A filter circuit includes an input terminal configured to input an input signal; first to ith blocks which have first to ith resonators as transmission lines having first to ith resonance frequencies; a power divider configured to distribute the input signal to the first to ith blocks; a power combiner configured to combine signals which have passed through the first to ith blocks to obtain a combined signal; and an output terminal configured to output the combined signal, wherein a jth block includes a phase adjustment unit which provides a signal of the jth block with a phase difference within a range of {(180±30)+(360×n)} degrees from a signal of a (j+1)th block, and a resonator having a large amount of group delay has a greater line width than a resonator having a small amount of group delay.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a filter circuit, for example, a band limiting filter circuit provided in a posterior stage of a power amplifier in a transmission unit of a radio communication apparatus.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, a filter circuit is constructed by cascade-connecting resonators (resonance circuits) whose conductor part is made of, for example, superconductor. A superconductor has a limit value in a current per unit area that can flow in a superconducting state. An equivalent circuit of a resonator is made up of an inductor and a capacitor and is also provided with a resistor when an effect of loss is considered. A resonance frequency f0 of a resonator when there is no resistor is given by the following expression. "L" and "C" denote inductance and capacitance of the resonator respectively.f0=(L×C)1/2
In this filter circuit, a pass frequency range and an amount of attenuation of a filtering region can be determined by appropriately determining an inter-resonator coupling coefficient which indicates the amount of coupling between resonators and a value of external Q which indicates an amount of excitation for resonators on the input side and the output side.
In such a filter circuit made up of cascade-connected resonators, a current flows through each resonator, that is, a current of all frequency components flows through each resonator, and therefore power handling capability of each resonator needs to be increased. This results in a problem of increasing the size of the circuit. The specification of U.S. Pat. No. 6,633,208 describes that a highest current passes through a first resonator in a cascade connection type filter circuit, and a multi-wavelength structure is adopted for the first resonator (i.e. line length is set to half wavelength×n (n is an integer equal to or greater than 2)) to disperse the current in the resonator.
On the other hand, as another filter circuit, there is a parallel connection type filter circuit made up of resonators connected in parallel whose conductor part is made of superconductor (see, for example, JP-A 2001-345601 (Kokai) and JP-A 2004-96399 (Kokai)). This parallel connection type filter circuit combines signals which pass through resonators having neighboring resonance frequency so as to have phases opposite to each other and thereby realizes a filter characteristic. This filter circuit distributes input power to the respective resonators, and can thereby increase the power handling capability as a whole, yet reduce power handling capability of each resonator compared to a cascade connection type filter circuit and thereby also reduce the circuit scale. However, there is a demand for a further reduction in the circuit scale.

Filter circuit having plural resonator blocks with a phase adjustment unit


A protective case for electronic equipment is used to dissipate heat of electronic equipment. The protective case contains a body including a through hole defined therein and a metal plate disposed in the through hole, a Nano heat dissipation layer formed on a back surface of the metal plate, such that the electronic equipment retains with a protective case and contacts with the metal plate. The metal plate has an external rim retained in the body. The body also includes a recess defined thereon, and the metal plate adheres with the recess. The protective case also contains a dissipating piece, and a back surface of the dissipating piece connects with a front surface of the metal plate, a front surface of the dissipating piece contacts with the electronic equipment.

A conventional protective case is applied to prevent electronic equipment from scratch, so it contacts with an upper surface and a lower surface of the electronic equipment tightly. However, such a contacting way will stop heat of the electronic equipment from being dissipated. To solve this problem, the protective case is removed from the electronic equipment, thus losing the protective case easily.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Protective case for electronic equipment


A system for cognitive deal pricing may include a memory having stored thereon historical deal information that includes historical deal components and historical deal communication associated therewith for historical deals. The system may also include a processor cooperating with the memory and configured to use machine learning to analyze the historical deal information to determine a predicted client type for each current deal component of a current deal, and generate the deal pricing based upon the predicted client type for each current deal component of the current deal.

The present invention relates to cognitive computing, and more specifically, to a cognitively determining deal pricing and related methods. Information technology (IT) service providers, for example, may compete to win relatively highly valued IT contracts, to deliver IT services to clients. In a typical process, a client submits a request for proposal (RFP). Providers then prepare a solution, price that solution, and then typically negotiate with the client trying to convince them to accept their solution over the competitors.
Pricing IT service deals may be considered a relatively complex problem considering the client's objectives for each service within a contract is different. There may be different objectives that the client wants to achieve for different solution components of the deal. For some solution components, a client may be looking for innovation partners, to cut costs, etc.

International Business Machines Corporation


An object of the present invention is to suppress the noise width of a reference cell during measurement and the base line fluctuation. The present invention provides a method for measuring a change in surface plasmon resonance, which comprises: using a surface plasmon resonance measurement device comprising a flow channel system having a cell formed on a metal film and a light-detecting means for detecting the state of surface plasmon resonance by measuring the intensity of a light beam totally reflected on the meal film; and exchanging the liquid contained in the above flow channel system, wherein the above method is characterized in that a change in surface plasmon resonance is measured in a state where the flow of the liquid has been stopped, after the liquid contained in the above flow channel system has been exchanged.

Recently, a large number of measurements using intermolecular interactions such as immune responses are being carried out in clinical tests, etc. However, since conventional methods require complicated operations or labeling substances, several techniques are used that are capable of detecting the change in the binding amount of a test substance with high sensitivity without using such labeling substances. Examples of such a technique may include a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) measurement technique, a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) measurement technique, and a measurement technique of using functional surfaces ranging from gold colloid particles to ultra-fine particles. The SPR measurement technique is a method of measuring changes in the refractive index near an organic functional film attached to the metal film of a chip by measuring a peak shift in the wavelength of reflected light, or changes in amounts of reflected light in a certain wavelength, so as to detect adsorption and desorption occurring near the surface. The QCM measurement technique is a technique of detecting adsorbed or desorbed mass at the ng level, using a change in frequency of a crystal due to adsorption or desorption of a substance on gold electrodes of a quartz crystal (device). In addition, the ultra-fine particle surface (nm level) of gold is functionalized, and physiologically active substances are immobilized thereon. Thus, a reaction to recognize specificity among physiologically active substances is carried out, thereby detecting a substance associated with a living organism from sedimentation of gold fine particles or sequences.
In all of the above-described techniques, the surface where a physiologically active substance is immobilized is important. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR), which is most commonly used in this technical field, will be described below as an example.
A commonly used measurement chip comprises a transparent substrate (e.g., glass), an evaporated metal film, and a thin film having thereon a functional group capable of immobilizing a physiologically active substance. The measurement chip immobilizes the physiologically active substance on the metal surface via the functional group. A specific binding reaction between the physiological active substance and a test substance is measured, so as to analyze an interaction between biomolecules. An example of a surface plasmon resonance measurement device is the device described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 2001-330560.
When a specific binding reaction between a physiologically active substance and a test substance is measured, the binding reaction is generally measured by: connecting in series a reference cell, to which a physiologically active substance interacting with a test substance does not bind, with a detection cell, to which a physiologically active substance interacting with a test substance binds; placing the connected cells in a flow channel system; and feeding a liquid through the reference cell and the detection cell, so as to carry out the measurement of the binding reaction. During the measurement, the liquid contained in the above flow channel system is exchanged from a reference liquid containing no test substance to be measured to a sample liquid containing a test substance to be measured, so as to cause the binding reaction between the physiologically active substance and the test substance to be initiated, and to measure a change in signals due to a lapse of time. However, this measurement method is problematic in terms of the noise width of the change in signals of the reference cell during measurement and in terms of base line fluctuation. Thus, it has been difficult to obtain binding detection data with high reliability.

Method for measuring surface plasmon resonance


Some embodiments herein provide compositions and methods for expressing secreted and cell-surface-bound polypeptides in a single cell. In some embodiments, secreted and cell-surface polypeptide are produced from a single polynucleotide. The polynucleotide can comprise a sequence (or sequence encoding a polypeptide) that mediates separation of a membrane anchor from the polypeptide. In some embodiments, a desired ratio of secreted to surface-bound polypeptide is obtained by selecting a sequence that mediates a desired level of separation of the membrane anchor from the polypeptide.

