A system for determining a discharge power limit value of a battery cell is provided. A microprocessor calculates an adjusted maximum allowed voltage drop value based on a maximum allowed voltage drop value, and an estimated delta OCV value at N seconds after a first time. The estimated delta OCV value is calculated based on a first discharge current level. The microprocessor calculates a second discharge current level through the battery cell for N seconds to obtain the adjusted maximum allowed voltage drop value. The microprocessor calculates a discharge power limit value based on the second discharge current level that indicates an amount of power from the battery cell for N seconds without the voltage across the battery cell falling below a minimum allowed voltage of the battery cell.

A known system for determining power limits of a battery cell does not consider a change in the state-of-charge (SOC) and an associated change in an open circuit voltage (OCV) in the battery cell during either a discharge current for N seconds or a charge current for N seconds. The inventor herein has recognized that more accurate calculations for power limits of a battery cell can be obtained by considering the change in the SOC and the change in the OCV of the battery cell during either a discharge current or a charge current for N seconds.

System for determining a discharge power limit value and a charge power limit value of a battery cell


A satellite communications system is described for increasing capacity through spectrum reuse by multiple satellites. The system includes a constellation of satellites traveling in a geosynchronous orbit, where the geosynchronous orbit defines a ground track. The satellites operate in a first mode when traveling in a first latitudinal direction on the satellite track and in a second mode when traveling in a second latitudinal direction on the satellite track. By using different operation modes, satellites traveling in opposite latitudinal directions do not interfere with each other. Each of the satellites maintains a minimum spacing apart from other satellites moving in the same latitudinal direction to prevent interference from satellites using the same operation mode.

Satellites play an important role in modern communications systems. Common communications such as telephone calls and television programming are transmitted and received using satellite communications systems. Communications satellites are typically placed in geostationary orbits around the Earth. However, limited frequency spectrum and insufficient orbital locations are impeding the expansion of satellite communications services. This problem is particularly severe over areas such as North America and Europe.
Required satellite spacing creates a limited number of geostationary orbital locations. Satellites using common portions of the frequency spectrum must be spaced far enough apart to prevent interference with adjacent satellites. This spacing is commonly quantified in degrees of angular spacing as measured from the center of the Earth. For example, direct broadcast satellites (DBS) typically require at least 9 degrees of angular spacing, while fixed satellite service (FSS) typically requires at least 2 degrees of angular spacing between adjacent satellites. As the required spacing increases, the number of available orbital locations decreases. High-demand areas, such as North America and Europe, have an insufficient number of available geostationary orbital locations to meet future communications needs.
As available orbital locations are filled with satellites, the amount of frequency spectrum allocated for use by the satellites becomes a second factor limiting the expansion of satellite communications. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has allocated portions of the frequency spectrum for use in satellite communications. Satellite communications systems currently use the C-band, the Ku-band, and/or the Ka-band of the frequency spectrum. The amount of data transmitted and/or received by a satellite is limited to the bandwidth provided by these frequency bands. Once the available bandwidth has been used, other solutions must be devised to provide additional communications capacity.
Accordingly, a need exists for a satellite communications system that can provide sufficient capacity to meet future communications needs. Such a system must provide the additional communications capacity while taking into account the limitations imposed by available orbital locations and allocated frequency spectrum.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


There is provided a technology capable of suppressing the damage applied to a pad. When the divergence angle of an inner chamfer part is smaller than 90 degrees, the ultrasonic conversion load in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the pad is very small in magnitude. In other words, the ultrasonic conversion load in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the pad is sufficiently smaller in magnitude than the ultrasonic conversion load in a direction in parallel with the surface of the pad. Consequently, when the divergence angle of the inner chamfer part is smaller than 90 degrees, the ultrasonic conversion load in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the pad can be sufficiently reduced in magnitude, which can prevent pad peeling.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a manufacturing technology thereof. More particularly, it relates to a technology effectively applicable to a semiconductor device in which copper wires are bonded to pads disposed on the surface of a semiconductor chip, and a manufacturing technology thereof.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2009-194136 (Patent Document 1) discloses the following. The inner chamfer angle of a capillary is 60 degrees or 120 degrees. Then, the capillary is pressed together with a ball against a bonding pad. Thus, a bonding load is applied thereto, and an ultrasonic vibration is supplied through the capillary in the direction in parallel with the surface of the bonding pad. As a result, a press-bonded ball is formed on the bonding pad.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2009-194136

Semiconductor device and a manufacturing method thereof


A motor rotor for a compressor includes a rotor core, at least one gas passage and an oil passage. The rotor core is configured to rotate about a rotation axis and has a plurality of stacked steel plates. The gas passage penetrates the rotor core in its axial direction and allows a gas fluid to flow therethrough from a first axial direction end portion of the rotor core to a second axial direction end portion on the opposite axial side. The oil passage is positioned radially outwardly of the gas passage inside the rotor core relative to the rotation axis. The oil passage allows oil to flow from the second axial direction end portion to the first axial direction end portion, which is opposite to the gas flow direction through the gas passage.

Conventionally, among compressors and the like for compressing a refrigerant of a refrigerant circuit, there has been the compressor of Japanese Patent Publication No. H05-260699, which has a structure where the inside of a casing of the compressor is filled with oil in order to lubricate mechanical parts of the compressor and where a gas rises through a gas passage of a motor rotor and drops oil from a core cut of an outer periphery of a motor stator.

Motor rotor and compressor equipped with the motor rotor


A device for directly measuring a person's respiratory exchange ratio (RER) utilizes a Zn-air battery cell and a constant current load circuit as an O2 pump capable of drawing oxygen from expired air. A thermistor located in the flow path forms a leg of a bridge circuit whose output is proportional to oxygen concentration in the expired air and, therefore, to oxygen uptake. The thermistor flowmeter circuit utilizes the thermal conductivity differences between O2 and CO2 to provide a measure at the relative ratio of the two gases present.

I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for determining an appropriate, individualized exercise regimen to optimize the desired goal of reducing fat or improving cardiovascular performance, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for providing real-time monitoring to assist a subject in matching his/her goal.
II. Discussion of the Prior Art
As described in the Snow et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,776, which is assigned to the applicants' assignee and the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference, it is well recognized that with increasing exercise, muscles need to burn metabolic substrates to perform mechanical work. Carbohydrates and fat are then typical fuel sources that must be metabolized to provide energy. As a result of this metabolism, oxygen is consumed to provide energy and carbon dioxide is produced as a byproduct. A typical response to exercise is to increase the delivery of oxygen to the working muscles by increasing blood flow that also facilitates the removal of carbon dioxide by delivery to the lungs for excretion. This oxidative process, known as aerobic metabolism, causes a proportional increase in oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production that is closely coupled with the level of work being performed. Aerobic metabolism uses a mixture of fat and carbohydrate substrates. The respiratory exchange ratio (RER), also sometimes called the respiratory quotient (RQ), represents the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) produced, divided by the amount of oxygen consumed (VO2). At rest, and with light exercise, the RER generally ranges from 0.7 to 0.85 and is dependent, in part, on the predominant fuel used for cellular metabolism.
As the level of work continues to increase, and the ability to increase the delivery of oxygen to working muscles approaches its maximal limits, alternative methods are activated to supplement the energy produced through aerobic processes. This alternate method, known as anaerobic metabolism, predominantly uses carbohydrate substrates that disproportionately increase carbon dioxide production relative to oxygen consumption. This disproportionate increase is reflected by an increase in the RER from 0.9 to 1.3 or greater.
One of the values of the RER measurement is that it permits identification of the anaerobic threshold (AT) and, therefore, identifies the work rate where aerobic processes are no longer adequate. The term "anaerobic threshold" is based on the hypothesis that at a given workrate, the oxygen supplied to exercising muscles does not meet the oxygen requirements. This imbalance increases anaerobic glycolsis for energy generation, yielding lactate as a metabolic byproduct. The AT is a point during exercise at which ventilation abruptly increases despite linear increases in work rate and oxygen uptake. As described in the Acorn et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,558, exercise prescriptions and protocols for increasing fitness and weight loss are based on knowing or assuming this threshold. Typically, the measurement is made during a baseline test and the exercise prescription is based on the threshold as determined from the RER. However, it is understood that the anaerobic threshold will change during the training period as the cardio respiratory system becomes more efficient and subsequent testing is required to adjust the prescription for the training effect.
In the past, measurement of RER has typically been possible only in laboratory environments using computerized exercise testing systems, such as that described in the Anderson et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,764 and the Howard et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,060,656 and 5,117,674. These devices measure ventilation using airflow, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels using discrete analyzers and a computer is employed to perform computations to determine the oxygen uptake and the carbon dioxide production. The calculation of RER is a secondary calculation. The drawback to this approach for measuring RER is the expense and complexity of integrating three sensors with a computer, aligning the signals time wise and maintaining calibration for all three sensors. The technique of ventilatory gas measurement has a number of potential limitations that hinder its broad applicability. Gas exchange measurement systems are costly and require meticulous maintenance and calibration for optimal use. Personnel who administer tests and interpret results must be trained and proficient in this technique. Finally, the test requires additional cost and time, as well as patient cooperation. Thus, a need exists for a simple, inexpensive sensor or monitor that can be directly employed by an untrained subject during the course of exercise to monitor his/her own RER. In turn, the subject may determine his/her heart rate at a detected AT and then pace his/her exercise by maintaining a heart rate at a predetermined percentage below heart rate at AT if the goal is to burn fat or at a predetermined percentage above heart rate at AT if the goal is improved cardiovascular performance.


