A bandgap reference voltage generator has a first stage that generates a first current that is complementary-to-absolute-temperature (Ictat) and a second stage that generates a current that is proportional-to-absolute-temperature (Iptat). The Ictat and Iptat currents are both forced through a summing resistor to generate a voltage that is relatively independent of temperature, since the Ictat and Iptat currents cancel out each other's temperature dependencies. A PMOS output transistor drives current to an output load to maintain the load at the reference voltage. An op amp drives the gate of the PMOS output transistor and has inputs connected to emitters of PNP transistors in the second stage. A series of resistors generate the reference voltage between the PMOS output transistor and ground and drives bases of the PNP transistors and includes the summing resistor. Parasitic PNP transistors in an all-CMOS process are used. The generator operates with a 1-volt power supply.

Many kinds of electronic circuits such as voltage regulators and analog-to-digital converters compare voltages as a fundamental part of their operation. For example, an operational amplifier (op amp) compares two voltages applied to its input, and then amplifies the detected voltage difference. One of the applied voltages may be an external voltage that varies depending on operating conditions and events, while the other input is a relatively fixed voltage known as a reference voltage.
Ideally, the reference voltage would be a truly fixed voltage that never varied in voltage. However, reference voltages in real-life systems often vary significantly with variations in temperature, power-supply voltage, noise from other circuits, loading of its output, etc. Circuit designers try to minimize these variations in reference voltages by careful and creative circuit design.
While an external reference could be applied to a system, the high level of integration desired in today's systems provides significant cost and size savings when the reference is generated on-chip. Bandgap voltage reference circuits are widely popular for internal reference circuits, since the reference voltage ultimately depends on well-understood semiconductor device properties such as voltages produced at p-n junctions.
Traditional bandgap reference circuits used bipolar transistors such as PNP transistors. However, most high-integration systems use complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. A hybrid technology with both CMOS and bipolar transistors known as BiCMOS has been used, but it is more expensive than standard CMOS. Additional mask layers are often used with BiCMOS, and power consumption is usually higher.
The higher circuit density on today's integrated circuit chips is made possible by shrinking device sizes. These smaller transistors have thinner insulator layers and are not able to withstand voltages that were used just a few years ago. Power supply voltages of 5 volts could break down transistors that are now designed for 2 or 1.5-volt power supplies.
While power supply voltages have been reduced to prevent damage to the smaller transistors used in today's circuits, other fundamental device characteristics have not tracked. For example, the transistor threshold voltage has remained at about 0.7 to 0.5 volts. As further device shrinks require that power supplies be reduced to near 1.0 volt, design of circuits that can still operate and turn on transistors using a 0.5 to 0.7 volt threshold is challenging.
Many bandgap reference circuits can only operate using power supply voltage above 2 volts. Some bandgap reference circuits that are designed to operate with 1-volt supplies suffer from low current amplification (low beta), and sacrifice current drive strength to achieve low-voltage operation. Poor power-supply rejection ratios (PSRR) and noise due to large impedances are typical.
Bandgap reference circuits can be difficult to implement when the power supply is close to 1 volt since turning on an op amp from a PNP transistor reference requires that the NMOS transistor threshold voltage Vth be less than the base-emitter junction voltage Vbe. Since Vtn and Vbe are close to each other, process yields may be low due to this requirement.
Bandgap reference circuits may feed into amplifiers that will amplify any noise that is injected into the sensitive bandgap reference circuit. Noise may be fed back into the bandgap reference circuit from its load, especially when the load is insufficiently driven by a low current drive amplifier. The reference voltage may then fluctuate due to loading noise, and this noise may even be amplified.
What is desired is a bandgap reference circuit that can be implemented in a standard CMOS process using a parasitic PNP transistor. A bandgap reference circuit that can operate with a 1-volt power supply and yet still have a high current drive to its load is desirable. A bandgap reference circuit with a low startup voltage and good line regulation and noise rejection is desirable. A bandgap reference circuit that compensates for temperature is desirable.

Low voltage high-output-driving CMOS voltage reference with temperature compensation

Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd


An apparatus supported on a truck bed and including a high pressure water conduit for dislodging earthen material for evacuation by a suction conduit. The evacuated material and water pass through a cyclone separator with the removed air directed through a secondary separator. A blower intake induces low pressure in the separators. Solids and water removed by the first mentioned separator are subjected to screening whereat water is reclaimed and returned to a tank from which a high pressure water pump draws. An air lock receives the earthen material and water from the separator. A modified air lock is disclosed for use with highly abrasive material. The screen is positionable about a horizontal axis by a hydraulic cylinder to maintain desired inclination for maximum dewatering of the evacuated material. A water conduit and valve system permit periodic drawing of water from a secondary tank when the level of the reclaimed water in the recovery tank falls below a certain level. Switches are provided at the site of the ground hole being formed to permit a worker to control both the high pressure water flow and the suction applied by the evacuation tool. An air box is utilized to provide a vacuum source for the evacuation of earthen material in those instances where dislodgement of earthen material is by a suction force alone without high pressure water.

The present invention pertains generally to mobile equipment for the forming of and removal of earthen material from a ground hole by a pressurized water flow and suction.
In the uncovering of buried utilities great care should be exerted to avoid contacting the buried utility article with mechanical digging means. Present practice is to remove earthen material, when in the proximity of the buried article, by manual digging which is both time consuming and hence costly. The use of a backhoe machine or drilling equipment encounters the risk of damage to the buried utility article as contact with a pipeline, an electrical cable or fiber optic telephone cable most likely results in damage and costly repair of the utility item. In some cases such contact presents a risk to the equipment operator.
Additionally, the use of mechanical digging equipment is also inefficient as such equipment necessitates transport to and from the digging site. Mechanical digging equipment is also impractical from the standpoint that when only verification of utility depth is necessary by a utility contractor, such can be done by the forming of a relatively small diameter ground hole not possible with commonly used mechanical digging equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,717 is of interest in that it discloses a mobile digging apparatus using pressurized water and suction. No provision is made for reuse of water hence a convenient water source is necessary which is not always the case. Further, the excavated dirt and water are collected in a tank which requires periodic dumping resulting in a dumping problem as various governmental prohibitions exist against such dumping at all but approved sites. In certain areas of the United States water shortages exist making the one time use of water to dislodge earthen material impractical from a water conservation standpoint. The transport of a water supply tank and a second or collection tank for water and earthen material is such as to require a vehicle of considerable size and weight to hinder maneuvering in all but large, well surfaced areas.

