A surgical apparatus for anchoring and reattachment of torn tissue such as a rotator cuff against on the outer or exterior surface of a tissue substrate. The invention includes a tissue substrate anchor such as that having expandable wings, an elongated suture member securable at its proximal end to the tissue substrate anchor, and a torn tissue retainer lockingly attachable along the length of the suture member by mating interlocking structure therebetween. Tension is applied to the free distal end of the suture member while the tissue retainer is non-reversibly moved longitudinally along on the suture member to secure the torn tissue against the tissue substrate outer surface. A separate torn tissue gripping member may also be provided for broadened and enhanced torn tissue securement against the tissue substrate. In another embodiment, the tissue anchor is formed as a unit with the suture member enabling additional forms of tissue repair such as the closure of an internal meniscus tear or separation.

1. Scope of Invention
This invention relates generally to surgical apparatus and methods for repair of torn tissue, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for arthroscopic and general surgical repair of torn tissue and tissue reattachment by anchoring the tissue against the outer surface of tissue substrate.
2. Prior Art
The rotator cuff is composed of four tendons that blend together to help stabilize and move the shoulder. When a tear occurs in the rotator cuff of the shoulder, it is often necessary to reattach the torn tendon or tendons to the bone of the humeral head.
In a common prior art rotator cuff reattachment technique, the torn cuff is punctured by a punch, and prethreaded suture anchor screws (soft tissue fasteners) are drilled into the head of the humerus bone and the sutures threaded through the anchor screws are passed through the cuff in a difficult procedure using suture relay devices to pass the sutures through the tissue. After the suture strands are passed through the tissue, they are knotted and tied together to secure the reattached rotator cuff to the humerus head. Other types of prior art suture anchors are conically shaped members that are pressed into holes drilled into the bone and engage the cancellous mass surrounding the drilled hole.
A major problem with the above described suture anchoring technique is that the threaded suture anchor screws or conically shaped anchors are threadedly or otherwise secured to the cancellous bone mass beneath the near cortex of the head of the humerus, and depend on this cancellous mass for fixation. It is well known that the cancellous bone mass is susceptible to osteopenic changes (diminished amount of bone tissue).
As a result, the pull-out strength of suture anchors which are depend on the cancellous bone mass beneath the cortex of the bone is subject to becoming diminished with time, and the anchors will tend to loosen, thereby possibly requiring a second operation to remove the loosened suture anchor.
Another problem with the conventional technique is that, in most cases, the sutures are not passed through the tissue when the anchor is set, and thus a difficult procedural step is required using devices such as punches and suture relays to pass and tie the sutures through the torn tissue.
The present invention is distinguished over the prior art in general, by an apparatus and method for arthroscopic repair of torn tissue such as a rotator cuff wherein torn tissue such as a rotator cuff is positioned on the bone exterior by a tissue grasper. A cannula is inserted through the skin substantially to the torn tissue. A drill guide is inserted into the cannula, a drill bit is inserted into the drill guide, and a hole is drilled through the torn tissue and completely through the bone. The drill bit is removed and an inner cannula is passed through the drill guide until its distal end is engaged on the torn tissue or alternatively passed through the hole until its distal end is at the far end of the drilled hole. A soft tissue anchor having expandable wings at its distal end and sutures secured to an eyelet at its proximal end is releasably connected to the distal end of a tubular deployment tool with the free ends of the sutures extending through the deployment tool.
The deployment tool is passed through the inner cannula and drilled hole until the expandable wings clear the far end of the hole a sufficient distance to allow the wings to expand to a diameter larger than the diameter of the drilled hole. The deployment tool, inner cannula, drill guide, and cannula are removed and tension is applied to the suture to engage the expanded wings of the anchor on the exterior surface of the bone surrounding the drilled hole. A button is run down on the sutures through the cannula and secured on the torn tissue by the sutures such that the torn tissue is secured to the bone and the sutures are anchored to the hard exterior surface of the bone by the expanded anchor.
Unlike conventional soft tissues anchors which are anchored in the cancellous bone mass beneath the near cortex of the bone, the present invention in one embodiment provides a suture anchor which is engaged on the exterior of the far cortex of the bone and completely bypasses the cancellous bone mass. The cortex of the bone is much less susceptible to osteopenia than the cancellous interior of the bone.
With the present invention, the sutures are passed through the tissue when the anchor is set, and thus the difficult procedural step and use of devices such as punches and suture relays to pass and tie the sutures through the torn tissue is eliminated.
Calibrated markings on the deployment system of the present invention allow for precise measurement of the far cortex and precise measurement of the depth of insertion and engagement of the anchor device on the far cortex, such that structures beyond the cortex are not violated, and the button hold-down feature eliminates the traditionally difficult arthroscopic tying techniques.
In another broader aspect of the invention, the surgical apparatus includes any form of a tissue substrate anchor of a conventional well-known structure, an elongated suture member securable at its proximal end to the anchor, and a separate torn tissue retainer which lockably engages as desired along the length of the suture member. The suture member extending through the torn tissue from the anchor and the tissue substrate. The torn tissue retainer is movable along the length of the exposed portion of the suture member until it is tightly positioned against the torn tissue and automatically locked in that position by non-reversible lockable engagement with the suture member. A separate tissue gripping member formed preferably as a semi-flexible plate or disc having a substantially larger surface area than the tissue retainer is also provided for enhanced retention of the torn tissue in place against the outer surface of the tissue substrate.
Still another broad aspect of this invention is directed to a surgical apparatus which includes an integrally formed tissue substrate anchor having an elongated suture member formed as a unit therewith. A separate disc-shaped retainer lockingly engages with the exposed distal end of the suture portion at any desired point along the suture interlocking portion. The tissue retainer is therefore moveable along the length of the exposed engaging members of the suture member for tightening the tissue layer against the tissue substrate. Utilized another way, a tear such as that found within a torn meniscus may be reconnected utilizing this embodiment of the invention.
This invention is directed to a surgical apparatus for anchoring and reattachment of torn tissue such as a rotator cuff against on the outer or exterior surface of a tissue substrate such as bone or cartilage. The invention includes a tissue substrate anchor such as that having expandable wings, an elongated suture member securable at its proximal end to the tissue substrate anchor, and a torn tissue retainer lockingly attachable along the length of the suture member by mating interlocking structure therebetween. Tension is applied to the free distal end of the suture member while the tissue retainer is moved longitudinally along the suture member, forcing the tissue retainer to secure the torn tissue against the tissue substrate outer surface. A separate torn tissue gripping member may also be provided for broadened and enhanced torn tissue securement against the tissue substrate.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for arthroscopic repair of torn tissue such as a rotator cuff which engages a suture anchor on the exterior of the far cortex of the bone and completely bypasses the cancellous bone mass.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for arthroscopic repair of torn tissue such as a, rotator cuff which passes the sutures through the tissue when the anchor is set, and eliminates the difficult procedural step and use of devices such as punches and suture relays to pass and tie the sutures through the torn tissue.
Another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus and method for arthroscopic repair of torn tissue such as a rotator cuff which utilizes suture anchoring apparatus having calibrated markings for precise measurement of the far cortex and the depth of insertion and engagement of the anchor device on the far cortex, such that structures beyond the cortex are not violated.
A further object of this invention is to provide an apparatus and method for arthroscopic repair of torn tissue such as a rotator cuff that utilizes a button hold-down feature which substantially eliminates traditionally difficult arthroscopic suture tying techniques.
A still further object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for arthroscopic repair of torn tissue such as a rotator cuff which is simple in construction, inexpensive to manufacture, and rugged and reliable in operation.
A yet further object of this invention is to provide a surgical apparatus for reattaching torn tissue in any form atop a tissue substrate of any consistency utilizing a conventional tissue substrate anchor and a unique elongated suture member which is lockingly interengageable to a tissue retaining member which lockably engage one to another after the proximal end of the suture member is attached to the anchor.
In accordance with these and other objects which will become apparent hereinafter, the instant invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The above noted objects and other objects of the invention are accomplished by the present invention in one embodiment wherein torn tissue such as a rotator cuff is positioned on the bone exterior by a tissue grasper. A cannula is inserted through the skin substantially to the torn tissue. A drill guide is inserted into the cannula, a drill bit is inserted into the drill guide, and a hole is drilled through the torn tissue and completely through the bone. The drill bit is removed and an inner cannula is passed through the drill guide until its distal end is engaged on the torn tissue or alternatively passed through the hole until its distal end is at the far end of the drilled hole.
A soft tissue anchor in one embodiment having expandable wings at its distal end and sutures secured to an eyelet at its proximal end is releasably connected to the distal end of a tubular deployment tool with the free ends of the sutures extending through the deployment tool. The deployment tool is passed through the inner cannula and drilled hole until the expandable wings clear the far end of the hole a sufficient distance to allow the wings to expand to a diameter larger than the diameter of the drilled hole.
The deployment tool, inner cannula, drill guide, and cannula are removed and tension is applied to the suture to engage the expanded wings of the anchor on the exterior surface of the bone surrounding the drilled hole. A button is run down on the sutures through the cannula and secured on the torn tissue by the sutures such that the torn tissue is secured to the bone and the sutures are anchored to the hard exterior surface of the bone by the expanded anchor.
A broader embodiment of the invention provides for the reattachment of any torn or damaged tissue or artificial tissue to any form of tissue substrate by the use of a tissue substrate anchor of any generally well known structure. A primary aspect of the broader invention is the utilization of an elongated suture member attachable at its proximal end to the anchor as or after it is positioned and secured within the tissue substrate. The distal exposed end portion of the suture member extends from the tissue substrate and through the torn or damaged tissue after being normally positioned atop the tissue substrate. Thereafter, a separate tissue retainer is lockably engaged along the exposed length of the suture member and tightened against the torn tissue to retain it in position against the tissue substrate. A separate tissue gripping plate positioned between the torn tissue and the corresponding surface of the tissue retainer may preferably be provided for enhanced torn tissue placement and retention.