Herein described is a process for forming ohmic electrodes to a diamond film, comprising the steps of implanting the ions of at least one element selected from the group consisting of B, Li, Na, Ar, C, Ti, W, Ta, Mo, Fe, Ni and Co on the diamond film at the surface areas to be formed with electrodes by an ion implantation method so as to form interface levels in the vicinity of the surface areas to be formed with electrodes, forming electrodes to the ion implanted areas, and heating the diamond film formed with the electrodes at a temperature of 400.degree. C. or more. With this process charge carriers can be moved between electrodes and the diamond film through the interface levels to thereby obtain ohmic electrode diamond film contacts, and also the surface recombination speed of the charge carriers is increased for reducing the contact resistances between the electrodes and the diamond film to thereby obtain ohmic electrode-diamond film contacts each having the small contact resistance. In addition, by heating, the contact resistance is furthermore reduced.

a) Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a process for forming ohmic electrodes to a diamond film so as to obtain ohmic electrode-diamond film contacts each having the small contact resistance.
b) Description of the Related Art:
Diamond has high hardness and high thermal conductivity, and also has an excellent stability against heat, radiation and chemicals. It has been known that diamond films can be considerably easily formed by vapor phase synthesis using a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) apparatus. The thus formed diamond films have been used as coatings for speaker diaphragms, heat sinks for ICs and so on. Meanwhile, diamond is an electrical insulating material but can exhibit the semiconducting property by being doped with boron (B) or the like. The B-doped semiconducting diamond has a band gap larger than that of silicon (Si), silicon carbide (SiC) or the like, and hence is expected to be applicable in a high temperature region as compared with Si, SiC or the like. In order to apply the diamond having such properties to heat sinks for ICs and high temperature ICs, there has been required a technique for forming ohmic electrodes to an undoped diamond film or semiconducting diamond film, that is, ohmic diamond-electrode contacts.
The following two techniques have been known to form ohmic contacts to diamond. According to the first conventional technique, electrodes of carbide forming metals such as tantalum (Ta) are formed on the surface of a bulk semiconducting diamond by vacuum deposition, and are then heated by electron beams in vacuum to form ohmic contacts to diamond (A.T. Collins and others, Diamond Research, p. 19, 1970). Further, in place of the heating by electron beams, the semiconducting diamond formed with electrodes on its surface, that is, the whole of the sample is heated in a vacuum chamber to form ohmic contacts (Metallization of Semiconducting Diamond, K. L. Moazed and others, Material Research Society, Boston, 1989). According to the first conventional technique, while the mechanism for forming ohmic contacts being not necessarily clear, it is considered that carbide is formed at the interface between the semiconducting diamond surface and the carbide forming metal electrode by heating, to thereby reduce the contact resistance.
According to the conventional second technique, Ar ions are irradiated with an acceleration voltage of several keV on a semiconducting diamond at the surface areas to be formed with electrodes, and electrodes of Au are formed on the Ar ion irradiated areas, to form ohmic contacts (C.B.Child and others, Fourth Annual SDIO/IST-ONR, Diamond Technology Initiative Symposium, Lecture No. ThP2, Crystal City, Va, 1989). According to this second technique, the surface area to be formed with each electrode in the semiconducting diamond is transformed into graphite, to thereby reduce the contact resistance.
However, in the first conventional technique, since carbide is formed at the interface between the diamond and each carbide forming electrode to form the carbide, the kinds of electrode materials are limited to the carbide forming metals. Further, in the second conventional technique, since the surface area of the diamond to be formed with each electrode is merely transformed into graphite, reduction in contact resistance is restricted.

Process for forming an ohmic electrode on a diamond film involving heating in a vacuum atmosphere


An asset positioning method and system (700) rapidly and accurately determine the special location of wireless nodes distributed in three-dimensional space. Furthermore, as a by-product, every node also determines the relative offset and drift of every other node's clock, so that it is possible for all nodes to carry out a precise synchronized action (708). The positioning and synchronization protocol has significant implications for a broad range of wireless networking infrastructure and applications. For instance, the rapid availability of accurate location information greatly simplifies and optimises the implementation of ad-hoc networks and sensor-based applications (716). Additionally, the synchronized node operations facilitate the development of new applications, such as phase-locked arrays, in which several low power transmitters coordinate to form a powerful group transmitter. Since the positioning protocol yields rapid responses and positional accuracy in the range of a few centimeters, the positioning protocol permits mobile nodes to be tracked while they are moving.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to asset tracking. More specifically, the present invention pertains to determining the location of objects in a distributed communications network.
2. Related Art
The development of an efficient lightweight protocol to determine the topology of a wireless network of mobile hosts has proven to be elusive. Several conventional solutions have been explored, but each has serious limitations. Table 1 below provides a summary of these conventional approaches.
TABLE 1Positioning TechnologiesMethodAdvantagesDisadvantagesRangeGPSCovert;Not a sensor;Range: UnlimitedAbsolute Position;Coverage area;Accuracy: metersAccurate timingPower ConsumptionHardware: LotsreferenceINSCovert;Not a sensor;Range: Unlimited;Absolute PositionLimitedAccuracy: n/aAcceleration;Hardware: LotsDrift rate inaccuracywith timeSeismicExisting Sensor;Generating theRange: Limited(range)Timing accuracysource signal;Accuracy: meterseasily achieved;Unknown speed ofHardware: SourceCalibration of thepropagationgeneratorsensorAcousticExisting Sensor;Not Covert;Range: Limited(range)Timing accuracyGenerating theAccuracy: meterseasily achieve;source signal;Hardware: SourceCalibration of theSpeed in thegeneratorsensormediumUltrasonicAdd sonar capabilityNew SensorRange: Very limited(range)to nodes;Line-of-sight onlyAccuracy: sub-meterTiming accuracyLimited rangeHardware:easily achievedTransducers and LensInfraredExisting SensorLine-of-sight only;Range: Limited(range)Generating theAccuracy: meterssource signal;Hardware: SourceTiming accuracygenerator, High speedaccurate timingVisualCapture of targetComms bandwidth;Range: UnlimitedimageAutomatedAccuracy: 10'sprocessing;metersNode roof real-Hardware: Camera,estatefish-eye lensRadio (range)Existing assetTiming accuracyRange: GoodMeasurement rangeAccuracy: metersmatches commsHardware: Highrangespeed accurate timingRadioExisting assetAccuracy limited byRange: Limited(rangepropagation model;Accuracy: poorestimate fromHeavily affected byHardware: Existspowermultipathmeasurement)Radio (angle)Simplified arrayMultiple antennas;Range: Goodposition locationHeavily affected byAccuracy: Not GoodcalculationmultipathHardware: Multipleantennas, phasecomparators"Assisted"Minimal extraAssistance requiredRange: Goodhardware;Accuracy: GoodAccuracy largelyHardware: minimallimited by amountof assistance
For example, global satellite positioning (GPS) can be used to determine covert absolute positions. GPS can also provide an absolute timing reference. However, GPS receivers are not sensors and the accuracy measurements fall within the range of meters. An ultrasonic system provides improved accuracy measurements, but is effective over limited ranges. As the information in Table 1 shows, there is a need for a method and system that overcome the above limitations of conventional positioning technology.

Method, system and computer program product for positioning and synchronizing wireless communications nodes


An end-column conductivity detector is described. A sensing electrode is placed in the outlet end of a capillary that has a hole in its side wall through which electrolyte moves past the sensing electrode into a reservoir that contains the ground electrode. This structure is simple to construct, has almost no dead volume, and minimizes electrolyte contact with adhesives used to mount the sensing electrode. The end-column conductivity detector is operated in conjunction with a commercial capillary zone electrophoresis system that has a capillary cartridge and a UV absorption detector. This design thus permits sequential measurement of the absorption and conductivity characteristics of separated analyte zones. When a species can be detected by both conductivity and UV absorption, then the absorption coefficient can be determined from the relation between the conductivity signal and the concentration of the species.