Apparatus for excavating earthen material by evacuation of same


A vehicle suspension system having a central beam formed with a mounting flange on each side thereof. The beam is pivotally mounted to a suspension frame at one end, and rigidly attached to an axle at another end along substantially the entire length of the axle. A control arm is pivotally mounted to each mounting flange at one end, and to the suspension frame at another end whereby the pivot axis of the center beam and the control arms are axially aligned. Additionally, the pivot connection of the central beam provides one or two bushings which may have a constant spring rate, or which may include a spring rate which varies in the vertical and horizontal direction. In a second and third embodiment, a lift mechanism is provided for raising the axle from a ground engaging to a non-ground engaging position.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates generally to an improved suspension system for land vehicles. More particularly, the invention relates to trailing beam air suspension systems. Specifically, the invention relates to trailing beam air suspension systems having a center beam.
2. Background Information
With the advent following World War II of large load carrying capacity trucks and trailers in this country, came the need to provide vehicles with multiple axles for increasing the capacity of trucks over that of previously existing designs. While the use of additional axles effectively increased load-carrying capacity, it was soon realized that as the number of load bearing axles increased on a given vehicle, a number of difficulties arose. Specifically, tire scuffing, loss in fuel economy and the inability to safely corner, all work problems associated with multiple axle vehicles. Mitigation of these problems was a primary concern to the industry, which concern resulted in the development of a variety of suspension systems, both liftable and non-liftable. Liftable suspensions could be selectively raised from the road surface or lowered into engagement with the road surface when needed, thereby mitigating a number of the aforementioned problems. Additionally, non-liftable axles have been designed for a variety of purposes, and specifically a number of specialty chassis-cab type vehicles require additional load-carrying capacity. More specifically, auxiliary suspension systems are necessary for trash compactor trucks and concrete mixing and delivery vehicles. Cab-chassis trucks of this type require additional suspensions as the truck has a relatively large weight when compared to the overall vehicle length.
Suspension systems may take a variety of forms, including parallelogram suspensions, and leading and trailing beam-type suspensions. Generally, leading and trailing beam-type suspensions include a pair of longitudinally extending beams which may be either flexible or rigid, one of which is located adjacent each of two longitudinally extending frame rails located beneath the body of the truck or trailer. These beams are pivotally connected at one end to a hanger bracket extending downwardly from the frame, with an axle extending between the beams adjacent the other end. Additionally, an air or coil spring is generally positioned intermediate each frame rail and a corresponding beam. The beam may extend forwardly or rearwardly of the pivot, thus defining a leading or trailing beam suspension respectively.
Beam-type suspension systems are used on a significant number of trucks and trailers, and must have sufficient strength to resist lateral and axial deflection while remaining stable. Lateral forces act on a suspension system in a variety of ways with the most common being that lateral forces act on a suspension as a vehicle negotiates a turn. As the vehicle turns, shear stress acts between the tire and the road surface causing a lateral stress to be transferred through the tire-wheel assembly to the axle. The axle, being rigidly attached to the suspension, transfers the lateral force into the beam causing it to deflect laterally. This lateral deflection can be extreme, and under certain loading conditions, can cause the tires to contact the vehicle frame rails.
Roll stability refers to the counter-acting forces operating on the ends of an axle causing one end of the axle to raise relative to the frame a distance greater than the other end of the axle. Roll instability is encountered when the vehicle frame tilts or rolls relative to the axle; for example, when the vehicle negotiates a turn such that the centrifugal and acceleration forces reduce the downward forces acting on the inside wheel of the turn, and increase the downward force acting on the outside wheel of the turn. Roll instability is also realized when the axle moves relative to the frame; for example, during diagonal axle walk.
Diagonal axle walk occurs when the wheels of the opposite ends of the axle encounter unlike irregularities in a road or off-the-road surface, such as when one wheel rides over a curb. As the wheel rides over the curb, an upward force acts on that wheel, and a counteracting downward force acts on the wheel not riding over the curb. If the suspension is unable to provide flexibility between the axle and the frame as the tire-wheel assembly travels over the curb or ground irregularity, or alternatively to provide flexibility between the axle and the frame as the vehicle negotiates a turn, the suspension will be roll rigid, and may cause axle breakage or over stress vehicle components, such as the frame. As such, beam-type suspensions must be roll stable while providing sufficient vertical support to retain the vehicle above the road surface.
Further, most vehicles designed with a beam-type suspension have a path of travel which is parallel to the frame rails extending longitudinally under the vehicle. For vehicles having only a front and a rear axle, the vehicle path of travel is generally defined by the parallel and spaced apart rear tires such that the direction of travel of the rear tires defines the path of travel of the vehicle. For vehicles having only a front and a rear axle, this path of travel is adequate and safe even if the rear tires are not positioned parallel with the vehicle frame rails. However, when multiple axles are utilized, such as when auxiliary suspension systems are provided on a vehicle, the path of travel of each axle must be aligned with the line of travel of the remaining axles carried by the vehicle for safe vehicle operation.
Specifically, if one axle is aligned with the longitudinal frame rails extending under the vehicle, and a second axle is offset relative to the longitudinal frame rails of the vehicle, as the vehicle moves over the road surface, one axle and its associated tire-wheel assemblies will track along the path of travel of the vehicle, while the second axle, which includes tire-wheel assemblies which do not rotate in a direction parallel to the path of travel of the vehicle, will drag under the vehicle increasing tire scuffing, tire wear, and creating a generally unsafe condition. When multiple axles are utilized, generally all tires affect the vehicle path of travel to some degree such that if one axle is offset relative to the vehicle path of travel, all tires will scuff, and drag under the vehicle. Additionally, as the tires drag under the vehicle due to their misalignment, they continually add lateral forces to the suspension system, and consequently to the vehicle frame substantially reducing the life span of both the vehicle frame and suspension system components.
However, if the axles are aligned relative to the frame rails such that the tires rotate in a line parallel to the vehicle path of travel, the tire-wheel assemblies will rotate smoothly under the vehicle substantially increasing vehicle safety and vehicle performance as well as substantially increasing tire life.
For the above reasons, and specifically for safety and vehicle performance, it is necessary that each axle be carefully aligned with the vehicle, and with other load bearing axles carried by the vehicle to present a plurality of parallel and spaced apart tire-wheel assemblies for engaging the road surface and defining the precise direction of vehicle movement along the vehicles path of travel. Such alignment is difficult for a number of reasons. Trailers as well as suspension systems may be manufactured out of tolerance, vehicle frame rails may not be perfectly parallel, and suspension systems may not be accurately mounted to the frame rails. These problems may be especially pronounced when suspension systems are added to existing equipment which may have experienced significant use.
Thus, to accommodate for the above inconsistencies in manufacturing and suspension system installation, an alignment mechanism is often included as part of the suspension system such that after the suspension system is installed on a vehicle, the axle may be moved relative to the vehicle to assure that the tire-wheel assemblies rotatably depending from the axle are substantially parallel to the vehicle path of travel. While a significant number of devices have been provided for this purpose, axle alignment continues to be a difficult process. Specifically, adjusting the axle relative to the beams has a number of problems associated therewith. Alignment of the axle relative to the beam often includes welding the adjustment collar to the mounting bracket after initial alignment. As such, it is difficult and expensive to realign the axle after the vehicle has been in service.
An additional problem associated with trailing beam type suspensions is the increased torque load which is input into the axle. More specifically, inasmuch as the beams are spaced apart a distance from 35 inches to 41 inches, and each beam pivot point receives between 20,000 and 30,000 pounds of force when engaging in roll or diagonal axle walk, with each beam length being approximately 20 inches, it is not uncommon for the axle to be subjected to 50,000 foot pounds of torque in the area intermediate the respective leading or trailing beams. The axle is thus subjected to extremely high torque loads substantially affecting the axle and its operational characteristics. Additionally, the central portion of the axle positioned intermediate the trailing beams is not reinforced, thereby further effecting the axle resistance to torque load.
The need thus exists for a suspension system which is lightweight, is roll stable, and provides adequate vertical load-carrying characteristics, and which is resistant to lateral and longitudinal axial forces. Additionally, the need exists for a suspension system which provides an axle to beam connection which is lightweight, easy to assemble, simple to manufacture and easy to align relative to the vehicle path of travel. Still further, the need exists for a suspension system which may be utilized as a tag axle, or alternatively as an auxiliary axle beneath a usual truck or trailer. The need also exists for a suspension system which substantially eliminates axle torque while strengthening the central portion of the axle.


A method of automatic synthesis of sequential quantum Boolean circuits for transferring a self-timed circuit into a sequential quantum Boolean circuit and synthesizing the sequential quantum Boolean circuit, which comprises the steps of: (A) transferring the self-timed circuit into a state graph having M state nodes, where M is an integer; (B) determining whether the state graph is reversible; (C) encoding the M state nodes by using a unique state encoding when step (B) decides that the state graph is reversible, and producing a unique state coding reversible state graph; (D) transferring the unique state coding reversible state graph (USCRSG) into a corresponding self-timed transformation graph; (E) performing a state decomposition on the self-timed transformation graph and producing a decomposed self-timed transformation graph; and (F) constructing a quantum Boolean circuit of the decomposed self-timed transformation graph.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the technical field of Boolean circuit synthesis and, more particularly, to a method of automatic synthesis of sequential quantum Boolean circuits.
2. Description of Related Art
Due to the discovery of Shor's prime factorization and Grover's fast database search method, quantum computing becomes one of the most rapidly expanding technology fields. To perform quantum method, the required unitary operations should be expressed as a sequence of basic operations which can be implemented by a quantum computer. To implement a quantum computer, quantum Boolean circuits need to be constructed first.
The major differences between conventional circuits and quantum ones are their logic gates and wires. Firstly, conventional circuits are based on AND, OR and NOT gates and quantum Boolean circuits are based on NOT, Controlled-Not and Controlled-Controlled-Not gates (i.e. Toffoli gates). Secondly, the wires in conventional circuits are used to connect components. This is very different in quantum Boolean circuits because wires represent time evolution.
Due to the differences between the conventional circuits and the quantum ones, there is a method to synthesize combinational quantum Boolean circuits based on transformation tables. As in the cited method, any general m-to-n bit combinational Boolean logic can be synthesized by using Toffoli gates. In the meantime, there are many methods proposed for synthesizing the combinational quantum Boolean circuits. However, there are no related works on synthesizing sequential circuit behaviors into quantum Boolean circuits yet. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a method of automatic synthesis of sequential quantum Boolean circuits to mitigate and/or obviate the aforementioned problems.

Method of automatic synthesis of sequential quantum Boolean circuits


A fuel injector for an internal combustion engine having a crankshaft is disclosed. The fuel injector has plunger to displace fuel and an electronically controlled spill valve. The fuel injector also has a nozzle member having at least one orifice and a valve needle disposed within the nozzle member, and movable against a spring bias to selectively inject pressurized fuel through the at least one orifice. The fuel injector also has an electronically controlled check valve. The valve needle is automatically moved to inject pressurized fuel when the pressure of the fuel within the fuel injector reaches a predetermined valve opening pressure determined by a spring bias. Valve elements of the electronically controlled spill and check valves are both in a flow blocking position before the pressure of the fuel within the fuel injector reaches the predetermined valve opening pressure. Injection terminates when the valve element of the electronically controlled check valve is moved to a flow-passing position.