Surgical tissue repair and attachment apparatus and method


The invention relates to a device for adjusting and/or verifying the axial force in screwed connections. The inventive device contains a control device for limiting an axial force acting between two force application elements of the screwed connection. To this end, the invention provides that the control device will record signal values from a measuring element whose electrical resistance varies according to the acting axial force.

The present invention concerns a device for adjusting and/or testing the axial tightening forces in screw joints.
The invention concerns above all mechanical screw joints which are used with different designs and in many ways in the field of mechanics. Basically, it can be applied to all known kinds of threads or screw joints.
Devices for adjusting the axial force in screw joints, including a check device for limiting an axial force operating between e.g. two force-applying elements of the screw joint, are already known. Thus so-called "torque wrenches" which allow mechanical overload control upon exceeding a given torque for a screw joint, are known. In this way, precise detection of the force between the force-applying elements (e.g. a bolt head on a bolt shank as the first force-applying element and a nut on a thread of the bolt shank as the second force-applying element) is not definitely possible. The torque which is applied to tighten a screw joint does cause a change in the axial force between the force-applying elements, as a rotational movement produces a change of distance between the force-applying elements and hence a change in axial force, due to the pitch of the thread of a bolt shank. However, the correlation between axial force and torque is under certain circumstances highly subject to errors, as the frictional forces of a force-applying element on a thread influence the torque critically. When the torques are identical, the tightening force of a screw joint can vary considerably, so that for bolts which slide easily there is a risk of overstretching, whereas in the case of stiff bolts the preselected torque is already attained when the parts to be connected are still loose. Apart from this imprecision, with the mechanical overload protection there is the drawback that only exceeding of the limit is possible, but not exact measurement of the axial force.

Device for adjusting and verifying the tension force of screwed connections

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Angewandten Forschung E.V.


A method for selecting and executing at least one reactive action of a vehicle includes a control unit receiving sensor data from a vehicle sensor system; detecting an emergency situation based on the sensor data; performing an evaluation; and selecting and implementing a reactive action for minimizing an accident risk of the vehicle based on the evaluation, where, in the evaluation, sensors that are uninvolved in the detection of the emergency situation are not taken into account or are taken into account at a lower weighting, are operated at a reduced performance, and/or are operated with a reduced scanning range. In addition, a control unit, computer program, and machine-readable memory medium can be provided for implementing the method.

The mobility sector is currently in transition. In addition to an increase in the use of electrically driven vehicles, automated driving is a relevant topic of future mobility.
In the field of automated driving, the so-called SAE levels are known, which define the degree of automation. Using a level 0 to a level 5, it is defined whether a vehicle has no automation or is fully automated.
The vehicles currently produced in series generally have an automation degree of level 1 or 2. These are normally vehicles equipped with assistance systems where it is predominantly the driver who controls the vehicle. The first vehicles having an automation degree according to level 3 are known as well.
In a vehicle automated according to level 3, the driver is able to delegate the responsibility to the vehicle for a certain period of time. In the automation according to level 4 or 5, some vehicle scenarios do not even require a driver any longer. The vehicle must thus be traveling with a driver fallback level.
The current vehicle systems use different input parameters and utilize the various data sources for carrying out a data fusion in an effort to obtain precise and reliable knowledge of the vehicle environment. As a rule, the known methods for performing the data fusion cover requirements for assisted driving functions up to an automation degree of level 3. It is still the human who is responsible or serves as a fallback level. As soon as a human is no longer available, the system must be able to react in a different manner.
From WO 2017/079349 A1, systems, devices, and methods are known for implementing an active safety system in an autonomous vehicle. The autonomous vehicle can move along a trajectory through an environment outside the autonomous vehicle. The environment can include one or more object(s) which could possibly collide with the autonomous vehicle. The autonomous vehicle can employ a sensor system in an effort to acquire the environment in order to detect objects, and it is able to take measures to decrease or avoid a potential collision with the autonomous vehicle. Further related art is known from DE 10 2013 224 508 A1.
In emergency situations, measures in the form of braking maneuvers are usually carried out in order to avert a potential collision. However, in particular on roads where the average speed is high such as highways or superhighways, a stationary vehicle or a vehicle braking heavily can raise the accident risk.

Method for selecting and accelerated execution of reactive actions


Controlling temperatures in optical circuits includes using a device with a waveguide located between a base cladding and an over cladding. The base cladding is deposited over a substrate and the over cladding is made of a thermally conductive dielectric material.

A refractive index of a material is a number that describes how light energy is propagated through that material. The refractive index is dependent on the wavelength propagated through it such that the refractive index may be different for varying wavelengths in the same material. Many transparent materials have a refractive index between 1 and 2. For example, air has a refractive index of 1, and water has a refractive index of 1.333.
Light transmitting materials may be used in circuit devices to relay information. For example, a core made of a transparent material with an appropriate refractive index may carry modulated light signals. Generally, the core has a refractive index that is higher than the refractive index of the cladding. In some cases, the core is made of silicon with a refractive index of 3.51 and the cladding is made of silicon dioxide with a refractive index of 1.46. Due to the phenomenon of total internal reflection where light tends to stay within materials with the higher refractive index, the core material acts as a wave guide that transmits optical signals.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP


An electric apparatus including a first controller and a second controller, a first memory which can access the first controller and the second controller, a nonvolatile memory which stores a first control parameter for the first control, a memory controller which manages the nonvolatile memory and writes the first control parameter stored in the nonvolatile memory into the memory in accordance with power ON.