Conductivity detection is used widely in ion chromatography (Gjerde and Fritz, Ion Chromatography, 2nd ed., Verlag: Heidelberg, 1987; and Smith, Ion Chromatography Applications, CRC Press: Boca Raton, Fla., 1988), but rarely in capillary zone electrophoreses (CZE) (Kuhr, Anal. Chem., 1990, 62 403R-414R). This difference apparently stems from the difficulty of fabricating a conductivity detector with low dead volume in the structure of a fused-silica capillary with an inside diameter of 100 .mu.m or less. Three possible designs for a CZE conductivity detector are on-column, off-column, and end-column structures. Foret et al. used a microscale molding method to construct an on-column conductivity detector which was also used on-line with a UV absorbance detector (Foret et al., Electrophoresis, 1986, 7, 430-432). Another scheme for constructing an on-column conductivity detector employs a focused CO.sub.2 laser beam to punch holes directly through the walls of the fused-silica capillary (Huang et al., Anal. Chem., 1987, 59, 2747-2749). Two platinum sensing electrodes are sealed on opposite sides of the column. Because CZE typically has a voltage drop of 300 V/cm along the length of the capillary, the sensing electrodes need to be aligned carefully and an isolation transformer must be used in measuring the conductance (Huang et al., Anal. Chem., 1987, 59, 2747-2749; and Everaerts et al., Isotachophoresis, Journal of Chromatography Library 6, Elsevier: Amsterdam, 1976).
Off-column conductivity detectors may be constructed by grounding the capillary prior to the sensing electrode, using either a porous glass structure (Wallingford and Ewing, Anal. Chem., 1987, 59, 1762-1766) or an on-column frit structure (Huang and Zare, Anal. Chem., 1990, 62, 443-446). Recently, Huang et al. reported the use of an end-column structure for conductimetric and amperometric detection in CZE in which the sensing electrode is placed at the outlet of the fused-silica capillary (Huang et al., Anal. Chem., 1991, 63, 189-192). This end-column structure is also described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/580,259, filed Sep. 10, 1990, Huang et al. Such end-column detectors demonstrate sensitivities that approach those of previous on-column conductivity detectors with only a small sacrifice in resolution, and extra band broadening of approximately 25%. This end-column structure, however, requires carefully matched microplumbing in which the analytical capillary is placed inside a second capillary that has an inside diameter slightly larger than the outside diameter of the analytical capillary. Moreover, for conductimetric detection, the end-column structure employs epoxy to help maintain structural integrity of the electrode. Unfortunately, the epoxy becomes exposed to the electrolyte which can adversely affect measurements.

End-column conductivity detector for capillary zone electrophoresis

Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


A portable computer having identification marks. The identification marks are beside screw holes in which screws are to-be-screwed. The identification marks show the appearance of the screw, the cross-section patterns or the 3-dimentional patterns of the screws.

This application incorporates by reference Taiwanese application Serial No. 89207942, Filed May 11, 2000.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a portable computer having identification marks beside the screw holes, and more particularly to a portable computer having identification marks beside screw holes in which screws are to-be-screwed.
2. Description of the Related Art
As semiconductor technologies advance by leaps and bounds, electronic components are indispensable to modern equipments. Furthermore, miniaturization has been the goal of electronic equipment producers resulting in mini-television, mini-camera and so on. Among these electronic products, computers, especially portable computers, have become crucial tools in just about every field nowadays due to its portability, simplicity, and size.
The housing and the interior devices of the portable computer are usually screwed by screws with different sizes. Screws match only the corresponding screw holes. The using of a great variety of screws causes the procedure of either assembling or disassembling more minute and complicated.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a portable computer having identification marks beside screw holes in which screws are to-be-screwed so that the efficiency of assembling and disassembling is highly increased.
It is another object of the invention to provide a portable computer having identification marks, including a number of first screw holes, a number of second screw holes, a number of screws, which correspond to the first screw holes respectively and a number of identification marks beside the first screw holes. Therefore, each of the screws can be screwed into each of the corresponding first screw holes correctly.

Portable computer having identification marks


Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for filtering an image including a plurality of pixels. A forward kernel centered at a first pixel in the image is received. The forward kernel assigns forward weights to pixels in a neighborhood surrounding the first pixel. A backward kernel centered at a second pixel within the neighborhood surrounding the first pixel is specified based on a local attribute of the image at the second pixel. The backward kernel assigns backward weights to pixels in a neighborhood surrounding the second pixel. A convolution weight of the second pixel is determined based on the backward kernel and the forward kernel. The convolution weight and a pixel value of the second pixel are used to generate a new value of the first pixel.

The present invention relates to image processing.
An electronic image, such as a digital image, can be represented by an array of closely packed pixels that are basic picture elements. Each pixel represents a local portion of the image and alone or together with other pixels determines local attributes for the image portion. For example, the local attributes include graphical attributes, such as color, gray level, luminosity or transparency.
The local attributes of a pixel can also include a depth value corresponding to a distance between the object represented by the pixel and a reference point defined by a focal distance at which an object is in focus when it is imaged by a conventional or digital camera. The optics of the camera maps objects at the focal distance to a focal plane defined by the film of the conventional camera or the sensor array of the digital camera. Objects that are closer or farther away than the focal distance are mapped in front of, or behind the focal plane and may appear blurred in the photograph. For a digital image, the depth values of the pixels can be arbitrarily defined or altered by a user of a computer application.
Electronic images can be generated or processed by graphical software applications, such as presentation, animation, painting and design applications, or electronic devices such as scanners and digital cameras. During image processing, different electronic filters can be used to adjust the image. In general, a filter is defined by a transformation applied to pixel values of a received image to generate an output image. Electronic filters can achieve various visual effects. Some electronic filters mimic conventional photographic filters such as lenses and apertures that blur, sharpen or otherwise transform images. Other filters transform images in unusual ways. For example, a pointillism filter transforms a digitized photograph into a pointillistic painting in which small strokes of color are applied so that from a distance the strokes blend together to represent objects in the painting.
A traditional filtering effect is depth of field filtering that changes the depth in which objects seem to be in focus even though they are closer or farther away than the focal distance. A large depth of field implies that objects seem to be in focus even at distances that are much larger or smaller than the focal distance. A small depth of field implies that only objects at, or near the focal distance seem to be in focus and other objects seem blurred. To narrow a large depth of filed electronically, a blur filter can be selectively applied to different portions of a digital image. No blur is applied to image portions representing objects at the focal distance, and the closer or farther away an object is than the focal distance, the more blur is applied to the image portion representing that object.
Typically, a filter uses a kernel to generate a new value for a pixel, whose location is referred to as the center of the kernel. The kernel is defined by weights assigned to pixels in a neighborhood surrounding the center of the kernel in the image. The set of pixels that have substantially non-zero weights is referred to as the kernel's support. When the filter is applied, a new value is generated for the pixel at the center such that each pixel in the kernel's support contributes to the new pixel value in proportion to the weight assigned to the pixel by the kernel.

Using forward and backward kernels to filter images


A communication device, computer program product and method of providing location information therein are disclosed. The communication device includes a wireless communication unit, a display, a memory and a controller operatively connected to the memory, the display, and the wireless communication device, the controller configured to transmit virtual movement information of the communication device to a different communication device, the different communication device registered with a location information providing service.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication device, and more particularly, to a communication device and method of providing location information therein. Although the present invention is suitable for a wide scope of applications, it is particularly suitable for generating a moving history using location information.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A communication device is a device which may be configured to perform various functions. Examples of such functions include data and voice communications, capturing images and video via a camera, recording audio, playing music files via a speaker system, and displaying images and video on a display. Some terminals include additional functionality which supports game playing, while other terminals are configured as multimedia players. More recently, communication devices have been configured to receive broadcast and multicast signals which permit viewing of content such as videos and television programs.
Efforts are ongoing to support and increase the functionality of communication devices. Such efforts include software and hardware improvements, as well as changes and improvements in the structural components which form the communication device.
Moreover, many efforts are ongoing to research and develop a method for providing a service similar to an inter-communication device instant messaging service in association with a location based service.

Communication device and method of providing location information therein


The disclosed induction cooking range comprises, in the commonly known way, an upper plate made of glazed ceramic designed to receive a receptacle to be heated made of ferrite material, a monoconductor induction coil positioned beneath the upper plate on a coil support and excited by a high-frequency current generator. The induction coil is allowed to heat by its own losses to a temperature greater than that of the receptacle and the induction coil communicates its own heat to the receptacle. The overall efficiency of the range is thus appreciably increased. The induction coil, which must then tolerate a high temperature, is made out of a flat, monoconductor strip placed between two sheets of mica.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to induction cookers. in induction cooking, the substance to be cooked is placed in a magnetic receptacle heated by a flow of currents in its walls caused by a high-frequency electromagnetic field ranging from some kHz to some hundreds of kHz. The high-frequency electromagnetic field is generated by a flat induction coil that is placed on a support placed beneath a glazed ceramic plate on which the receptacle to be heated is placed, this plate being excited by a high-frequency AC electrical current given by an inverted rectifier.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The induction coil is usually formed by a pancake coil made out of a flat and spiral winding of a multiple-strand conductor of copper wires that are insulated from one another by an electrically insulating varnish to optimize the passage of high-frequency current (limitation of the skin effect) and minimize heating losses.
The insulating varnish of such a coil generally does not withstand temperatures of more than 220.degree. C., any more than the material of its support, which is often a molded plastic, withstands such temperatures. This makes it necessary to provide for a cooling of the induction coil through its support by means of the forced-air ventilation of the lower side of the range and also to provide for the thermal insulation of the induction coil with respect to the receptacle forming its load.
Forced-air ventilation increases the cost of an induction cooking range while thermal insulation with respect to the load requires that the induction coil should be moved away from the glazed ceramic plate supporting the receptacle. This increases the gap, reduces the coupling between the induction coil and the receptacle and increases the level of radiated disturbance.
In addition to the cooling, it is sometimes necessary in certain types of cooking, to shield the induction coil against excess heating by reducing the current delivered by the inverted rectifier.
It has also been proposed to make monoconductor induction coils either out of a rigid copper wire with a circular section having a diameter of 1 mm to 1.3 mm positioned in a helical groove hollowed out on the surface of an electrically insulating flat support or out of a copper tape that is wound edgeways and is therefore vertical, in a helix, between two mica plates. This arrangement permits a variation of the pitch of the coil from the center to the periphery in order to homogenize the distribution of temperature at the bottom of the receptacle.
These induction coils, with their supports, have a relatively great thickness. This is a handicap for the compactness of the instruments, especially for the market of domestic cookers.