Fuel injected engines use injectors to introduce fuel into the combustion chambers of the engine. The injectors may be hydraulically or mechanically actuated with mechanical, hydraulic, or electrical control of fuel delivery. For example, a mechanically-actuated, electronically-controlled fuel injector includes a plunger movable by a cam-driven rocker arm to pressurize fuel within a bore of the injector. One or more electronic devices disposed within the injector are then actuated to deliver the pressurized fuel into the combustion chambers of the engine at one or more predetermined conditions.
One example of a mechanically-actuated, electronically-controlled fuel injector is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,856,222 (the '222 patent) issued to Forck on Feb. 15, 2005. The '222 patent describes a fuel injector having a spring-biased, solenoid-controlled spill valve and a spring-biased, solenoid-controlled injection control valve. Both the spill valve and the injection control valve are associated with a cam-driven plunger and a control chamber of a valve needle. As the plunger is initially forced by a cam into a bore within the fuel injector, fuel within the bore flows past the spill valve to a low pressure drain. When the spill valve is electrically closed during further movement of the plunger into the bore, pressure within the bore builds. When an injection of fuel is desired, the injection control valve is electronically moved to connect the control chamber to the low pressure drain, thus permitting movement of the valve needle away from a seating to commence injection. To end injection, the injection control valve disconnects the control chamber from the low pressure drain to return the valve needle to its seating.
Although the injector of the '222 patent may sufficiently inject fuel into the combustion chambers of an engine, it may be limited when injecting small quantities of fuel. In particular, because both start of injection and end of injection are controlled with the same injection control valve, the valve element of the injection control valve may not have reached a point of stability after initiating start of injection when it must again move to end the injection. This lack of stability may create unpredictable and unrepeatable injection characteristics that could cause improper, unpredictable, unstable, and/or undesired operation of the engine.
The control method of the present disclosure solves one or more of the problems set forth above.


Embodiments of the present invention provide an earphone volume adjustment method and apparatus. The method includes: when it is detected that an intensity of external environmental noise is greater than a preset threshold, obtaining position information and/or a motion status of a user; determining a time window according to the position information and/or the motion status; and adjusting earphone volume according to an intensity of external environmental noise in the time window. According to the embodiments of the present invention, an inappropriate phenomenon such as turning up or turning down the earphone volume in a short time can be avoided, and the earphone volume can be appropriately adjusted by comprehensively considering the intensity of the external environmental noise and the position information and/or the motion status of the user. Therefore, user experience is improved.

With development of mobile terminals, earphones become standard accessories of the mobile terminals. A user can perform activities such as calling, listening to music, and watching movies by using an earphone. However, the user has many inconveniences when using the earphone. For example, the user needs to manually adjust volume as an environment changes, or the user needs to manually adjust volume when voice source quality is different.
Currently, a mobile terminal may automatically adjust earphone volume according to a user scenario. Specifically, the mobile terminal detects external environmental noise, and analyzes the external environmental noise to determine the user scenario. Then, according to the user scenario, the mobile terminal obtains an earphone volume value corresponding to the scenario, and controls a receiver of the mobile terminal to output corresponding volume. The mobile terminal pre-stores scenario information and an earphone volume value corresponding to the scenario information.
According to the foregoing technology, the user scenario is determined according to the external environmental noise. Because an error may exist in scenario determining, the earphone volume cannot be appropriately adjusted. For example, when a user is running, an ambulance passes. Earphone volume is turned up due to a relatively loud sound of the ambulance. After the ambulance runs away quickly, the earphone volume is turned down rapidly. Overadjustment in such a short time is not only inappropriate, but also brings relatively poor actual experience to the user.

Earphone volume adjustment method and apparatus


A disposable cleaning head comprising a sponge, scrim and a one-piece flexible fitment having an engagement member adapted to removably engage a handle. Preferably, the scrim includes a cleaning composition having at least one surfactant. The cleaning composition can optionally include one or more bactericidal agents, bleaching agents, chelants, salts, coloring agents, fragrances and preservatives.

Cleaning a toilet bowl is typically one of the most undesirable jobs for most persons. Nevertheless, toilet bowls must be kept clean in order to prevent sanitary problems, the potential for irritable smells, and the possibility of harmful bacteria buildup.
As a result, various types of bowl cleaning products are known. Such products typically fall within two categories, namely, cleaning by hand with a bowl cleaner or with automatic "in tank" or "in bowl" cleaners. Hand cleaning typically takes the form of a toilet cleaning brush or sponge. Such devices, however, are displeasing due to the excessive dripping therefrom and because storage between uses is unsanitary. Further, there is no premeasured dosage with current bowl cleaning products. Most users just estimate the amount to use and potentially could use too little and thus not achieve a disinfectant level, or too much, which increases the cost per application. Additionally, bowl cleaning products are very toxic and present a potential safety hazard.
Automatic "in tank" or "in bowl" cleaners, which dispense a dosage upon flushing of the toilet, generally are not as effective as manual scrubbing. Therefore most consumers typically supplement such automatic cleaners with hand scrubbing and cleaning. In addition to often ineffective cleaning, "in tank" or "in bowl" cleaners have other disadvantages. For example, "clear water" types of cleaners give no indication when they are used up and need changing, and having to place one's arm into a toilet bowl and/or tank to retrieve spent containers is also unpleasant and undesirable. Further, the "blue water" products are, in many instances, only cosmetic and, at best, merely add a small amount of surfactant to the water.
Numerous types of cleaning compositions, as well as holders for disposable cleaning pads, are known in the art. Illustrative are the compositions and apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,852,201, 4,523,347, 4,031,673, 3,413,673 and 3,383,158.
In the '201 patent, a toilet bowl cleaner is disclosed having a handle with a removable cleaning pad disposed on one end. The toilet bowl cleaner also includes a cleaning solution that is contained in the pad.
There are numerous disadvantages associated with the disclosed toilet bowl cleaner. First, the pad is substantially rigid and thus can not conform to the various curvatures of a toilet bowl. Second, the pad release mechanism requires a user to directly contact the used pad to remove and replace the pad. Finally, the pad is restrained to one plane of rotation by virtue of a mechanical joint.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a disposable cleaning head that overcomes the disadvantages and shortcomings associated with prior art cleaning heads, pads and systems.
It is another object of the invention to provide a disposable cleaning head that substantially enhances the effectiveness of cleaning a toilet bowl as compared to prior art brush and sponge systems.
It is another object of the invention to provide a disposable cleaning head that substantially reduces the time associated with cleaning a toilet bowl.
It is another object of the invention to provide a disposable cleaning head that is readily engageable to and releasable from a variety of handles.
It is another object of the invention to provide a disposable cleaning head that is readily engagable to and releasable from a variety of handles without the necessity of direct user contact with or handling of the cleaning head.
It is another object of the invention to provide a disposable cleaning head that includes a flexible fitment that facilitates bending in multiple planes and rotation of the cleaning head relative to the handle without the necessity of a mechanical joint.
It is another object of the invention to provide a disposable cleaning head that includes a pre-determined amount of cleaning composition that effectively cleans and disinfects a toilet surface.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a disposable cleaning head having sufficient flexibility to maintain optimum surface contact during use on curved surfaces and/or constrained toilet bowl regions.


A display method and apparatus for a navigation system which is capable of easily and quickly showing the existence of a large structure within which a specific point of interest (“POI”) is located. The navigation system searches a desired point of interest as specified by a user, examines whether the point of interest is located within a large structure, searches an icon representing a type of the large compound in which the point of interest is located, and when a particular point of interest is located within a large structure, displays the icon of the large structure and the POI name on a monitor of the navigation system. Upon selection of the icon by the user, the navigation system displays detailed information on the large structure.