2A elements are "self-cleaving" peptides that are derived from viruses 2A elements can be involved in the processing and expression of polyproteins. Without being bound by any particular theory, the presence of the 2A element in the mRNA can cause the translating ribosome to undergo an intra-ribosomal, translational termination-and-restart event during the synthesis of the nascent polypeptide chains. The peptide bond between the first and second polypeptide deriving from the same mRNA is not formed during translation. As a result, when these two polypeptides are liberated from the ribosome, they appear as two separate proteins. Because the apparent effect is as if a single polypeptide had been cleaved by an enzyme post-translationally into two separate polypeptides, for consistency with their historic description, 2A elements may be referred to herein as exemplary "self-cleaving" peptides or as "cleavage sites," though it is understood that 2A peptides can mediate a ribosomal stop-and-restart event, which may be referred to as a "StopGo" action of the 2A element
Several 2A elements appear to have near 100% cleavage efficiency in their native contexts, but they can be made to cleave at lower efficiencies when they are mutated at particular amino acid residues or introduced into non-native sequences.
Without being bound by any particular theory, surface and secreted soluble proteins and polypeptides of eukaryotic cells can be processed via the secretory pathway. The secretory pathway is described in detail in Alberts et al., Molecular Biology of the Cell, 4th Edition, New York, Garland Science (2002), which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Typically, in the cytosol of a cell, ribosomes can assemble on polynucleotides that encode polypeptides, for example mRNAs. Ribosomes can mediate the translation of the polynucleotides to produce the encoded polypeptides. The presence of a signal sequence on the polypeptide can mediate the translocation of the polypeptide to the cell's endoplasmic reticulum. The translocation to the endoplasmic reticulum can be co-translational, for example if the signal sequence is located on an N-terminal portion of the polypeptide. Alternatively, the translocation to the endoplasmic reticulum can be post-translational. Thus, while signal sequences are frequently located on N terminal portions of polypeptides, they can also be located internally, or even on a C terminal portion of the polypeptide, and still mediate translocation to the endoplasmic reticulum. Additionally, signal "patches," can be assembled by particular three-dimensional folding of a polypeptide, and can also mediate translocation to the endoplasmic reticulum. A signal sequence can mediate the polypeptide's entry into the endoplasmic reticulum via one of a plurality of pore in the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. In the absence of an anchor sequence, the entire polypeptide can pass through the pore, and into the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum. If an anchor sequence is present on the protein or polypeptide, translocation into the endoplasmic reticulum can stop upon the entry of the anchor sequence into the pore, before the entire polypeptide is transported into the endoplasmic reticulum. Accordingly, the protein can remain embedded in the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum. Luminal and membrane-bound polypeptides in the endoplasmic reticulum can subsequently be transported to the cell's golgi apparatus. Inside the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum and/or the golgi, the polypeptide, or portions thereof can undergo additional modifications, for example folding, cleavage, and/or glycosylation. From the golgi apparatus, luminal and membrane-bound polypeptides can be transported to the cell membrane, and can be membrane-bound or secreted. Transport between the endoplasmic reticulum, golgi, and cell membrane can be mediated by membrane vesicles. Upon arrival at the cell membrane, membrane vesicles can fuse with the cell membrane. Luminal surfaces of endoplasmic reticulum membrane typically correspond to extracellular surfaces of cell membrane, while cytosolic surfaces of endoplasmic reticulum typically correspond to cytosolic surface of cell membrane. Accordingly, a portion of a transmembrane protein that faces the ER lumen can subsequently face the extracellular environment, and a portion that faces the cytosol can continue to face the cytosol. Cleavage of a luminal portion of a protein or polypeptide from a membrane-bound portion of the polypeptide in the endoplasmic reticulum, golgi, in a membrane vesicle, and/or at the cell surface can allow the cleaved portion to be in the lumen, and/or subsequently secreted from the cell.
B cells are responsible for the production of antibodies in response to foreign antigens. In nature, B cells can produce surface immunoglobulin and secreted antibody from the same immunoglobulin gene via alternative splicing of the pre-messenger RNA.
B cells begin their life in the bone marrow as descendants of the more primitive common hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. As these cells develop into B cells, they undergo sequential RAG1/2-mediated DNA rearrangement of the heavy and light chain immunoglobulin gene loci in a process called V(D)J rearrangement. Cells that successfully complete this process and assemble a functional B cell receptor (BCR) of the IgM isotype on their surface are able to leave the bone marrow to continue further development in the peripheral lymphoid compartments. The generation of the IgM BCR can be central to B cell development and function, including normal development of B cells, and directing B cell development. In transgenic animals, the provision of a pre-rearranged IgM heavy chain and light chain transgene shuts down the rearrangement of endogenous heavy and light chain genes (allelic exclusion), and guides the ordered development of functional B cells with specificity defined by the transgene.
Mature B cells patrol the body in the general and lymphatic circulations, using their BCRs as antigen sensors. When a cognate antigen engages the BCR, the B cell becomes activated and enters into a germinal center reaction in the lymph node or spleen in a dance of mutual activation with T cells; this process leads to further development into memory B cells or differentiation into antibody-producing plasma cells. The memory B cells will provide a more rapid and higher quality antibody response in the future when the same antigens are encountered again. The plasma cells produce antibodies against the inciting antigens, which leads to their eventual clearance from the body. As B cells differentiate into plasma cells, they switch from producing the membrane-bound IgM BCR to making a soluble, secreted antibody. The genomic machinery for effecting the switch is complex and involves alternative-splicing of the heavy-chain pre-mRNA. The switch replaces the hydrophobic amino acids that form the trans-membrane anchor with a hydrophilic tail that enables the secretion of the BCR as free antibody. The antibody retains the same specificity and isotype as the BCR.

Expression of secreted and cell-surface polypeptides


Pre-straining and thermal recrystallization processes for maximizing formability in SPF sheet alloys of aluminum, magnesium, iron and titanium can be modified to form sheet products with roughened or textured surfaces for low-slip applications or coating adherence or decorative applications. By determination of suitable pre-strain levels and recrystallization/forming temperatures for s sheet metal stock, relatively large grained microstructures are formed in the sheet that yield useful surface texture during forming.

