Methods and apparatus of controlling user equipment transmit power in a wireless communication system include communicating with a first base station and a second base station. Further, the methods and apparatus include establishing a high speed channel with one of the first base station or the second base station, wherein the one of the first base station or the second base station defines a high speed serving cell and a remaining one of the first base station or the second base station defines a non-high speed cell. Additionally, the methods and apparatus include ignoring a transmit power control command from the non-high speed cell when a high speed power control state applies to controlling a transmit power level.

1. Field
Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to transmit power control of a user equipment operating according to High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) protocol.
2. Background
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and so on. Such networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. One example of such a network is the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). The UTRAN is the radio access network (RAN) defined as a part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a third generation (3G) mobile phone technology supported by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The UMTS, which is the successor to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technologies, currently supports various air interface standards, such as Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), and Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA). The UMTS also supports enhanced 3G data communications protocols, such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), including High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), and Evolved HSPA (HSPA+), both of which provide higher data transfer speeds and capacity to associated UMTS networks.
One problem with operation of a user equipment (UE) according to the HSPA protocol occurs when the UE is in a soft handover with imbalanced cells. For example, the UE may be in communication with a high-speed (HS) serving cell and a non-HS cell. In this situation, the UE operating according to HSPA in a soft handover with imbalanced cells causes significant HS communication performance degradation.
Thus, improvements in power control of UE transmissions during HSPA operation are desired.

Apparatus and methods of HSPA transmit power control


A sample of gaseous constituents, to be used in e.g. emissions testing, is collected within an inner bag 86 having a wall 92 that allows limited diffusion of at least one of the gaseous constituents therethrough. A control gas is then collected into an outer bag 82 that defines an auxiliary chamber 94 between the wall and the outside environment. The control gas controls the rate of diffusion of the at least one constituent through the wall and into the outside environment.

The present invention relates to sampling techniques for analysis of gaseous constituents in which a gas sample is collected in a sample bag.
A gas diluting and testing apparatus is used to analyze, among other things, vehicular exhaust. The apparatus uses a mixing tee to dilute the exhaust gasses so that the moisture content of the gasses is sufficiently reduced in order to minimize errors due to condensation. Existing mixing tees have a dilution inlet for receiving a dilution gas, a gaseous inlet for receiving the exhaust gasses, and a mixing portion where the gasses are brought together to form a diluted exhaust gas mixture.
In some systems, a sample of the diluted exhaust gas mixture is routed directly to external equipment, such as an analysis unit. Many times, a sample of the dilution gas is also sent directly to an analysis unit so that the subsequent analysis can more accurately determine what content is due to the exhaust gasses and what content is due to the dilution gas.
Because the hydrocarbon content of vehicle emissions is becoming smaller and smaller due to advances in technology, sometimes motivated by strict emission requirements, extra special care must be taken to assure that the diluted exhaust gas mixture is analyzed properly. Many factors that at one time presented negligible errors in the analysis of hydrocarbon (and other) constituent content in vehicular emissions are now significant because the constituent concentration is at such a low level, but must be measured with accuracy and precision. Of course, the problem of additional factors contributing to measurement error when the constituent to be measured has an exceedingly small concentration is not only present in the field of vehicle emission testing, the problem may also be present in other areas where gasses are analyzed to determine constituent content where the constituents of interest have very small concentrations.
As mentioned above, some approaches for measuring and analyzing gaseous constituent content in a test gas mixture use a mixing tee to dilute the gas mixture (for example, vehicle exhaust) by adding a dilution gas to the test gasses, producing a resultant mixture of test gasses and the dilution gas. The resultant mixture is then analyzed. In addition, the dilution gas may be analyzed so that content in the resultant mixture due to the test gasses can be distinguished from content in the resultant mixture due to the dilution gas. Some other measurement techniques use a different approach. In a different approach, the gasses, instead of being sent directly to an analysis unit, are collected in sample bags. Gasses are only kept in the sample bags for a short period of time, before the sample bags are connected to an analyzer. A gas collecting system that collects gasses in sample bags still faces the same problem of additional factors contributing to measurement error.
One existing system that uses sample bags to collect gas samples uses a sample bag made of polyvinylfloride (PVF) resin. The PVF sample bag has been used for many applications that have been commercially successful. However, the manufacturing process used to manufacture the PVF sample bag results in a small amount of hydrocarbons mixed in the PVF sample bag walls. When a gas sample (dilution gas or gas mixture such as exhaust gasses and dilution gas) is collected in the sample bag, hydrocarbons from the bag may slightly contaminate the gas sample. In many applications, the amount of hydrocarbon content contributed by the PVF sample bag to the gas sample is negligible when compared to the hydrocarbon content of the gas in the sample bag. As such, in many applications for exhaust gas analysis in which hydrocarbon content is to be measured, the PVF sample bags are suitable. However, as the hydrocarbon content within the gas sample becomes increasingly smaller, due in part to strict emission requirements for vehicles, the contribution of hydrocarbons to the gas sample from the PVF sample bag becomes a significant source of measurement error.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an improved gas sample bag that reduces hydrocarbon contribution to the gas sample from the sample bag, without introducing other significant errors so that the overall integrity of the sample is increased.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a sample bag for collecting a sample of gaseous constituents in which the sample chamber wall allows limited but significant diffusion of a gaseous constituent therethrough, and an auxiliary chamber is defined between the sample chamber and outside environment to limit the diffusion rate out of the sample chamber to an acceptable level.
In carrying out the above object and other objects and features of the present invention, a sample bag for collecting a sample of gaseous constituents is provided. The sample bag comprises an inner bag and an outer bag. The inner bag defines a sample chamber and has a wall that bounds the sample chamber. The wall is made of a material that allows limited diffusion through the wall of at least one of the gaseous constituents. The outer bag defines an auxiliary chamber at least partially bound by the wall such that limited diffusion between the sample chamber and the auxiliary chamber is allowed through the wall.
It is appreciated that the limited diffusion through the sample chamber wall is not a desirable result, but is a consequence for certain materials that may be selected for the wall. The present invention provides various configurations for a sample bag that substantially reduce any undesirable diffusion through the wall that may occur due to the selected material. Further, it is appreciated that it is not desirable to have a large number of diffusing constituents. But again, the present invention provides various configurations for a sample bag that substantially reduce any undesirable diffusion.
In one embodiment, the wall material is polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). Of course, the list of films that may be used in the alternative to PTFE is almost endless. In a preferred embodiment, the outer bag substantially encloses the inner bag such that the auxiliary chamber substantially surrounds the sample chamber. More preferably, the inner bag wall generally bounds the auxiliary chamber with respect to the sample chamber, and the outer bag is generally surrounded by an outside environment. Preferably, the outer bag includes an outside wall that bounds the auxiliary chamber with respect to the outside environment. The outside wall of the outer bag may be made of a material that allows limited diffusion through the outside wall of at least one of the gaseous constituents, for example, the outside wall material may also be polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).
Preferably, a first inlet is provided for filling the inner bag, and a second inlet is provided for filling the outer bag. Advantageously, the inner and outer bags may be filled with the same sample material, with the inner bag holding the actual sample to be analyzed, while the same sample material in the outer bag limits diffusion out of the inner bag to an acceptable level even though constituents may diffuse to the outside environment from the outer bag.
In some embodiments, the sample bag further comprises an additional bag defining an additional chamber. The outer bag has an outside wall that bounds the auxiliary chamber and the additional chamber is at least partially bound by the outer bag outside wall such that diffusion between the auxiliary chamber and the additional chamber takes place through the wall.
Further, in carrying out the present invention, a sample bag for collecting a sample of gaseous constituents comprises a plurality of barriers defining a plurality of nested chambers. The plurality of barriers defines the plurality of nested chambers and associated boundaries, including a sample chamber. A sample chamber boundary separates the sample chamber from at least one different chamber and is made of a material that allows limited diffusion through the sample chamber boundary of at least one of the gaseous constituents. The at least one different chamber has an outside wall that bounds the at least one different chamber with respect to an outside environment.
In a preferred implementation, the outside wall is made of a material that allows limited diffusion through the outside wall of at least one of the gaseous constituents such that diffusion from the sample chamber to the outside environment passes through the at least one different chamber. For example, the at least one of the barriers may be made of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). The plurality of nested chambers may define an inner bag containing the sample chamber and an outer bag containing the at least one different chamber, or may define any other suitable group of nested chambers such that diffusion out of the actual sample chamber is limited to an acceptable level to preserve the integrity of the sample.
Still further, in carrying out the present invention, a method for collecting a sample of gaseous constituents from a source is provided. The method comprises collecting the sample in an inner bag, and collecting a control gas in an outer bag. The inner bag defines a sample chamber and has a wall that bounds the sample chamber. The wall is made of material that allows limited diffusion through the wall of at least one of the gaseous constituents in the sample. The outer bag defines an auxiliary chamber at least partially bound by the wall such that diffusion between the sample chamber and the auxiliary chamber takes place through the wall. The outer bag has an outside wall that bounds the auxiliary chamber with respect to an outside environment. The outer bag outside wall is made of material that allows limited diffusion through the outer bag outside wall of at least one of the gaseous constituents.
It is appreciated that embodiments of the present invention use a material to provide a barrier around the sample chamber wherein the material allows limited diffusion through the barrier of a gaseous constituent causing the relative concentrations of the constituents to vary. To preserve the integrity of the sample within the sample chamber, any number of additional chambers are defined about the sample chamber. These additional chambers are filled with a control gas, which may be the same gaseous mixture being sampled in the sample chamber. The gaseous constituent diffuses out of the one or more auxiliary chambers to the outside environment, as the same gaseous constituent diffuses from the sample chamber to the auxiliary chamber or chambers. Because the gaseous constituent content in the sample chamber and in the auxiliary chamber are relatively similar concentrations, diffusion out of the sample chamber is slow, preserving the integrity of the sample.
Of course, the inner bag wall and the outer bag outside wall may be made of essentially the same material having the same essential properties, or may be made of different materials. Further, the control gas for the outer bag need not be from the same source as the sample for the inner bag, and may be from a different source so long as the gaseous constituent content for the constituent that diffusion is to be controlled is sufficiently close to the content in the inner bag.
Even further, in carrying out the present invention, a sample bag for collecting a sample of gaseous mixture for emissions testing is provided. The mixture is a mixture of exhaust gasses and a dilution gas. The sample bag comprises an inner bag defining a sample chamber having an outer wall that bounds the sample chamber. The outer wall is made of material that allows limited diffusion through the outer wall of exhaust gasses. The sample bag further comprises an outer bag substantially enclosing the inner bag and defining an auxiliary chamber at least partially bound by the inner bag outside wall. Diffusion between the sample chamber and the auxiliary chamber is allowed through the inner bag outside wall. The outer bag has an outer bag outside wall made of material that allows limited diffusion through the outer bag outside wall of exhaust gasses to an external environment.
The above object, and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention are readily apparent from the following detailed description of the best mode for carrying out the invention when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.