A navigation system performs travel guidance for enabling a user to easily and quickly reach the selected destination. A typical example is a vehicle navigation system where a user drives a car equipped with a navigation function. Such a navigation system detects the position of the user or user's vehicle, and reads out map data pertaining to an area at the current vehicle position from a data storage medium, for example, a CD-ROM (compact disc read-only memory), a DVD (digital versatile disc), or a hard disc. Alternatively, such map data can be provided to the user from a remote server through a communication network such as Internet. The navigation system displays a map image on a monitor screen while superimposing a mark representing the current location of the user on the map image.
When a destination is set, the navigation system starts a route guidance function for setting a guided route from the start point to the destination. To determine the guided route to the destination, the navigation system calculates and determines an optimum route to the destination based on various parameters. For example, the guided route is determined based on the shortest way to reach the destination, the route preferring freeways to surface roads, the least expensive way to the destination, the route without using toll road, or the like.
During the route guidance, the navigation system reads the nodes data from the data storage medium such as DVD and successively stores the nodes data of road segments (expressed in longitude and latitude) constituting the guided route in a map memory. In the actual traveling, the node series stored in the map memory is searched for a portion of the guided route to be displayed in a map display area of the monitor screen, and the portion of the guided route is highlighted to be clearly distinguished from other routes. When the vehicle is within a predetermined distance of an intersection it is approaching, an intersection guidance diagram (an enlarged or highlighted intersection diagram with an arrow indicating the direction in which the vehicle is to turn at the intersection) is displayed to inform a user of the desired one of roads or directions selectable at the intersection. Such route guidance by the navigation system is also given by voice instruction.
FIGS. 1A-1H show an example of overall procedure and screen display involved in the navigation system. FIG. 1A shows an example of locator map screen of the navigation system when the destination is not specified. Typically, the navigation system displays a street on which the vehicle (current vehicle position VP) is running on a map image and a name of the street. Other information such as a north pointer NP, a map scale and a current time may also be illustrated on the display screen.
An example of process for specifying a destination in the navigation system through a Point of Interest (POI) search method is shown in FIG. 1B-1F. A main menu screen such as shown in FIG. 1B displays menu items including a "Destination" menu for entering the destination. When selecting "Destination", the navigation system displays an "Find Destination by" screen as shown in FIG. 1C for specifying an input method for selecting the destination. The "Find Destination By" screen lists various methods for selecting the destination including "Address" for specifying the city and address of the destination, "Intersection" for specifying the names of two streets which intersect with one another, and "Point of Interest (POI)" for selecting the programmed destination based on the name, category or telephone number. Other methods in the "Find Destination by" screen include "Recent Route" for specifying the destination based on the recent history of destinations saved in the navigation system, and "Address Book" for selecting the address of the destination out of the prescribed address list stored in the system.
When selecting, the "Point of Interest" method in FIG. 1C, the navigation system displays selection methods of point of interest (POI) either by "Place Name" or "Place Type" in FIG. 1D. The "Place Name" is to specify a name of POI, and the "Place Type" is to specify a category of POI. If the "Place Type" is selected in FIG. 1D, the navigation system lists categories of POIs as shown in FIG. 1E. The order of listing the categories may be arranged in, for example, an alphabetical order or an order of distance from the current position. The user selects a desired category of POIs from the lists. If there are many entries in the list that cannot be displayed on one screen, a user may scroll the list by a scroll key of a scroll bar.
FIG. 1F shows a screen when the user has selected a "Fast Foods" category in the example of FIG. 1E. In this example, the screen includes the name of POI type "Fast Foods" at the top and a list of names of the fast food restaurants typically sorted by distance from the current destination. The list may also show rough direction of each fast food restaurant by an arrow. In this example, the user selects "Pizza Hut" as his destination.
In FIG. 1G, the navigation system calculates and determines a guided route to the destination, i.e., the selected POI "Pizza Hut". In this example, the navigation system displays a progress scale during the calculation of the route to the destination. After determining the guided route, the navigation system starts the route guidance as shown in FIG. 1H. Typically, the navigation system shows the intersection which is highlighted to show the next turn and a direction of the turn. Such route guidance by the navigation system is also given by voice instruction.
POIs are sometimes located within a large structure or a large compound (hereafter "large structure"). For example, rather than on a side of a street, a restaurant may be located in a shopping mall, an airport, train station, an amusement park, or the like. Sometimes, a user wants to find a particular POI, such as a restaurant, not because he wants to eat there but rather wants to go to the large structure where the particular restaurant is located. For example, he wants to meet someone in the compound or wants to use a rest room, etc. Moreover, the user sometimes wants to know whether the specific POI is located within a large structure or not. For example, the user may want to avoid a restaurant in a large shopping mall because the restaurant can be far away from the parking lot. In a case where a restaurant is located inside an airport, or other large compound, the user may have to pay a parking fee.
FIGS. 2A-2B show map images involving such situations where a POI is located within a large structure or is located independently from a large structure. A solid circle on the map indicates the position of a specific POI "Pizza Hut". The situation of FIG. 2A indicates that "Pizza Hut" is located independently. In FIG. 2B, the shaded area indicates a large structure such as a shopping mall, airport, or train station, etc. In this example, "Pizza Hut" is located within the large structure.
In the conventional display method of FIG. 3A which shows a list of POIs, the user cannot tell whether a particular POI is located within a large structure. The screen merely shows a list of POIs, distances to the POIs, and rough directions to that POIS. In the conventional display method, it would be possible to additionally include information as to whether a particular POI is associated with a large structure. Such an example is shown in FIG. 3B where a name of large structure is added to the POI in the POI name list. For instance, a POI "Burger King" is accompanied by "LAX Airport" as a large structure to show that "Burger King" is located within the Los Angeles Airport. Likewise, the display shows that "Kentucky Fried Chicken" is located within a shopping mall "Fairground Mall", and "Pizza Hut" is located within "LA Station".
However, this type of display is not appropriate for a vehicle navigation system. First, because the navigation system is mainly used in a limited space such as within an automobile, the space allowed for the navigation display is likewise limited. It is difficult to provide information on both POI and large structure on the display. Second, too much information on each entry tends to distract the user's attention to the safe driving. To minimize text information is desired in order not to distract the user's attention for safe driving. Thus, there is a need for a navigation system that can effectively inform the user whether a particular POI is located in a large structure or not.

Display method and apparatus for navigation system


A voice signal coding system includes a voice signal detector for receiving a mixed signal of an intermittent voice signal and background noise signal and for detecting the presence and absence of the voice signal contained in the mixed signal. A voice signal period detector is provided for detecting a voice signal period in which the voice signal is present. A coding period control circuit is coupled to the voice signal period detector for producing a coding period control signal during the voice signal period. A coding circuit receives and encodes the mixed signal in response to the coding period control signal. Thus, the mixed signal is coded in the coding circuit only during the voice signal periods.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a voice signal coding system adapted to encode noise-mixed voice signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
For transmitting voice signals to remote places, the voice signals are coded. According to the conventional coding method, the voice signals are coded together with background noise signals.
However, in such a coding method, since the data which is really necessary is the voice data, the coding of the background noise signal is wasteful.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


An optical pickup (20) projects a read beam onto an optical disc (40) as an optical storage medium which is driven to rotate by a spindle motor (30) and receives its reflection. A laser beam from a laser producing element (21) passes through a liquid crystal panel (25) and guided to an objective lens (26). The panel (25) is provided to correct spherical aberration caused by an irregular thickness of a transparent substrate of the optical disc (40). A control circuit (50) changes a spherical aberration correction signal SA to carry out sampling more than once, covering a range of the output of an optical sensor (31) where the output shows large changes. The circuit (50) determines the position of a peak of an approximation curve through calculation and designates that position as the magnitude of correction. Thus, the optical pickup (20) can quickly and accurately detect the magnitude of the correction of the spherical aberration caused by an irregular thickness of the optical disc (40).

Read/write optical pickups have been used in optical readers for read-only CDs, LDs, DVDs and other similar optical discs and also in optical reader/writer for write once or rewriteable optical discs, such as CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVD-Rs, DVD-RWs, DVD-RAMs, and mini discs (MDs).
Optical discs as optical storage media have a transparent substrate with a predetermined thickness to cover their recording surface for protective purposes. An optical pickup as information readout means reads the optical disc by the intensity of reflection when a read beam is shone on the recording surface through the transparent substrate.
However, it is difficult in manufacturing to fabricate the transparent substrates in all optical discs with the same specified thickness; irregularities of a few or 10 to 40 micrometers are typical. The irregular thickness of the transparent substrate results in spherical aberration which in turn can markedly reduce the amplitude of an information readout signal and/or tracking error signal. This entails inaccurate information readout. Specifically, when changing optical discs, there will likely be a difference in thickness between the transparent substrates. The difference translates into a change in spherical aberration and without taking any measures, causes a fall in information readout accuracy.
The problem is addressed in Japanese published patent application 2001-222838 (Tokukai 2001-222838; published on Aug. 17, 2001). Tokukai 2001-222838 discloses a method involving spherical aberration correction means which corrects spherical aberration in an optical system in accordance with the magnitude of the spherical aberration, whereby the spherical aberration is corrected by observing the amplitude of a tracking error signal while varying the magnitude of correction so that the spherical aberration correction means is supplied with an final spherical correction assisting quantity which is the magnitude of correction at which the amplitude assumes a maximum value.
The spherical aberration correction means, according to Tokukai 2001-222838, is a liquid crystal panel in which a circular band of transparent electrode is formed on a liquid crystal layer filled with birefringent liquid crystal. The magnitude of correction is varied in accordance with the voltage applied to the transparent electrode. The liquid crystal panel as the spherical aberration correction means is located on the optical axis of a laser producing element. The laser beam radiating from the laser producing element thus develops a phase difference at its wavefront, passes through it, and converges on the recording surface of an optical disc.
Japanese published patent application 2000-11388 (Tokukai 2000-11388; published on Jan. 14, 2000) discloses a method of correcting spherical aberration in an optical system in accordance with the magnitude of the spherical aberration, using prerecorded prepit data on an optical disc as a reference signal. The spherical aberration is corrected by observing the amplitude of the reference signal while varying the magnitude of correction so as to produce an final spherical correction assisting quantity which will be the magnitude of correction at which the amplitude assumes a maximum value.
Tokukai 2000-11388, a conventional art, has a problem that it is not applicable to discs without prepit signals. In addition, the prepit signal is stored, for example, in sector marks which in general give such a small amount of data that the areas may not be sufficient to enable accurate observation of the magnitude of the correction of the spherical aberration. Moreover, in cases of write once, rewriteable, and other writeable optical discs, if the data derived from the prepit signal is applied to correction for storage areas, accurate correction is likely to be impossible because of, strictly speaking, different storage mechanisms: In prepit areas, recording utilizes the intensity of reflection which decreases when light diffracts in pit sections. In storage areas, recording utilizes the presence/absence of an increase in absorption by storage sections (tint signal).
Japanese published patent application 64-27030/1989 (Tokukaisho 64-27030; published on Jan. 30, 1989) provides exemplary write power and focus offset correction for writeable optical discs. According to Tokukaisho 64-27030, focus offset of an optical disc is corrected using an information readout signal as a reference signal. Write power is varied from one sector to another. After writing, the sectors are simultaneously read to find the sector with an optimal result. The write power for that sector is the optimal write power.
A disadvantage of the Tokukai 2001-222838 method above is an extended time the method needs to determine the magnitude of correction, because the spherical aberration correction means needs to examine the magnitude of correction throughout the available range to find a magnitude of correction at which the amplitude of the tracking error signal is at a maximum. Further, at lower spherical aberrations, the amplitude of the tracking error signal changes less, which makes it impossible to accurately find the maximum amplitude in the presence of noise, external disturbance, and other factors.
Tokukaisho 64-27030, a conventional art, has a problem of an extended time it takes to write multiple sectors using multiple write powers and read all the sectors to find an optimal magnitude of correction.
An alternative to the prepit signal as the reference signal is a track cross signal obtained when the optical pickup crosses a track. With this technique, however, the signal level can show a maximum value when the spherical aberration and the focus offset are not completely eliminated. If this happens, conversion to an optimal condition cannot be achieved.
This particular problem will be described in more detail in reference to FIG. 18 which is a graph showing measurements of the levels of a reference signal in relation to two kinds of parameters, i.e. the spherical aberration and the focus offset. The measurements were performed by the inventors of the instant invention. The optical disc used contained a 0.1 mm thick transparent, polycarbonate substrate and has a track pitch of 0.32 μm and a disc groove depth of 21 nm. The pickup used in the measurement had a laser wavelength of 405 nm. The objective lens had a NA of 0.85.
FIG. 18 is a 2-dimensional map of a total of 6×11=66 data points, showing maximum amplitude values of a track cross signal. Six spherical aberrations from −80 mλ to +80 mλ were plotted on the horizontal axis, and 11 focus offsets from −0.22 to +0.22 μm were plotted on the vertical axis. "mλ" is a general unit for aberration. "λ" is the wavelength of a laser where 1 mλ=0.001λ. For example, λ=405 nm for a typical blue laser.
As obviously seen from FIG. 18, the reference signal is at a maximum in the left-falling region immediately surrounding the original point where either the spherical aberration or the focus offset is not 0. This shows that the reference signal can be at a maximum even when the lens-to-lens distance is not optimal and the lenses are out of focus. The track cross signal therefore cannot be used for accurate measurement of spherical aberration and focus offset.
The present invention has an objective to provide a spherical aberration correction method for an optical pickup capable of quick correction of spherical aberration using an accurate optimal magnitude of aberration correction without being affected by noise, external disturbance, and other factors, and also to provide such an optical pickup.
The present invention has another objective to provide a spherical aberration focus offset correction method for an optical pickup capable of quick and accurate correction of spherical aberration and focus offset for a writeable optical disc, and also to provide an optical pickup with such correction functions.