This invention pertains to the processing of certain metal alloys to produce an orange peel-like textured surface. More specifically, this invention pertains to the controlled cold working of a superplastic-formable (SPF) metal alloy sheet so as to yield a roughened textured surface in at least a portion of the sheet upon stretch forming at a suitable elevated temperature and strain rate.
There are families of metal alloy compositions that when subjected to suitable thermomechanical processing display extraordinary elongation or plastic deformation properties. They are then said to have superplastic forming properties (or to be superplastically formable, either phrase sometimes abbreviated as SPF). Some aluminum, iron, magnesium and titanium compositions have such properties. Often SPF materials have a metallurgical microstructure characterized by a matrix phase of the major constituent such as aluminum, or of a solid solution of the major phase and minor alloying elements, and very finely divided dispersed phase of intermetallic material. Materials with such a microstructure are sometimes called pseudo-single phase materials because of the very small dispersed phase. In sheet form, such materials can be cold rolled to reduce thickness and increase length while breaking up the existing grains and storing the work energy in the microstructure of the sheet. Then, upon heating to a suitable temperature, the strain is relieved by recrystallization to yield a very fine grain microstructure susceptible to forming operations at a suitable temperature to produce complex shapes from the sheet in which portions have experienced extraordinary elongation and deformation.
Certain SPF titanium alloy sheet compositions (e.g., Ti-6% Al-4% V alloys) have probably been the first materials to be used commercially. They have been used in the aerospace industry because of their very favorable strength-to-weight ratio. These sheet materials are formed at suitable elevated temperatures in the range of, for example, 800xc2x0 C. to 900xc2x0 C. into complicated one-piece shapes that often eliminate the previous need to form several smaller pieces and join them together. The sheets experience strain rates of 10xe2x88x924 to 10xe2x88x923 and elongation of several hundred percent. The need of the aerospace industry for strong lightweight parts has permitted the use of expensive alloys and relatively slow manufacturing processes. At present, however, SPF practices with titanium alloys have been too expensive for the lower cost requirements of the automobile industry.
Work has begun to adapt some aluminum alloys to lower-cost SPF processes and part manufacture. For example, AA 5083 has been formed by hot rolling of a cast ingot to a strip and subsequent severe cold rolling of the strip to a sheet material that is a precursor for SPF part manufacture. AA5083 have typical compositions, in weight, of about 4% to 5% magnesium, 0.4% to 1% manganese, 0.05% to 0.25% chromium, about 0.1% copper, and the balance aluminum. The cold-rolled sheets are heated to a suitable temperature of, e.g., about 500xc2x0 C. where recrystallization to a fine grain (about 10 m) microstructure quickly occurs and the sheet is warm enough to be formed with relatively high elongation for such alloys. The heated sheet is placed adjacent a suitable forming tool, secured at the edges and stretched against and into compliance with the forming tool using the pressure of a gas such as air, nitrogen or argon.
SPF practices for the stretch forming of aluminum alloys such as AA5083 are illustrated in patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,572 Krajewski, xe2x80x9cLubrication System for Hot Forming;xe2x80x9d U.S. Pat. No. 5,974,847 Saunders et al, xe2x80x9cSuperplastic Forming Process;xe2x80x9d and U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,583 Schroth, xe2x80x9cSeal Bead for Superplastic Forming of Aluminum Sheet,xe2x80x9d each assigned to the assignee of this invention. As suggested in these patents, the goal in developing SPF practices for the manufacture of aluminum sheet products on a commercial scale has been to make tear-free articles with unmarred surfaces. But it would also be useful to form sheet metal products with SPF-like capabilities that have textured, or uniformly roughened surfaces, in at least a portion of the article. In other words, there are applications for SPF-type formed parts that have an orange peel-like surface of decorative or anti-skid properties or the like.
This invention provides a method of forming a SPF-type metal alloy sheet of specified thickness so that at least a portion of the resulting product has a surface with a visible uniform rough texture like the skin of an orange. The invention is applicable to metal alloys that can be cold worked to a sheet stock precursor having a suitable strained microstructure that will recrystallize to a fine-grained microstructure with high elongation characteristics upon heating to a recrystallization (and forming) temperature. The practice of the invention involves predetermining the amount of cold work that is to be applied to the precursor sheet stock so that, upon heating to a superplastic-forming temperature for the material and subsequent stretch forming, the deformation of the sheet results in a desired shape and the textured surface. For applications such as the manufacture of automobile body panels, SPF aluminum alloys are preferred because of their combination of low weight, high strength and low cost.
The preparation of a superplastic-formable, aluminum alloy sheet stock usually begins with a casting of a suitable composition such as AA5083. The cast material is then reduced in thickness by hot rolling to a strip that may, for example, have a thickness in the range of 20 to 40 millimeters depending somewhat on the goal for the final thickness of the sheet. The hot rolled strip is then cold rolled, usually in stages with possible interposed anneals, to a final thickness in the range of about one to three or four millimeters. The result of overall thermomechanical processing is typically a coil of smooth surface aluminum sheet stock, the microstructure of which has been severely strained. This material is then ready to be heated to 500xc2x0 C. or so for stretch forming as described above. The effect of the heating is to promote recrystallization of the severely worked microstructure to a very fine grained material susceptible to appreciable elongation during deformation by stretching against the forming tool.
In conventional superplastic forming of aluminum sheet, the goal is to obtain a sheet stock of desired thickness that ends up with a suitably fine grained microstructure to sustain deformation and elongation at the various critical spots on the sheet to form the desired part with at least one smooth surface and without body tears, ruptures, undue thinning and the like. In order to assure suitable elongation for any SPF job, the current sheet stock rolling practice is to maximize the cold rolling strain imposed on the sheet stock consistent with the specified thickness of the sheet stock. Depending upon the shape of the part to be formed, the sheet stock may then have sufficient or excess elongation (i.e., formability) for the task.
In accordance with this invention, a sheet product is formed from a stock material having marginally less formability than SPF starting material. The shape of the product will not require the extensive deformation obtained in an SPF process, but the product, upon heating to a suitable elevated temperature and stretch forming, will have a generally uniformly roughened surface portion. The amount of cold rolling strain imposed on the sheet is carefully determined to be less than that required for optimum SPF deformation but sufficient to make the part and to yield the textured surface. In other words, the creation of the textured surface is the result of a cold working and thermal recrystallization strategy that produces a defective part as far as SPF processing is concerned, i.e., a part with a roughened surface. Manufactured sheet metal parts with rough surfaces have utility for decorative purposes, low slip applications, coating adhesion, controlled heat transfer and the like.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from a detailed description of preferred embodiments which follows.

Method for making sheet metal components with textured surfaces


An amplifier circuit has a simple circuit architecture that enables a push-pull output function while exhibiting low power consumption. The amplifier circuit includes a first transconductance amplifier to which an output of a two-input differential amplifier and a first bias voltage are input. An output of the first transconductance amplifier is connected to another input and an output of a second transconductance amplifier, which has one input thereof connected to an output of the first transconductance amplifier and a gate of a first output transistor. The output of the differential amplifier is connected to a gate of a second output transistor, which has the polarity opposite to the polarity of the first output transistor. Drains of the first and the second output transistors are connected to each other thus constituting a push-pull output.

The present invention relates to an amplifier circuit, and more particularly, to an amplifier circuit capable of performing a push-pull output and having a reduced power consumption, which is applied to a semiconductor integrated circuit for amplifying signals and performing impedance conversion.
An example of a conventional amplifier circuit capable of performing a push-pull output is shown in FIG. 6 and described in Japanese Patent Publication 2688477. In this amplifier, a PMOS transistor (QPf) and an NMOS transistor (Qnf) which adopt a complementary architecture are connected in a push-pull type configuration as final components of a class AB output stage or a class B output stage, wherein nodes thereof constitute output terminals (OUT) of the stage. Two transconductance amplifier circuits (Tp, Tn) have respective output terminals thereof connected to gate terminals of the PMOS transistor (Qpf) and the NMOS transistor (Qnf), have respective inverted input terminals thereof connected to each other thus forming an input (IN) of the amplifier, and have respective non-inverted input terminals thereof connected to the output terminals (OUT) through respective feedback systems (Fp, Fn).
In this example, although it is possible to have an advantage that the push-pull output operation can be surely performed, since the feedback is applied to the gate of the MOS transistor at the output stage from the output through the feedback systems and the transconductance amplifier, there exist characteristics that when the amplifier is applied to the operational amplifier, the stability cannot be ensured and the frequency characteristics deteriorate.
A second example of a conventional differential amplifier is shown in FIG. 7 and described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 1996-222972. The amplifier includes a differential input stage (38), an output stage (40) and a in-phase feedback stabilizing circuit (42). The differential input stage (38) is constructed by respectively connecting transistors (Q3, Q4) as loads to two transistors (Q1, Q2) which constitute amplifying elements thereof. The output stage (40) is constituted of a transistor (Q10) which inputs an output of one transistor (Q1) of the differential input stage (38), a transistor (Q11) which is connected to the transistor (Q10) as a load, a transistor (Q12) which constitutes a current mirror circuit together with the transistor (Q11) and a transistor (Q13) which inputs an output of another transistor (Q2) of the differential input stage, wherein the transistor (Q12) and the transistor (Q13) constitute a push-pull output circuit and an output is taken out from a node thereof. Further, the in-phase feedback stabilizing circuit (42) is constituted of a transistor (Q8) which inputs an output of one transistor (Q1) of the differential input stage, a transistor (Q9) which inputs an output of another transistor (Q2) of the differential input stage, transistors (Q6, Q7) which are connected to these transistors (Q8, Q9) as common loads so as to constitute a current mirror circuit, and a transistor Q5 which is connected to the transistor (Q6) as a load and constitutes a current mirror circuit together with the transistors (Q3, Q4) which constitute loads of the differential input stage.
In this example, although the stability of the push-pull output circuit which constitutes the output stage can be ensured, since one transistor (Q12) which constitutes the output stage forms the current mirror circuit together with the transistor (Q11) and hence, there exists the characteristic that an output current is restricted by a bias current of the transistor (Q11).
When it is necessary to use signal outputs of the operational amplifier in a full voltage range between the first power source and the second power source or when it is necessary to increase an output current such that the operational amplifier can cope with a light load, the architecture of the output stage of the operational amplifier uses transistors having a complementary structure such as the PMOS transistor and the NMOS transistor and the push-pull output which can perform a class AB operation or a class B operation using the drain (collector in bipolar operation) output is performed and hence, it is possible to reduce the consumption of current of the operational amplifier in the still operation whereby a reduction of the power consumption can be realized.
However, when the push-pull output is adopted, to provide a stable operational amplifier in which an output voltage does not receive the influence of the fluctuation of output voltage and the fluctuation of temperature or the like, there has been a drawback that the bias control method of gates of the PMOS transistor and the NMOS transistor (bases in bipolar transistors) used in an output stage is difficult and hence, the circuit architecture of the output stage of the operational amplifier becomes complicated whereby current consumption is increased.
In view of the above, it would be desirable to provide an amplifier circuit which has a simple circuit architecture and is capable of performing a push-pull output function to obtain low power consumption.

Fuji Electric Device Technology Co., Ltd.