In such an apparatus as a multifunction device provided with a facsimile function, an overall control section for overall control of the operations of the entire system is configured independently of a communications control section for controlling the facsimile communications. The functions and loads are controlled separately between them through exchange of required information between these control sections, thereby meeting the requirements for a high degree of functionality and high speed.
When the control sections are separately configured, as described above, a variety of parameters required for the control of overall operation are usually stored in the nonvolatile memory of the overall control section, and are placed under collective management. The parameters for communications control are transferred from the overall control section to the communications control section.
To minimize power consumption, many of the electronic systems used on the wait mode for a long time such as a facsimile machine are provided with a power-saving mode. To maximize the power-saving effect, the various portions of the apparatus is turned off, except for the circuit that monitors the causes for returning, including user operations and incoming signals.
When the control section is divided into two sections: overall control section and communications control section, there are differences in initialization times after power has been turned on, and the overall control section handling a great amount of throughput starts up later than the communications control section. Thus, when power supply has turned on from the power-saving mode due to incoming signals, even if the communications control section has started, the parameters for communications control cannot be received from the overall control section if the overall control section has not yet started. A response to incoming signals cannot be made until the overall control section starts up, according to the prior art.
To solve this problem, an electronic apparatus (e.g. Official Gazette of Japanese Patent Tokkai 2003-32400) has been proposed, wherein the data such as communications control parameters to be transferred from a first controller (e.g. overall control section) to a second controller (e.g. communications control section) is stored into nonvolatile storage section that cannot be accessed by the second control section. When power has been turned on, the return mode is evaluated. If power supply has turned on from power-saving mode, data is sent to the RAM (Random Access Memory) of the second control section from the nonvolatile storage section, instead from the first control section.
In the prior art described in the in the Patent Document 1, when power has been turned on, evaluation is made to see if power supply has turned on from power-saving mode. After that, a data transfer method must be selected. This arrangement involves complicated processing after power turns on.
Further, the data has to be transferred from the nonvolatile storage section to the RAM of the second control section. Accordingly, data transfer is permitted only after termination of the initialization in the second control section. Thus, when data is read by a serial communications of low transfer speed from the nonvolatile memory of an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable Programming Read Only Memory), a long time has to be spent before the second control section is enabled to get the required data from the RAM after power has been turned on. This has been a problem in the prior art.
In view of the prior art described above, it is an object of the present invention to solve the problem and to provide an electric apparatus ensuring early acquisition of the parameter required for the operation when power supply has turned on the power-saving mode.

Electronic apparatus using a memory controller to write control parameter in a nonvolatile memory into dual port RAM in accordance with power on

Konica Minolta Business Technologies Inc.


The present invention features a data link layer processor for performing VLAN tagging operations, policing, shaping, and statistics acquisition integrally with one or more media access controllers (MACs). When a plurality of data link layer processors are operated in parallel in a switching device, the computational burden carried by the route engine is significantly reduced. Moreover, the data link layer processor in its several embodiments may be used to introduce various forms of pre-processing and post-processing into network switching systems that employ route engines that do not possess such functionality.

Routers in packet switched networks generally employ one or more network processors, typically an application-specific integrated circuit (ASICs), to perform various packet processing operations. Each network processor is generally associated with a plurality of media access controllers from which frames are received and to which frames are transmitted. Historically, the routers were designed so that the network processor could simultaneously accommodate traffic from each of the associated ports being operated at its designated wire speed, typically 100 or 1000 megabits/sec. There is, however, a trend to over-subscribed ports, meaning that the bandwidth of the network processor or other router resources is generally unable to support each of the ports operating at wire speed for a sustained period of time. While the per-port cost savings for an over-subscribed system provides a beneficial tradeoff for some customers, oversubscribing ports may lead to some loss of data as a result of the inability of the network processor or route processor to handle the traffic.
In order to minimize the detrimental effects of over-subscription, routers may employ extensive buffering in an attempt to capture bursts of traffic until the resources are available to processes the traffic. Pause messages may also be transmitted to one or more link partners to temporarily reduce the amount of data received and thereby reduce the chance of buffer overflow. Despite limited success, both of these approaches fail to address the underlying inability of the network processor or other resources to handle large volumes of traffic. There is therefore a need for a means of maintaining the advantages of oversubscribed port configurations while reducing the computational demands on the network processor.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Parallel data link layer controllers in a network switching device


Compositions for protective films include inorganic microparticles dispersed in an acrylic radical-based binder resin. Binder resins are formed from binder monomers including base components, scratch-resistant components and diluent components. Diluent components include diluent monomers having principal chain structures including a functional group having a cyclic structure or a branched carbon chain structure.

The present invention relates to resin compositions for protective films, particularly, resin compositions for protective films for optical discs such as compact discs (CDs) and digital versatile discs (DVDs).
In these types of optical discs, the surfaces of exterior elements are normally coated to protect the surfaces of the exterior elements against scratches.
Effective materials for such coating are inorganic materials having high scratch resistance, but the inorganic materials have the disadvantage that coating solutions thereof are difficult to apply in a small thickness because of high viscosities.
In order to solve this problem, a conventional approach is to lower the viscosity of coating solutions by diluting solvents, but the diluted solutions erode substrates causing various problems.
For example, the substrate components are eluted, causing coating layers to lose flatness and therefore lose transparency (begin to appear matte).
Also, the eluted substrate components dissolve with the coating materials, so that scratch resistance is lowered.
Another possible approach to the above problem is to prepare a low viscosity coating solution using a low viscosity acrylate monomer as a reactive diluent in place of a solvent. When using this approach, however, scratch resistance may be considerably lowered depending on the monomer selected.

Compositions for protective films for optical discs

Sony Chemical & Information Device Corporation


A flexible device for efficiently emptying the viscous contents of a flexible, plastic tube having a longitudinal, overlapping, sealed seam. The flexible device is a generally planar, elongated body having a slot of shorter length extending entirely through the body. The slot has a wider entrance and tapers to a narrower exit to allow an embossed, flattened and sealed end of the plastic, flexible, walled tube to be inserted, and to enable the flexible device to be pushed along the plastic, flexible, walled tube and to have the slot of the device stay in position by a spring-like, clamping action of the slot with the knife-like scrapping rear edge, gripping the flattened flexible wall tube.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to devices for expelling materials from tubes and, more particularly, to a resilient device for expelling viscous material from plastic, flexible walled tubes having overlapping, longitudinal, sealed seams creating a ridge thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known, many types of viscous materials, such as gels, liquids, pastes, and the like, are sold in flexible tubes having one sealed end and a narrow nozzle end and having a closure means, such as a valve or cap thereon. These tubes may be made from many materials, but presently the majority of them are made from flexible plastic. The viscous material to be dispensed from the flexible tube is generally inserted in one end, and this end is then sealed to normally sealed to form an embossed, flattened end seal. It is also well known that such tubes do not efficiently expel all of the various materials held therein, and numerous attempts have been made to solve this problem.
Known means include slide members, squeezing members and ratcheting members. Many types of squeezing or extruding devices, have been proposed and used to aid in the expelling of viscous material from flexible tubes. Such known means, work well in some situations, but are not adaptable for all uses and in all situations. Therefore, there still exists the need in the art for an improved means for aiding and dispensing of all the viscous material held in modern flexible, plastic tubes.

Collapsible flexible tube squeezing device


Examples for flight navigation determination are presented herein. An example may involve obtaining a target destination for an aircraft and determining an initial flight path between a current location and the target destination. The flight path may include a series of waypoints for guiding navigation. The example may further involve obtaining terrain information that represents elevations of obstacles along the initial flight path and modifying the initial flight path to generate a revised flight path using the terrain information. The revised flight path may include modifications to the series of waypoints of the initial flight path such that navigation of the revised flight path avoids obstacles positioned along the initial flight path. The obstacles may have an elevation that exceeds an adjustable threshold elevation that depends on the initial flight path. The example may further involve providing the revised flight path to a navigation system of the aircraft.

Flight planning involves the development of a flight plan that sets forth a proposed path for an aircraft to follow from a current location to a target destination. When planning a flight for an aircraft to follow, the flight plan generator may factor a variety of information, such as the total distance to the target destination, the amount of fuel required to complete the route, weather conditions of areas along the route, abilities of the aircraft, and air traffic control requirements. For instance, the flight plan generator may use fuel calculations when crafting a flight plan to ensure that the aircraft can safely reach the destination while minimizing the aircraft's overall weight and the cost of the flight. As such, the flight plan generator may design each flight plan such that the path suits the abilities of the aircraft navigating the flight, avoids undesirable weather conditions, and complies with air traffic control requirements.