Optical pickup spherical aberration compensating method, optical pickup spherical aberration focus offset compensating method, and optical pickup device


A device for packaging and dispensing a product includes: a unit that can be refilled with product using a container having a dispenser member, the unit comprising: a body; an element that can be refilled with product comprising a product application surface; and, a filling valve that is attached to the body and configured to pass from a closed configuration to a filling configuration under the effect of a thrust exerted by the dispenser member, and to return to the closed configuration in the absence of the dispenser member.

Such devices are known, for example, from European patent applications EP 1,205,125-A2 and EP 1,205,126-A1. In these known devices, the refillable unit may optionally comprise a filling valve, which can be in the form of an elastomeric flap that is integral with the body of the unit and can go from a closed configuration to a filling configuration under the effect of the pressure from the product coming from the container.

Device for packaging and dispensing a cosmetic or another care product


A device for adjusting the position of a movable part of a vehicle seat. One of two connection elements is secured to the movable part and to the other connection element for rotation about a first axis. A lever mechanism selectively either allows the one connection element to rotate or locks it in a selected angular position. The lever mechanism includes circular toothing around an aperture in the one connection element, at least two gears engaging said toothing and movable with planetary motion about the first axis, and levers arranged to shift the gears between a first position in which they are engaged with each other and with the toothing to prevent rotation of the one connection element and a second position in which the gears are engaged only with the toothing to enable rotation of the one connection element.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for adjusting the position of at least one movable part of a vehicle seat, in particular the position of its seat back relative to its seat cushion.
2. The Prior Art
Known devices for adjusting the position of the seat back relative to the seat cushion, if using gears with planetary motion (see for example US5704870 or US42111451 or EP0332340), generally comprise a large number of components of difficult and complicated construction and assembly, which largely influence the final device production costs.
It also often happens that, with use, radial slack arises between the components of known devices, causing a decline in the quality and accuracy of the seat adjustment, and in the long term leading to a deterioration in the device itself.

Device for adjusting the position of at least one movable part of a vehicle seat


A testing method of a wafer provided with a plurality of thin-film magnetic heads is provided. Each of the plurality of thin-film magnetic heads includes a main pole layer, a first test pad formed on the wafer and electrically connected with an extended top end section of the main pole layer and a second test pad formed on the wafer and electrically connected with a back end section of the main pole layer. The testing method includes a step of measuring an electrical resistance between the first test pad and the second test pad, a step of judging whether the measured electrical resistance is within a set range, and a step of discriminating that the thin-film magnetic head is a non-defective product when the measured electrical resistance is within the set range.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a testing method of a wafer provided with thin-film magnetic heads, and to a manufacturing method of a thin-film magnetic head using the testing method of the wafer.
2. Description of the Related Art
A recent thin-film magnetic head, particularly a recent inductive write head element has a quite fine and complicated structure. For example, a pole of the write head element has an elongated or slender shape and is subjected to influences of various processes such as etching process or resist-removal process after formation thereof because a magnetic shield layer for preventing blur in writing magnetic field will be formed around this pole. Thus, in the recent thin-film magnetic heads, defects such as a breakage or a disconnection of the pole are easy to come to occur, and it is required to certainly detect such a defect during a wafer process and to remove the thin-film magnetic heads having the defect.
As a conventional method of detecting defect in each thin-film magnetic head during the wafer process, there is an optical inspection method using a SEM (scanning electron microscope). However, because this inspection method using the SEM bases upon visual observation, discovering of a defect in each thin-film magnetic head itself is difficult and also great deal of time is required. For example, it may be necessary thirty seconds or more to check only one thin-film magnetic head and therefore several hundred hours to check all of the thin-film magnetic heads on the wafer. Thus, it was impossible to perform inspection for all of the thin-film magnetic heads fabricated to maintain quality of shipped thin-film magnetic heads well.
US 2008/100960 (Kakehi et al) discloses an insulation characteristic monitoring method of measuring whether insulation is ensured between layers of thin-film magnetic head elements formed on a wafer. This method uses a specific insulation-monitor element formed as a part of a large number of magnetic head elements on a wafer. An insulation characteristic between specially insulated layers in the insulation-monitor element is measured to infer the insulation characteristics of the general magnetic head elements from analogy.
However, because the insulation characteristics monitoring method described in Kakehi et al only checks whether there is insufficient insulation namely a short circuit or not, it is impossible to discriminate whether there is a defective in the head such as a breakage or disconnection of the magnetic pole. Further, because this insulation characteristics monitoring method checks the specific insulation-monitor element only but does not check all of the general magnetic head elements at all, it is difficult to increase reliability of the monitoring.
JP 6-333213A (Umemoto et al) discloses a method of testing a withstand voltage between an upper pole layer and a coil layer of each thin-film magnetic head formed on a wafer.
However, the withstand voltage test method described in Umemoto et al only detects whether a heavy-current flows or not to discriminate that there is no insulation tolerance and this thin-film magnetic head is defective when the heavy-current flows. Thus, this method cannot discriminate whether there is a defective in the head such as a breakage or disconnection of the magnetic pole at all.

Testing method of wafer with thin-film magnetic heads and manufacturing method of thin-film magnetic head


An electronic device (10). The device comprises a memory structure (12) comprising an integer M of word storage locations. The device further comprises a write shift register (SRWT) for storing a sequence of bits. The sequence in the write shift register comprises a number of bits equal to a ratio of 1/R1 times the integer M. The device further comprises circuitry (16) for providing a write clock cycle to the write shift register for selected write operations with respect to any of the word storage locations. In response to each write clock cycle, received from the circuitry for providing the write clock cycle, the write shift register shifts the sequence in the write shift register. Further, one bit in the sequence in the write shift register corresponds to an indication of one of the memory word storage locations into which a word will be written. The device further comprises a read shift register (SRRD) for storing a sequence of bits. The sequence in the read shift register comprises a number of bits equal to a ratio of 1/R2 times the integer M. The device further comprises circuitry (16) for providing a read clock cycle to the read shift register for selected read operations with respect to any of the word storage locations. In response to each read clock cycle, received from the circuitry for providing the read clock cycle, the read shift register shifts the sequence in the read shift register. Further, one bit in the sequence in the read shift register corresponds to an indication of one of the memory word storage locations from which a word will be read. Lastly, the device comprises circuitry (18x) for evaluating selected bits in the sequence in the write register relative to selected bits in the sequence in the read register for detecting a level of data fullness in the memory structure.