In an accessory shoe member placed on top of a base member, a pair of engagement portions is formed in a first direction perpendicular to an attachment direction of an external accessory device, and a plurality of fastening holes is formed side by side in the first direction. A plurality of fastening members is inserted into the plurality of fastening holes with the accessory shoe member placed on top of the base member, thereby fastening the base member and the accessory shoe member to an imaging apparatus. In the accessory shoe member, a joining portion joining the pair of engagement portions is formed. The accessory shoe member is formed by bending a plate metal material into a loop shape so that a joint is located between the plurality of fastening holes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an imaging apparatus including an accessory shoe to which an external accessory device can be attached.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is an imaging apparatus including an accessory shoe to which an external accessory device such as a flash unit for illuminating an object is attached, as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,623,773.
In such an accessory shoe, when a connection portion provided in an external accessory device is pressed against a pair of engagement portions formed in the direction perpendicular to the attachment direction of the external accessory device, the external accessory device is fixed to the accessory shoe.
In the accessory shoe discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,623,773, if a force to tilt the front side of an upper portion of an attached external accessory device backward (force F2 in FIG. 8) is applied to the external accessory device, a stress concentrates on a pair of engagement portions of an accessory shoe member. More specifically, a large stress is generated on the front side of the pair of engagement portions in the attachment direction of the external accessory device. Particularly, an attached external accessory device having the larger size in the height direction is subjected to the larger stress on the front side of the pair of engagement portions due to the principle of the leverage.
A large stress cannot be received by the accessory shoe member (shoe plate 18) in the shape discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,623,773. This may result in deformation of the accessory shoe member.


A toolholder tightening fixture for selectively engaging a V-flange toolholder is provided. The fixture comprises a ball lock collar movably coupled relative to a housing and includes an inner surface having a recess formed therein. A lock housing is fixedly coupled with the fixture and is positioned within the ball lock collar. The lock housing includes at least one radial bore and is configured for receiving the toolholder. A lock ball is positioned within the radial bore of the lock housing. The ball lock collar is moved to an unlocked position when the lock ball is positioned in the recess in the ball lock collar to allow the toolholder to be inserted and removed from the lock housing. The ball lock collar is moved to a locked position when the lock ball is removed from the recess and placed in engagement with the toolholder.

CNC Machine Tools utilize V-Flange toolholders which operate as a quick change interface between a machine tool spindle and a cutting tool. In order to manufacture a component/part using a CNC machine tool, one or more cutting tools are required to produce the component/part geometry. V-Flange toolholders provide a mounting location for the cutting tools and a taper shank interface to the spindle of the cutting machine. Variations of V-Flange holders are in use with current CNC machine tools, such specifications are, but not limited to, CAT, BT, HSK, NMTB, etc.
Several issues may arise with the day-to-day handling and setup of tools and toolholders. For example, toolholders have precision taper shank interfaces that need protection from damage and deformation that can impede the tool's performance and ultimately damage the machine tool spindle. While setting tools, it's imperative that the V-Flange toolholder be protected from damage. In addition, assembling the cutting tool to the V-Flange toolholder can be dangerous because the cutting tools have very sharp cutting edges. Therefore, the V-Flange toolholder needs to be securely fastened to a fixture surface to give the operator use of both hands for tool assembly, adjustment, and tightening. Further, most CNC machine tools require the use of a retention/pull stud to retain the V-Flange toolholder in the machine spindle. This retention stud is a separate component and therefore requires assembly to the V-Flange toolholder. This is a difficult task without immobilizing the V-flange toolholder using a fixture. Most components/parts that are produced using a CNC machine tool require the setup of many different cutting tools and therefore the speed of the operator to efficiently and safely handle and mount the cutting tools to the V-flange toolholder is of utmost importance.
Several types of holding fixtures for V-Flange toolholders currently exist on the market today. However, they lack extreme ease of use, safety, and flexibility. Some of the holding fixtures only allow for the tightening of cutting tools and have no provision for the tightening of the retention stud. Other holding fixtures merely have a place to hold the V-Flange toolholder, but do not clamp or safely retain the V-Flange toolholder in the fixture. All fixtures that currently exist lack the ability for the operator to totally handle all issues set forth above with ease, safety, and speed.
What is needed is a device or fixture that is used to hold and manipulate a V-Flange cutting toolholder with ease, safety, and speed. The present invention meets these needs as well as other needs.

Computerized numeric control toolholder tightening fixture


A unitary air conditioning system comprises an outdoor unit including a compressor for compressing a refrigerant, an outdoor heat exchanger for heat exchange of the refrigerant and an expander connected to the outdoor heat exchanger, for expanding the refrigerant; a duct installed inside a zone of a building; a central blower unit having a heat exchanger connected to the outdoor unit through a first refrigerant pipe and a blower for supplying the air heat-exchanged by the heat exchanger to the duct; and an individual blower unit including a heat exchanger connected to the outdoor unit through a second refrigerant pipe and a fan for sending the air heat-exchanged by the heat exchanger and disposed in a zone in the building, for individually cooling or heating the zone. Accordingly, cooling or heating operation is performed on each zone of the building, and simultaneously, additional individual heating or cooling operation can be performed on a specific space, so that a cost can be reduced, and cooling or heating in the building can be efficiently performed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioning system, and particularly, to an air conditioning system in which a central heating and cooling system is combined with an individual heating and cooling system.
2. Description of the Background Art
In general, a unitary air conditioning system is a kind of central heating and cooling system in which cool air or warm air is made by using a heating and cooling device provided in a factory, an office, a hotel, a house or the like, and supplied to each zone through a pipe or a duct provided in a building.
In the unitary air conditioning system, to independently supply the cool or warm air to individual zones by distinguishing a zone requiring cooling or heating and a zone which does not so, a zone controller for distributing the cool or warm air is installed on a duct, or a plurality of heating and cooling devices are individually installed correspondingly to a plurality of zones.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional unitary air conditioning system includes an outdoor unit 1 fixedly installed outside a building (a two-story building in the drawing); a supply duct 3 installed inside each zone (Z1) and (Z2) in the building, for distributing the cool or warm air to the zones (Z1) and (Z2); a return duct 4 for returning the cool or warm air in each zone (Z1) and (Z2); a central blower unit 2 connected with the outdoor unit 1 by refrigerant pipes, for sending cool or warm air to the supply duct 3; and a zone controller 5 installed between the central blower unit 2 and the supply duct 3 and between the central blower unit 2 and the return duct 4, for controlling a supply and a return of the air to and from the zones (Z1) and (Z2).
The outdoor unit 1 includes a compressor 1a for compressing refrigerant; a first heat exchanger 1b connected to the compressor 1a by refrigerant pipes, for heat exchange between refrigerant and ambient air; an expander 1c for expanding volume of refrigerant and reducing pressure of refrigerant; a four way valve 1d disposed adjacent to the compressor 1a, for circulating a compressed refrigerant discharged from the compressor 1a according to a heating cycle or a cooling cycle; and an accumulator 1e disposed in the vicinity of a refrigerant inlet of the compressor 1a, for filtering a liquefied refrigerant.
The central blower unit 2 includes a second heat exchanger 2a connected to the compressor 1a and the expander 1c by refrigerant pipes, respectively; and a supply fan (not shown) disposed adjacent to the second heat exchanger 2a, for supplying the cool or warm air to the supply duct 3.
A plurality of discharge openings 3a are formed at the supply duct 3 to supply the cool or warm air to a zone requiring cooling or heating, and a plurality of suction openings 4a through which the air of each zone is sucked are formed at the return duct 4.
The zone controller 5 is composed of valves 5a, 5b, 5c and 5d for selectively supplying the cool or warm air to each zone (Z1) and (Z2), wherein the zone controller 5 is installed between the supply duct 3 and the return duct 4 arranged in the corresponding zone (Z1) and (Z2). By the zone controller 5, the cool or warm air is distributed thus to be supplied to each zone (Z1) and (Z2), or be selectively supplied to only one of the zones (Z1) and (Z2).
The conventional air conditioning system having such a structure is operated as follows.
First, in case that a load detected in each zone (Z1) and (Z2) is greater than a preset value, the cool or warm air is simultaneously supplied through the supply duct 3 of each zone (Z1) and (Z2). On the other side, in case that a load of just one of the zones (Z1) and (Z2) is greater than a preset value, the cool or warm air is supplied through the supply duct 3 of the corresponding zone, which requires cooling or heating, by operation of the zone controller 5.
For example, during the cooling operation, a refrigerant compressed by the compressor 1a of the outdoor unit 1 is condensed in the first heat exchanger 1b of the outdoor unit 1, and the condensed refrigerant passes through the expander 1c and then passes through the second heat exchanger 2a of the central blower unit 2, thereby exchanging its heat with the air introduced through the return duct 4. The air cooled in such a manner moves to the supply duct 3 by a supply fan (not shown).
At this time, the zone controller 5 is operated according to a load of each corresponding zone (Z1) and (Z2), thereby cooling the zone that requires cooling.
Meanwhile, during the heating operation, a flow of the refrigerant is converted by operation of the four way valve 1d, and a heating cycle is carried out as a reverse cycle of the cooling cycle.
However, the conventional air conditioning system constructed and operated as described above has following problems.
First, a zone controller for controlling a return and supply of air should be additionally installed when the cool or warm air is to be more intensively supplied to a zone having high loads, such as a kitchen, a sun room, an exercise room or the like in the building. However, operations for an additional installation of the duct and the zone controller are complicated.
Also, to independently correspond to a load of each zone, a plurality of outdoor units and a plurality of central blower units may be installed corresponding to the number of zones. However, it may cause an increase in cost, which is inefficient.