Compagnie Europeenne Pour l'Equipement Menager - Cepem


An apparatus for preventing flow noise which suppresses the noise caused at the time of opening of a throttle valve provided in an intake passage of an internal combustion engine etc. At the downstream side of a pair of clearances formed at the top and bottom when the throttle valve opens, a means is provided acting on the flows of air passing through at least one of the clearances to reduce the flow rate and acting on the flows to cause the point of convergence of the flows of air passing through the pair of clearances to shift to the downstream side.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for the suppression of the flow noise caused by a throttle valve provided in an intake passage or exhaust passage of an internal combustion engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, steps have been taken to prevent the generation of noise from parts of automobiles with a high noise level with the objective of increasing the quietness of the passenger compartment of the automobiles. As the effects of these steps have taken hold, relatively low level noise, which had not been considered a problem in the past, has begun to be treated as problematic. One type of noise audible in the passenger compartment is the noise generated when a throttle valve is opened. This consists of the high frequency flow noise generated from the intake system when the throttle valve provided in the intake passage is made to rapidly open from the fully closed state. This noise is particularly noticeable in recent engines with intake manifolds fabricated out of plastic.
Similar flow noise is generated in the exhaust system of a vehicle having a throttle valve in the exhaust passage as well when causing the throttle valve to rapidly open. This noise also is particularly noticeable in recent engines with exhaust manifolds fabricated from pressed sheet metal. Accordingly, development of a means for suppressing the flow noise generated along with the operation of these throttle valve is becoming urgently required.
One related art being experimented with as a means of suppressing flow noise is illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. This was disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication (Kokai) No. 57-107838 and was aimed at the prevention of backfires. In this art, a metal net 4 was stretched across an air passage 2 inside a throttle body 1 at the downstream side of an ordinary throttle valve 3 provided so as to open and close the air passage 2 (arrow mark shows direction of flow of air). The object of this is to use the metal net 4 to suppress fluctuations in pressure at the downstream side of the throttle valve 3 and thereby try to prevent the generation of noise. This measure, however, has the problem of reducing the engine output somewhat due to the pressure loss of the flow of air.
As another related art, consideration may be given to the method of attaching a noise suppressing cover 5 at the outside of the throttle valve 1 or intake manifold to seal the noise inside the noise suppressing cover. This method is effective in preventing the diffusion of flow noise, but not only is the cost higher, but the weight increases as well. Further, the throttle body 1 and the intake manifold etc. connected to the same become bulkier. Accordingly, there is the disadvantage that a large amount of space is required by the intake manifold etc. in the small engine compartment.
Note that as a means appearing at first glance to be similar to the means of solution of the present invention explained in detail later, there are the two- or more multiple-layer configurations of the intake passages of intake apparatuses of the engines disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 62-288318 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 1-318756, but the multiple-layer configuration portions of these intake passages are at the upstream sides of the throttle valves. Not only is there a clear difference in configuration from the present invention, but also completely different actions and effects can be expected to be exhibited from the present invention. Further, in the structure of the intake pipe disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication (Kokai) No. 2-119963, an intake deflection member was provided at the downstream side of the throttle valve, but this constitutes the inflow port of the exhaust gas flowing into the intake pipe for exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and has a completely different object and different configuration, action, and effect from the present invention.

Apparatus for preventing flow noise in throttle valve


A distributed storage system node is disclosed. The distributed storage system node may include at least one storage device, which may act as the primary replica for data subject to an Input/Output (I/O) request. A cost analyzer may calculate a local estimated time required to complete the I/O request at the primary replica, and a remote estimated time required to complete the I/O request at a secondary replica of the data. An I/O redirector may direct the I/O request to either the primary replica or the secondary replica based on the local estimated time required and the one remote estimated time required.

Distributed storage systems such as Ceph, use data replication and/or erasure coding to ensure data availability across drive and storage node failures. Such distributed storage systems may use Solid State Drives (SSDs). SSDs have advantages over more traditional hard disk drives in that data access is faster and not dependent on where data might reside on the drive.
SSDs read and write data in units of a page. That is, to read any data, a whole page is accessed; to write any data, an entire page is written to an available page on the SSD. But when data is written, it is written to a free page: existing data is not overwritten. Thus, as data is modified on the SSD, the existing page is marked as invalid and a new page is written to the SSD. Thus, pages in SSDs have one of three states: free (available for use), valid (storing data), and invalid (no longer storing valid data).
Over time, invalid pages accumulate on the SSD and need to have their states changed to free. But SSDs erase data in units of blocks (which include some number of pages) or superblocks (which include some number of blocks). If the SSD were to wait until all the pages in the erase block or superblock were invalid before attempting to erase a block or superblock, the SSD would likely fill up and reach a state wherein no blocks were free and none could be freed. Thus, recovering invalid pages may involve moving valid pages from one block to another, so that an entire block (or superblock) may be erased.
Erasing blocks or superblocks is time-consuming, relative to the time required to perform reads or writes. Further, part or all of the SSD may be unavailable when a block or superblock is being erased. Thus, it may be important to manage when SSDs perform garbage collection. If all SSDs in a distributed storage system were to perform garbage collection at the same time, for example, no data requests could be serviced, rendering the distributed storage system no better (albeit temporarily) than a system with data stored locally and undergoing garbage collection.
A need remains for a way to minimize the impact of garbage collection operations on a distributed storage system.

IO redirection methods with cost estimation


Described herein is a computer implemented method comprising receiving a navigation event generated at an application; determining the navigation event is a start navigation session event and recording the event as a startpoint of a navigation session; determining an end of the navigation session has occurred and, in response, recording an endpoint of the navigation session. The method further comprises calculating a navigation session metric for the navigation session; determining a particular category of the navigation session; and determining a measure of navigation success for the navigation session based on the navigation session metric and particular category.

The developments described in this section are known to the inventors. However, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the developments described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section, or that those developments are known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.
Analysing navigation of an application can be difficult. This is in part because many applications are designed to be versatile to suit the needs of different users. Navigation can vary in design through a simple web application that contains a few main pages in comparison to multi-level architecture. Content can also vary between logged-in users and logged-out users and more. Furthermore, in many applications there are several ways in which a user can achieve the same end (e.g. reach a particular control for performing a particular function or reach particular content).
Because navigation has so many differences between applications, there are no set guidelines for organizing navigation. This is significant because the feedback and analysis from navigation could be used for improving navigation.
As a result, there exist few solutions for determining navigation of an application, and of those that do exist many are problematic because they are obtrusive for the user. Therefore there is a need for an ability to measure and analyse navigation of an application. Such analysis can be used in various ways, for example to improve or even optimise the navigation and user interface. One advantage of improving application navigation is that it reduces the time and navigational effort required for users to find information.

System and method for measuring navigation of a computer application


The present invention concerns fishing adapters for pilling a cable or the like through a hole drilled in a wall or other structure and in one aspect comprises a drill bit connector to enable the adapter to be demountably attached to a drill bit and an item connector to enable a cable or other elongate/linear item to be attached to the adapter, wherein the adapter further has a rotary coupling between the drill bit connector and the item connector to permit the drill bit to rotate as the adapter with cable or other elongate/linear item attached is pulled through a drilled hole without significantly twisting said cable or other elongate/linear item.