Enhanced flight navigation determination


A multi-beam pattern definition device for use in a particle-beam processing or inspection apparatus, which is set up to be irradiated with a beam of electrically charged particles and allow passage of the beam through a plurality of apertures thus forming beamlets, which are imaged onto a target. A deflection array has a plurality of electrostatic deflector electrodes for each beamlet. Each deflector electrode can be applied an electrostatic potential individually. Counter electrodes are electrically connected to a counter potential independently of the deflection array through a counter-electrode array. The counter potentials may be a common ground potential or individual potentials in order to improve system reliability. In conjunction with an associated counter electrode, each deflector electrode deflects its beamlet sufficiently to deflect the beamlet off its nominal path when applied an activating voltage against the respective counter electrode.

The invention generally relates to pattern definition systems and in particular to a multi-beam pattern definition device for use in a particle-beam processing or inspection apparatus, which is set up to be irradiated with a beam of electrically charged particles and allow passage of the beam through a plurality of apertures thus forming a corresponding number of beamlets, representing a patterned beam to be imaged onto a target. For this task, the pattern definition device comprises a deflection array means having a plurality of blanking openings located such that each of the beamlets traverses one of the blanking openings along a nominal path, and further comprising a plurality of electrostatic deflector electrodes, each of which is associated with a blanking opening and is individually provided with a connecting line for applying an electrostatic potential; in conjunction with an associated counter electrode, each deflector electrode is configured to deflect a beamlet traversing the respective blanking opening by an amount sufficient to deflect the beamlet off its nominal path when applied an activating voltage against the respective counter electrode.
In a particle-beam exposure apparatus employing this kind of pattern definition device, a particle beam is generated by an illumination system and illuminates a pattern definition means having an array of apertures which define a beam pattern to be projected on a target surface. One important application of a particle-beam exposure apparatus of this kind is in the field of nano-scale patterning, by direct ion beam material modification or by electron or ion beam induced etching and/or deposition, used for the fabrication or functionalization of nano-scale devices. Another important application is in the field of maskless particle-beam Lithography, used in semiconductor technology, as a Lithography apparatus wherein, in order to define a desired pattern on a substrate surface, a substrate, e.g., a silicon wafer or mask blank, is covered with a Layer of a radiation-sensitive resist. A desired structure is then exposed onto the photo-resist which is then developed, in the case of a positive resist by partial removal according to the pattern defined by the previous exposure step. The developed resist is used as a mask for further structuring processes such as reactive etching.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,282 (Arai et al.) discloses an electron-beam exposure apparatus using a so called blanking aperture array (BAA) which plays the role of the pattern definition means. The BAA carries a number of rows of apertures, and the images of the apertures are scanned over the surface of the substrate in a controlled continuous motion whose direction is perpendicular to the aperture rows. The rows may be aligned with respect to each other in an interlacing manner so that the apertures form staggered Lines as seen along the scanning direction. Thus, the staggered Lines may sweep continuous Lines on the substrate surface without Leaving gaps between them as they move relative to the substrate, thus covering the total area of the substrate to be exposed. Certainly, if the beam array is scanned over the substrate in a way to fill up the interstitial regions, also a regular array of beams can be used.
An multi-electron beam source with a blanker array is presented by Zhang et al. in "Integrated multi-electron-beam blanker array for sub-10-nm electron beam induced deposition", J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 24(6), pp. 2857-2860. That article also presents a discussion of the geometry of the blanking electrodes placed on a blanker array wafer and the associated electric field geometry.
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,768,125 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,084,411 by the applicant/assignee presents a multi-beam maskless lithography concept, dubbed PML2 (short for 'Projection Mask-Less Lithography #2'), that employs a pattern definition device (PD device) comprising a number of plates stacked on top of the other. U.S. Pat. No. 6,768,125 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,084,411 are hereby incorporated by reference as if set forth in full herein. The PD device comprises at least two different plates having comparably high integration density of apertures and deflectors, namely an aperture plate used to define beamlets permeating the PD device, and a deflector array plate used to individually blank out selected beamlets ('blanking plate'). Another function, absorbing the majority of heat load imposed by the incoming beam, may be provided by a specific 'cover plate' or included the aperture plate which is then placed as a first plate as seen along the direction of the beam. These separate plates are mounted together at defined distances, for instance in a casing.
The aperture plate comprises an array of apertures which define a beam pattern, consisting of beamlets, to be projected on a target surface. Corresponding blanking openings on the blanking plate are associated with said apertures. Said blanking openings are located such that each of the beamlets traverses the blanking opening that corresponds to the aperture defining the beamlet respectively. Each blanking opening is provided with a beamlet deflection means that can be controlled by a blanking signal between two deflection states, namely, a first state ('switched on') when the beamlet deflection means has assumed a state in which particles passing through the opening are allowed to travel along a desired path, and a second state ('switched off') when the beamlet deflection means is deflecting particles transmitted through the opening off said path.
The US Patent Publication No. 2005/0242302 A1 by the applicant/assignee proposes to form the electrodes around the blanking openings by perpendicular growth employing state-of-the-art electroplating techniques. US Patent Publication No. 2005/0242302 A1 is hereby incorporated by reference as if set in full herein. The beamlet deflection means associated with each aperture comprises a set of beamlet deflection electrodes, usually a pair. Each set has electrodes of different types: a first type are 'ground electrodes', which are applied a ground potential, whereas another type, which is called here the 'active electrodes', are applied individual potentials in order to switch on or off the respective apertures according to the desired pattern. The ground electrodes are formed so as to have a substantial height over the blanking plate and the active electrodes. This is done in order to provide a better shielding of the blanking deflection means against cross-talking and other unwanted effects such as lens effects incurred by the electrode geometry.
FIG. 12 shows a prior-art embodiment of a PD system 102 in conformance with the U.S. Pat. No. 6,768,125 and US 2005/0242302 A1. The PD system 102 comprises a number of plates 201, 202 which are mounted in a stacked configuration, realizing a composite device whose components serve respective functions. Each of the plates is preferably realized as a semiconductor (in particular silicon) wafer in which the structures have been formed by micro-structuring techniques known in the art. The plates 201, 202 are bonded together at bonding regions 212 in the frame by means of known bonding techniques.
Apertures are located in membranes mb formed by thinned regions of the wafers. Each aperture corresponds to a set of consecutive openings which are defined in said plates; in FIG. 12, two apertures are shown, to represent a large number of apertures forming the aperture field in the membranes mb. The lithography beam lb traverses the plates through this array of apertures.
The first plate in the direction of the incoming beam is an aperture plate 201 (short for 'aperture array plate'). It absorbs the majority of the impingent lithography beam lb, but the radiation can pass through a number of apertures of defined shape, thus forming a plurality of beamlets A, B; only two apertures and corresponding beamlets are shown in FIG. 12 and the subsequent figures for the sake of clarity. Apart from the task of forming the beamlets, the aperture plate 201 serves to protect the subsequent plate(s) from irradiation damage. For this purpose it may be coated with a resistive layer 210.
Following the aperture array plate 201 downstream, a deflector array plate 202 (DAP; also referred to as blanking array plate in view of their function in the context of the apparatus 100) is provided. This plate serves to switch off the passage of selected beamlets. The DAP has a plurality of openings, which each correspond to a respective aperture of the aperture array plate 201. Each opening is provided with a beamlet deflection means composed of electrodes 220, 221, 220′, 221′ and individually controlled to deflect, if required, particles radiated through the opening off their path.
In the prior-art DAP illustrated in FIG. 12, each beamlet deflection means comprises an active electrode 221, 221′ and a ground electrode 220, 220′ respectively. The electrodes are free-standing with respect to the DAP base membrane. The electrodes may be formed by perpendicular growth employing state of the art techniques.
For instance, beamlet A transgresses the subsequent openings of the pattern definition system 102 without being deflected, since the beamlet deflection means formed by the respective set of beamlet deflection electrodes is not energized, meaning here that no voltage is applied between the active electrode 221 and the associated ground electrode 220. This corresponds to the "switched-on" state of the aperture. Beamlet A passes the pattern definition system 102 unaffected and is focused by the particle-optical system through the crossovers and imaged onto the target. In contrast, as shown with beamlet B, a "switched-off" state is realized by energizing the beamlet deflection means of this aperture, i.e., applying a transverse voltage to the active electrode 221′ with regard to the corresponding ground electrode. In this state, the beamlet deflection means formed by electrodes 220′,221′ deflects the beamlet B off its path. As a consequence the beamlet B will, on its way through the optical system, obey an altered path and be absorbed at an absorbing means provided in the optical system, rather than reaching the target. Thus, beamlet B is blanked. The beam deflection angle is largely exaggerated in FIG. 12; it is, in general, very small, typically 0.2 to 2 thousands of a radian.
The pattern of switched-on apertures is chosen according to the pattern to be exposed on the substrate 17, as these apertures are the only portions of the pattern definition device transparent to the beam lb, which is thus formed into a patterned beam pb emerging from the apparatus.
The PD device comprises generally at least two different plates for comparably high integration density of apertures and deflectors, namely, at least an aperture plate for forming the beamlets (and possibly absorbing the majority of heat load imposed by the incoming beam) and a deflector array plate for selected blanking of beamlets. Moreover, it is conceivable that by using sufficiently complex process flows a PD device could be fabricated also from one plate, e.g., a Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) Wafer). Highly accurate alignment between the two or more plates and excellent alignment towards the direction of the incoming beam is required.
One approach for a highly integrated deflector array that can be operated as programmable DAP employs electroplated electrodes constructed above a CMOS plate as deflector array plates, as illustrated in FIG. 12. These electrodes are formed vertically with shielding electrodes to reduce cross talk of neighboring apertures. The disadvantage of the electroplating approach with shielding electrodes is related to the limited aspect ratio of the electroplating that can be produced by industrial methods at hand, which considerably limits the achievable integration level.
Another possible way to obtain a highly integrated deflector array operable as programmable DAP that is usable in setups like a PML2, is to produce one CMOS plate accommodating the required circuitry and another plate as a deflector array plate having the electrodes, and then to vertically interconnect the CMOS plate with the deflector array plate by bonding (e.g., eutectic bonding). In this case, for each aperture at least one electrical connection across the plates is required. The vertical interconnection has a major disadvantage connected with the yield problem with the enormous number (up to 1 million) of vertical bonds to be fabricated within a 30 μm×30 μm area space for one bonding, compounded by the fact that the membrane structures have a thickness smaller than 50 μm are highly fragile, rendering the interconnection a delicate process.