A method for removing a pollutant from emissions or the environment comprising: contacting a mineral ore or the use of a mineral ore selected from the group consisting of bauxite, modified bauxite and mixtures thereof. Typically, the pollutant is a heavy metal or a microorganism.

Pollutants in or on the ground, or in surface or ground waters pose an increasing threat to the environment. The pollutants may result from industrial discharges, accidental spills, mine drainage, mine tailing seepage or leaks and the like. Typically, large quantities of polluted materials need to be treated so that cost of the treating materials becomes an important factor. The present invention seeks to answer this need by using low cost, readily available materials to bind the pollutants.
Heavy metals, such as mercury, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, and selenium, are used in a number of manufacturing operations and industrial and consumer products, but are hazardous to human health and the ecosystem when released to the environment. Often, heavy metals have to be removed from gas, water, or soil streams exiting a manufacturing facility or from the environment where they have already been released. The current invention proposes the use of bauxite or modified bauxite for removal of heavy metals from fluid streams (gases e.g. air or exhaust gas, liquids e.g. water), and soil or other aggregate material.
A number of different treatment processes and products have been proposed in the past for removal of these metals from the target matrices to prevent the metals from migrating to potential points of human exposure and to protect the environment. In gas streams (for example, consisting of coal-burning power plant emissions), metals are removed by using an adsorbent or catalyst. Activated carbon (Vidic R. D., Liu, W. (1997) Development of Novel Activated Carbon-Based Adsorbents for Control of Mercury Emissions From Coal-Fired Power Plants. DOE-NETL publication; Miller, S. J., Dunham, G. E., Olson, E. S., and Brown, T. D. (2000) Fuel Processing Technology 65/66:343-363; U.S. Pat. No. 6,402,813 B2) and noble metals, like molybdenum, cobalt, have been used in the past for their adsorptive and catalytic properties, respectively. A two-step process of oxidation of elemental mercury to a mercury compound, followed by its removal on an adsorbent (e.g., activated alumina) has previously been proposed (U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,496). More complex filters, for example those that involve a support material on which are synthetically deposited multiple components to address multiple pollutants, have also been proposed (U.S. Pat. No. 5,212,131).
Bauxite has sometimes been used in the past for treatment of pollutants in gases, often after expensive processing to a substance called activated bauxite. Activated bauxite is commonly generated by heating the bauxite to a temperature in the range from 400 to 1,000° C., in order to increase its surface area and improve adsorption. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,595,954 and 4,639,259 describe how activated bauxite or activated alumina (a purified form of bauxite) can be promoted by adding an alkali metal oxide to remove HCl from fluid streams. U.S. Pat. No. 4,973,459 describes the use emathlite and bauxite as sorbents for removing alkali from hot gases at temperatures up to 1,800° F., by using the sorbents in conjunction with coarse particulate materials and filter units in a moving bed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,865,629 describes a process for flitering fine particulates from a stream of hot gas by blending a fraction of particles removed by the cyclones back to the gas; this work mentions the use of diatomite or bauxite particles that can be blended into the gas stream to remove corrosive sodium and potassium vapors. U.S. Pat. No. 3,917,733 describes a two-step process for removing halogen-containing chemicals from a liquid hydrocarbon stream by using alumina or bauxite as adsorbents, and then using the spent liquid-stream adsorbents as adsorbents for treating gas streams. In all these applications, bauxite in an activated form (following heat treatment to 400° C. or above) is used primarily as an adsorbent, rather than in a raw or gently modified form as a catalyst to cause transformations of the target gas stream.
Many of these previous processes suffer from one or more of the following limitations:    1. The use of the reagent generates a waste product that interferes with its eventual reuse or disposal.    2. The reagent is too specific towards one or other target pollutant    3. A two-step process is required to obtain adequate removal of the pollutant metals. This increases the complexity of the process and cost of the treatment.    4. The reagent is relatively expensive and economic use of the reagent requires another process to regenerate and reuse the reagent.
The present invention addresses these limitations. The invention consists of a reagent that is commonly available, removes multiple pollutants, is relatively cheap and can therefore be disposed of after a single use.

Treatment of environmental pollutants with mineral ores


The present disclosure relates to a method to determine, from a measured result and an assumed adjustment set, the probability that a permutation to the assumed adjustment set was implemented or other error, such as a sensor error, is occurring. The determination of probability of a permutation of the adjustment set may be based on the error between the predicted response and the measured actual response for the assumed adjustment set and permutations of the assumed adjustment set. A number of statistical comparisons may be performed between the assumed adjustment set and the permutation sets to determine which are closer to the measured actual response. A probability value may be assigned to each adjustment set as to the likelihood of their having been implemented.

Various mechanical modifications may be made on equipment over time. This equipment may include sensors to help identify errors. Often times, the modification desired is not made on the first attempt. Moreover, at times, the modification may be an inadvertent over-correction or performed erroneously. At these times, it is difficult to solve the current problem and/or perform the current desired modification to the modified equipment.

System and method for adjustment response analysis


The present invention is drawn to a semiconductor integrated circuit device employing on the same silicon substrate a plurality of kinds of MOS transistors different in magnitude of tunnel current flowing either between the source and gate or between the drain and gate thereof. These MOS transistors include tunnel-current increased MOS transistors at least one of which is for use in constituting a main circuit of the device. The plurality of kinds of MOS transistors also include tunnel-current reduced or depleted MOS transistors at least one of which is for use with a control circuit. This control circuit is inserted between the main circuit and at least one of two power supply units. The control circuit is responsive to receipt of a control signal supplied thereto for controlling the flow of a current either between the source and gate or between the drain and gate of the tunnel-current increased MOS transistor for use with the main circuit in such a way that the current flow is selectively permitted during certain time period and that it is inhibited during another period.