A method for melt-processing a polymer of a monovinyl aromatic compound, such as styrene, is disclosed. The method may include heating a polymer of a monovinyl aromatic compound volumetrically with microwave energy, wherein the polymer of a monovinyl aromatic compound includes: a discontinuous rubber phase; and a continuous poly(monovinyl aromatic) phase comprising up to 49 weight percent of at least one of an acrylate comonomer and a vinyl cyanide comonomer.

1. Field of the Disclosure
Embodiments disclosed herein relate generally to the melt processing of polymers of monovinyl aromatic compounds and rubber modified polymers of monovinyl aromatic compounds. In a more specific aspect, embodiments disclosed herein relate to the melt processing of microwave-heatable high impact polystyrene compositions.
2. Background
Polystyrene is one of the largest volume thermoplastic resins in commercial production today. Unmodified polystyrene is well suited to applications where its brittleness is acceptable. Engineering plastics have been used in applications where impact resistance is required, but such polymers are often expensive or have properties other than impact resistance that make them less than optimum selections. Thus, styrene-based copolymers, and particularly polystyrene resins that are modified with rubber particles, have been investigated for use in applications requiring less brittleness. The modification of polystyrene to reduce brittleness is often referred to increasing its impact properties and thus the modified polystyrene is said to have higher impact.
These high-impact polystyrene resins, commonly referred to by the acronym HIPS, are known to be useful in the art of preparing articles with polymers wherein the application for the articles requires less brittleness than unmodified polystyrene. For example, U.S. Defensive Publication T59,011 to Smith discloses that a high impact resin can be prepared by blending from 15 to 50 parts of an impact modifier with from 85 to 50 parts of a clear crystal polystyrene. Such materials are disclosed to be useful for packaging applications.
Another method of making HIPS is to first dissolve a rubber in styrene monomer and then polymerize the monomer. Such polymers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,569,941 to Sosa, et al. Therein, it is disclosed that styrene monomer containing a dissolved polybutadiene rubber is flowed into an elongated upflow stirred reactor containing three reaction zones, wherein the styrene monomer is polymerized to form a HIPS.
In HIPS, desirably the polystyrene is a continuous phase including a discontinuous phase of rubber particles. The size and distribution of the rubber particles in the continuous polystyrene phase can affect the properties of the HIPS. In blends of polystyrene with other materials, the distribution of the non-continuous phase in the continuous polystyrene phase is often similarly important.
Excessive heat history introduced to a HIPS composition may result in additional crosslinking of the rubber phase. Heat history may be introduced, for example, through devolatilization of the HIPS during manufacture, compounding, extrusion, or other processing of the HIPS at elevated temperatures. The resulting crosslinking of the discontinuous rubber phase may result in embrittlement of the rubber and a corresponding decrease in the impact strength of the polymer.
JP 2001-191461 discloses a rubber modified styrenic polymer obtained by polymerizing a monomer mixture based on a styrenic monomer and a methacrylic ester monomer in the presence of a rubbery elastomer. The composition may be used to prepare heat-shrinkable multilayer plastic films having good transparency and impact resistance. U.S. Pat. No. 4,782,127, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses the use of an ester of acrylic acid, such as n-butyl acrylate, to improve melt flow properties of polystyrene.
As disclosed in PCT Application Nos. PCT/US2007/012821, PCT/US2007/012822, and PCT/US2007/012817, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/932,790, each of which are incorporated herein by reference, microwave heating of polymers may reduce cycle times, volumetric heating with microwaves may eliminate the need for "surface" or "contact" heating, and therefore may eliminate the potentially deleterious effects of high polymer surface temperatures, such as discoloration, surface defects, and gloss gradients, among others. Volumetric heating may also eliminate the undesirable temperature gradient through a sheet thickness, such as may typically result from radiant heating of a polystyrene sheet during a thermoforming process.
Unfortunately, polystyrene and high impact polystyrene are not receptive to microwave heating, as they do not have any functional groups that will absorb microwave energy (i.e., polystyrene is transparent to microwaves). Microwave-receptive additives, such as a zeolite or water, may be used to make a polystyrene matrix susceptible to microwaves; however, this requires an additional compounding step, adding undesired heat history to the rubber phase, and these compounds may affect the clarity and mechanical properties of the HIPS. These compounding additives may be expensive, and the compounding of the same additionally increases the cost of the resulting polystyrene.
Accordingly, there exists a need for high impact polystyrenes that may be processed using microwave heating apparatus.

Microwave heatable monovinyl aromatic polymers


A quick seal system is used to seal between an aircraft frame and a transparency, such as a canopy, a windshield, or a window. The system includes a fairing seal and a pressure seal. The fairing seal seals between the outer surface of the canopy and the fairing, while the pressure seal seals between the inner surface of the canopy and the aircraft frame. The pressure seal is an elongated strip of material, having an area of increased thickness to provide an increase sealing pressure. The fairing seal is also an elongated strip of material. The fairing seal is generally triangular, having a top surface, an inner surface, and an outer surface. The inner surface abuts the outer surface of the canopy. A pair of extensions form a longitudinal slot on the outer surface of the fairing seal. The upper edge of the fairing is secured in the slot with an adhesive. If desired, the fairing seal and the adhesive may be electrically conductive.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to sealing systems. In particular, the invention relates to sealing systems for sealing between a transparency, such as an aircraft canopy, and a vehicle frame.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art is well described and shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,594, issued on Oct. 23, 1990, to Webb. FIG. 1 of that patent illustrate transparency, such as a canopy, windshield, or window, is connected to an aircraft frame. After the transparency has been connected to the frame, a liquid sealant is applied near the edge of the transparency to help prevent liquids from passing between the fairing and the transparency.
The installation of a canopy may require as much as thirty-two man-hours using a wet type sealant. Also, when a wet type sealant has been applied, the sealant must be cured for a period of three days, before the aircraft may be available for flight.
When a transparency is to be removed, the wet sealant must be cut away with a razor knife. Excessive force may be required to free the transparency from the frame. Many otherwise reusable transparencies are damaged beyond repair because of damage received during removal. Also, when the wet sealant is scraped from the frame, protective coatings may also be removed.
Wet sealants are often toxic and emit harmful vapors. Such sealants also have a tendency to crack, allowing moisture to leak between the transparency and the frame.


A decorative frame for a domestic appliance has an edge-side area and an inner area adjoining the edge-side area inwards. The edge-side area has a thicker section defined by a thickness which is greater than a thickness in the inner area. The thicker section in the edge-side area is realized by a separate material part which is attached to a base frame.

The invention relates to a decorative frame for a domestic appliance, with a base frame. Furthermore the invention relates to a domestic appliance with a decorative frame and also to a method for producing a decorative frame.
Domestic appliances are known in many embodiments. There are domestic appliances for preparation of food, domestic appliances for care of laundry items and domestic appliances for cleaning of crockery. It is precisely domestic appliances for preparation of food that are supplemented by a domestic appliance, which is also embodied for extracting air and is thus an air extraction facility. A steam extractor can be given as an example. Cooking devices as domestic appliances for preparation of food are likewise known in a variety of embodiments. In addition it is known that they are disposed in cutouts of a worktop of a kitchen furniture unit or the like. For this purpose an installation facility is also usually provided, with an installation frame for example, with which the appliance can be fastened into the cutout and thus also to the worktop. In addition cooking appliances, such as cooktops for example, usually also comprise a decorative frame which surrounds a cooktop plate of the cooktop, which can be of glass ceramic or glass for example, around its circumference and seals it in an upwards direction. In particular a possible gap between the cooktop plate and the cutout in the worktop is covered by said frame.
Decorative frame embodiments are likewise sufficiently well-known. In this connection designs are known which have a relatively large gap to the upper side of the worktop and in this regard a relatively large sealing element visible from outside is then required between the lower side of the decorative frame and the upper side of the worktop. In these embodiments a decorative frame is also embodied over its horizontal extent horizontally in a straight line and with the same thickness in the vertical direction.
In addition embodiments of decorative frames are known in which an edge-side area is bent downwards and accordingly can then rest on the upper side of the worktop. Here too however there is provision for the thickness of the decorative frame to be the same in its material embodiment in the bent area and in the unbent area.
In the embodiments of the known decorative frames on the one hand either very large gaps are to be sealed with seals and on the other hand expensive reshaping of the decorative frame is required.
Furthermore a plate-shaped grill is known from DE 20 2008 015 025 U1. It comprises a central grill plate and an edge profile running around the edge of the grill plate. The grill plate and the edge profile are embodied in one piece and can be of metal. A channel-like recess is embodied on the underside in an edge area. Should the edge profile not be at the same height as the grill plate the change in shape is created by a mechanical reshaping process of the one-piece component. In this case the mechanical reshaping of the remaining edge component of the plate-shaped grill below the channel-like recess running around the edge is undertaken by bending the edge profile by deep drawing of the central grill plate or by punching of the same. These processes result in shapes with little accuracy. Furthermore thinned areas must be created in the material by imprecise and inaccurate milling Furthermore such processing of a one-piece component is extremely expensive and cracks in the material or similar can occur.