Pattern definition device having distinct counter-electrode array plate


A yaw stability system for a vehicle as well as methods for controlling yaw in a vehicle and estimating the retarding torque of an electromagnetic retarder. The yaw stability system includes a yaw rate sensor, a plurality of braking devices, and a control unit. The control unit communicates with the yaw rate sensor and is configured to identify a desired yaw rate, select one or more of the plurality of braking devices based on a yaw condition, and communicate a control command to one or more of the selected braking devices to induce a control yaw moment. The method for controlling yaw includes determining a vehicle yaw rate and desired yaw rate, calculating a yaw rate error, determining a control yaw moment using a sliding mode control law based on a lumped mass vehicle model, selecting one of the braking devices based on a vehicle yaw condition, determining a control command based on the control yaw moment, and communicating the control command to one of the selected braking devices. The method of estimating retarding torque includes modeling the estimated retarding torque based on a quadratic function of a control element velocity and a magnitude of a retarder excitation current as well as estimating coefficient functions of the quadratic relationship from steady state test data performed at various rotor speeds.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a yaw stability system for a vehicle and, more particularly, to a yaw stability system having a control unit using a sliding mode control technique to determine a control yaw moment.
2. Description
Yaw Stability Control (YSC) systems have been in use in the automotive industry for a number of years to increase the stability of the vehicle and to enhance vehicle performance. In general, YSC corrects the under-steering and over-steering of the vehicle in a handling maneuver (e.g. lane change, slalom, etc.), particularly on a low friction surface. It also helps the driver maintain yaw stability of the vehicle in a severe handling maneuver.
The effectiveness of YSC systems varies widely depending on the system design. YSC systems commonly seek to minimize tracking error between a desired vehicle yaw rate and an actual vehicle yaw rate by selectively actuating braking mechanisms associated with the wheels of the vehicle. When a braking mechanism is actuated, the brake exerts a torque on the wheel which in turn induces a vehicle yaw moment. Most YSC systems are based on control techniques that rely on empirical data and are heavily dependent on testing. Systems based on "on-off" control techniques commonly fail to consider the magnitude of the tracking error other than to determine the desired braking torque. For example, the systems do not "over-actuate" a braking device if the magnitude of the tracking error exceeds a predetermined threshold or boundary layer. This deficiency in existing YSC systems often leads to undesirable braking device chatter as the devices are repeatedly actuated.
Moreover, conventional YSC systems commonly use hydraulically actuated friction based braking devices to induce control yaw moments. While these systems are generally suitable, they suffer from undesirably long response times and lack of smoothness during operation. The harsh operation of the braking systems induce undesirable noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) during operation.
As is discussed in detail in this application, one feature of the present invention is the use of electromagnetic retarders, preferably eddy current machines, as YSC braking devices. While electromagnetic retarders have been used in braking systems for commercial trucks for many years, these retarders are generally not used in YSC systems for a number of reasons, including difficulty in accurately modeling the torque characteristics of the retarder. One modeling consideration of particular interest in YSC systems is the ability to obtain an accurate estimation of the retarding torque generated by an electromagnetic retarder. Accurate torque estimation is important for providing consistent performance. One conventional estimation technique requires an initial estimation of armature temperature which is then used in the torque calculation. Others have estimated electromagnetic retarder braking torques using predetermined look up tables of torque versus peak voltage between the retarder poles at various rotor speeds. Yet others have modeled eddy current brakes as a function of excitation current and rotor speed. However, each of the aforementioned techniques suffers from inaccuracies, assumptions that are not appropriate for many operating conditions, and/or computational intensity.
Thus, a need exists for an accurate and systematic YSC approach that minimizes or eliminates undesirable chattering, reduces dependence on empirical data and testing, improves response time, and minimizes NVH.