The present embodiments relate to electronic devices and circuits and are more particularly directed to such devices and circuits that include a first-in first-out ("FIFO") memory system that includes shift registers from which a level of data fullness of the FIFO is indicated.
Electronic circuits are prevalent in numerous applications, including those used in personal, business, and other devices. Demands of the marketplace affect many aspects of the design of these circuits, including factors such as device complexity, size, and cost. Various of these electronic circuits include some aspect of digital signal processing and, quite often, these circuits include storage devices that operate on a FIFO basis. As is well-known in the art, such FIFO circuits are so named because data words are read from the circuit in the same order as they were written to the circuit. As a storage device, the FIFO is also sometimes referred to as a FIFO memory or a FIFO random access memory ("RAM"). Typically, a FIFO is a logical array for storing a number of data words. The size of each data word in the FIFO depends on the application and may be any number of bits, where 4 bits, 8 bits, 16 bits, and 32 bits are common examples, while any number of bits per word may be implemented based on the application.
A FIFO has a number of word storage locations, and typically in the prior art any of these locations may be indicated, or "addressed," during operation of the FIFO by both a read pointer and a write pointer. Typically, the read pointer indicates the word storage location from which a next word will be read, and the write pointer indicates the word storage location into which a next word will be written. The number of word storage locations in a given FIFO also is typically dictated at least in part by the application. In view of that application, the FIFO design is often determined in an effort to satisfy data requirements while minimizing this number of storage locations so as to avoid unnecessarily enlarging the FIFO. Typically, however, with the designed minimized number of word storage locations, there is an expectation that the pointers may at some instance converge on one another. More specifically, if numerous read operations occur with corresponding advancement of the read pointer, while the write pointer does not advance or does not advance at approximately the same rate, then the read pointer will eventually indicate a word location near that of the write pointer. In this event, most of the valid words in the FIFO have been read and, thus, the FIFO is said to be near empty, that is, it contains few remaining valid and unread words. Conversely, if numerous write operations occur with corresponding advancement of the write pointer, while the read pointer does not advance or does not advance at approximately the same rate, then the write pointer will eventually indicate a word location near that of the read pointer. In this event, most of the word storage locations in the FIFO have been written and not read and, thus, the FIFO is said to be near full. In the prior art, circuits are often included to detect either or both of these two extremes because each may warrant a system response. For example, a response to either a near-empty or near-full FIFO may be to ready the system for possible invalid data or to control the data flow to alleviate the extreme. Also included in the prior art is the ability to detect the middle state between these two extremes, that is, when the FIFO is half full of valid and unread words.
In an effort to respond to the level of fullness of a FIFO, whether that level detection may relate to near-empty, near-full, or half-full, the prior art has developed various systems based on the read and write pointers. In these systems, the prior art pointers are typically multiple-bit digital values that numerically identify each word storage location. For example, for an instance of a FIFO with locations 0 through Z=2N−1, then both the read pointer and the write pointer consist of incrementing modulo counters with N bits that increment through the values of 0 through 2N−1 and then start once more at 0 (or vice versa for decrementing counters). Often each such counter is referred to as a pointer vector in that each such vector has multiple bits, where at least one of those multiple bits, by definition, is a different value for each of the 2N different addresses of the FIFO. Given this implementation of pointers, the prior art manner of detecting fullness typically compares the two pointers, where fullness may be detected if the pointers have counter values within a certain difference of one another. Thus, this difference may be evaluated using arithmetic computations such as through use of a comparator or subtracting unit, by ways of example. However, the present inventors have observed that in certain FIFOs, and particularly in asynchronous FIFOs, these techniques may become quite extensive. Specifically, in asynchronous FIFOs, a read may occur according to one timing domain that is independent of when a write may occur, that is, the read and write operations, and pointers, are asynchronous with respect to one another. As a result, as a necessary element of the pointer evaluation technique described above, the prior art also involves a complex manner of taking the value of one pointer into the clock domain of the other pointer so as to provide an accurate comparison of the two to avoid metastability problems. In other words, without such an action, there is a possibility that at the time a first pointer (e.g., read) is copied so as to be evaluated relative to a second pointer (e.g., write), the first pointer may be in the process of changing; further, since each pointer address is represented by a vector, and if that vector is changing at the time it is copied, then some bits in the vector may contain the value before the change while others contain the new value. In this case, the captured vector value would not just be either the previous value or the new value but some totally unknown address instead. Thus, the prior art includes additional circuitry for attempting to accommodate this necessary crossing over of one pointer into the other pointer's time domain. This additional circuitry adds complexity, which consequently increases device size, cost, and power consumption, all of which are undesirable in circuit design, particularly in today's competitive marketplace.
In view of the above, the preferred embodiments as set forth below seek to improve upon the prior art as well as its associated drawbacks.

First-in first-out memory system with shift register fill indication


A compensation method for a display panel, a compensation device for a display panel, and a display apparatus are provided. The display panel includes a plurality of pixel units, and each pixel unit includes a pixel circuit and a light-emitting element. The compensation method includes: detecting a threshold voltage of a drive transistor in the pixel circuit; detecting a maximum data voltage corresponding to a maximum brightness of the light-emitting element; and based on the threshold voltage, the maximum data voltage and an expected display brightness, calculating a compensation display data voltage in a normal display state after the display panel is compensated.

With the advancements in display technology, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panels are one of the focuses in the field of flat panel display research nowadays. More and more active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display panels enter the market. Compared with conventional thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT LCD) panels, AMOLED display panels have faster response speeds, higher contrast ratio, and wider viewing angles.

Compensation method and compensation apparatus for display panel, and display device


A high voltage DMOS half-bridge output for various DC to DC converters on a monolithic, junction isolated wafer is presented. A high-side lateral DMOS transistor is based on the epi extension diffusion and a five layer RESURF structure. The five layers are made possible by the epi extension diffusion which is formed by a suitable n-type dopant diffused into a p-type substrate and it is the same polarity as the epi. The five layers, starting with the p-type substrate, are the substrate, the n-type epi extension diffusion, a p-type buried layer, the n-type epi and a shallow p-type layer at the top of the epi. The epi extension is also used to shape the electric field by a specific lateral distribution and make the lateral and vertical electric fields to be the smoothest to avoid electric field induced breakdown in the silicon or oxide layers above the silicon.

This application relates to high voltage DMOS devices.
Circuit applications often require high voltage and low voltage components on a monolithic integrated circuit. Often multiple high voltage devices are needed. Such circuits have greatly proliferated into various applications as they make possible energy efficient solutions to lighting, motor drivers and power supplies. A half bridge is formed by a low side and a high side transistor. Due to many advantages, in such applications either DMOS (double-diffused metal-oxide-semiconductor) or, for higher current, IGBT (insulated-gate bipolar transistor) devices are used. There are advantages to having a high side DMOS to form the half bridge configuration. Low side DMOS transistors have been produced in monolithic, junction isolated processes for some time, but high side DMOS transistors have only been produced in the same with very limited breakdown voltage. In many applications designers use a low voltage control circuit and discrete DMOS transistors to build a complete circuit.
Building a high side DMOS is more complicated than building a low side DMOS because the p-body and the source will be at high voltage when the transistor is turned on. In traditional monolithic processes, the epi (epitaxy) is too thin to support high voltage between the source/body layers and the substrate. N-channel DMOS use a p-type body diffusion and it will punch through to the p-type substrate at relatively low voltage. It is possible to build the device on a much thicker epi; however, the low voltage part of the circuit needs an isolation diffusion that penetrates the epi at least half way or more. And a p-type buried layer needs to be used that penetrates the epi at least half way to meet with the isolation diffusion. This is the up-down isolation scheme to minimize the lateral diffusion. Making deep isolation diffusions is possible, but at the expense of having a wide isolation diffusion due to the lateral diffusion of the dopant (such as boron) taking up a large area on the chip.
The usual architecture of these types of circuits is such that they use only a few high voltage transistors and many low voltage transistors, the low voltage transistors forming a complex control circuit. The low voltage components are small but require isolation between them. As such, the deep, and necessarily wide, isolation diffusion can easily double the area of a low voltage device, making it impossible to build an economical monolithic integrated circuit with a thick epi. The cost of a monolithic integrated circuit is proportional to the complexity of the manufacturing process to make it and to the area of the chip. Workers in the field have expanded a major effort to reduce the size of the chip while maintaining its level of performance. The area factor is important in high voltage devices as the depletion layer spreads much more with increasing voltage. Various techniques were introduced to minimize the area the depletion layer needs, such as the introduction of the epi extension diffusion, selective epi growth and refill, or the RESURF (re-entrant surface field) principle. These techniques vary in usefulness in building monolithic integrated circuits where a mixture of low voltage and high voltage components are needed.
In typical prior art arrangements, high voltage half bridge circuits use discrete transistors. Monolithic circuits are limited to about 100V. High voltage DMOS transistors have been made using SOI (silicon on insulator) technology. Due to the complete oxide isolation, the transistors can be used as high side devices and low side devices. Some examples of DMOS device are given in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,811,075; 5,155,568; 6,236,100; 6,573,550; 6,992,362; and 8,324,684.