Fishing adapters of the type in question are used by workmen passing flexible electrical wire or cables through masonry, concrete or timber walls or through other solid or semi-solid structures/media. Fishing adapters are designed to help to reduce the time needed to install the wire or cables. Although such devices are known as fishing adapters, for the avoidance of doubt it should be understood that they are not generally used to randomly angle for items to hook onto. Instead the item to be pulled through the wall is deliberately placed on the hook when the hook projects through the wall.
By way of example, when installing cable from a satellite TV dish or TV aerial that is mounted to the outside of an external brick wall of a building it is necessary to pass the cable through a passageway that is drilled through the brick wall in order to reach the internal socket or to run the cable to the indoors receiver box or TV. A 300 mm or 400 mm long masonry drill bit or longer is required to penetrate fully through the thickness of most masonry walls and especially cavity walls and the drill bit should be of the type that is normally designed to vibrate as little as possible during hole creation, be as resistant as possible to snagging and be able to transport mortar or brick dust back out of the hole while remaining sharp while drilling into the brick or mortar. For the purposes of the present invention, however, the vibration-damping qualities of the drill bit are not particularly relevant. When the drill bit is being withdrawn, even if rotating under power and with hammer action selected, there is generally no vibration of the drill bit since the percussion hammer does not contact the drill bit.
Once the drill bit has penetrated to the far side of the wall, traditionally it would be withdrawn and a 'fishing tape' (or steel wire with a loop at the end) would be fed through the hole to the far side and the cable end attached to it to pull the cable on the fishing tape back through the hole. This is effective but inevitably somewhat time-consuming. More recently time-saving proposals have been made to modify the drill bit to have a notch to be able to hook the cable to the drill bit so that the cable can be pulled through the hole by the drill as the drill is retracted. This avoids the need to separately guide a 'fishing tape' through the hole first and can save valuable minutes of expensive work-man time. An example such modified drill bit arrangement is disclosed in UK Patent GB 23017888 and is useful but due to the location of the notch on the drill bit can weaken the drill bit tip and is also not fully secure and makes secure attachment of the cable difficult. A variant of the idea of using the drill bit itself as the fishing tool is, as exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,703, to provide a fishing adapter that holds the cable end and mounts by a latch mechanism to the drill bit and thus couples the cable to the drill bit for pulling the cable through the hole.
Despite advances in masonry drill bit design and coatings, snagging can still be a significant problem and notably when seeking to retract the drill bit after the cable passage hole has been formed. When a rotating drill bit passes through certain materials, including porous materials such as soft brick and stone used in the construction of buildings, dust and hard particles of debris are created. This effect is amplified if a drill with a percussion facility is employed. This debris often binds in the flutes around the drill bit. Often it is necessary to run the drill in forward or reverse rotation in order to be able to release it from brick and mortar dust and debris in the passageway to be able to retract the drill. This is straightforward to do when the drill is being retracted on its own but not straightforward if the cable is coupled to the drill bit.
In the cases where the cable is hooked directly onto a modified drill bit or via an intermediate fishing adapter that is latched to the drill bit there is often no opportunity to run the drill since this will risk serious damage and entanglement of the cable. Thus with the existing modified drill bit arrangement and fishing adapter arrangement the workman has no option but to repeatedly insert and retract the running drill to clear all debris before seeking to attach the cable to the bit. The hoped for time-savings of the modified drill bit arrangement and fishing adapter arrangement are thus often lost in practice. Furthermore, for some types of walls and constructions such as those with loose rubble in-filled cavities any amount of preparative clearing of the hole/passageway before trying to couple the cable to the drill bit may be fruitless and necessitate the workman resorting to using the traditional fishing tape approach instead. Modern cavity walls filled with insulation material in the cavity can present a similar problem when trying to use the traditional fishing devices.
It is an object of the present invention to address these short-comings of the prior art in order to provide a fishing adapter arrangement that is practical for use in a wide range of situations, including rubble in-filled walls and similar, and which avoids the need for preparative clearing of the hole/passageway.


A semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) may comprise at least one cell comprising at least one fin field-effect transistor (FET). The at least one cell may comprise a plurality of fins that extend in a first direction and are arranged in parallel to each other in a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction. A size of the at least one cell in the second direction may correspond to a number and a pitch of the plurality of fins.

1. Field
Some example embodiments may relate to semiconductor integrated circuits. Some example embodiments may relate to cells including a fin field effect transistor and/or semiconductor integrated circuits including the same.
2. Description of Related Art
A fin transistor such as a fin field-effect transistor (FET) or a fin type transistor is a three-dimensional (3D) transistor having a fin structure protruding from a substrate. Since the fin transistor may use an entire surface of the fin structure as a channel region, a sufficient channel length may be ensured. Accordingly, a short channel effect may be prevented or minimized, and thus problems of leakage current and a small area caused due to the short channel effect in a conventional planar transistor may be reduced or solved.

Cells including at least one fin field effect transistor and semiconductor integrated circuits including the same


A radiation detector has an electron emitter that includes a coated nanostructure on a support. The nanostructure can include a plurality of nanoneedles. A nanoneedle is a shaft tapering from a base portion toward a tip portion. The tip portion has a diameter between about 1 nm to about 50 nm and the base portion has a diameter between about 20 nm to about 300 nm. Each shaft has a length between about 100 nm to about 3,000 nm and an aspect ratio larger than 10. A coating covers at least the tip portions of the shafts. The coating exhibits negative electron affinity and is capable of emitting secondary electrons upon being irradiated by radiation. The nanostructure can also include carbon nanotubes (CNTs) coated with a material selected from the group of aluminum nitride (AlN), gallium nitride (GaN), and zinc oxide (ZnO). The detector further includes an electron collector positioned to collect electrons emitted from the electron emitter and to produce a signal indicative of the amount of electrons collected, and a signal processor operatively connected to the electron collector for processing the signal to determine a characteristic of the radiation. The detector can be used to detect radiations of changed particles or light such as X-ray.

It is known to use detectors that have a secondary-electron emitter to detect radiation of charged particles or photons. The emitter can emit secondary electrons upon being irradiated. The emitted electrons are collected to produce a signal to indicate the presence or a characteristic, such as energy, of the radiation.
Typically, not every radiation quanta incident on an electron emitter causes an emission. Thus, radiation detectors have less than 100% detection efficiency. It is desirable that a radiation detector has high detection efficiency.
For example, PCT application publication WO 03/075299, published on Sep. 12, 2003, entitled "Device for detecting charged particles and photons," to Bernd Fischer and Marian Cholewa ("Fischer"); and a report authored by M. Cholewa and E. koshchiy, "Thin Diamond film as highly efficient detector for changed particles," Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) Scientific Report 2003, (2004), p. 156, ("Cholewa"), each of which is incorporated herein by reference, disclose a detector consisting of a thin diamond layer on a supporting Si substrate and an electron multiplier unit. The diamond film is boron-doped and has high secondary electron emission yield. The detector is said to have almost 100% efficiency for detecting radiation of ions. However, detection efficiency for light radiations such as X-rays has not been reported and is expected to be lower. Further, boron-doped diamond film can be expensive and the production cost for radiation detectors having boron-doped diamond film as the electron emitter can be high. Thus, alternative or cheaper electron emitters with similar or even higher detection efficiencies are still desirable.
Several other techniques can be used to improve detection efficiency. For example, increasing the energy of incident radiation or subjecting the emitter to a high biasing voltage can increase emission efficiency. However, these techniques have limited applications and have limited effects. For instance, the energy of radiation to be detected may not be controllable; the biasing voltage cannot be increased without limit. It is desirable that high detection efficiency can be achieved over a wide range of radiation energy, biasing voltage, and types of radiations.
It has been reported that MgO coated on the tips of vertically-grown multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) can produce high secondary electron emissions by applying a high bias voltage of 800V. See for example, Won Seok Kim, Applied Physics Letters, (2002), vol. 81, pp. 1098-1100 ("Kim"), which is incorporated herein by reference. However, in this approach, good quality of MgO coating can only be produced by electron-beam evaporation, which leads to certain drawbacks such as limited coating area and high cost of equipment and production. Further, emitters that can exhibit even higher emission yields at low bias are still desirable.
Thus, there is a need for radiation detectors with alternative or improved electron emitters and have high detection efficiencies. Further, there is a need for radiation detectors that can be manufactured at reduced costs.

Radiation detector having coated nanostructure and method

Agency for Science, Technology and Research

Pohang University of Science and Technology


An imaging system incorporating adaptive compression which includes determining linear predictive differential residuals from an imager array pixel row. The differential residuals are classified into categories, each category having a range of differential residuals associated with it. The categories are analyzed to produce an ordered list having categories with most to least frequent residuals falling within a respective residual range associated with a respective category. The ordered list is then used to select a variable length encoding table with a matching ordered list. Variable length encoded category and range position offset data is output to a serializer unit, where the range position offset refers to a position in a range associated with a particular category.