Decorative frame for a domestic appliance, domestic appliance comprising such a decorative frame, and method for producing a decorative frame


The invention uses framestores for storing successive parts of three frames from the source of a video signal such as a camera, and a logical output selection unit arbitrates between the outputs for the frame to produce a reduced noise output to be fed to a T.V. monitor. If the noise of a pixel in the central frame is increased significantly compared to that in the first frame, the output of the third frame for that pixel is used to arbitrate between the two, for example, by selecting as the output that of the first frame if it is found that the output of the third frame is nearer to that of the first frame than to the second. Isolated noise specks are thereby reduced without the problems of motion smear.

A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a noise reduction processing device for video signals.
B. Description of Related Art
The invention is especially applicable to the use of image intensifiers for increasing the sensitivity of a television camera, which cause a noisy picture. The noise is in the form of a speckle pattern of bright white dots above the background picture, which greatly detracts from the visual quality of the intensified picture. The noise specks are typically very short duration (one frame) single point (about one pixel) events.
Typically to remove this noise, integration techniques are used. Many frames of the output are averaged until the noise peaks are significantly reduced compared to the signal level. However, such integration causes so-called motion smear i.e. blurring, in the case of movement of the camera or of the scene's contents.

Noise reduction processing device for video signals by arbitration of pixel intensities


A PWB or multilayer board with circuit traces is treated by a process that serves to reduce the incident of failure of the board. The process includes the steps of applying a thin commoning layer of copper onto a catalyzed surface of the board substrate and the circuit lines. A photoresist is then applied over the commoning layer after which the photoresist is removed only from the commoning material over the circuit lines. A thin layer of a more noble metal, such as nickel, is electrodeposited over the exposed conductive layer. This is followed by a gold layer electrodeposited over the nickel in close registry therewith. The process provides the traces with a conforming nickel/gold layer that extends down the side of the traces. This reduces the tendency of a subsequent copper etch step from undercutting the nickel/gold, thereby causing slivers that could cause short circuiting between adjacent circuit patterns.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of printed wiring boards and their manufacture. More particularly, it relates to the production of double-sided printed wiring boards. The present invention relates to a method for an improved reliability surface finishing process.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In the manufacture of printed circuit boards, also called printed wiring boards, it is now commonplace to produce circuitry on both sides of a rigid or flexible substrate. Multilayer printed wiring boards consist of alternating layers of insulating substrate material and conductive metal. The exposed outer surfaces, as well as the innerlayers, of the structure are provided with circuit patterns. The most common metallurgy selected for the circuit patterns is copper.
In double-sided and multilayer PWBs, it is necessary to provide surfaces for subsequent assembly processing. The most common surface finish is the application of a solder mask onto some circuit patterns and an organic surface protection (OSP) onto others. The OSP serves two purposes; the first being to delay the oxidation of the surface metallurgy to extend the shelf-life of the panel between shipping and assembly so that additional cleaning or oxidation removal steps are prevented; the second is that the OSP improves the wettability of the metal surface for subsequent soldering operations. Other surface metallurgies can be applied to the PWB depending upon the components to be assembled. These metallurgies include gold and palladium generally with an underlying layer of nickel that provides a diffusion barrier layer between the copper and surface metal. While these metallurgies can also be used for a solderable surface, they are more suited to providing a highly conductive surface for subsequent connector systems. Of particular interest for this invention is the method for providing these additional metallurgies.
The surface finish metallurgies are generally applied by plating processes. Most common in the industry are electroless and electrolytic plating. Electroless plating is done without electricity. The advantage of an electroless process is that circuit patterns can be formed onto a PWB and immersed into the electroless solutions to deposit metal onto exposed circuit patterns. To prevent deposition on undesired areas, photolithographic processes or masking can be used.
To provide an electrolytic metal deposition, one needs a commoning layer on the surface to be metallized to provide electrical contact. If the PWB had been fabricated using electrolytic plating processes, a commoning layer is generally present, is used for all subsequent plating, and is removed during one of the final steps. A disadvantage to this method is that as dissimilar metals are applied, the final commoning layer etch exposes these dissimilar metals in contact with each other to an electrolyte solution. When this happens, a galvanic cell is generated that accelerates the etch rate of the less noble metal. In this case, the circuit pattern would etch faster than the surface finish metal. This can produce an undercut of the surface metallurgy causing it to produce metal overhanging the underlying circuit pattern, which can flake off and contact adjacent circuit patterns causing an electrical short. The industry refers to this phenomenon as "slivering".
For a PWB fabricated using an electrolytic double-sided plating process, a commoning layer is provided on both surfaces of the PWB substrate. In the industry, this method is performed by first electrolytically pattern plating a first copper layer over a commoning layer. A photoresist is then applied after the commoning layer is formed. While leaving the pattern photoresist on the panel, subsequent electrolytic metallizations can take place. However, in some operations, the process is a full panel plate with subtractive etching to form the circuit traces. As a result, there is no commoning layer on the panel's surfaces as the copper is etched to the laminate substrate surface.
The two primary methods in the industry for pattern plating are pattern electroplate and pattern electroless plating.
In pattern electroplate, holes are drilled through or into a copper clad dielectric substrate to form through holes (extending from one planar surface of the substrate to the other) or vias (extending in from one surface but terminating within the substrate) followed by plating a commoning layer of copper onto the surface of the board. A commoning layer is an electroless copper applied over a PdSn catalyst layer. For one such process, the substrate is copper clad on at least one of its surfaces and the process employed would be a subtractive process whereby the unwanted copper is removed by chemical etching or laser ablation. The substrate typically is nonconductive, and may be provided with through holes or vias.
Because the holes extend into or through the dielectric, which is an insulator, a continuous electrical connection is first created by putting a thin metallization of copper in the holes. A photoresist is applied over the commoning layer and a pattern is formed in the photoresist through known photolithographic techniques (expose, develop) such that the open channels in the photoresist are the places where circuit traces will be formed. The substrate is then electroplated with copper, and metallization build-up only occurs in the open channels to form circuit traces. A layer of tin/lead is plated over the copper traces, followed by stripping of the photoresist and etching of the commoning layer with the copper traces protected by the tin/lead during the etch. Then the tin/lead is etched off. The result is a PWB with copper circuit traces onto which a solder mask is later placed.
It should be observed that the copper clad substrate can be any thickness, limited only to the handling capability of the fabricator. Very thin cores (approx. 5-8 mils) with laser drilled holes and vias up to multilayer boards (MLB) composites or 300+ mils and mechanically drilled holes and vias can be processed if equipment permits. The commoning layer is generally thin, about 100 microinches, and is usually applied with an electroless strike. It can also be applied by sputter coating. The photoresist can be any of the many available for copper plating in the industry. Likewise, the expose and develop chemistries are industry known. The subsequent copper plating can be direct current (DC) or pulse plated. Pulse plating provides the advantage of a more even distribution, less thieving area needed and better 'throw' into the drilled holes. DC is the most common, but has the drawbacks of non-uniform plating on isolated features and not very good throw in high aspect ratio (length to diameter) holes. Once the panel has been pattern electroplated, the commoning layer is still present under the photoresist and opens up several finishing options:
1. If tin/lead (solder) is desired on certain areas of the board, then prior to etching off the tin/lead in the last step, a photoresist/mask is applied to protect those areas during the tin/lead etch process. The mask is then removed
2. If gold is desired, for instance, on the land grid array pads, then after copper plate and tin/lead plate, a second photoresist/mask is applied, leaving open the features to be gold plated bearing in mind that the first pattern plate resist is still on the board. The tin/lead is etched off the pads, leaving a copper surface. Then the board is electrolytically nickel/gold plated, the second photomask is stripped, the first photomask is stripped either simultaneously or subsequently, the commoning layer is etched off, creating the galvanic cell phenomenon seen by the industry as slivering, and then the tin/lead is etched off.
3. These steps can be extended further. For example, if tin/lead areas are needed on a board with gold, another photomask operation is carried out. If there are requirements that the gold be thick in one place and thin in another, again, masking and plating operations are performed as long as the base commoning layer is still present.
A similar pattern plate option is practiced called 'semi-additive', the difference being that, instead of an electrolytic plating to create the traces in the patterned resist, a full-build electroless process is used. Since the commoning layer is still present, all of the aforementioned finishing processes can be carried out.
Still another pattern plate process is a full-build electroless process. In this process, there is no base copper clad panel and no commoning layer. The substrate surface is catalyzed with a palladium seed, and the photoresist is applied directly to this surface and patterned. The electroless plating builds up additively to create the traces. Since there is no commoning layer, if it is desired to continue with precious metal or tin/lead plating, this plating also has to be electroless.
Electroless gold is advantageous for wire bonding, but is not good for LGA pads or connector fingers where a 'hard' gold is needed. Solder paste can be used for places that need tin/lead.
The other method to create a PWB is the standard 'print and etch' process. In this process, the drilled substrate is plated with copper, a negative photoresist is applied and patterned, the panel is then etched such that the areas opened in the photoresist are etched away and the covered areas are protected. Again, there is no commoning layer, so to finish a board with hard gold requires a method, such as personalizing one side of the substrate only, so that the other side is left copper clad. The copper clad side acts as a commoning layer for a single sided gold plate. The gold plated side is then subsequently covered with a photoresist and the copper clad side is patterned and etched.
The problem with the first 'base process' is that the nickel and gold are plated onto the copper with the photoresist in place. Hence, the process is 'non-conformal' in that it does not plate the sidewalls of the copper features. When the commoning layer is etched, the more noble nickel/gold layer will not be etched but the underlying copper features and commoning layer will. When two dissimilar metals are in contact with one another, a galvanic cell is created upon exposure to an ionic solution. In this galvanic cell, the less noble metal (copper) acts like the anode and is preferentially etched while the more noble metals (nickel and gold) are the cathode. This is the same analogy as the rivets in the hull of a ship. If the rivets are a different metal than that of a ship hull, the rivets will corrode when exposed to seawater. In the circuit board, the galvanic etch acts to undercut the copper feature leaving a nickel/gold overhang which can subsequently break off and form a 'sliver'. This sliver of conductive metal can then cause shorting of the circuits on the PWB.
Various techniques for PWB manufacture are described in the following patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,790,912 describes a selective plating process where, after a photolithographic process produces electrical tracings of copper, then tin/lead alloys may be coated upon at least part of the copper tracings.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,513 describes a process for producing a printed circuit board by pattern plating wherein, after copper traces are formed, additional metal such as solder, copper, nickel, gold, or other metal is deposited on the tracings.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,041 describes additive plating wherein a flash metal is deposited onto a substrate, followed by application of a resist. Windows are left open in the resist to the flash metal after which additional metal is deposited within the windows.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,985,124 describes nickel or nickel alloy electroplating wherein at least a partially masked electrical circuit has nickel metal deposited hereon. This may be followed by plating with gold or other precious metal.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,221,229 describes a method for forming metal conductor patterns. After metal circuit lines are formed and any excess metal is removed by laser ablation, additional metals are electrolytically deposited onto at least a portion of the circuit lines.