The present invention relates generally to semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) devices configured using metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors, and more particularly to a semiconductor IC device which employs specific MOS transistors with a gate insulation film thin enough to permit flow of tunnel current therein and which is adaptable for use with low-power circuitry operable with low voltages of 2 volts or less.
One prior known semiconductor integrated circuit device employing highly miniaturized MOS transistors fabricated by microelectronics fabrication technology is disclosed, for example, in a paper entitled xe2x80x9cLimitation of CMOS Supply-Voltage Scaling by MOSFET Threshold-Voltage Variation,xe2x80x9d 1994 Custom Integrated Circuit Conference (CICC), pp. 267-270. This paper also teaches the correlation of the transistor threshold value versus flow of leakage current during standby periods.
Currently available standard MOS transistors are typically designed to operate with a gate voltage of from 1.8 to 2.5 volts (so-called the xe2x80x9cgate-to-sourcexe2x80x9d voltage which is normally equivalent to the power supply voltage) while making use of a gate insulation film ranging from 5 to 6 nanometers (nm) in thickness. Generally, as the integration density of MOS transistors increases, the transistor size decreases, and the thickness of the gate insulation film decreases accordingly. The present inventors Presently predict that MOS-IC devices of the next generation will require use of further miniaturized MOS transistors operable with a gate voltage of 2 volts or less while reducing the thickness of gate insulation film down at 4 nm or less.
Principally, it may be considered that the operation speed of MOS transistors remains inversely proportional to the gate insulation film thickness decreasesxe2x80x94that is, as this thickness decreases, the MOS transistor speed increases. However, this does not come without accompanying a xe2x80x9ctrade-offxe2x80x9d penalty: When the MOS gate insulation film becomes too thinner, a tunnel current begins flowing therethrough. This can result in an increase in leakage current (tunnel leakage current), such as a source-to-gate current or drain-to-gate current, which inherently does never take place in standard MOS transistors. Such increase in tunnel leakage current in turn leads to an increase in power dissipation of MOS transistors during standby periods thereof. In the description such dielectric films permitting tunnel current leakage will be referred to as the xe2x80x9cthinxe2x80x9d gate insulation film; likewise, certain MOS transistors employing such dielectric film will be called the xe2x80x9cthin-filmxe2x80x9d MOS transistors hereinafter. On the contrary, standard MOS transistors in which such tunnel leakage current does not flow will be referred to as the xe2x80x9cthick-filmxe2x80x9d MOS transistors. The xe2x80x9ctunnel current leakagexe2x80x9d problem has been also discussed in the monthly journal titled xe2x80x9cSemiconductor World,xe2x80x9d July 1995 at pp. 80-94; unfortunately, this is completely silent about any ideas for solving this problem.
A mechanism of an increase in power dissipation during standby due to tunnel current will be discussed more precisely in conjunction with the graphs shown in FIG. 10.
See FIG. 10(a). This is a graphical representation showing experimental results concerning the drain voltage versus drain current characteristics of one thick-film MOS transistor. Plotting experimental data in this graph assumes that its gate oxide film measures approximately 6 nm in thickness. Since the oxide film employed herein is thick enough to render negligible the tunnel leakage current which can flow between the gate and source or between the gate and drain.
See FIG. 10(b), which presents the drain-voltage/drain-current characteristics of a thin-film MOS transistor. This assumes that a gate oxide film used is 3.5 nm in thickness. Since the oxide film is thin, leakage current can flow between the gate and source and also between the gate and drain thereof. Accordingly, even where the drain voltage is at zero volts, a non-negligible amount of current flows between the gate and drain when its gate voltage is not zero volts. In the graph of FIG. 10(b), a drain current of 0.5 milliamperes (mA) or more or less was derived when the gate voltage is 2.0 volts.
In complementary MOS (CMOS) circuitry configured using thick-film MOS transistors, since gate leakage current remains negligible in amount, any constant current (DC current) will by no means flow insofar as leakage current is absent between the source and drain. On the contrary, with CMOS circuitry employing thin-film MOS transistors, gate leakage current does flow so that constant current (DC current) flows accordingly. This means that some power dissipation arises even where the circuitry is inoperative.
See FIG. 11, which shows the relation of the thickness of gate insulation film versus gate leakage current. Even when the gate voltage is at 2 to 3 volts or around it, if the gate insulation film is 6 nm or greater in thickness, then any resultant tunnel current remains harmless in practical applications. On the other hand, it may be seen by those skilled in the art that even if the gate voltage is potentially decreased to range from 2 to 1.5 volts which may be lower than ever, the leakage current will no longer remain negligible in magnitude once after the thickness of gate insulation film is reduced at approximately 3 nm. Presumably, if the gate voltage is 2 volts or more or less, then the boundary exists at a 4-nm range of gate insulation film thickness or around it. According to the teachings of the Semiconductor World document, it has been pointed out that the tunnel effect in quantum theory takes place with a 5-nm gate insulation film point being as the criticality. This document also teaches that a remarkable tunnel current can occur not only when the gate insulation film is as thin as 1.5 nm but also when it falls within a range of from 3 to 3.5 nm. As can be seen from the graph of FIG. 11, while the gate voltage tends to be lowered for reduction in power dissipation; even in this situation, when the gate insulation film becomes thinner to decrease from 2.9 to 2.0 nm in thickness, large leakage current begins flowing even upon application of a gate voltage of 1 volt or below. Additionally, it is currently presumed that a minimal thickness of gate insulation films capable of retaining the nature of silicon oxide is about 10 angstroms.
Another approach is known which suppresses a sub-threshold source-to-drain leakage current by potentially raising the threshold value of MOS transistors. However, even with use of such approach, it stays impossible in principle to reduce standby power dissipation due to the flow of source-to-gate tunnel current.
While the gate leakage current (tunnel current) might be under control by increasing the thickness of gate insulation films to reduce standby power dissipation involved, this does not come without accompanying a penalty: As discussed supra, if such MOS transistors are employed for circuitry then operation speed decreases making it impossible or at least greatly difficult to attain any desired performance.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor integrated circuit device capable of reducing standby power dissipation without having to degrading circuit operation speed.
In order to attain the foregoing object, the invention provides a low-power/high-performance semiconductor integrated circuit device by selective use of different kinds of MOS transistors including thick-film MOS transistors and thin-film MOS transistors, wherein the former is negligible in flow of tunnel leakage current whereas the latter is capable of operating at high speeds while accompanying the tunnel current leakage problem.
In accordance with the principles of the invention, there is provided a semiconductor integrated circuit device including on the same substrate a plurality of kinds of MOS transistors different in magnitude of a leakage current flowing either between the source and gate or between the drain and gate. The semiconductor integrated circuit device is configured to have main circuitry constituted from at least one MOS transistor of the plurality of kinds of MOS transistors being greater in leakage current, and control circuitry inserted between the main circuitry and at least one of two power supplies and comprised of at least one MOS transistor less in leakage current.
It should be noted that intended high-speed characteristics may be successfully accomplished by designing the MOS transistors such that the gate insulation film measures 3.5 nm or less in thickness: Also, rendering it thinner at 3.0 nm and further thinner at 2.0 nm or less may enable the operation speed to further increase. However, as the operation speed increases, tunnel leakage current will likewise increase in magnitude. In view of this, it may be desirable that the MOS transistors of reduced leakage current be specifically employed for interruption or interception of a standby voltage(s) as applied to the thin-film MOS transistors. Intended advantages may be sufficiently attained whenever the power-supply intercept MOS transistors measure 5.0 nm or greater in thickness; if extra high speed requirements are not required when reduction to practice, it may be permissible for them to measure 10.0 nm or greater.
These MOS transistors may be structured to offer any desired characteristics by suitably designing the thickness of gate insulation film or changing either carrier density or distribution at the gate electrode, drain and/or source electrode. Generally, increasing the gate insulation film thickness requires that the gate length increase in value accordingly.
In regard to the microelectronics fabrication process, the characteristic control or adjustment may become accurate when the two kinds ofxe2x80x94namely, thin-film and thick-filmxe2x80x94MOS transistors are manufactured such that the gate insulation films and gate electrodes thereof are formed at separate process steps. Especially, it will be recommendable that thick gate insulation films be formed prior to formation of thin gate insulation films because of the fact that the latter is difficult than the former in control of process parameters during fabrication. In addition, in cases where such two kinds of MOS transistors are formed separately, forming a protective dielectric film on resultant gate electrode layer may enable suppression or elimination of occurrence of gate-electrode degradation otherwise occurring due to execution of succeeding processes.
It should be noted here that in the semiconductor integrated circuit device in accordance with the instant invention, the thin-film MOS transistors are preferably selected for use with specific circuitry parts under strict requirements of high-speed characteristics, including, but not limited to, information signal processor circuits, such as logic function units (logic circuits such as NAND gates, NOR gates and the like) as built in central-processing units (CPUs), latch circuits, high-speed memory cell arrays, and others.
In contrast, switch elements for interruption of power supply during standby periods of these thin-film MOS transistors may be configured using thick-film MOS transistors, which function as the power-supply intersect transistors. Also, any circuitry parts without high-speed requirements as well as circuits under strict requirements of high voltage withstand characteristics may be configured by such thick-film MOS transistors. Memory cells with no high-speed requirements such as static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), mask read-only memory (mask ROM) are one example. Protective circuitry as inserted for prevention of gate-insulation film dielectric breakdown is another example. Preferably, those of the thick-film MOS transistors which are to be applied with high voltages come with a specifically designed source/drain structurexe2x80x94that is, electric field relaxation structure including, but not limited to, a lightly-doped drain (LDD) structure.
It should be also noted that in cases where the semiconductor integrated circuit device of the invention is arranged as an IC chip, it will be recommendable that a level converter circuit for potential level conversion of electrical signals be built therein in order to xe2x80x9cabsorbxe2x80x9d any possible differences in potential level between incoming signals to the chip and outgoing ones from it. When this is done, it is desirable in view of reliability that thick-film MOS transistors be employed in certain circuit part for receiving high potential external signals whereas thin-film MOS transistors be in remaining circuit part for handling relatively low potential internal or xe2x80x9cin-chipxe2x80x9d signals.
The memory cells configured using thick-film MOS transistors may functionally include at least one of register files, cash memories, translation look-aside buffers (TLBs), and DRAM cells; if this is the case, it is preferable that the memory cells are arranged to store therein data during standby periods. The invention however should not be limited exclusively thereto and may alternatively be modified such that these include first kinds of memory cells of high access rate and second kind of ones lower in access rate than the former, wherein the MOS transistors constituting the first memory cells are greater in leakage current than those forming the second memory cells.
It should further be noted that upon interruption of the power supply of the thin-film MOS transistors by the power supply intercept transistor(s), it is possible by providing a level hold circuitxe2x80x94this may be configured using thin-film MOS transistors for retaining or holding the last potential level of an output of logic circuit operatively associated therewithxe2x80x94to eliminate any adverse influence or affection by power supply intercept of the thin-film MOS transistors. Preferably, such level hold circuit may be formed of one or more thick-film MOS transistors less in leakage current magnitude.
The thin-film MOS transistors as employed in accordance with the principles of the invention may advantageously serve to reduce power dissipation significantly by interrupting or xe2x80x9cinterceptingxe2x80x9d power feed during standby periods in light of the fact that leakage current can increase in magnitude even where these thin-film MOS transistors are designed to operate with extra low gate voltage below 2 volts, such as 0.8 volts or 1.2 volts or therearound, by way of example.
Preferably, that the leakage current-increased MOS transistors and leakage current-decreased ones are potentially driven by use of different gate voltages therefor. Practically, the leakage current-increased MOS transistors are to be driven upon application of certain voltage between the gate and source of each one, which voltage is lower than that being applied to the leakage current decreased MOS transistors.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a semiconductor integrated circuit device is provided which includes first and second MOS transistors as formed on the same silicon chip substrate. A respective one of the first MOS transistors has an insulative film of 4-nm thick or less as laid between the source and drain thereof or between its drain and gate; a corresponding insulative film of each second MOS transistor measures more than 4 nm in thickness.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a semiconductor integrated circuit device includes first and second MOS transistors as formed on the same silicon chip substrate. A respective one of the first MOS transistors has an insulative film of 4-nm thick or less as laid between the source and drain thereof or between its drain and gate; each second MOS transistor has an insulative film between the source and gate or between the drain and gate thereof, which film is greater in thickness than the first MOS transistors. The second MOS transistors are specifically adaptable for use in controlling flow of source-to-gate current or drain-to-gate current of the first MOS transistors.
In accordance with still another aspect of the invention, a semiconductor integrated circuit device includes first and second MOS transistors as formed on the same silicon chip substrate. A respective one of the first MOS transistors has an insulative film of 4-nm thick or less as laid between the source and drain or between the drain and gate thereof. The second MOS transistors are adaptable for use in interrupting transfer of associated power supply voltages toward the first MOS transistors. The semiconductor integrated circuit device further includes a level hold circuit for holding the last potential level of an output signal of each first MOS transistor during interruption of power supply.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention, a semiconductor integrated circuit device includes first and second MOS transistors as formed on the same silicon chip substrate. The first MOS transistors are inherently greater in magnitude of leakage current flowing between the source and gate or between the drain and gate thereof whereas the second MOS transistors remain less in leakage current than the first ones. The integrated circuit device is specifically arranged so that the second MOS transistors are driven by a predefined high voltage which is higher than that being applied to the first MOS transistors.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, a semiconductor integrated circuit device responsive to receipt o: an input signal having a specified amplitude voltage Vcc2 is arranged to include a level converter circuit for generating and issuing an in-chip signal by potentially reducing the amplitude voltage of an input signal, wherein leakage current occurrable between the gate and source or between the gate and drain of a MOS transistor accepting the in-chip signal is greater than that in another MOS transistor receiving the input signal.
When practicing the invention by applying it to integrated circuit devices such as those for use with microcomputers, the semiconductor integrated circuit device comes with an arithmetic processor unit and a data storage unit as configured using MOS transistors, which circuit may include at least one of the mask ROM, SRAM, and DRAM. The MOS transistors constituting one or more logic circuits in the arithmetic Processor has a gate insulation film which is less in thickness than those forming memory cells of the storage unit.
In accordance with a still further aspect of the invention, a semiconductor integrated circuit device includes on the same silicon substrate a plurality of kinds of MOS transistors including first MOS transistors and second MOS transistors different from each other in magnitude of tunnel current flowing between the source and gate or between the drain and gate. The semiconductor integrated circuit device also includes a main circuit configured using at least one tunnel current increased MOS transistor. The device further includes a controller circuit as operatively is coupled to the main circuit and also to at least one of two power supply units. This controller employs at least one of tunnel current decreased (or absent) MOS transistor. The controller is responsive to a control signal fed thereto for providing control so as to selectively permit and inhibit the flow of a current between the source and gate or between the drain and gate of the tunnel current increased MOS transistor for use in constituting the main circuit.
One characterizing feature of the semiconductor integrated circuit device lies in that the plurality of kinds of MOS transistors include MOS transistors different in gate insulation film thickness, or alternatively MOS transistors of the same conductivity type having gate electrodes doped with the same kind of impurity to different degrees of dopant concentration.
Another feature is that where MOS transistors different in gate insulation film thickness are employed, those MOS transistors each having a thick gate insulation film is provided with a side wall spacer which is adhered coating the side wall of its gate electrode. The spacer may be made of a chosen insulative material chemically insensitive to hydrofluoric acid. This side wall spacer may be for use as a mask for fabrication of the LDD structure, supra.