As imaging technology has evolved, the density of imaging data has increased. Larger amounts of imaging data reduces speed and performance of imaging devices. Accordingly, a variety of approaches have been developed to improve the speed of imaging systems.
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a conventional integrated sensor imager device fabricated on a chip. An imaging sensor 1 with an array of pixels transmits analog pixel signals to a sample and hold analog signal processing circuit 2. The analog output signals from circuit 2 are digitized in an analog to digital converter 3 and the digital signals are processed in an image processor 4. Imaging data is read out of the processor 4 and sent to a serializer 5. The serializer 5 sends imaging data to a transmission unit 7. In some sensors systems, such as the one illustrated in FIG. 1, acquired images show a great deal of correlation from one pixel value to the next. Images with correlation attributes typically exhibit a low entropy when individual differences from one sample to the next are considered for compression (and transmission) instead of the samples from the original image. Entropy is defined as the amount of information content uncertainty of some random variable X. Images that exhibit a high degree of random values are said to have a high entropy, while images where most pixels have the same value are said to exhibit a low entropy.
The performance of imaging systems can be improved by using compression techniques. Imaging data compression can be grouped into two categories: lossy and lossless compression. Lossless and lossy compression are terms that describe whether or not, in the compression of a file, all original data can be recovered when the file is uncompressed. With lossless compression, every single bit of data that was originally in the file remains after the file is uncompressed. That is, all of the information is completely restored during the decompression of the data. Lossless compression is generally the technique of choice for text or spreadsheet files, where losing words or financial data could pose a problem. The Graphics Interchange File (GIF) is an image format that provides lossless compression.
Lossy compression, on the other hand, reduces a file by permanently eliminating certain information, especially redundant information. When the file is uncompressed, only a part of the original information is still there (although the user may not notice it). Lossy compression is generally used for video and sound, where a certain amount of information loss will not be detected by most users. The JPEG image file, commonly used for photographs and other complex still images, uses lossy compression techniques. JPEG compression allows a creator to decide how much loss to introduce and make a trade-off between file size and image quality.
Real-time lossless compression of images acquired from an image sensor can be accomplished using custom logic integrated on the same chip as the imager sensor. It is possible to accomplish lossless compression with a minimal amount of dedicated hardware.
As density of image data to be transmitted or communicated increases, designers have tried to find ways to maximize lossless compression of the image while at the same time minimizing the amount of dedicated hardware required. Also, many applications require the use of lossless compression due to additional design constraints. For example, remote endoscopy units in medical imaging applications have both hardware area and available bandwidth constraints. Variations of color and texture in medical imaging applications are very small and it is important, from a diagnostic point of view, that subtle variations are captured and not lost. Also, regulatory issues (e.g., FDA approval) will almost certainly be more complex in the with the use of lossy data compression, therefore data loss is undesirable. Accordingly, size, area and other constraints adversely affect speed and efficiency of conventional imaging systems. An increase in available bandwidth and performance due to an improved lossless compression is needed.

Compression system for integrated sensor devices


The invention relates to a device for supporting a MEMS component, especially a pressure sensor, having a substrate formed of a ceramic, a MEMS component on the substrate and walls forming a cavity for surrounding the MEMS component, in which the walls are formed from a machined ceramic cavity array.

It is known to form a so-called MEMS (micro electromechanical system) package (i.e. a packaged electronic module) which comprises a MEMS component which is at least partially surrounded by walls and/or a lid. A device is known which comprises the MEMS component which is supported on a substrate. Most often the substrate is formed of a ceramic or a printed circuit board (PCB). The walls and/or the lid of the known device are formed of plastic, metal or ceramic. However, it has been found that the dimensions, especially the footprint of the device, are difficult to be decreased, especially due to assembly and manufacturing tolerances.
It is known to form a so-called MEMS (micro electromechanical system) package (i.e. a packaged electronic module) which comprises a MEMS component which is at least partially surrounded by walls and/or a lid. A device is known which comprises the MEMS component which is supported on a substrate. Most often the substrate is formed of a ceramic or a printed circuit board (PCB). The walls and/or the lid of the known device are formed of plastic, metal or ceramic. However, it has been found that the dimensions, especially the footprint of the device, are difficult to be decreased, especially due to assembly and manufacturing tolerances


A downhole tubing joint assembly may have a first tubular and a second tubular axially movably disposed within the first tubular. The second tubular may have an initial position, a free-moving position, and a locked position. Additionally, at least one shear pin may be disposed between the first tubular and the second tubular. The shear pin may hold the second tubular in the initial position and is configured to shear upon application of a predetermined force. Further, a locking device may couple the first tubular and the second tubular together in the locked position. Furthermore, a cable may be connected to the first tubular. The cable may provide power to downhole tools. The cable is folded when the second tubular is in the initial position, and is extended when the second tubular is in the locked position.

In the oil and gas industry, operations may be performed in a wellbore at various depths below the surface. In order to recover hydrocarbons from a well, any number of electrical systems may be deployed for providing power within the wellbore to perform various operations. Many of these electrical systems need high-reliability power grids and power control units located on the surface or rig to power various devices. Power systems play a major role in providing the required and reliable power to the various electrical systems. In conventional methods, power is provided from external sources to the downhole tools via cable conductors to submerged process control equipment, pumps and compressors, transformers, motors, and other electrically operated equipment.

Expansion tubing joint with extendable cable


A system, in one embodiment, includes a cable modem termination system configured to perform at least the following processing: determining a first quantity related to uncorrectable erroneous codewords and a second quantity related to other codewords except the erroneous codewords in the data packet received by the cable modem termination system from the terminal device via the channel; calculating a first metric relating the first quantity to the second quantity; and in response to the first metric exceeding a first threshold for a first predetermined time, determining the channel as a damaged channel.

The present disclosure relates to the field of cable modem termination systems, and in particular to communications between terminal devices to cable modem termination systems, and the disclosure further relates to the field of network communication, and more specifically, to a method, a medium, a program product, and/or a modem for detecting channel state in the field of network communication.
A cable modem (CM) is a device that can access data through a cable TV network. The CM, when connected between a cable socket in the user's home and a network device (such as a computer), for example, sends data packets from the internet device (such as a personal computer (PC), VoIP phone, video IP device, etc.) to a cable modem termination system (CMTS).
The CMTS receives data packets from the CM and sends them to the corresponding network elements. In addition, the CMTS obtains the data required by the user's internet access device from the corresponding network element, and sends the data to the CM, and the CM provides the data from the CMTS to the network device.
In the communication between the CMTS and the CM, the direction of communication from the CM to the CMTS is called the upstream direction, and the channel used to transmit data in the upstream direction is called the upstream channel; the direction of communication from the CMTS to the CM is called the downstream direction, and the channel used to transmit data in the downstream direction is called the downstream channel.
In a communication network with cable transmission, such as a DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specifications) network, signals transmitted in the cable may be affected by various interference sources. For example, in a cable between a CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System) as a local end device and a modem as a user side access device, signal transmission may be interfered by LTE signals, WCDMA signals, QAM signals or analog signals, etc. These interference signals as noise will lower channel quality, making it difficult for transmission signals including control messages and user data to be received and decoded normally. As a result, the communication between the CMTS and the modem cannot be performed normally.
Due to the influence of noise, physical layer/medium access control layer control messages (hereinafter referred to as PHY/MAC control messages for short) such as SYNC (Synchronization) messages, MDD (MAC Domain Descriptor, Medium Access Control Domain Descriptor) messages, and FEC (Forward Error Correction) signals sent by the CMTS to the modem may not be correctly received and decoded by the modem, resulting in the loss of the PHY/MAC control messages. After the PHY/MAC control message has been lost for a certain period of time, the modem can determine that it is damaged from the CMTS to its downlink channel, so that the downlink channel is no longer used. In some cases, the noise level fluctuates continuously within a certain range. This may cause the PHY/MAC control message to be temporarily lost, then correctly received and locked by the modem before the aforementioned time period is reached, then temporarily lost again, and then correctly received and locked by the modem again, and so on, making the PHY/MAC control message continuously flap (flapping).
The flapping of the PHY/MAC control message means that the channel quality of the corresponding channel is poor, and the channel is no longer suitable for transmitting data. More seriously, the data sent by the CMTS to the modem will be fragmented and transmitted together on a plurality of channels between the CMTS and the modem, and thus the modem needs to decode them together based on the fragmented data transmitted on the plurality of channels to obtain packet data. The fragmented data transmitted on the channel on which the PHY/MAC control message is constantly flapping have a high codeword error rate, and thus, when they are decoded together with correct fragmented data on other channels, it is impossible to obtain the correct packet data, resulting in a rapid decrease in downstream throughput.
In the current related art, only the flapping of a specific PHY/MAC control message (i.e., FEC message) in the primary channel between the CMTS and the modem is detected. The modem determines that the FEC message is in a flapping state by recording the number of times the FEC message in the primary channel is lost and locked within a predetermined time, and stops using the primary channel when the flapping state is detected. The plurality of channels existing between the CMTS and the modem can be divided into primary channels and non-primary channels. User data can be transmitted on both the primary channels and the non-primary channels. There is usually one primary channel, and the CMTS sends management information including control information, configuration information, etc., for managing the modem to the modem through the primary channel. Since the modem only focuses on the flapping of the FEC message in the primary channel, the modem cannot know whether other PHY/MAC control messages in the primary channel and all types of PHY/MAC control messages in the non-primary channels are flapping or not. This makes it impossible for the modem to realize that the quality of the corresponding channel is lowered even if the aforementioned flapping occurs, and thus the modem will continue to transmit data on the channel with poor channel quality, resulting in a decrease in downstream throughput.
Therefore, in order to overcome the aforementioned problem that the modem cannot correctly identify the channel state in all situations, it is desirable to provide a way to enable the modem to correctly detect the channel state, regardless of the type of the channel and the type of the control message.


A wire rope including at least one metal wire and at least one fluoropolymer fiber. Preferably, the fluoropolymer fiber is present in an amount less than about 25 weight %, and in alternative embodiments less than 20 weight %, 15 weight %, 10 weight %, and 5 weight %. The fluoropolymer fiber is preferably PTFE, and most preferably expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE). The wire rope is useful in tensioned and bending applications.