Monolithic DMOS transistor in junction isolated process


A new variety of hybrid lily plant bearing large upfacing flowers of excellent form and long persistence, both on the plant and as cut-flowers. The flowers of the new plant are particularly characterized by their medium pink coloration, their white-edged green nectaries, their deeply colored papillae, their lightly ruffled margins, their large size and substance, their completely upfacing orientation, and the upwardly curving pedicels of the lower flowers. This combination is completely new in the Oriental hybrid divisions of lilies suited to forcing and to mass commercial cultivation. The variety is highly resistant to fusarium disease and shows tolerance of virus. The bulbs may be precooled and forced for cut-flower production. The clone is vigorous and is a good grower and propagator.

My new variety of lily plant originated as a seedling which first flowered in Woodland, Wa., in 1987. The breeding efforts had as their objective the production of large-flowered completely upfacing Oriental hybrids in a variety of shades of pink, with deeply pigmented papillae, suited to forcing into flower out of season, heretofore unknown in the lily breeding art.
I achieved the desired objective by intercrossing unnamed upright and semi-upright Oriental seedlings which carried pink flower color and were also suited to forcing for yearround use as cut-flowers.
The unnamed Oriental seedlings which were the parents of `Pink Paramount` were produced by me, from a series of crosses among seedlings which were selected in my fields from large seedling populations of my own crosses. The original crosses came from material unique to my own breeding lines and not available in the trade. the field-selected seedlings were genetically very diverse, and 100 seedlings were selected from their outstanding vigor, stem length, pink flower color, and upfacing or semi-upfacing flower orientation. These were forced into flower under glass, and the 25 seedlings which showed the best forcing performance were then randomly intercrossed to produce a large quantity of seed. This seed was grown to flowering size, producing a large population of seedlings, from which the best 100 were again selected for vigor, stem length, pink flower color, and upfacing or semi-upfacing flower orientation. These were subsequently tested for their forcing performacne, and `Pink Paramount` was selected as one of the seedlings best suited for forcing as a cut-flower.
The flowers of my new lily are characterized by a completely upfacing orientation, large size, unusually thick substance, lightly ruffled tepal margins, and a distinctive medium pink coloration accented by white-edged green nectaries and by deep pink papillae, a combination unique among Oriental hybrid lilies. The pedicels of the lower flowers emerge from the stem at an angle only slightly ascending, with a sharp upward curve about 5 to 8 cm from the base of each pedicel. These uniquely curved pedicels minimize the breaking off of the buds during their handling as cut-flowers. The variety possesses unusally strong, stout stems. In addition, the clone possesses to a high degree desirable characteristics of hybrid vigor. The clone is a good grower and propagator, as observed at Woodland, Wa.
My new variety of lily plant has been asexually reproduced by me and under my direction at Woodland, Wa. Successive generations produced by natural propagation from bulblets, by bulb scale propagation, and by tissue culturing from bulb scale explants have demonstrated that the novel and distinctive characteristics of my new variety are fixed and hold true under asexual propagation from generation to generation.


An apparatus for connecting an operating cable to an actuating lever and a method for connecting the same. A cable end nipple is automatically rotated and proceeded into a space reserved between parallel walls of a strut simply by pushing the cable end nipple toward a space between parallel walls in a cable releasing direction. The present apparatus and method eliminates the necessity of horizontally adjusting the connecting portion of the cable end nipple and the free end of the brake cable as is found in conventional devices.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an actuating mechanism mechanically actuating responsive members such as brake shoes of a drum brake by rotating an actuating lever, and particularly to an apparatus and method for connecting an operating cable to an actuating lever.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical apparatus is, for example, employed in a brake cable connecting apparatus designed to connect the brake cable to the brake lever as a component of a mechanical actuating mechanism for a drum brake device.
Normally, the mechanical actuating mechanism has a mechanism in which one brake shoe, as one responsive member, engages with one end of a strut and the other brake shoe, as another responsive member, engages with the brake lever in the vicinity of a pivot section between the brake lever and the other end of the strut. A cable end nipple on the brake cable is connected on the free end of the brake lever in the cable operating direction; and the brake lever and the strut rotate relative to each other around the pivot section of the same upon operating the brake cable, so that both brake shoes are urged to separate apart from each other.
An available structure of the brake cable connecting apparatus, connecting the cable end nipple on the free end of the brake lever in the cable operating direction, is described bellow. The free end of the brake lever is branched away two opposed splitting parallel plates separating in a direction of a rotation axis of the brake lever. The free end of the brake lever is rotatable between two opposed splitting parallel walls at an intermediate portion between both ends of the strut. A cable end nipple with a various flat portion, such as a partially disk-like shape, is positioned between the parallel plates constituting the free end of the brake lever, and columnar projections, projecting out from the respective flat side surfaces of a flat portion of the cable end nipple, is connected on the free end of the brake lever in the cable operating direction.
This structure has an advantage of minimizing the size of the mechanical actuating mechanism.
A method of hooking the columnar projections of the cable end nipple on the free end of the brake lever is described bellow.
The cable end nipple is rotated around the cable axis so that the flat side surfaces of the flat portion of the cable end nipple become parallel to the parallel plates of the brake lever. Such a conditioned cable end nipple is entered into the space between the parallel walls of the strut in a cable releasing direction so that the columnar projections push the brake lever to rotate in the same direction. The columnar projections are passed through a tip of the free end of the brake lever, thereby ending the rotation of the brake lever. Therefore the brake lever rotates back to return to an initial position. The brake cable is pulled in the cable operating direction to position the flat portion in between the free ends of the parallel plates so as to hook the columnar projections thereon making an engagement therebetween.
There exists a demand for minimizing the actuating mechanism in the brake lever rotation axis by shortening the columnar projections projecting from the flat portion of the cable end nipple. Hence, the thickness of the flat portion is designed as thin as possible, and the width of the parallel plates of the brake lever is designed to be a bit wider than the thickness of the flat portion. Furthermore, the width between the parallel walls of the strut is specified a minimum width necessary for passing the rotated cable end nipple through, i.e., the width being a bit wider than a dimension between the projected tips of both columnar projections.
Accordingly, when connecting the cable end nipple or hooking the columnar projections of the cable end nipple to the free end of the brake lever, if the two flat side surfaces of the flat portion of the cable end nipple are not pre-rotated around the cable axis readily and precisely parallel to the parallel plates of the brake lever, the parallel walls of the strut become obstacles preventing the cable end nipple from further proceeding into the space between the parallel walls. However, if the brake drum is fully covered, visual observation of the free end of the brake lever during the connecting operation often is a very difficult task. In such instance there is a concern of poor accessibility for connecting the brake cable.
An object of this invention is to make arrangements in the above-conventional brake cable connecting apparatus in order to improve a connecting operability of the brake cable. This invention attains the object of the improved operability by adding a feature of the cable end nipple to automatically be rotated and proceeded into a space reserved between the parallel walls of the strut simply by pushing the cable end nipple toward the space between the parallel walls in the cable releasing direction.
Another object of this invention is to improve the brake cable connecting operation after being positioned in the space between the parallel walls of the strut by eliminating the conventionally necessary horizontal adjustment of the cable end nipple to be specifically aligned with the connecting portion of the cable end nipple and the free end of the brake cable.

Apparatus for connecting an operating cable and method for connecting the same


A solid state imaging apparatus includes a plurality of photoelectric conversion sections formed in an imaging area of a silicon substrate, and an embedded layer embedded in an isolation trench formed in at least one part of the silicon substrate located around the photoelectric conversion sections. The embedded layer is made of an isolation material having a thermal expansion coefficient larger than silicon oxide and equal to or smaller than silicon.

A complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) solid state imaging apparatuses represents an image sensor in which a signal accumulated in a photodiode forming part of each of pixels is read out by an amplifier circuit including a MOS transistor. Such a CMOS solid state imaging apparatus can operate at low voltages, consume less power, and be integrated in one chip together with a peripheral circuit.
In view of the above, attention has been paid to CMOS solid state imaging apparatuses as image input devices used for compact cameras for personal computers and portable devices, such as cell phones. In recent years, an increase in the number of pixels have been demanded for CMOS solid state imaging apparatuses, and therefore the cell size per pixel tends to be reduced.
In a known solid state imaging apparatus, a thermal oxide film is generally formed, by local oxidation of silicon (LOCOS), in an isolation region for isolating a photodiode formed in a semiconductor substrate and semiconductor devices from one another. In the use of LOCOS, the width of the isolation region needs to be increased to provide a sufficient isolation property. Furthermore, when a thermal oxide film is formed by LOCOS, a bird's beak occurs and therefore the isolation region enters into an active region of the semiconductor substrate. This makes it necessary to previously secure a wide active region. In view of the above, the area of the isolation region occupied in each of pixels and the area of the active region occupied therein must be increased. This makes it difficult to reduce the size of the pixel.
The following known art is used as a measure for solving such a problem (see Patent Document 1). FIG. 14 illustrates a cross-sectional structure of a photodiode section of a solid state imaging apparatus according to a known example.
As illustrated in FIG. 14, a photodiode 62 including a P−-type silicon layer 55, an N-type silicon layer 54 and a P+-type silicon layer 56 is formed in the vicinity of the top surface of an N-type silicon substrate 53.
An isolation region 52 is formed in the vicinity of part of the top surface of the N-type silicon substrate 53 located around the photodiode 62 to extend from the uppermost surface of the N-type silicon substrate 53 to substantially the same depth as that of the N-type silicon layer 54 and have a shallow trench isolation (STI) structure in which a trench having inner walls covered with a silicon dioxide (SiO2) film 61 is filled with an insulating film made of SiO2 and any other material. Therefore, the photodiode 62 is electrically isolated from other peripheral devices in the top surface of the N-type silicon substrate 53.
Since in the known example the isolation region 52 is formed to have a STI structure, a bird's beak does not occur and therefore the isolation region 52 does not enter into a light-receiving area 51. Therefore, the area of the light-receiving area 51 is not reduced due to a bird's beak. As a result, a large light-receiving area 51 can be secured. Furthermore, in the case of the isolation region 52 of a STI structure, the width of an insulative material necessary for isolation is smaller than in the case of the isolation region 52 of a LOCOS structure or any other structure. This can reduce the area of the isolation region itself, resulting in the enhanced sensitivity of the photodiode.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-39832