Method of making a printed wiring board with conformally plated circuit traces


A multi-modulation scheme is provided that combines pulse-width modulation and phase modulation.

A number of digital signaling protocols have been developed to support communication between integrated circuits in a system such as a mobile device. These signaling protocols are deemed herein as "digital" in that the transmitting circuit either drives its transmit pin high to a power supply voltage level or grounds the pin to transmit a bit. Examples of such digital signaling protocols include general purpose I/O (GPIO) and universal asynchronous receiver transmitter (UART). For example, a UART transmitter drives a digital signal over a transmit pin that is received on a receive pin at a UART receiver. The UART receiver samples the received signal using an oversampling clock to determine whether the received signal was binary high or binary low.
To reduce power consumption, various lossless data compression techniques have been utilized such as run length encoding (RLE). But run length encoding does not guarantee a fixed and predictable throughput enhancement as the degree of compression depends upon the randomness of the data. If the data transmission is completely random, run length encoding offers no benefit. Other more complex schemes offer improved throughput but are not compatible with digital signaling. For example, the use of a quadrature phase shift key (QPSK) scheme has twice the throughput of conventional digital signaling but requires the use of two independent sinusoidal sub-carriers. In contrast, a digital signal protocol is much simpler as the transmitter needs to merely drive its transmit pin to a power supply voltage and/or to ground during a symbol transmission. Similarly, a digital signaling receiver needs to merely determine whether a voltage high or low signal is being received at each sampling of an oversampling clock.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved digital signaling protocol with increased throughput and reduced power consumption.

Multi-modulation for data-link power reduction and throughput enhancement


A carbon nanotube aggregate and a method for forming a carbon nanotube aggregate are provided. The carbon nanotube aggregate can be formed by treating carbon nanotubes with fluorine gas and sintering the resulting fluorinated carbon nanotubes. A carbon nanotube aggregate can be formed which does not contain a binder or resin matrix.

In recent years, the nanotechnology has been highlighted and the carbon nanotube has attracted the attention of various fields. Development of practical application to probes, micromachines, conductive materials, thermal conductive materials, fuel batteries and solar batteries or many interesting uses for hydrogen storage materials has been actively-studied by taking advantage of specific functions of the carbon nanotubes. Conventionally, formed articles of carbon materials are accomplished by using resins, rubbers, thermoplastic elastomers, adhesives, paints, inks, metals, alloys, ceramics, cements, gelled materials, paper, fabrics, nonwoven fabrics and the like as a matrix. The matrix has been selected depending on required performances such as hardness, mechanical strength, heat resistance, electric properties, durability and reliability of an objective complex formed article. Publications for forming the complex using the carbon nanotubes include the following references, and the technologies to combine the carbon nanotube in place of conventional carbon black and carbon fibers with the resin are disclosed.
Patent Document 1: JP 2002-273741-A Publication
Patent Document 2: JP 2003-221510-A Publication
Patent Document 3: JP 2003-12939-A Publication
Patent Document 4: JP 2002-265209-A Publication
In Patent Document 1, a carbon nanotube complex formed article formed in a state in which the carbon nanotubes are arranged in a constant direction in the matrix has been described. At least one organic polymer selected from thermoplastic resins, curable resins, rubbers and thermoplastic elastomers is used as the matrix.
In Patent Document 2, a thermoplastic resin composition composed of (A) 20 to 99.95% by mass of a thermoplastic resin and (B) 0.05 to 20% by mass of carbon nanotubes comprising (C) 0.05 to 30 parts by mass of a flame retardant and 0 to 2 parts by mass of a polyfluoroolefin resin relative to 100 parts by mass of a total amount of (A) and (B) is disclosed as a conductive thermoplastic resin composition wherein an appearance of a molded article is good, mechanical strength is enhanced and flame resistance is high.
In Patent Document 3, a carbon-containing resin composition wherein components [A] substantially do not form an aggregate one another and are uniformly dispersed in components [B] without interlacing and the component [A] is in the range of 0.01 to 1.8% by weight and the component [C] is in the range of 0.1 to 55% by weight relative to 100% by weight of the composition is disclosed as the carbon-containing resin composition having excellent dynamic property and moldability and if necessary combining with excellent conductivity.
Component [A]: Carbon nanotubes with an average diameter of 1 to 45 nm and an average aspect ratio of 5 or more
Component [B]: Resin
Component [C]: Filler
These prior arts all relate to enhancing electric, thermal or mechanical nature by adding the carbon nanotube to the matrix. The addition of the carbon nanotube adamantly aims at enhancing the physical property of the matrix, and does not enable to use the excellent physical property of the carbon nanotube in a macro state. The present inventors have thought up that it is the most desirable to construct an aggregate composed of the pure carbon nanotubes alone in order to maximally leverage the physical property of the carbon nanotube. Thus, it has been made a problem to obtain the aggregate of the carbon nanotubes, which was not carried out in the above prior publications.

Method for forming a carbon nanotube aggregate


An irrigation system having at least one water distribution member, a water supply source and a horizontally oriented, shut-off control device located in a fluid flow line between a water supply source and the at least one water distribution member for automatically shutting off the flow of supply water to the at least one water distribution member in response to a predetermined increase in force of fluid flow. The shut-off control device has a housing with an interior flow path having rails and projections dimensioned to support a compressible ball which moves within the housing and limits side-to-side motion or turbulence.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to irrigation systems and more particularly to a horizontally oriented, in-line automatic shut-off control device placed upstream of a water distribution member to shut off and prevent water flow to the water distribution member in the event a malfunction or damage occurs to the water distribution member.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Lawn and grass areas are typically irrigated by in-ground sprinklers, which may or may not pop-up when water flows from a supply source. Most systems are automatically operated either by a timer or by some type of ground moisture sensing arrangement.
Conventional water distribution members in the form of sprinkler heads are prone to breakage for a variety of reasons. For example, sprinkler heads may be run over by lawn mowers or be stepped on by a person walking across the lawn.
Breaking one or more of the sprinkler heads results in the majority of the water in the system being disbursed through the broken heads, instead of all of the heads as programmed. This is not only a waste of water, but can be quite expensive in areas where water shortages are common. Water is a precious commodity in many areas, such as desert developments and the like. In addition, the area around the broken sprinkler head can be damaged by the excessive water flow to this area. With automated systems, breakage of a sprinkler head is often not detected until extensive damage occurs. Moreover, the entire system may be shut down until appropriate repair can be made, thus causing other areas in need of water to be damaged.
The inventors of the invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,051,951 address these issues. However, it was found that applications wherein the shut-off control devices must be oriented horizontally or less than vertically presented additional problems. These problems are addressed by the present invention.