A variable length coder includes a buffer memory for temporarily storing data, to be coded, a coding table for producing a variable length code and a code length thereof in response to the data supplied from the buffer memory, a shifter for shifting the variable length code according to a shift control signal, registers for storing shifted data supplied from the shifter through a gate, and a multiplexer for selectively feeding high-order or low-order bits of the data stored in the registers to the gate, and a register for accumulating code lengths from the coding table. The buffer memory, the coding table, the shifter, and the multiplexer are controlled by output data from the register.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a variable length coder (VLC) for use in a device which codes an image signal with high efficiency.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One conventional variable length coder will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 shows, in block form, a conventional variable length coder for coding data, such as image data, having a maximum code length of 16 bits in the illustrated example.
FIG. 2 illustrates internal data status or output data of various circuit components of the variable-length coder shown in FIG. 1.
In FIG. 1, 16-bit data supplied to an input terminal INPUT is converted by a coding table 32 into a variable length code VLC which is transferred to a barrel shifter (SFT) 33. The variable length code VLC outputted from the coding table 32 has a bit length shorter than the bit length of the 16-bit data. In FIG. 2, vertically elongate rectangular frames represent data whose vertical lengths are indicative of bit numbers. For example, the variable length code VLC outputted from the coding table 32 is 16 bits, and the internal data of the barrel shifter 33 is 32 bits.
As shown in FIG. 1, the coding table 32 also outputs a code length VL of the variable length code VLC.
A shift controller (R.phi.) 34 accumulates code lengths VL, and outputs the accumulated code lengths VL as a shift SF, which is representative of the number of bits of the data supplied to the input terminal INPUT. The shift SF can have a value of 16 at maximum. If the shift SF exceeds 16, then it is equalized to the difference between its value and 16. In the event that the shift SF is in excess of the maximum value, the shift controller 34 outputs a flag FL of "1" indicating an overflow. If the shift SF has no overflow, the shift controller 34 outputs a flag FL of "0".
The variable length code VLC transferred to the barrel shifter 33 is placed in a register in the barrel shifter 33 by the shift SF outputted from the shift controller 34, which shift SF represents the code length VL of the variable length code VLC of the preceding sample.
The data stored in the register in the barrel shifter 33 is then divided into high- and low-order 16 bits. The low-order 16 bits, denoted at BS1, are transferred through an OR gate 35 to a register (R1) 36. The high-order 16 bits, denoted at BS2, are transferred directly to a register (R2) 37. Each of the registers 36, 37 comprises a flip-flops, and holds the data transferred at a present time and outputs the held data at a next time.
The output data from the registers 36, 37 are supplied to a multiplexer (MUX) 38. The multiplexer 38 selects the output data from either the register 36 or the register 37. Specifically, when the flag FL outputted by the shift controller 34 is "1", the multiplexer 38 selects the output data from the register 36, and when the flag FL outputted by the shift controller 34 is "0", the multiplexer 38 selects the output data from the register 37.
At a time n=0, the variable length code VLC outputted from the coding table 32 is composed of data A which is valid variable length code data of 5 bits and data 0 which is invalid data.
At the time n=0, since the variable length VL of the preceding sample is 0, the internal data of the barrel shifter 33 contains the data A of the variable length code VLC starting from the LSB thereof, as shown in FIG. 2.
At the time n=0, the registers 36, 37 have internal data status R1, R2 of 0, i.e., the data stored in the registers 36, 37 are nil, as shown in FIG. 2.
At a next time n=1, it is assumed that the variable length code VLC has valid variable length code data B whose code length VL is 2 bits. At this time, the shift SF is of 5 bits which is the code length VL the data A of the variable length code VLC at the preceding time n=0. Therefore, the data in the barrel shifter 33 is shifted 5 bits such that the data B is stored in a position which corresponds to a 6th bit counted from the LSB of the data in the barrel shifter 33. The register 36 outputs the data at the preceding time n=0, and the register 37 outputs 0.
At a time n=2, it is assumed that the variable length code VLC has valid variable length code data C whose code length VL is 12 bits. At this time, the shift SF is 7 bits which are the sum of 5 and 2 bits that are the code lengths VL of the data A, B of the variable length codes VLC. The data in the barrel shifter 33 is shifted 7 bits such that the data C is stored in a position which corresponds to an 8th bit counted from the LSB of the data in the barrel shifter 33. The register 36 outputs data which is produced when the data BS1 outputted from the barrel shifter 33 and data MXO outputted from the multiplexer 38 at the preceding time are ORed. The data outputted from the register 36 is therefore the sum of the data A, B as shown in FIG. 2. The register 37 outputs 0.
At a time n=3, it is assumed that the variable length code VLC has valid variable length code data D whose code length VL is 10 bits. At this time, the shift SF is 19 bits which is the sum of the code lengths VL so far. Since the shift SF has a maximum value of 16 bits, the shift SF becomes 19-16=3 bits. Now, the shift controller 34 detects an overflow, and the flag FL is set to "1". The data outputted from the register 36 is produced by ORing the data outputted from the barrel shifter 33 so far. Inasmuch as the data C of the variable length code VLC exceeds the 16-bit range of the register 36 by 3 bits, the excess 3 bits are outputted from the register 37. At the same time, when the flag FL is set to "1", the data stored in the register 36 is stored in a buffer memory (BM) 39.
At a time n=4, the barrel shifter 33 shifts the data as shown in FIG. 2. Because the flag FL has been set to "1" at the preceding time, the data outputted from the register 36 is produced by ORing the data outputted from the register 37 at the preceding time and the data D of the variable length code VLC at the preceding time.
The aforesaid operation is subsequently repeated as shown in FIG. 2.
Heretofore, once the maximum code length of the variable length code VLC is determined, the data range of the barrel shifter 33 and the data range for the buffer memory 39 are determined. Consequently, the conventional variable length coder cannot be constructed with system flexibility.
The article "Digital Coding of Component Television Signals for Contribution--Quality Applications in the Range 34-45 Mbits " CMTT--2/6--E 8 March 1991 shows use of a variable length code having a maximum code length of 18 bits, and bit stuffing in units of 16 bits with 16-phase-interleave error correction. In such an application, it is desirable to code and output data in the range of 16 bits though the maximum code length is of 18 bits. However, the conventional variable length coder fails to provide such flexibility.
FIGS. 3 and 4 of the accompanying drawings show a conventional higher-speed variable length coder which is composed of two parallel variable length coders each of the structure shown in FIG. 1.
In FIG. 3, each time a predetermined number of data to be coded are supplied, they are alternately stored in FIFO memories 41, 42, and the stored data are read therefrom at a rate which is half the rate at which they have been stored. The data thus read from the FIFO memories 41, 42 are then coded by respective variable length coders 43, 44. The coded data outputted from the respective variable length coders 43, 44 are then stored in FIFO memories 45, 46, respectively, from which the stored data are alternately read as output signals at a rate twice the rate at which they have been stored.
However, since the variable length coders 43, 44 operate independently of each other, no matching can be achieved between the data outputted from each of the variable length coders 43, 44. Therefore, the coded data may contain invalid data in a region where they are joined to each other, as shown hatched in FIG. 4. When such invalid data are included, they tend to lower the efficiency with which the coded data are transmitted.

Variable length coder and data packing circuit


An fixed form image reading apparatus includes an imaging portion for taking an image of a fixed form image formed in accordance with a predetermined rule so as to deliver image data, a luminance detecting portion that detects an accumulated value of luminance of a plurality of predetermined areas in the fixed form image as reference luminance data, an interpolation coefficient generating portion that generates an interpolation coefficient for performing interpolation so that luminance of the image data of the fixed form image becomes a predetermined level by using the reference luminance data, and a luminance correcting portion that corrects luminance of the image data of the fixed form image based on the interpolation coefficient.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fixed form image reading apparatus and a method for reading a fixed form image that has a regular shape like a hologram or a two-dimensional code.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, two-dimensional codes that can store more information in a smaller area than one-dimensional codes (so-called bar codes) are used. The two-dimensional code can store a large capacity of information compared with a conventional bar code, and it has little limitation of reading direction because it has a position detection mark.
The reading apparatus for reading the two-dimensional code optically is equipped with an image sensor such as a CCD, a CMOS, a photo diode or the like for detecting an optical signal and converting it into an electric signal, a decode circuit for converting the electric signal into code information, and optical elements including a collimator lens, an objective lens, a mirror, a polygon mirror and the like. In addition, there is a case where it is equipped with a light source that projects light to the two-dimensional code as necessity.
The reading apparatus takes an image of the two-dimensional code by the image sensor and decodes its image data by a decoding portion so that data stored in the two-dimensional code is extracted.
The reading apparatus is vulnerable to influences of dark current of the image sensor or noises. In order to remove such influences, there is disclosed an imaging apparatus in which an image is taken in the state where its shutter is closed (i.e., the state where incident light of the image sensor is shut out), and correction is performed based on image data obtained from the image sensor in the state where the shutter is closed (see JP-A-H8-307775, JP-A-2001-94882 and the like, for example).
The fixed form image such as the two-dimensional code or the like has a marker for detecting its position (direction or place). The marker is formed so that a large luminance change is generated, and the marker is detected based on the luminance change for detecting the position.
However, if luminance changes largely in the image sensor, the part of the image data (the part where the luminance changes largely) is formed with gradation. As a result, there is a case where an actual fixed form image is different from an image obtained by the image sensor. The fixed form image is formed in accordance with a predetermined rule. If the obtained image is different from the actual fixed form image, data stored in it may not be extracted or obtained data may not be correct data even if it is extracted.