Solid state imaging apparatus method for fabricating the same and camera using the same


A unique manganese silver alloy composition is provided, which alloy exhibits the long desired properties of exceptional as-cast hardness and reversible heat treatability, in addition to offering reduced fire scale, reduced voids and porosity, reduced grain size, and reduced oxide formation when heated consisting essentially of the following parts by weight: about 92.5–92.8% silver, about 2.0–3.0% copper, about 2.0–3.0% zinc, about 0.03–0.05% indium, about 0.01–0.03% tin, about 0.20–0.50% boron/copper alloy (22% boron, 98.0% copper) about 0.50–0.90% silicon/copper alloy (10.0% silicon, 90.0% copper), and 0.01%–0.10% manganese “30” (0.30% of a manganese-copper alloy containing about 30% manganese and about 70% copper).

This invention relates generally to sterling silver alloy compositions of increased hardness, and more particularly is directed to sterling silver manganese alloy compositions which exhibit an exceptional and reversible hardness.
The background information discussed below is presented to better illustrate the novelty and usefulness of the present invention. This background information is not admitted prior art.
Silver metal is very ductile and malleable (being only slightly harder than gold) and is the most lustrous metal on Earth. Silver's brilliant white metallic luster can take a high degree of polish making silver highly desirable in the production of jewelry and tableware. Silver's unique properties are important in the decorative arts, coinage, industry, and photography, for example.
Silver categorized as "fine silver" comprises at least 99.5 percent pure silver. Fine silver is relatively soft having a Moh's hardness of about 2.5, a Brinell hardness of about 24.5 MN m−2, and a Vickers hardness of about 251 MN m−2. Thus, fine silver is generally too soft for the production of large, functional objects. Although the malleability of fine silver permits it to be easily shaped into attractive forms, products made with pure soft silver are easily dented or bent out of shape.
Fine silver has good tarnish resistance. In fact, the tarnish resistance of silver alloys increases as the percentage of fine silver increases, as pure silver is unreactive in clean air under normal conditions and unreactive with clean water. Because of it softness and malleability, however, fine silver is commonly combined with other metals to produce more durable products, thus increasing its susceptibility to tarnish.
When fine silver is combined with other metals to form a new material, the new material is referred to as an alloy. Alloyed silver cannot be classified as sterling silver unless it consists of at least 92.5 percent fine silver, whereas the remaining 7.5 percent may be a combination of other elements in various proportions. Sterling silver alloy is the material of choice where appearance is paramount and strength is important, such as in the manufacture of jewelry, coinage, and silverware. Sterling silver sets the standard for high quality silver products. In addition to offering increased strength and durability, products made with sterling silver will not wear away, as silver plating can.
The most common sterling silver alloy consists of at least 92.5 percent silver and up to 7.5 percent copper. Adding copper to silver, to produce a copper sterling silver alloy improving hardness and durability while maintaining the beautiful color of the pure silver, is a well-known practice in the art of silver manufacture. The difference between the softness of fine silver and the hardness of copper-sterling silver alloy is such that the practice is widely, if not nearly ubiquitously, used in the vast majority of sterling silver production because of the great need in the industry for material that is harder than fine silver. Despite the improvement in hardness when copper is added to fine silver to produce a copper silver alloy, there still exists a need in the industry for a harder as-cast sterling silver, particularly in the jewelry part of the industry as most of jewelry, such as earrings, rings, pendants, and the like are formed as an as-cast product. Improvement in the as-cast hardness would result in the jewelry being less susceptible to damage, such as bending, in addition to exhibiting better wear resistance and polishing ability.
While the small amount of copper that is added to fine silver produces an alloy with increased hardness and durability, the presence of copper in the alloy introduces a susceptibility to tarnishing. Copper tarnishes much more readily than does silver as copper, unlike silver, has a great affinity for oxygen. When copper reacts with oxygen, it typically forms a copper oxide that may consist of cupric or cuprous oxide, or both. When copper oxide forms on the copper that is alloyed with sterling silver, it is known as "fire scale." Fire scale is typically a darkened portion of the sterling silver piece that may result from melting or brazing, and, in fact, each time the alloy is heated, such as when the alloy is initially formed as shot, when the shot is melted and recast to form the desired article, and subsequently when the cast article is annealed. Fire scale, as compared to silver tarnish, is not limited to the surface of the sterling silver object, but may penetrate the article to some depth and, thus, may not be removable by buffing and polishing. Additionally, unless air is excluded during the casting process, the cast article may contain internal voids which, of course, can lead to undesirable porosities and grain sizes in the cast article.
There have been some attempts at alleviating some of the aforementioned problems associated with conventional sterling silver alloys. Early attempts to provide silver alloys having tarnish resisting properties and improved workability were concerned with either silver alloys that did not contain enough silver to qualify as sterling silver or with fine silver alloys, i.e., nearly pure silver. Silver alloys containing less than 92.5 percent pure silver are not of interest to the jewelry making industry because this silver cannot be labeled as sterling. Conversely, fine silver is not of interest to the jewelry making industry because it is too soft and too expensive.
Attempts at providing for sterling silver alloys and master alloys having certain desired properties, such as reduced fire scale production, reduced porosity, and reduced grain size over conventional sterling silver alloys have met with some success. Not surprisingly, these sterling silver alloys have been widely used by the industry especially for the production of silver jewelry. Despite these improvements, however, sterling silver alloys are still relatively soft and cannot provide the desired degree of as-cast hardness and the desired reversible heat treatability performance that is required by many industries that rely on the use of silver, such as the jewelry making industry.
Thus, it is appreciated that there is still an unmet need for a sterling silver alloy that possesses an increased as-cast hardness, in addition to being reversibly heat treatable, yet maintaining a substantially reduced formation of fire scale upon heating, a decrease in voids and porosity, and a reduced grain size relative to traditional sterling silver alloys.

Sterling silver manganese alloy compositions


A metal film forming method by which a metal film having a desired pattern can be formed with good reproducibility and satisfactory precision. In a metal film forming method for forming a metal film into the desired pattern on a surface of an object by the lift-off method, a resist layer is laminated on the surface of the object, the resist layer is exposed to light with the desired pattern and it is developed. Radio frequency sputtering is then performed against the resist layer so that the opening is deformed into a shape which is suited for the lift-off process. A metal film is then laminated on the surfaces of the resist layer and the metal film forming object. Then the resist layer is subjected to lift-off processing, whereby the metal film can be formed with good precision and satisfactory reproducibility. In this way, such a metal film forming method can be realized that a metal film having the desired pattern can be formed with good reproducibility and satisfactory precision.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a metal film forming method, and more particularly, is applicable to laminating a metal film on a silicon wafer in a desired pattern.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, the etching method and the lift-off method have been methods for lamination-forming a metal film on a silicon wafer in a desired pattern.
Usually, the etching method is performed such that a metal film is laminated all over the upper surface of a silicon wafer by a method such as sputtering or evaporation. A resist layer is formed on the metal film, avoiding parts which are desired to be reserved for (usually, wiring portions), and then the exposed metal film is etched via the resist layer.
On the other hand, the lift-off method is performed such that a resist layer is formed on the upper surface of a silicon wafer, avoiding parts which are desired to be reserved. A metal film is laminated all over the upper surface of the wafer which includes the upper surface of the resist layer by sputtering, evaporation, etc., and then the metal film which is lying on the resist layer is eliminated (lifted off) from the wafer together with the resist layer.
In the abovementioned conventional lift-off method, it is necessary to cause organic matter, which is used for dissolving the resist layer, to permeate the resist layer sufficiently in order to perform the lift-off process satisfactorily. For this purpose it is necessary that the shape of the cross section of each opening 2A of the resist layer 2 which is formed on the upper surface of the silicon wafer 1 is of an inverse tapered form or bottle neck form, as shown in FIG. 1A or 1B.
Heretofore, various methods have been proposed and realized using a photoresist material and process for obtaining such shapes for each opening 2A of the resist layer 2. However, there have been problems in that such methods are all costly due to the resist material used or other aspects of the methods. Reproducibility of the pattern using such methods is also poor.