video call


A mobile telephone has a display (240) and a rotator input device (250) comprising a rotatable element and capable of generating commands for browsing and selecting objects on the display. It also has a wireless telecommunication interface to a mobile telecommunications network. A processing device is coupled to the display, the rotator input device and the wireless telecommunication interface. A text-handling software application is executable by the processing device. The processing device is configured, in a first operating mode, to provide first user input by way of the rotator input device (250), said first user input including a number sequence representative of a desired telephone number which is to be reached over the mobile telecommunications network, and to use said first user input when establishing a telephone call connection through the wireless telecommunication interface. Moreover, the processing device is configured, in a second operating mode, to provide second user input by way of the rotator input device, said second user input including a character sequence representative of a desired text, and to forward said second user input to the text-handling software application No numeric or alphanumeric character keyboard is involved in neither of the first and second operating modes.

Mobile telephones are becoming smaller and smaller. At some point the keyboard of a mobile telephone, typically a 12-button (alpha-)numeric keyboard commonly known as ITU-T keyboard, will become useless since it becomes too difficult for a user to press keys that are extremely small. Thus, the ITU-T keyboard may become a limiting factor which restricts the design of mobile telephones.
On the other hand, in modern mobile telephones the ITU-T keyboard plays several important roles and acts not only as a dialing keypad for manual entry of telephone numbers to call, but also as an alpha-numeric keyboard for text entry, a game control for arcade games, etc. As regards text entry, each key in the ITU-T keyboard often relates to several characters. A single key may, for instance, relate to the characters "a", "b" and "c". Pressing the key once produces the character "a", pressing the key twice within a short period of time produces the character "b", and pressing the key three times within a short period of time produces the character "c". Pressing the button twice slightly more slowly produces two "a":s. It is rather slow to use a keyboard in such a manner; therefore, various methods for facilitating text entry with an ITU-T keyboard have been developed. An example of such a method, wherein an object is to identify a word entered by a user, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,437 and is generally known as T9.
Mobile telephones often have a graphical user interface. To facilitate operation of the graphical user interface, mobile telephones often have special navigation key(s), in addition to or integrated with the ITU-T keyboard, such as arrow keys or a combined multi-way navigation key. However, such additional navigation keys add on to the total size of the keyboard, thereby further limiting the freedom to design.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,097,964 discloses a mobile telephone 1 that in addition to an ITU-T keyboard 7 has a roller 10, which replaces traditional navigation key(s) and allows the user to operate the user interface by rotating and depressing the roller to issue commands for browsing and selecting objects in the user interface. The ITU-T keyboard 7 is still used for other purposes like manual dialing and text entry.

Mobile telephone having a rotator input device


Solid mesoporous crystalline composition of a pyrophosphate-phosphate of a tetravalent metal, with a high surface area and narrow distribution of the mesopores, having formula (I): EQU M(P.sub.2 O.sub.7).sub.1-z (HPO.sub.4).sub.2z (I). wherein: M is a tetravalent metal and z varies from 0.05 to 0.25.. The process for its production is described together with its uses.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid mesoporous crystalline composition of a pyrophosphate-phosphate of a tetravalent metal, characterized by a high surface area and a narrow distribution of mesopores, the process for its production and its uses.
2. Description of the Background
G. Alberti, S. Allulli, U. Costantino and N. Tomassini, in J. Inorg. Nucl. Chem., 40, 1113 (1978), described the production of lamellar phosphonates of tetravalent metals, with a structure similar to that of zirconium alpha-phosphate [.alpha.-Zr(HPO.sub.4).sub.2.H.sub.2 O], by reactions between phosphonic acids and the salts of tetravalent metals. These lamellar phosphonates can be represented by the general formula M(RPO.sub.3).sub.2, wherein M is a tetravalent metal and R an organic radical. A specific example is benzene zirconium phosphonate whose structure is shown in FIG. 1.
After this basic discovery, an intense research activity was carried out in this field, owing to the considerable applicative potentiality of the compounds obtained and in particular the following scientific patent literature can be mentioned: G. Alberti, U. Costantino and M. L. Luciani, J. Chromatog., 180, 45 (1979); G. Alberti and U. Costantino, J. Mol. Catal., 27, 235 (1984); G. Alberti, U. Costantino, J. Korney and M. L. Luciani, Reactive Polymers, 4, 1 (1985); G. Alberti, U. Costantino and G. Perego, J. Solid State Chem., 63, 455 (1986); EP 10.366; EP 10.857; M. B. Dines and P. M. Di Giacomo, Inorg. Chem. 20, 92 (1981); P. M. Di Giacomo and M. B. Dines, Polyhedron, 1, 61 (1982); M. B. Dines, P. M. Di Giacomo, K. P. Collahan, P. C. Griffith, R. H. Lane and R. E. Cooksey, A.C.S. Series 192, Chap.13, ACS, Washington DC, 1982; M. B. Dines, R. E. Cooksey, P. C. Griffith and R. H. Lane, Inorg. Chem. 22, 1003 (1983); M. B. Dines and P. C. Griffith, Polyhedron 2, 607 (1983); C. Y. Ortiz-Avila and A. Clearfield, Inorg. Chem. 24, 1773 (1985); A. Clearfield, Design of New Materials, Plenum Press, New York (1987), pages 121-134; and A. Clearfield, Chem. Rev. 88, 125 (1988).
EP 10.366 and EP 10.857 describe some compositions of the column or "pillared" type, obtained by reactions between salts of tetravalent metals and diphosphonic acids, with the formula M.sup.IV [R(PO.sub.3).sub.2 ], (wherein M is a tetravalent metal and R is a bivalent organic radical), whose structure is schematically illustrated in FIG. 2. In order to obtain compounds which can be used as molecular sieves, an attempt was made to introduce a certain degree of microporosity between the layers; a proposal was then made to dilute the columns in the interlayer zone, by partially substituting them with very small groups of the type R'PO.sub.3, such as for example phosphite, HPO.sub.3 groups. EP 492/694 describes the preparation of a diphosphonate-phosphite of a tetravalent metal having a high degree of crystallinity and a high degree of porosity which can be attributed to microcavities in the interlayer region induced by the presence of regularly distributed phosphite groups.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,380, as well as Italian Patent applications 95/A000710 and 96A/001106, subsequently disclosed that it is possible to prepare a diphosphonate-phosphite of a tetravalent metal, in crystalline form, under such conditions that the HPO.sub.3 groups, in addition to the formation or non-formation of micropores in the interlayer region, also induce the formation of mesoporosity, which cannot be attributed to the formation of cavities in the interlayer region, characterized by a rather narrow distribution of the pore dimensions, most of which have dimensions within the range of 20-30 .ANG..

Mesoporous crystalline composition with a high surface area of a tetravalent metal which can be used as catalyst