Fixed form image reading apparatus and fixed form image reading method using the same


Containment vessels are adapted to facilitate blast and dispersion mitigation. According to one example, a containment vessel may include at least one containment layer. At least one expansion member may be coupled to the at least one containment layer to apply a force sufficient to expand a perimeter of the containment layer(s) laterally outward. A closure system may be coupled with the containment layer(s), where the closure system is configured to cinch the perimeter of the containment layer(s) around a target object without manual intervention. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) including a containment vessel, as well as methods of making a containment vessel are also disclosed. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also included.

A recent area of concern is the increasing use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by hostile adversaries. Common UAVs small enough to be portable (i.e. human-portable) are often referred to as drones. Such UAVs can be assembled from commercially off-the-shelf materials, or purchased in a ready-to-use state. A typical UAV can carry a relatively significant payload. Electric motors may provide UAVs with relative acoustic stealth. Commercially available miniature flight control computers and sensors provide such UAVs with some degree of autonomy, mitigating the need for line of sight operation.
It is anticipated that inexpensive UAVs may be used by adversaries not only for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), but also as weapon delivery platforms that may carry explosive, chemical, radiological, and/or biological payloads. Attempting to destroy UAVs carrying such payloads makes possible inadvertent abetting of an adversary's mission. That is, conventional attempts to destroy a UAV may not neutralize the payload, but may actually assist in dispersing explosive, chemical, radiological, or biological agents over an area. For example, shooting down a UAV could trigger dispersal of the chemical or biological agent onboard. Thus, systems that can reduce or even eliminate the dispersion of dangerous materials are generally desirable.

Devices and methods for facilitating blast and dispersion mitigation


A method and system generates correlated biometric information by capturing an image of a retinal vessel pattern and simultaneously capturing an image of an iris minutia pattern. Retinal biometric data and iris biometric data are generated from the images. The retinal biometric data and the iris biometric data are then combined or linked to maintain the correlation between the two biometrics.

Systems are known for using a retinal vessel pattern to identify an individual. Such systems are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,453,057 and 6,757,409. Systems are also know for using an iris minutia pattern to identify an individual. Such systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,641,349; 5,291,560 and 5,956,122. In the system described in the latter patent, light reflected from the retina, which is seen by the system as "two glowing spots," is used to direct the view of a fine focus camera to an iris so that the iris can be used to produce a biometric. The system of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,122 does not capture a retinal vessel pattern or use the retina to provide biometric information, its use being limited to generally locating an iris. Further, it has been found that systems which use an iris pattern have inherent problems associated with providing accurate and complete data because portions of the iris can be blocked by eyelids and eyelashes.

Method and system for generating a combined retina/iris pattern biometric


A foldable stand includes two stand legs pivotally connected together. A positioning unit is set between the two stand legs and includes a first link pivotally connected to a second link, a locating plate mounted in the first link and a locking pin mounted in the second link. The foldable stand also includes a control unit having a first pedal mounted at the second link and pressable to move the first and second links toward each other into a folded position. In the folded position, the locking pin is forced into engagement with the locating plate. A second pedal is pivotally connected to the second link and pressable to pull the locking pin out of the locating plate for enabling the two stand legs to be biased from the folded position to an extended position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cutting tool stands, and more particularly to a foldable cutting tool stand.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to facilitate delivery between different workplaces, machine tool stands for regular small-scale machine tools commonly have a folding design so that the stands can be alternatively set between an extended position and a folded position.
Various machine tool stands are known. For example, Taiwan Patent I289101 teaches the use of a pedal to move four links, forcing these four links to carry one respective wheel seat in lifting the base from the floor. The wheel seats must have enough structural strength so that the expected effects can be achieved. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 6,607,015 discloses a foldable worktable. This foldable worktable is functional, however, it is still not convenient for use because the two H-shaped legs of this design of the foldable worktable are not equipped with rollers for convenient movement with the machine tool when the foldable worktable is folded up. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 6,942,229 discloses a collapsible stand for a bench-top power tool. This design of the collapsible stand has a pair of wheels rotatably connected to the base thereof for transporting the stand and power tool thereupon. However, when in use, the stand must be turned to a position perpendicular to the floor so that the support legs can be collapsed. However, because the weight of the machine tool supported thereon is much larger than the stand itself, when biasing the component parts of the stand, it is likely to cause danger to the operator.


A chewable tablet or lozenge has an effervescent action and acid particles and/or carbonate particles coated with a hydrocolloid. The chewable tablet or lozenge has a pleasant, fizzy feeling in the mouth during dissolution. The tablet contains a pharmaceutical formulation which can be taken directly orally as a chewable tablet or lozenge.

However, the inventors have now set themselves the object of providing a tablet for pharmaceutical formulations which can be both taken directly orally as a chewable tablet or lozenge with a slight effervescent effect and therefore pleasant fizzy feeling in the mouth and dissolved or suspended in (preferably 50-100 ml) of water, in particular in less than 2 min, with effervescence. It is in fact highly desirable to have a tablet which generates a pleasant fizzy feeling on chewing or sucking but which, if required, can be dissolved in a (very small) amount of water if the patient prefers to drink a solution. The tablets mentioned at the outset are however unsuitable for dissolution in water before being taken: the tablet according to EP-A1-525,388 has insufficient effervescent base for this purpose since up to two thirds of the effervescent components have already reacted, i.e. only a single carboxyl group of the citric acid may be free; all tablets according to the examples of WO91/04757 have dissolution times of well over 5 minutes in fresh water.
As the inventors of the present application have surprisingly found, this is due, inter alia, to three aspects of the formulation which had not been taken into account by the inventors of WO91/04757 because they were indeed concerned only with a chewable tablet or lozenge, which, according to the description, was to dissolve in water at 37.degree. C. in less than 10 minutes. The stated relevant lower limit of 30 seconds cannot be achieved with the formulation of WO91/04757.
A first reason for this is the use of a lubricant for tabletting, which is essential according to the description. Even a relatively low content of lubricant makes the individual components hydrophobic and thus contributes very substantially to poorer dissolution behaviour of the tablet in water.
A second reason is the encapsulation or coating of the particles of the active substance: the coating material penetrates into the voids during compression and thus also blocks access to the effervescent particles. The effervescent particles then react much more slowly with the water thus impeding the dissolution of the tablets.
A third reason is the use of relatively large amounts of rapidly soluble substances as fillers, such as, for example, sorbitol alone or as a mixture with a sucrose which is formulated as a tabletting assistant and in turn contains lubricant although only in small amounts.
Surprisingly, it has in fact been found that relatively rapidly soluble fillers in a tablet having a relatively low content of effervescent base (owing to any direct oral intake of the tablet, the effervescent effect must not be too great, otherwise it will be found to be unpleasant) prolong the dissolution time of the tablet. The reason for this is that, on introduction of the tablet into water, the amounts of rapidly soluble fillers, which are large in comparison with the amount of the effervescent base, very rapidly form a locally very highly concentrated solution in which the dissolution and reaction of the effervescent components and hence the disintegration of the tablet take place only slowly.
On the other hand, if the lubricant and/or the encapsulation of the active substance are omitted, an unpleasantly strong effervescent effect may be achieved in the mouth if the tablet is to be chewed or sucked, even with small amounts of effervescent components which are required for the dissolution of the tablet in fresh water.
Attempts to achieve the object described at the outset by means of a disintegrating effervescent material doped with a small amount of effervescent base, for example according to EP-A1-501,985, also failed since the disintegrating agents always left behind a sandy, rough impression during chewing or sucking, which was found to be unpleasant.
The inventors have demonstrated this on the basis of the examples and have solved the stated problems as described herein and in the appended claims such as by formulating a tablet with an effervescent action comprising a pharmaceutically active substance, acid particles, and/or carbonate particles of an effervescent base that are coated with a soluble hydrocolloid that is preferably slightly or rapidly soluble, and/or wherein the pharmaceutical substance is free of encapsulating substances and/or the tablet mixture is free of lubricants. Advantageous further developments and alternatives of the invention are described as described herein and in the appended claims.
The small amounts of water in the saliva, in which indeed other substances are also dissolved, do not dissolve a hydrocolloid coat on the effervescent components so rapidly that an undesirably strong effervescent action would occur. Even small amounts of the hydrocolloid thus slow down the reaction of the effervescent components with one another in the mouth quite dramatically, while the hydrocolloid--in particular an essentially readily soluble one, such as, for example, maltodextrin, polyvinylpyrrolidone or guar gum--dissolves in the water very rapidly and prolongs the dissolution time of the tablet only to an insignificant extent.