Method of forming a CMOS structure having gate insulation films of different thicknesses


A dryer unit which is integrated as a module into a printed material guide system of a printing machine in order to facilitate two-sided drying of printed material is provided. The printed material guide system includes a guide surface which has a plurality of openings and an air system which is selectively operable in positive or negative pressure modes to assist the guiding of the printed material. The dryer module is arranged in an opening in the guide surface such that it heats at least one side of the printed material. At least one outlet opening is associated with the dryer module. The outlet opening is open into the plane of the guide surface and is coupled to a cooling system which is operable to provide cooling air to the dryer module.

Drying units are used in offset printing machines to dry and/or cure the ink or varnish which is applied to the sheet or web material. One such dryer unit is disclosed in EP 0 035 741 Bl. Specifically, this reference discloses a sliding table having a cooling surface which is arranged opposite a dryer device. The sliding table acts as a printed material guide system and is arranged with its cooling surface facing the unprinted side of the printed material. In order to dry the printed material, which is described as a thermoplastic sheet material, the dryer device blows air in the direction of the cooling surface. The printed material guide system further includes coolant ducts which are connected to a cooling system comprising a heat exchanger and circulating pump.
A deliverer in a sheet-fed printing machine which has dryer devices arranged in a modular construction within the chain conveyor system is disclosed in PCT/WO 95-01930. Air assisted printed material guide systems are arranged opposite the dryer devices and underneath the sheet conveying path.
Another dryer unit is disclosed in DE 92 14 459 Ul. This particular dryer unit is constructed with a cooling system which includes a heat exchanger, a flow monitor, a compensation container and a circulation pump. The cooling system further includes a coolant line interconnecting the circulation pump and a sheet guide plate which provides coolant to the sheet guide plate. In addition, the coolant outlet of the sheet guide plate can be coupled by means of a connecting line to a dryer unit positioned opposite the sheet guide plate in order to also provide coolant to the dryer unit. The cooling of the dryer unit and the sheet guide plate prevents heat from building up within the printing machine. In order to accelerate the oxidative drying of the printing inks, the printed material itself is heated by means of infrared radiation.
DE 43 08 276 Al also discloses a sheet guide device having a cooling device which cools the sheet guide surface when a dryer unit is operating. The sheet guide surface has a plurality of openings through which air is blown. One of the openings is formed by an end face integrated in the sheet guide surface as an impact face and includes a flow duct which opens at an angle into the sheet guide surface. The cooling device is configured as a cooling trough having a trough bottom and a lid wherein the lid of the trough constitutes the sheet guide plate.
One of the significant problems with these designs is that the dryer units are always arranged opposite the printed material guide system. Thus, the printed material is dried only from one side (the front side). This leads to problems in the drying process including, for example, smearing (setting-off) of the ink and/or varnish which resulting from inadequately dried printed materials reaching the deliverer stack.
A drying device for printed products which is arranged to dry both the front and rear side of the printed material is disclosed in DE 38 28 753 C2. The drying device includes an energy transmission device comprising a fiber optic cable and a rectilinearly fanned-out beam splitter device. The drying device is arranged on both sides of printed material in the sheet deliverer, however, and is not integrated with a sheet guide system.


The invention relates to the guidance of autonomous vehicles and in particular, relates to guiding an autonomous vehicle along a roadway with active devices with a system which works during normal and inclement weather as well as under any luminous conditions. These active devices are embedded in the passive and/or active road details such as traffic signs, traffic lights, warning lights etc. These active devices provide data relating to road conditions, speed, road layout etc. as well as other information such as availability of parking spaces. Accordingly, through networks of sensors and devices the autonomous vehicle can obtain road details in real-time in severe weather conditions such as heavy snowstorm, ice, fog or other inclement weather.