Irrigation system and shut-off control device therefor


A new and distinct cultivar of Astilbe plant named ‘Moccachino’, characterized by its broadly upright and mounding plant habit; vigorous growth habit; dark green-colored leaves; freely and uniformly flowering habit; white-colored flowers arranged in large showy inflorescences and borne on strong reddish-colored peduncles; and good container and garden performance.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Astilbe, botanically known as (Astilbe japonica x A. arendsii) X Astilbe thunbergii and hereinafter referred to by the name 'Moccachino'.
The new Astilbe plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Nieuwe Wetering, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program was to create new uniform and freely flowering Astilbe plants with attractive leaf and flower coloration.
The new Astilbe plant originated from an open-pollination in 2014 in Nieuwe Wetering, The Netherlands, of Astilbe japonica X A. arendsii 'Cappuccino', disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 24,940, as the female, or seed, parent with an unknown Astilbe thunbergii seedling selection as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Astilbe plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated open-pollination in a controlled greenhouse environment in Nieuwe Wetering, The Netherlands during the summer of 2015.
Asexual reproduction of the new Astilbe plant by vegetative divisions in a controlled nursery environment in Nieuwe Wetering, The Netherlands since December, 2015, has shown that the unique features of this new Astilbe plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.


An internal synchronous signal generating circuit outputs the internal synchronous signals ICLK1, ICLK2. A burst counter outputs an internal column address signal IADD and the lowermost internal column address signal IY0. A first and second D-F/Fs input an output of the input buffer and drives a first write bus (WBUS) in synchronization with the ICLK1. An inverting element inputs IY0. Inverting elements input outputs of the first and second D-F/Fs and drives a second write bus (WBUS). A transistor TG1 is connected between the first WBUS and second D-F/F. The gate is connected to the output of the first inverting element. A transistor TG2 is connected between the output of the second inverting element and second D-F/F with IY0 connected to the gate. A column decoder inputs IADD and outputs a column switch YSW. Sense amplifiers input the YSW and the second WBUS. A memory cell array is connected to the sense amplifiers through a bit line. By this device, the maximum consumptive current amount or an average consumptive current in the burst can be reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device, more particularly to a data path control circuit designed to curtail the charge and discharge current of the data path.
2. Related Art
In recent years, with the acceleration in speed of CPU, demands for high speed operation of semiconductor memory device have enhanced. To meet such requirements there have been proposed the synchronous type semiconductor memory devices which work in synchronization with the external clocks exceeding 100 MHz. As the known literature on such kinds of semiconductor memory devices, references are made for example to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-148692 (Title of the Invention: "Memory Device"), Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-76566 (Title of the Invention: "Semiconductor Memory Device"), Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-45068 (Title of the Invention: "Synchronous Type Semiconductor Memory Device"), and the like.
An example of the constitutions of these conventional synchronous type semiconductor devices is shown in FIG. 7. Referring to FIG. 7, an input buffer 1 inputs an address signal ADD, an input buffer 2 inputs an external clock CLK and an input buffer 3 connected to a terminal DQ inputs written data. An internal synchronous signal generating circuit 5 inputs an output of the input buffer 2 and outputs an internal synchronous signal ICLK1 and ICLK2. A burst counter 12 inputs an output of the input buffer 1 and an internal synchronous signal ICLK1 and outputs an internal column address signal IADD. A D-type flip-flop (D-F/F) circuit 6 inputs an output of the input buffer 3 and drives a write bus WBUS1 in synchronization with the internal synchronous signal ICLK1. A D-F/F circuit 7 inputs a write bus WBUS1 and drives a write bus WBUS2 in synchronization with the internal synchronous signal ICLK2. A column decoder 8 inputs an internal column address signal IADD and outputs a column switch YSW. Sense amplifiers 9 input a column switch YSW and a write bus WBUS2. A memory cell array 10 is connected to the sense amplifiers 9 through a bit line.
An example of the operations of the conventional synchronous type semiconductor memory device is shown as a timing waveform diagram in FIG. 8. The internal synchronous signal ICLK1 is a pulse readily formed from the rising edge (transition from Low level to High level) of the external clock CLK, and the internal synchronous signal ICLK2 is a pulse formed after the predetermined delay from the internal synchronous signal ICLK1.
When Y=0 is given to an external address signal ADD at the rising edge of the external clock CLK in the C1 cycle which becomes the starting point of the writing operation, there are produced the internal column address IADD of Y=0, Y=1, Y=2, and Y=3, respectively, in the cycles of C1, C2, C3 and C4, in synchronization with the internal synchronous signal ICLK1. This is because this synchronous type semiconductor memory device has an operating function at the burst length 4, wherein, by the external address input of one time, the internal column address signals IADD of the number of burst length are formed in the burst counter 12.
The sequential order of this internal column address is determined by the external address signal in C1 cycle and the type of burst.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ Sequential type internal column address STARTING ADDRESS INTERNAL ADDRESS A1 A0 SEQUENCE (DECIMAL) ______________________________________ 0 0 0,1,2,3 0 1,2,3,0 1 2,3,0,1 1 3,0,1,2 ______________________________________
Table 1 shows a case where the type of the burst is a sequential type, in which, according to the logic level of the lower 2 bits (A1, A0) of the external address signal ADD in C1 cycle, the lower 2 bits vary in the order shown in Table 1. In case the burst length is "4", the portions other than the lower 2 bits are fixed.
TABLE 2 ______________________________________ Interleave type internal column address STARTING ADDRESS INTERNAL ADDRESS A1 A0 SEQUENCE (DECIMAL) ______________________________________ 0 0 0,1,2,3 0 1,0,3,2 1 2,3,0,1 1 3,2,1,0 ______________________________________
Table 2 shows the case where the burst type is an inter-leave type, where the lower 2 bits only vary in the same manner.
As reviewed above, the art which has a burst counter 12 and automatically forms addresses in order internally has come to be generalized along with the tendency for the CPU to become high speed, and there are more frequently available the synchronous type semiconductor memory devices wherein the two types of the sequential type in which the lower 2 bits are subjected to increment in order as the address sequence and the inter-leave type in which an exclusive logical sum of present address and starting address is selected as the next address, may be selected by the user.
In FIG. 8, IY0 shows the lowermost bit of the internal column address, and IY1 shows the second bit from the lower part of the internal column address. IY0 varies in synchronization with the internal synchronous signal ICLK1 as Low, High, Low, High, and IY1 likewise varies as Low, Low, High, High. The column switch YSW varies according to the internal column address IADD.
Further, when the write-in data to the terminal DQ in each cycle of C1, C2, C3, C4 are sequentially set to be Low, High, Low, High, the level of the write bus WBUS1 varies as Low, High, Low, High in synchronization with the internal synchronous signal ICLK1, and the level of the write bus WBUS2 varies as Low, High, Low, High in synchronization with the internal synchronous signal ICLK2.
By adjusting the formation of the internal synchronous signal ICLK2 to be in tune with the selection of the column switch YSW, the write-in data on the write bus WBUS2 can be written in the sense amplifier selected by the column switch YSW in the sense amplifiers 9. Thereafter, the write-in data are written in the memory cell in the memory cell array 10 through the bit line.
In the write bus WBUS1, WBUS2 there exist the parasitic capacities C1, C2, respectively (ref. FIG. 1), and when the write-in data on each cycle vary as in the example of FIG. 8, the charge for the capacity of (C1+C2) is to be charged or discharged for each cycle.
However, as the conventional semiconductor memory device as described above is so constituted that, according to the variation of the write-in data in the terminal DQ, the levels of the write bus WBUS1, WBUS2 also vary accordingly, there is a problem that, in case of the change of the write-in data on each cycle, the parasitic capacities C1 and C2 are charged or discharged on each cycle.
In consequence of the increase in the chip size resulting from the enlargement in capacity of the semiconductor memory device in recent years, there is a tendency for the wiring length of the write bus to become longer, with increase in the parasitic capacity thereof.
Furthermore, there is also a tendency for a plurality of the terminals DQ for inputting the write-in data to be provided so as to write a large number of data in parallel. Accompanied with this, a plurality of write buses WBUS 1, 2 are provided. Accordingly, the subject of increase in current consumption due to the charge and discharge of write bus can no longer be neglected.