Wire ropes are commonly used in high tension and bending stress applications. These applications include control cables (aircraft, automobile, motorcycle, and bicycle), lifting/hoisting/rigging and winching (forestry, defense department, fishing, marine, underground mining, structural, industrial and construction lifting, rigging and winching, oil and gas mining, utilities, elevator, crane, agriculture, aircraft, consumer products, office equipment, sporting goods, fitness equipment), running ropes (tramway, funiculars, ski lift, bridges, ropeways, shuttles), electrical wire or current carrying wires (flexible copper wires/cables (including ribbon cables, printed circuit board conductors), marine and fishing (towing, mooring, slings), navy and us defense department (arrestor cable, underway replenishment cables), reinforcement of rubber and plastics (tires, belts, hoses), and electrical mechanical applications (umbilicals for remote operated vehicles, fiber optic cables, tethers, plow trenches, tow rigs, seismic arrays).
The primary failure mechanisms for wire ropes are abrasion and bending fatigue. Rope life has been extended by altering the design to meet the requirements of the application. For example, the lay of a rope, that is the placement of the wires and strands during construction, can be left or right, regular, lang, or alternate. Furthermore, the strands can be constructed in various combinations of wires and wire sizes to enhance durability. Ropes are also lubricated to extend their service life.
Grease decreases frictional wear and inhibits corrosion. Such lubricants, however, break down over time and require costly and time-consuming replacement. Effective replenishment of lubricant is also a problematic process.
Fibers, such as polypropylene, nylon, polyesters, polyvinyl chloride, and other thermoplastics and thermoset materials and high modulus materials have been added to the rope construction, typically in the core. The fibers have typically been used to carry lubricants in an attempt to increase the abrasion resistance of wire ropes and for corrosion resistance. The use of these fibers to replace metal wire can come at the expense of weakening the rope and have not been put to widespread use because of insufficient durability improvements.
Incorporating pre-formed polymeric inserts into the construction of wire ropes has been proposed to increase rope life and reduce vibration and torsional forces within the rope. These inserts are made to exacting shapes and dimensions and require special care during rope manufacturing. They are relatively complicated and expensive to prepare and are difficult to accurately position in forming the rope.
Wire ropes still suffer from inadequate durability. The object of the present invention is to improve the life of wire ropes.

Wire rope incorporating fluoropolymer fiber


A new method to design and verify a multi-power integrated circuit device is achieved. A multi-power gate-level netlist is provided. This multi-power gate-level netlist includes multi-power net information. This multi-power gate-level netlist is translated to thereby create a non-multi-power gate-level netlist. This translating comprises removing the multi-power net information. Circuit cells are then placed and routed to create a physical view of the multi-power integrated circuit device. This placing and routing step uses the non-multi-power gate-level netlist. Text labels for the multi-power net information are attached to the physical view. The physical view and the multi-power gate-level netlist are compared to verify the correctness of the physical view and to complete the design and verification of the multi-power integrated circuit device.

(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to designing and verifying an integrated circuit device with multiple power domains, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for automatically placing and routing and then verifying a multi-power IC device.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
As deep sub-micron ASIC and IC technology evolves, integrated circuit devices are being designed and fabricated with digital blocks, analog blocks, and embedded memories on single chips. Such combinational IC devices are commonly called multi-power devices. In multi-power devices, it is well known that the digital circuits typically occupy the majority of the die area (typically more than 70%). These digital circuits have fast switching speeds and therefore generate a great deal of switching noise on the digital power supply. This noisy digital power is generally not acceptable for use in the analog circuits co-resident on the chip. Therefore, a separate analog power must be provided.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a typical mixed-mode integrated circuit device 10 is illustrated. In this device 10, a digital block 14 and an analog block 18 are co-resident. The digital circuit 14 comprises typical combinational logic gates and registers. The digital circuit physical view or layout may be generated using automatic place and route software that automatically selects standard digital layout cells from a library, places these cell into the layout, and then routes conductive lines to each standard cell. The digital block 14 has a set of input and output (I/O) pins 22 to provide connectivity outside the IC device 10.
The analog block 18 comprises the analog circuitry designed onto the IC device 10. For example, analog-to-digital converters or operational amplifiers may be integrated in the analog block 18. While the analog block may be automatically placed and routed, often, these circuits must be individually drawn using a computer-aided design (CAD) system to insure that performance specifications are achieved. However, the automated place and route software may still place and route the completed analog block 18 into the IC device layout 10. The analog block 18 has a set of I/O pins 26 that provide external connectivity.
The particular requirements of the example IC device 10 dictate the use of several power supplies. For example, the digital circuit 14 is powered by the VDD1 38 line and return ground VSS 30. As discussed above, the high speed switching capabilities of the digital circuit 14 tends to make the digital circuit power supply, VDD1 38, very noisy. That is, switching noise is coupled onto the dc voltage level of the power supply. Therefore, the analog circuit 18 is powered using a separate analog power supply VCC 34. Additionally, the digital power supply VDD1 38 and the analog power supply VCC 34 may comprise different voltage values.
In addition to the need to split the analog and digital supplies, there is an additional need for creating multiple power supplies or multi-power domains. The output pin 62 for the digital block 14 contains a pre-driver or low voltage (LV) portion 54 and a post-driver or high voltage (HV) portion 58. For example, the low voltage 54 portion and high voltage portion 58 may comprise a level-shifter circuit that is needed for shifting the internal voltage level of the digital circuit 14 up to a higher voltage used in the external system. In this case, the low voltage portion 54 of the output pin is powered by the VDD2 supply 42 while the high voltage portion 58 is powered by the VDD3 supply 46. For example, the VDD2 supply 42 may comprise a voltage of about 2.5 Volts and the VDD3 supply 46 may comprise a voltage of about 3.3 Volts.
These power supply signals 34, 38, 42, and 46 may be routed in a power cut cell 50. This power cut cell 50 is connected to the main power supply in normal operation. The power cut cell 50 comprises a number of diodes, not shown, between the two power rails to thereby provide separation between the various power domains on the IC device while also providing electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection paths. Further, more than one power cut cell 50 may be used on the IC device, as needs dictate. As will be seen, the use of these power cut cells 50 causes special problems when automated placement and routing software are used to design and layout these multi-power IC devices.
Referring now to FIG. 2, a flow chart of key steps in an integrated circuit design and verification method is illustrated. In a typical IC design, a gate-level netlist is generated as shown in step 100. This gate-level netlist is typically generated by a logic synthesis tool. Frequently, the design of the analog and digital blocks of the multi-power device are performed by separate engineers or engineering teams. The circuits are simulated on the CAE workstation tool to verify their performance against the design specification or perhaps against a high-level model.
A typical scenario for the design process involves significant segmentation of the design task. For example, it is a frequent occurrence in the art for one company, in this case referred to as the customer, to design an integrated circuit device and perform verification simulations at the gate-level. Once the first company is satisfied with the correctness of the circuit design, the design netlist is handed off to a second company where the design is converted to a physical view or layout sufficient for the creation of photolithographic reticles. These reticles, or masks, are then used, perhaps by yet a third company, to fabricate the integrated circuit devices in a wafer fabrication facility.
It is important to note that, at this point in the process, the gate-level netlist file 100 typically does not contain multi-power nets. This is because the typical gate-level simulation tools, such as are used for simulating the digital block, are capable of only binary simulations. Pre-simulation and post-simulation analysis is carried out by the customer on the gate-level netlist without the multi-power information or nets in step 104. Further, static timing analysis (STA) is completed using the gate-level netlist without multi-power nets in step 108. The customer evaluates the results of the simulations and analysis of steps 104 and 108 to verify the correctness of the design in step 112. If further refinements are warranted, the schematic and netlist are updated in step 118 to generate a new netlist for further simulation and analysis. Once the design is deemed correct in step 112, the customer is able to release the gate-level netlist 100 in step 116. Once again, this netlist does not contain the multi-power net information that would be needed to fully verify a completed physical layer.
Referring now to FIG. 3, the customer gate-level netlist 120 without multi-power nets is brought into the company where the physical view or layout steps will be performed. This gate-level netlist 120 is imported into a placement and routing software system in step 124. The placement and routing software will parse the gate-level netlist and select all of the standard logic cell components needed for the design. These standard logic cells will then be placed in an array in the area of the IC layout designated for the logic section. Finally, a conductive line layer will be automatically routed to connect each standard cell in the array to the appropriate inputs and outputs.
Note that several special techniques must be used in this placement and routing sequence to compensate for the use of multiple power domains on the design. First, the netlist must be manually edited to attach a ":" to each of the power net references the first placement and routing step 124. This will cause all of the power nets to be recognized as 'virtually shorted' by the placement and routing software. Once the first placement and routing pass is completed in step 124, a physical view or layout is generated in GDS format as output 128.
At this point, a first layout versus schematic verification (LVS) is performed in step 132. Note that this LVS step 132 is performed using the original customer gate-level netlist 120 without multi-power nets. After the physical view output 128 is verified by the LVS step 132, a second placement and routing operation is performed in step 134. In the second placement and routing operation 134, the text labeling is added to the top view layout. Particular conductive lines and nodes are thereby labeled as belonging to particular power domains in the multi-power scheme and the power domains are separated. The second placement and routing operation of step 134 generates the second physical view output 138.
The second physical view output 138 is now ready for LVS. However, the customer gate-level netlist 120 must now be revised to add all of the multi-power net information in step 142. The revised netlist is thereby generated 144. Finally, the second physical view 138 is verified by a LVS check against the revised netlist 144 to complete an LVS verification with multi-power nets in step 146.
Notice that the original customer gate-level netlist 120 has been altered in two ways. First, in step 124, the original netlist 120 was manually altered to add the ":" to allow the placement and routing software to work. Second, the original netlist 120 was altered to add the multi-power nets into the netlist in step 142. Each step of alteration is risky for the second company to undertake. Any deviation in the original netlist 120 received from the customer could cause an error to be introduced that the customer is unaware of. Further, the customer has no opportunity to simulate or analyze the altered netlist to thereby detect errors using the customer's design tools. Finally, the process sequence forces the company performing the IC device layout to perform two, separate passes of placement and routing and LVS verification. This extra processing ties up very expensive human and computing resources.
Several prior art inventions describe multi-power devices and integrated circuit design methods and tools. U.S. Pat. No. 6,043,128 to Kamiya teaches a method to form a semiconductor device capable of handling multiple power sources. Specifically, the method teaches the fabrication of MOS transistors with differing gate oxide thicknesses. U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,824 to Lam et al discloses a method and an apparatus for generating a gate-level netlist for an integrated circuit macrocell. The gate-level netlist is suitable for use in a simulation model and is derived from the physical layout of the macrocell. U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,288 to Jones et al teaches a method and an apparatus for designing an integrated circuit. A behavioral model and an initial logic cell library are provided to a design synthesis tool. This design synthesis tool processes these inputs to create a gate-level schematic netlist. Further processing redefines cell boundaries, transistor sizes, power rails, and cell pitches and heights to thereby optimize the design. A new hybrid cell library is then created based on these optimizations. This new hybrid cell library is then used for automatic placement and routing. U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,416 to Gupte et al teaches a method and an apparatus for automatically generating synthesis scripts and hierarchical flow connectivity diagrams for use in an integrated circuit design. U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,475 to Gupte et al discloses a method and an apparatus to verify an ASIC design using a test bench module.