The Proposed sensor devices are strategically placed in or on the vehicle that will detect active devices [d1]. The Devices [d1] could be self-powered by solar and/or batteries with active electronics to process approaching vehicles or/and pedestrians for where powers are not readily available. This self-contained or/and networked device[d1] will either receive a discovery signal from the approaching vehicle or self-detect the vehicle/pedestrian or even provided by the network. Once either vehicle or pedestrian is known then the device[d1] will either reply with the predetermined information to the vehicle or/and has already display the "status" (i.e.: stop sign) or/and it displays the information.
Currently, the autonomous vehicles are helpless and cannot or do not know the signs or road details without aid of camera system or detailed pre-mapped system of navigation. In use today, the navigation system is either GPS based for obtaining details of the roads or/and uses LiDAR, or/and optical (Camera) based for mapping of the road network sign(s) in conjunction with pre-mapped extremely detailed road information. This pre-mapping of the road is inefficient and, in most cases, impractical if there are continual changes to the roadways (especially with the rate of change ranging from daily to hourly). These constant changes can create havoc to autonomous vehicles on the road if they do not have the latest updates or if there are changes of the road networks. This could potentially result in a big catastrophe. Even if feasible, the amount of changes will require a multitude of road networks to be re-mapped. This will not give the autonomous vehicles the information it needs to navigate the roadway in a timely manner.
Furthermore, current technologies such as camera (optical), LiDAR, and other roadway interpretation systems fail under severe weather conditions and under certain luminous conditions. As such, the present invention claims will help evolve the self-driving, autonomous vehicles to navigate the road in a more effective manner under normal or severe weather condition and any luminous conditions.
Based on the preliminary research of the current technologies that are deployed or proposed to solve the navigation for the autonomous vehicles on our roads today, all fail to navigate under inclement weather conditions and are costly to implement. However, the present invention below represents a more economical and efficient way to implement a self-assisted navigation system. For example, one of the claims is to modify the existing passive signage(s) to an active device so that sensors on the autonomous vehicle can accurately pick up the information ahead before it traverse the road. These details of the road could be a simple stop sign(s) or parking spaces available ahead on the road and can be even adapted to provide information from pass stop to approaching autonomous bus—especially under (inclement weather and any luminous) conditions.

Roadway information detection systems consists of sensors on automonous vehicles and devices for the road


A pre-terminated optical fiber assembly with a ferrule having front and rear opposed faces and at least one fiber bore defined longitudinally therethrough includes a glass optical fiber is disposed within the at least one fiber bore with the fiber fused to the ferrule at a location at least 1 mm deep inside the bore. A method for fusing is also disclosed. The ferrule 14 is desirably composed of an inorganic composite material, the composite comprising a material gradient from at least 75% by volume of a first inorganic material to at least 75% by volume of second inorganic material in the radially inward direction, where the first inorganic material has a fracture toughness of at least 1 MPa·m1/2, and the second inorganic material has a softening point of no greater than 1000° C., desirably no greater than 900° C.

Fiber and ferrule assemblies are typically formed by securing a glass fiber within a ceramic ferrule by any of various methods, but one of the most common is by use of an epoxy-based adhesive. The ceramic of the ferrule constitutes a relatively tough material with excellent dimensional stability and generally somewhat customizable CTE. While use of epoxy is generally an inexpensive approach, there are significant disadvantages, including the difficulty of achieving repeatable quality in the adhesive bond, typically requiring careful inspection, cold storage, precise mixing, degassing, and careful dispensing of the epoxy. Limited pot life after mixing and undesirably long curing times after application are additional disadvantages of epoxy.
The present disclosure provides according to one aspect, a pre-terminated optical fiber assembly with a ferrule 14 having front and rear opposed faces and at least one fiber bore defined longitudinally therethrough. A glass optical fiber is disposed within the at least one fiber bore, and the fiber is fused to the ferrule at a location at least 1 mm deep inside the bore. The ferrule 14 is desirably composed of an inorganic composite material, the composite comprising a material gradient from at least 75% by volume of a first inorganic material to at least 75% by volume of second inorganic material in the radially inward direction, where the first inorganic material has a fracture toughness of at least 1 MPa·m1/2, and the second inorganic material has a softening point of no greater than 1000° C., desirably no greater than 900° C.
According to another aspect, the present disclosure also provides a method of fabricating an optical fiber connector assembly, the method comprising: providing an optical fiber; providing a ferrule having front and rear opposed faces and at least one fiber bore defined longitudinally therethrough; positioning the fiber within the at least one fiber bore; and fusing the fiber to the ferrule at a location at least 1 mm deep inside the at least one fiber bore by irradiating the fiber and ferrule with laser energy. The step of providing a ferrule desirably comprises providing a ferrule comprised of an inorganic composite material, the composite comprising a material gradient from at least 75% by volume of a first inorganic material to at least 75% by volume of second inorganic material in the radially inward direction, with the first inorganic material having a fracture toughness of at least 1 MPa·m1/2 and the second inorganic material having a softening point of no greater than 1000° C.
Variations of the methods and devices of the present disclosure are described in the text below and with reference to the figures, described in brief immediately below.

Optical fiber and composite inorganic ferrule assemblies


A stock unit for storing carriers has a stock unit body, a plurality of carrier mounting shelves provided in a side wall of the stock unit body at predetermined spaces in a vertical direction, a carrier station, provided in the lower portion of the stock unit body, receiving and sending a carrier between the stock unit and a carrier part provided in the outside of the stock unit body, a carrier transport device, provided in the lower portion of the stock unit body, for transporting the carrier from the inside of the stock unit body to wafer transfer device provided in the outside of the stock unit body, and a carrier arm mechanism gripping at least one carrier, receiving and sending the carrier between the carrier station and the carrier transport device, and between the carrier mounting shelves and the carrier transport device regardless of the operation of the carrier transport device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to stock unit for storing carriers, and more particularly to a stock unit, which can efficiently carry in and out carriers.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional, there is used a stock unit for storing carriers, on which objects is disposed, described in Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 30120.
This type of stock unit comprises a multi-stepped carrier mounting plate on which a carrier is mounted and a carrier holding member, which can go up and down in a vertical direction and move in a horizontal direction. In a case where the carrier is mounted on the carrier mounting plate by use of this type of stock unit, the carrier holding member holds the carrier, and the carrier holding member is lifted up and down in the vertical direction, and moved in the horizontal direction. Thereby, the carrier is transferred to a predetermined carrier mounting plate. The plurality of carriers, which is mounted on the carrier mounting plate, is transported to wafer transfer means by a transport mechanism, and the carriers are transferred to a wafer boat for heat treatment by wafer transfer means.
However, in the conventional stock unit, it is impossible to transport the carriers to be supplied from an exterior at a carrier port while the wafer is transferring to the wafer boat in the transfer between the wafer boat and the carrier. Due to this, time waiting is generated in a part of the function of the carrier transport. For this reason, the carriers stay before the carrier port and throughput deteriorates. Moreover, there is a problem in that flow of carrier transport is stopped in a series of a semiconductor manufacture.


To prevent an increase in the management information and to increase the capacity of a secondary cache. The cache control device includes: a secondary cache having the data of the data sector and management information; and a primary cache having a digest value calculated from the address of the data and secondary management information. A controller includes: a digest value calculation unit which calculates the digest value of the data when reading out the data; a management information searching unit which searches the management information in the primary cache based on the digest value; and a readout control unit which specifies the data sector in the secondary cache based on the management information and reads out the data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cache control device, a cache control method, and a program thereof. More specifically, the present invention relates to a cache control device using a secondary cache having a large capacity, a cache control method, and a program thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A hard disk drive (HDD) is used as an external storage device of a computer system, and a disk array device that provides services such as speedup and duplication by combining a plurality of HDDs is also used.
With a disk device and a disk array device, the performance of I/O (input/output) can be improved when a part of the memory loaded on those external storage devices is used as a disk cache. Further, when the disk cache capacity is added up to increase the usability thereof, the performance of the disk array device and the like can be improved.
However, the memory loaded on the disk array device and the like is of a smaller amount compared to the total capacity of HDD managed in a memory disk array and the like. There is also a limit in the port, for example, for physically loading the memory when adding on the memory, so that there is a limit in increasing the capacity.
Recently, focused as a means for increasing the disk cache capacity is a performance improving method achieved by controlling I/O with the use of a storage medium (e.g., SSD: solid state disk) which is cheaper and has a larger capacity than the memory and is also higher in speed than HDD.
Further, SSD has such characteristics that data therein is managed with a unit of 4 KB and that erase processing is required with a unit of 256 KB, etc. In order to use SSD for the disk cache, a cache control method suited for such characteristics has been investigated.
Regarding the cache control, following technical documents Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 2007-58349 (Patent Document 1), Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 2008-059057 (Patent Document 2), Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 2009-211226 (Patent Document 3), and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 2012-14435 (Patent Document 4) are known.
Disclosed in Patent Document 1 is a method for controlling N-way set associative control in which N-pieces of tags are provided for a plurality of cache lines (paragraphs [0003] to [0007]). Further, also disclosed is a method for improving the performance through simplifying the cache control actions by omitting invalid processing for a primary cache at the time of replacing data of a secondary cache (non-inclusive in paragraphs [0018], [0010]).
Disclosed in Patent Document 2 is a method which has data loaded to a sharing cache (secondary cache) in advance from a main memory in order to effectively perform prefetching (preloading) according to the state of the cache line (paragraph [0024]). Further, also disclosed is an example of the structure with which a secondary cache management table for managing the storage state of the secondary cache memory and the prefetch requests is stored not in the secondary cache but in a prefetch control unit (paragraphs [0046], [0047], FIG. 1).
Disclosed in Patent Document 3 is a method (paragraph [0070], FIG. 11) which manages tags in a unit of cluster in order to minimize the volume of the management table such as changes in addresses as much as possible when using a flash memory such as SSD as a cache with a large capacity.
Disclosed in Patent Document 4 is a method which restores data stored in a secondary cache such as SSD but not stored in HDD by using a restoring tool in order to restore the data of the secondary cache or the like to HDD after a crash even when the data is not written in the HDD (FIG. 5, paragraphs 0043 to 0045 and the like). Further, in this case, disclosed is an example of the structure which stores management information of the secondary cache in the main memory (paragraphs [0023], [0035], FIG. 1).
Further, there are descriptions regarding a primary and a secondary cache memories in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 2008-217527 (Patent Document 5), and disclosed therein is a technical content where a volatile memory is used as the secondary cache memory in order to speed up input/output of data.
Furthermore, there are also descriptions regarding a primary and a secondary cache memories in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 2011-204060 (Patent Document 6), and disclosed therein is a technical content where SSD is used as the secondary cache memory and the durability is increased.
However, each of the above-described documents discloses nothing regarding a technical method for preventing the increase in the management information of the secondary cache due to the large capacity (including add-on and the like) and exhibiting the original performance of having the large capacity.
That is, it is not possible to manage the secondary cache having the large capacity at a high speed with the techniques of each of the above-described Patent Documents 1 to 6 and combinations thereof.
Particularly, when using a storage medium such as SSD which is faster than HDD but slower than a memory as the secondary cache, the access frequency influences the performance. Thus, with the related technique described above, it is difficult to increase the capacity while securing the performance.
It is therefore an exemplary object of the present invention to provide a cache control device, a cache control method, and a program thereof, which can increase the capacity of the secondary cache by suppressing the increase of the management information when using a storage medium of about a medium speed that is faster than a disk unit (HDD or the like) and slower than a memory as the secondary cache.

Cache control device, cache control method, and program thereof


A free fall ball penetrometer with a booster is dynamically penetrated into the seabed through its kinetic and potential energies. The main measuring instrument is a ball penetrometer, which is subject to end bearing resistance, drag force, and soil buoyant force during the dynamic penetration process within the soil. Based on the measured data from the accelerometer and load cell, the soil strength parameters including the undrained shear strength and strain-rate parameter can be back-analyzed. The added booster can: (1) effectively increase the penetration depth of the ball penetrometer and hence enlarge the range of measured penetration depths; and (2) improve the directional stability and avoid the rotation of the ball penetrometer during the falling process. The force data measured from the load cell, together with the acceleration data from the accelerometer, can further improve the measured accuracy.

Offshore structures are indispensable in the exploitation of offshore space and resources. The long-term stabilities of these structures are maintained by the interaction between structures and seabed. Therefore, systematical geotechnical investigations should be conducted thoroughly to determine the soil parameters, which provide references for geotechnical design. Current methods used to determine the strength and other related parameters of the clayey soil include cone penetration test (CPT), vane shear test, T-bar penetration test, Ball-bar penetration test, and free fall penetration (FFP) test.
For the CPT, the cone penetrometer is statically penetrated into the seabed with a constant velocity, during which the soil characteristics are analyzed based on the measured tip resistance on the cone tip, frictional resistance along the shaft and pore water pressure. For the CPT, the measured data should usually be corrected by the following steps:
(1) correct the pore water pressure;
(2) correct the soil overburden stress; and
(3) select an appropriate end bearing capacity factor, Ni.
In deep sea investigations, the overburden stress is usually high and will affect the penetration resistance after calibration. Moreover, based on the large deformation finite element (LDFE) analysis, Ma et al. indicated that the end bearing capacity factor of the cone penetrometer increases with increasing soil rigidity, which increases the difficulty in interpreting CPT data.
Compared to CPT, T-bar and Ball-bar penetrometers are full-flow penetrometers and the corresponding measured results are without necessary to calibrate the overburden stress. The ball-bar penetrometer is a sphere, while the T-bar penetrometer is a cylinder. Therefore, the T-bar penetrometer is vulnerable to suffer higher bending moment in the soil with space variability, which affects the accuracy of the measured data. A local full-flow mechanism of soil is formed around the T-bar or ball penetrometer during the penetration process, and hence the corresponding end bearing capacity factor (Nb) can be theoretically determined. By performing plasticity limiting analysis, Randolph et al. indicated that: for ball penetrometer, the low bound and upper bound limits of Nb are 10.98 and 11.80 when the soil-ball interface is smooth (i.e. the frictional coefficient at the ball-soil interface α=0); and the low bound and upper bound limits of Nb are 15.10 and 15.54 when the soil-ball interface is fully rough (i.e. α=1). Zhou et al. carried out LDFE analyses to calculate the end bearing capacity factor of the ball during its penetration process in the soil, and the results showed that Nb is 10.97 with α=0 and is 15.19 with α=1.
In the practice application of the ball penetrometer, a connecting rod is connected between the ball penetrometer and loading device. The theoretical analysis in Randolph et al. ignored the effect of connecting rod on the end bearing capacity factor. Chung et al. carried out field tests to investigate varied area ratio of rod to ball, Ar, (Ar=Ashaft/At, Ashaft is the sectional area of connecting rod, At is the projected area of the ball penetrometer) on the measured resistance of the ball penetrometer, and the results indicated that Ar should be less than 0.15 to avoid the effect of connecting rod on measured soil resistance. Zhou et al. conducted numerical simulation to analyze the value of Ar on the penetration resistance on the ball penetrometer, and their results indicated that the effect of connecting rod can be ignored with Ar<0.1.
As mentioned above, a loading device is needed for CPT, T-bar and ball penetration tests. In addition, to accommodate the loading device, special geotechnical research or survey vessels are required in the deep-sea field investigations. While a FFP is dynamically penetrated within the seabed after free fall in the water column without any loading device. Currently, two types of FFPs are typically used, the free fall cone penetrometer and the free fall ball penetrometer. During the dynamic penetration of a FFP in the seabed, the soil drag force, together with the soil strain-rate effect, should be taken into consideration. Steiner et al. carried out field tests using the free fall cone penetrometer to measure the soil strength. Their results indicated that the back-analyzed undrained shear strength from the free fall cone penetrometer after correcting the strain-rate effect and drag force is consistent with that from the static CPT. Chow et al. analyzed the measured data of the free fall cone penetrometer by conducting centrifuge tests. The back-analyzed soil undrained shear agreed well with that from the T-bar penetration tests, and the strain-rate parameter can be back-analyzed based on the measured results. However, the forces acting on the free fall cone penetrometer is complex. The soil strain-rate effect at the cone tip is different with that along the shaft, and the latter one is usually higher than the former one. In addition, the measured results of a free fall cone penetrometer should also be calibrated like a static CPT.
Morton et al. carried out both field and centrifuge free fall ball penetration tests, in which the soil strength parameters, including the soil undrained shear strength and strain-rate parameter, could be determined based on the acceleration data measured during the penetration of the ball within the soil. In field and centrifuge tests, the ball diameters were D=0.25 m and D=0.02 m, respectively. The artificial gravity acceleration in the centrifuge tests was set as 12.5 g. The final penetration depths were 10 D in field tests and 5.5 D in centrifuge tests, respectively. The impact velocity of the free fall ball penetrometer was relatively low, which was 8 m/s based on the field testing data in Morton et al. Moreover, the weight of the ball penetrometer was relatively low. Hence the penetration depth of the ball penetrometer is relatively shallow, and the measured depth is limited. In addition, the free fall ball penetrometer would rotate during its dynamic penetration in the soil, which influences the measured results. For the free fall ball penetrometer in field and centrifuge tests, the soil strength parameters were back-analyzed just based on the data of acceleration during the free fall process in water and dynamic penetration process in the soil. Chow et al. indicated that, for the free fall cone penetrometer, the soil strength parameters back-analyzed only based on the acceleration data is not reliable.
Generally, the static penetration tests (CPT, T-bar and ball penetration tests) are conducted with the aid of a loading device, which is limited in offshore investigations. Compared with the static penetration test, the operation procedures of a FFP are simple. However, the forces on the free fall cone penetrometer are rather complex. The final penetration depth of a free fall ball penetrometer within the seabed is limited due to the relative low impact velocity and low mass, thus the measured depth is limited and the measured results are not accurate.