Method to design and verify an integrated circuit device with multiple power domains

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company


A round baler includes an expansible, upwardly converging wedge shaped bale chamber having an opening at its bottom and being formed in part by first and second belt runs that respectively converge upwardly from first and second belt support rolls respectively located at the front and rear of the inlet opening. Expansion of the baling chamber works against a downwardly biased tensioning frame pivotally mounted to opposite side walls, the first and second belt runs extending between a fixed and a pivotal roll carried by the frame with the pivotal roll being controlled to move closer to the fixed roll as the tensioning frame is forced upwardly by a growing bale. A fingered rake structure bridges the gap between the fixed and pivotal rolls to keep crop material from exiting the chamber. A crop braking structure is mounted above the first belt support roll and includes fingers projecting downwardly between the belts of the first run of belts and into the opening to the chamber to impede the flow of crop being carried downwardly by the first run of belts. An alternate feeding structure may be mounted to the baler below and rearwardly of the first belt support roll and includes feeding lugs extending through slots defined by stripper vanes, the vanes having ends of the crop braking fingers received therein and cooperating with the fingers to form a smooth crop engaging surface.

The present invention relates to a round baler having an expansible baling chamber formed by belts having front and rear spans that converge upwardly to define a wedge shaped baling chamber and more particularly relates to structure for forming a bale core in such a baling chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,633,659, issued 6 Jan. 1987, discloses a round baler having a wedge shape baling chamber that opens at the bottom and is supplied by a pick-up. Located in the forward lower region of the chamber is a so-called starter roll arranged to contribute in bringing the supplied crop into rotation to form a bale a bale core. The front and rear regions of the baling chamber are defined by first and second spans of a plurality of side-by-side mounted belts. At the beginning of the process of forming the bale, a vortex of crop to be baled develops within the baling chamber on the basis of which a bale core should develop. Under unfavorable harvesting conditions, clogging can occur in the supply to the baling chamber.

Round baler having improved bale core starting structure


A composite panel is formed from a honeycomb core panel with a foam material filling the tubular cells and a fibrous reinforcing cover sheets extending over the top and bottom of the panel. The cover sheets are filled with a set resin material which extends from the cover sheets into the porous fibrous material of the walls of the core panel so as to form an integral structure of the resin extending between the walls and the sheets.

A number of prior proposals have been made for manufacturing a composite core panel formed from a honeycomb panel formed with tubular cells at right angles to the panel where the panel is filled with a reinforcing foam extending through the cells so as to provide an enhanced compression strength of the core in a direction longitudinally of the cells. This strength is commonly significantly greater than the compression strength of the core and the foam separately. The core panel is then covered on top and bottom by reinforcing sheets of a fibrous reinforcing material which are then resin filled by a resin impregnation process, for example infusion, so as to attach the top and bottom sheets to the foam and honeycomb core panel. The compression strength of the core panel has a direct relationship to the shear strength of the finished panel so that it has been desirable to maximize this compression strength. Such panels have become widely used for many products
The materials commonly used for the honeycomb panel are phenolic paper, aluminum and various types of plastic materials. The selection is made in part dependant on cost relative to the desired strength with the aluminum of course providing the highest strength at the highest cost. Phenolic paper is the simplest and cheapest option and is very widely used. The honeycomb, in many cases, is formed by bonding strips side by side with the tubular cells formed around rods or simply by stretching the bonded strips longitudinally of the panel to open them up. Adhesive and heat sealing can be used for attaching the strips.
However there is always an ongoing requirement for yet further increasing the strength of such panels to enable additional markets to be entered or for strength requirements to be met with a thinner panel of less material.

Composite material formed from foam filled honeycomb panel with top and bottom resin filled sheets


An improved high-capacity getter pump, suitable for creating and maintaining the vacuum, comprising a plurality of porous sintered blades made from a non-evaporable getter material and having a first main surface; a second main surface, parallel to said first surface and spaced therefrom by a thickness of 0.5-5.0 mm; wherein said blades are arranged in a housing and are separated from each other by a gas conductance, with the adjacent surfaces of adjacent blades being spaced from each other by a distance of 0.5-10 mm.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved high-capacity getter pump, suitable for creating and maintaining the vacuum, for instance in an ultra-high vacuum chamber or in a high-energy particle accelerator.
2. The Prior Art
Getter pumps are well known in the art and are suitable for creating and maintaining the vacuum. The first commercially successfull getter pump, described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,780,501, was employing, in a housing, a pleated metal strip having a getter metal embedded therein. Additional examples of such getter pumps were described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,609,064; 3,662,522; 3,961,897 and 4,137,012. Although these former getter pumps enjoyed a wide commercial success and market acceptance, they were still suffering from a drawback, residing in a limited sorption capacity inside a given volume.
In order to increase said sorption capacity, it was suggested to simply fill the pump housing with a getter material in the form of pellets, having size and shape similar to those (tablets) used in the field of drugs; such pellets were typically showing a cylindrical shape, with a diameter of 5-10 mm and a height of 2-10 mm. However, when the housing is filled with such pellets, the access of the gas to the bulky getter structure is far from being satisfactory. Another drawback, bound to the use of said pellets, was their tendency to produce undesired loose particles; moreover the bulky structure show safety problems because of the possibility of a high exothermicity of the getter material during possible ignitions (in particular when the used getter material has a low activation temperature).
Accordingly, it is a first object of the present invention to provide an improved getter pump substantially free from one or more of the drawbacks hereinabove.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved getter pump having a higher sorption rate per unit volume, with respect to the getter pumps of the prior art.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved getter pump having a higher sorption capacity per unit volume, with respect to the getter pumps of the prior art.
An additional object of the invention is to provide an improved getter pump resorting neither to pleated coated strips nor to pellets of getter material.
Other objects of the invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, by reference to the following disclosure and drawings.


A portable fuel cell charger has a water source and an electrolyzer coupled to the water source and adapted to be coupled to a power source. A fuel cell cartridge coupler is coupled to the electrolyzer and is adapted to be coupled to a fuel cell cartridge for providing pressurized hydrogen from the electrolyzer to the fuel cell cartridge.

Fuel cells are fast becoming high energy density portable fuel sources that may replace many batteries in use today. One form of fuel cell contains a fuel that provides hydrogen to a membrane that operates to product electricity by combining the hydrogen with oxygen to form water. A fuel that may be used, such as metal hydrides or other substance that stores hydrogen and releases it at selected pressures. They may be recharged by exposing them to pressurized hydrogen. The pressurized hydrogen is typically produced in a commercial environment and stored in pressurized containers. There is a need for the ability of consumers to recharge fuel cells in their homes for similar reasons that lead to the ability of consumers to currently recharge common rechargeable batteries. Further, there is a desire to recharge fuel cells quickly.

Portable hydrogen fuel container charger