Free fall ball penetrometer with a booster


An apparatus on a carding machine has a covering comprising work and cover elements lying opposite the clothing of a high-speed cylinder. There is, in succession, an air exhaust opening for the exit of air and an opening for entry of air, past which openings a flow of fibers and air is passed. To allow improved detachment and elimination of short fibers in a simple manner, the spacing of the covering upstream of the exhaust opening is smaller than the spacing of the covering between air exhaust opening and air inlet opening and an airflow flows against the direction of rotation of the cylinder along the surface of the cylinder and flows with short fibers through the air exhaust opening.

The invention relates to an apparatus on a flat card or roller card for textile fibres such as cotton, synthetic fibres or the like, in which a covering comprising work and cover elements lies opposite the clothing of a high-speed cylinder. In one known apparatus—viewed in the direction of rotation of the cylinder—in succession there is an opening for the exit of air (exhaust airflow) and an opening for entry of air (supply airflow), past which openings a flow of fibres and air is passed, wherein, in relation to the cylinder, the spacing of the covering upstream of the exhaust air opening and the spacing of the covering downstream of the exhaust air opening are different.
In EP 0 848 091 A1, a casing part with a deflector, an exhaust air opening (separation gap), a knife with a separating edge, a guide surface and a supply air opening (air inlet in the form of a slot) lie opposite the clothing of the cylinder, viewed in the direction of rotation. The deflector is arranged upstream of the separation slot and together with the cylinder clothing defines a work slot, through which the flow of fibres and air passes. The separating edge of the knife and the guide surface, which are arranged downstream of the separation gap, have very narrow spacings from the cylinder clothing. The closely set edge determines the proportion of the flow of fibres and air that is separated off by the knife, diverted into the separation gap together with the waste (trash) and consequently removed from the work gap (exhaust airflow). Downstream of the edge, a negative pressure and turbulence therefore develop, and are counterbalanced by the supply airflow. The guide surface downstream of the edge is, like the edge, also set so close to the cylinder that no substantial spread of the airflow after the edge is possible. On the contrary, the introduced air flows off substantially in the transport direction. The drawback is that a considerable portion of such fibres, which are supposed to remain in the processing process, commonly known as good fibres, are separated out together with the trash. What is more, an unacceptable proportion of short fibres remains in the layer of fibres on the cylinder. This leads all in all to unsatisfactory cleaning results, which gives rise to adverse effects in yarn production and to loss of yarn quality.

Apparatus on a flat card or roller card for textile fibres, such as cotton, synthetic fibres or the like, for removing short fibres


A method for enhancing concurrency in a multiprocessor computer system is described. Various tasks in a computer system communicate using commonly accessible mailboxes to access valid data from a location in the mailbox. A task holding the valid data places that data in a mailbox, and other tasks read the valid data from the mailbox. The task that inputs the valid data into the mailbox is caused to notify other tasks addressing the mailbox that the valid data is contained therein. Thus, no central coordination of mailbox access is required. Further, busy waits for valid data are minimized and the ressources of tasks and processors are used more efficiently. By coordinating several lists associated with each mailbox, conflicts in accessing data and delays in obtaining data are also minimized.

The present invention relates generally to multitasking computer systems, and more particularly, to multiprocessor systems and a method for increased concurrency in such systems.
Multiprocessor computing systems have been used for years to perform multiple tasks. A multiprocessing computing system may be defined as a computer assembled from a plurality of independently or semi-independently operating intelligent, i.e., processor-based, stations. The stations are generally interconnected for communication by a communication bus. Each processor may perform a plurality of tasks with apparent concurrency. Distributing the system intelligence among a plurality of stations may improve the processing throughput of the computing system, allow the system to modularly and uniformly expand to meet increasing computing requirements, and permit greater efficiency and productivity through concurrency.
While multiprocessor computing systems are known, they are not scalable. The software of such systems is often highly dependent upon the configuration and characteristics of the system hardware. This means that the scalability of the multiprocessor is limited. Further, the dependency of the software on the hardware often causes a waste in processor resources.
Synchronizing or coordinating the tasks using a central processor to enhance concurrency of a plurality of tasks has been problematic in most multiprocessor systems. The prior patents of Sullivan, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,484,262, 4,707,781 and 5,438,680, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, addressed some issues relating to enhancing concurrency.
The Sullivan patents describe that concurrency can be enhanced by communicating between processors or tasks via commonly accessible memory to reduce conflicts within the multiprocessor system. However, the disclosed techniques are primarily dependent on hardware, such as the processors.
Therefore, a need exists for a software-based system that is capable of enhancing the concurrency of any multiprocessor computing system.

Method for increased concurrency in a computer system


An execution engine synchronizes test suite execution to run multiple independent operations concurrently or in parallel. The execution engine operates by stepping through the test suite. At each step it runs the required number of independent operations and waits for their completion. It then checks the results, and continues to the next step of the test suite. If at any step, the actual results are different from the expected results, then the exact sequence that triggered the fault is known. The sequence can be repeated when a correction is provided for the fault. Furthermore, the execution engine allows the user to interactively step through a test case when debugging a fault. A synchronization pattern generator may be incorporated in the system to generate minimal numbers of repetitions of test cases to guarantee varying degrees of interaction coverage.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to software verification. More particularly, this invention relates to test program generation for validating the implementation of a specification of a software program that is capable of executing multiple independent operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Concurrent and parallel software supports operations involving interdependent interactions between its classes and objects. Such operations may occur concurrently or in parallel. Concurrent operations occur in the same address space, but run in separate threads. Parallel operations occur in separate address spaces. Since the operations occur in separate address spaces, their associated objects may be distributed across multiple hosts.
An important aspect of designing an advanced computer software system is the ability to thoroughly test its implementation in order to assure that the implementation complies with desired specifications. Usually, such verification requires the generation of test programs to verify that the system behaves properly under a wide variety of circumstances.
Traditional software testing involves study of the software system by the tester, who then writes and executes individual test scenarios that exercise the software being tested. Testing may require validation of many functional levels, which substantially increases the complexity of the task. In the past, test scenarios were manually generated, but now this task is sometimes automated, using computer implemented test program generators.
Test program generators are basically sophisticated software engines, which are used to create numerous test cases. By appropriate configuration, it is possible for test program generation either to be focused on very specific ranges of conditions, or to be broadened to cover a wide range 90 of logic. Today, large numbers of test cases can be created in the time that a single test case could be written manually.
During the past decade, model-based random test program generators have become popular in processor architectural design verification and software testing. Model-based test generation involves the generation of a suite of tests from an abstract model of an application's behavior. The model is derived from a specification of the application. In many model-based testing situations, the behavior models are described as finite state machines (FSM). Such FSM models describe the possible states of the application and the transitions from state to state caused by operations or stimuli. Test suites generated from these behavior models cover different operation invocation patterns according to the testing goals.
Typical of conventional approaches for generating test programs is U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,347 to Kita et al., which discloses a method of modeling a specification as an extended finite state machine, then performing a depth-first traversal of the resulting state diagram to generate a path file as a basis for a test program.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,037 to Tremblay et al., it is proposed to employ a test generator that automatically produces test programs based on a finite state machine model of the software. Limiting the number of test programs is achieved by controlling loop execution, and by appropriately setting the coverage level for the model, known as "transition cover testing". This approach seeks to specify that each transition within the finite state machine model be exercised once. The generator is capable of specifying different coverage levels for selected portions of the program under test, so that critical portions might be exhaustively tested, while other portions receive less comprehensive testing.
Test programs are repetitively executed by an execution engine, using suites of input data. The results of execution are compared in some way with design specification. Generic validation engines are known for this purpose. The validation engine need not have specific knowledge of the design, and can be used in the testing of many system components. Some validation engines maintain state tables for tracking outcomes, such as a sequence of events. Such an engine typically implements a predetermined algorithm for validating the outcome or sequence of events.
The standard TTCN (ISO/IEC-9646) is a notation standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU-T) for the specification of tests for communicating systems. The standard TTCN has been employed in many test generation and execution environments. A TTCN-based model-based tool for the generation of test suites suitable for complex systems, known as the Telelogic Tau TTCN Suite, is produced by Telelogic AB, PO Box 4128, Kungsgatan 6, SE-203 12 Malmy, Sweden. This is an example of a commercial test execution engine, the input of which is an abstract TTCN test suite. The standard TTCN provides concurrency and synchronization primitives. However, a tester interested in validating concurrent aspects of a system-under-test is required to write specialized test cases.
Another model-based generator is the GOTCHA-TCBeans Software Test Tool Kit, which has been developed by International Business Machines Corporation, New Orchard Road, Armonk, N.Y. 10504. This tool provides a framework designed to assist testers in developing, executing and organizing function tests directed against Application Program Interfaces (APIS) and software protocols written in Java™, C or C++.
The product LoadRunner®, available from Mercury Interactive, Inc. 1325 Borregas Avenue 220, Sunnyvale, Calif. 94089, USA, emulates multiple users, called virtual users. The virtual users execute Vuser scripts, written in a proprietary testing language. The tester creates a Vuser script, parameterizes the script, and then configures the LoadRunner software to start the virtual user execution. If the tester wants to synchronize activity between the different virtual users he must add synchronization points to the scripts, known as rendezvous.
Known test program generators are limited in their abilities to deal with systems having concurrent and parallel operations, for example multiprocessors and complex software suites such as client/server applications, database and transaction processing systems. The traditional approach to validating independent operations is either to model the independent behavior of the multiple operations or processes, or to run test cases in parallel.
Modeling independent behavior is not a good solution, because it results in excessively large and intractable models. One of the biggest drawbacks of finite state machine modeling is state explosion. Modeling independent events exacerbates this problem. Running test cases concurrently or in parallel is even less effective, because it results in a lack of control and clarity. There may be many concurrent operations in a test case, and the location of a fault trigger that is uncovered by this technique is often obscure. Lack of control over the concurrent operations further complicates interactive fault debugging.
In view of the above-noted drawbacks of conventional approaches, it would be desirable to improve the methods and techniques for the validation of concurrent and parallel systems.

Model based test generation for validation of parallel and concurrent software


A disk valve comprises an inlet port, an outlet port, a first disk provided with a first through hole communicating with the inlet port and extending axially and a second through hole communicating with the outlet port and extending axially, and a second disk provided with a concave capable of communicating with the first through hole and the second through hole of the first disk on one end face and slidably and movably contacting one end face of the first disk at the one end face. A closed space is formed radially outside the second disk, and the second disk slides relative to the first disk to adjust the degree of overlap between the concave of the second disk and the first through hole of the first disk. The slidably and movably contacting part between the first disk and the second disk is self-lubricated. The disk valve further comprises a communication passage for always placing the first through hole into communication with the closed space radially outside the second disk. A portion of the one end face of the first disk adjacent to the part slidably and movably contacting the second disk opposes the closed space

There have been used disk valves for single lever water combination faucets, water faucets, or the like, comprising an inlet port, an outlet port, a first disk provided with a first through hole communicating with the inlet port and extending axially and a second through hole communicating with the outlet port and extending axially, and a second disk provided with a concave capable of communicating with the first through hole and the second through hole of the first disk on one end face and slidably and movably contacting one end face of the first disk at the one end face, wherein a closed space is formed radially outside the second disk, and the second disk slides relative to the first disk to adjust the degree of overlap between the concave of the second disk and the first through hole of the first disk.
In conventional disk valves, the slidably and movably contacting part between the first disk and the second disk is lubricated by oil such as silicon grease, or the like.
The conventional disk valves have a disadvantage in that oil adhered to the slidably and movably contacting part is carried away by water flowing from the first through hole of the first disk to the second through hole of the first disk through the concave of the second disk to slightly disperse into water discharging from the disk valve, thereby gradually being diminished to cause poor maneuverability of the disk valves.


A fuel property sensor, which is installed to a fuel tank of a fuel tank assembly, senses a property of fuel at the fuel tank. First and second electrodes of the fuel property sensor are made of an electrically conductive material and are exposed in a fuel flow passage in a housing of the fuel property sensor such that the first and second electrodes are generally parallel to a flow direction of fuel in the fuel flow passage and are spaced from each other by a predetermined distance. The fuel property sensor determines the property of the fuel based on a capacitance, which is generated between the first electrode and the second electrode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel property sensor that senses a property of fuel at a fuel tank and a fuel tank assembly having the same.
2. Description of Related Art
For example, Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. S64-53957A teaches a fuel property sensor, which is connected to a middle of a fuel pipe line in a fuel tank of a fuel tank assembly and includes two electrically conductive members exposed in fuel in the fuel pipe line. A controller applies a DC current between the two electrically conductive members and determines an ethanol concentration in the fuel based on the amount of conducted current between the two electrically conductive members.
Furthermore, Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. H01-148854A teaches another fuel property sensor that includes two cylindrical tubular bodies, which are made of an electrically conductive material and are coaxially placed in a delivery pipe made of a dielectric material while the two cylindrical tubular bodies are electrically insulated from each other. Fuel flows through a gap between the two cylindrical tubular bodies.
In the case of the fuel property sensor recited in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. S64-53957A, since the fuel property sensor is placed in the fuel pipe line, two pipe connections are provided at opposed ends of the fuel property sensor. Thus, the number of pipe connections in the middle of the fuel pipe line is increased, and thereby the number of assembling steps is also disadvantageously increased. In the case of the fuel property sensor recited in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. H01-148854A, the fuel property sensor is placed in the delivery pipe, so that the number of pipe connections is not increased. However, the delivery pipe is installed to the engine in such a manner that the longitudinal direction of the delivery pipe is parallel to the horizontal direction. Thus, the two cylindrical tubular bodies of the fuel property sensor are placed such that the axial direction of the two cylindrical tubular bodies is placed parallel to the horizontal direction. Thus, foreign contaminants (foreign objects), which are contained in the fuel, tend to be held in the gap between the two cylindrical tubular bodies. Thereby, the fuel property measurement accuracy of the fuel property sensor may possibly be deteriorated.
The present invention addresses the above disadvantages.
According to the present invention, there is provided a fuel property sensor that senses a property of fuel at a fuel tank, which has a tank main body and a flange fixed to the tank main body to close an opening hole of the tank main body. The fuel property sensor includes a housing and first and second electrodes. The housing defines a fuel flow passage and is installed to the flange. The fuel flow passage of the housing communicates between an inside and an outside of the tank main body to conduct the fuel therethrough. The first and second electrodes are made of an electrically conducive material and are exposed in the fuel flow passage in the housing such that the first and second electrodes extend generally parallel to a flow direction of the fuel in the fuel flow passage and are spaced from each other by a predetermined distance. The fuel property sensor determines the property of the fuel based on a capacitance, which is generated between the first electrode and the second electrode.
One end of the fuel flow passage of the housing is placed in the inside of the fuel tank, and the other end of the fuel flow passage is placed at the outside of the fuel tank. A fuel pipe line is connected to the other end of the fuel flow passage. A fuel path of the flange, which is originally present regardless of whether the fuel property sensor is provided or not, is used as the fuel flow passage of the housing (the constituent part of the fuel property sensor). In this way, the fuel property sensor can be provided without increasing the number of pipe connections in the fuel pipe line (fuel pathway).
Normally, the fuel pipe line, which supplies the fuel to the engine, is connected to the other end (the fuel tank outside end) of the fuel flow passage of the housing. In order to protect the connection between the fuel path (the fuel flow passage of the housing) and the fuel pipe line as well as the downstream side portion of the fuel pipe line located on the downstream side of this connection from, for example, stones scattered or bounced from the road surface, the flange is provided on the upper side of the fuel tank, which is placed at the upper side upon installation of the fuel tank to the vehicle. Thus, the flow direction of the fuel in the fuel flow passage of the fuel property sensor generally coincides with the top-to-bottom direction (the vertical direction) of the vehicle. Thereby, the axial direction of the first and second electrodes also generally coincides with the top-to-bottom direction of the vehicle. Therefore, even when the foreign contaminant (foreign object) is introduced between the first electrode and the second electrode, it is possible to limit the long time presence of the foreign contaminant therein by the action of the gravity.
According to the present invention, there is also provided a fuel tank assembly, which includes the fuel tank and the above fuel property sensor.

Fuel property sensor and fuel tank assembly


A snare for retrieving objects from a body cavity during a medical procedure comprises a guide element having a proximal end and a distal end, a loop provided on the guide element near the distal end and a flexible element provided on the guide element near the distal end and forming a tip.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a medical device, and more particularly to a retrieval device for capturing and/or removing objects from within a body cavity.
2. Description of the Related Art
Medical retrieval devices used to remove objects from body cavities by inserting the retrieval device, usually by way of a catheter, into a body cavity, engaging the object using the retrieval device, and removing the object using the retrieval device, or at least moving the object to more accessible location within the body. The object to be retrieved can be a natural formation in the body, such as a blood clot, kidney stone, gall stone, or polyp or a foreign item such as a coil, stent, catheter, or guidewire. The three most common retrieval devices are basket retrieval devices, forceps retrieval devices, and snare loop retrieval devices.
A common application of medical retrieval devices is removing objects from the neurovasculature during a medical procedure, for example, removing clots during the setting of acute stroke or removing displaced coils used in the management of intracranial aneurysm. Yet, the neurovasculature poses a problem for known medical retrieval devices since the neurovasculature is smaller and more tortuous than other body cavities. Forceps retrieval devices are used primarily in larger cavities and are typically too large and rigid to be used in the neurovasculature. Other basket and snare loop retrieval devices are too stiff for neurovasculature application. The stiffness or rigidity of known medical retrieval devices is especially problematic at the leading distal end of the medical retrieval device. As the retrieval device is threaded through the vessel, the leading distal end can damage the delicate walls of the vasculature. However, a certain amount of stiffness for the proximal end of the retrieval device is necessary so that the user (i.e. physician) can manipulate and guide the retrieval device through the body cavity.