Chewable tablet with an effervescent action


A method of producing silicon carbide (SiC) heating and lighting elements, by mixing a quantity of finely-divided particles of carbon in a binder; shaping the mixture; applying finely-divided particles of elemental silicon over the shaped mixture; and heating the shaped mixture in a furnace, while subjected to a vacuum, to vaporize and diffuse the silicon and to react the silicon vapor with the carbon in the binder, to convert the carbon to silicon carbide. The silicon particles includes a dopant to reduce the internal resistance of the produced silicon carbide to a value of up to a few hundred "sgr"hm-cms.

The invention in the present application relates to a novel method of producing silicon carbide (SiC). The method is particularly useful for producing silicon carbide heating and lighting elements, high-temperature sensor elements, and finely-divided particles of silicon carbide, (e.g., for use as abrasives, for hardening surfaces, etc.), but can also be used for producing silicon carbide for many other applications, such as semi-conductor substrates, hard coatings for turbine blades, high power switching devices, cosmic radiation protectors, etc. The present application is directed to the production of heating and lighting elements of silicon carbide (SiC).
Silicon carbide (SiC), sometimes referred to as carborundum, is a hard, clear, green-tinged or yellow-tinged crystalline compound, which is normally insulating but which becomes conductive when properly heated at a high temperature; for example, when heated to 2000xc2x0 C., it is as conductive as graphite. This material, therefore, is frequently classified as a semiconductor. It is presently used in a wide variety of applications, including abrasives, heating elements, illuminating elements, high-temperature sensors and semiconductor substrates. Because of its highly unique properties, particularly hardness, heat resistance, semiconductivity, thermal and electrical stability, and corrosion resistance, it is commonly considered as the material of the future.
Silicon carbide is generally manufactured, according to one known method, by heating pure silica sand and carbon in the form of coke in an electrical furnace.
According to another known method, a graphite heating element in a cylinder bar is covered with mixture of carbon powder and quartz and high electrical current is passed through it to create a temperature of up to 3000xc2x0 C. At this temperature, the quartz (SiO2) is broken down to pure silicon, which reacts with the carbon powder and creates the required SiC. At a lower temperature zone, a distance from the heater, the SiC begins crystallizing in the shape of small scales. These scales are ground to form a powder of the required size. This process of SiC powder synthesis which takes place in a vacuum (10xe2x88x923 Torr), requires in the order of 36 hours, as well as high electrical currents. Moreover, it is difficult to obtain a powder of the required grain size with this process.
Approximately 45 years ago a new concept was proposed by Lely for growing silicon carbide crystals of high quality; and approximately 20 years ago, a seeded sublimation growth technique was developed (sometimes referred to as the xe2x80x9cmodified Lely Techniquexe2x80x9d). The latter technique lead to the possibility for true bulk crystal preparation.
However, these techniques are also relatively expensive and time-consuming, such that they impose serious limitations on the industrial potential of this remarkable material. In addition, silicon carbide heating or lighting elements prepared in accordance with these known techniques generally vary in resistance with temperature, and/or lose power with age, thereby requiring extra controls, special compensations, and/or frequent replacement.
An object of the invention in the present application is to provide a new method of producing silicon carbide heating and lighting elements having advantages in one or more of the above respects.
According to a broad aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of producing silicon carbide (SiC) heating and lighting elements, comprising: mixing a quantity of finely-divided particles of carbon in a binder; applying finely-divided particles of elemental silicon over the carbon particles in the binder; and heating the silicon and the carbon in the binder, while subjected to a vacuum, to vaporize and diffuse the silicon and to react the silicon vapor with the carbon in the binder, to convert the carbon to silicon carbide; the silicon particles, when applied over the carbon particles in the binder, including a dopant to reduce the internal resistance of the produced silicon carbide to a value of up to a few hundred Ohm-cms such as to make the produced silicon carbide suitable as a heating or lighting element; the dopant including an element from the third or fifth column in the periodic table.
By elemental silicon is meant the silicon element, as distinguished from the silicon dioxide compound (e.g., sand, glass, quartz). Preferably, the silicon is relatively pure except for possible traces of impurities or dopants, such as present in silicon semiconductor substrates. In fact particularly good results were obtained, as described below, when the silicon used was the wastage in the manufacture of silicon semiconductor substrates.
Preferably, the carbon is either lignite carbon or anthracite carbon ground to a fine talc or power form.
During this heating process, the silicon vaporizes, diffuses into the carbon, and converts it to silicon carbide (SiC). Silicon carbide including such dopants has a green-tinged color, and therefore the formation of such a color during the above-described heating process indicates that the resulting product is indeed silicon carbide.
Since the novel method utilizes elemental silicon, rather than SiO2 (as in sand, glass or quartz), it does not require the high temperatures (e.g., the order of 3000xc2x0 C.), or the long heating time (e.g., the order of 36 hours) required on the prior art process as described above.
The method may be used in a wide variety of applications for producing various shaped articles of silicon carbide. The present application relates primarily to the production of silicon carbide heating and /or lighting elements.
In the preferred embodiments of the invention described below, the quantity of silicon is in excess of the quantity of carbon by weight to assure relatively complete conversion of the carbon to silicon carbide, with the excess silicon being removed by removing the silicon vapors during the diffusion process to prevent or minimize condensation of the silicon vapor on the outer surface of the silicon carbide.
Where heating or lighting elements are to be produced, the initial composition preferably includes relatively pure silicon but having traces of a dopant, such as zinc, aluminum, tellurium, or another element in the third or fifth column of the periodic table, in the ratio of about 1:10xe2x88x926. The vacuum is preferably from 10xe2x88x921 to 10xe2x88x923 Torr, and the heating temperature is preferably 1550-1600xc2x0 C. Such a process produces silicon carbon heating (or lighting) elements which are green-tinged in color, and have a relatively low internal resistance in the order of tens to a few hundreds of Ohm-cm.
In some described preferred embodiments, the mixture is prepared by mixing the finely-divided particles of carbon in a water solution of sucrose, and in other described preferred embodiments, the mixture is prepared by mixing the finely-divided particles of carbon in polyvinyl acetate. In both cases, the carbon mixture is prebaked at about 500xc2x0 C. in order to harden the sample. It will be appreciated, however, that other binders may be used.
According to further features in the described preferred embodiments, the carbon and silicon are both contained in a graphite crucible when heated within the furnace. The crucible is at least partly open at its upper end to the interior of the furnace to permit excess silicon vapors to escape to the interior of the furnace, and thereby to prevent or minimize condensation of silicon vapors on the outer surface of the silicon carbide.
Further features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description below.

Method of producing silicon carbide: heating and lighting elements


In a system comprising a processor, an image storage and a display, said display capable of displaying an image, and said image being renderable in a plurality of rotation degrees upon said display upon receipt of a command, a method of rotating an image, said image further comprising at least one member of a group, said group comprising text and images capable of being sub-pixel rendered, comprises the steps of: sub-pixel rendering said at least one member of a group; grouping said sub-pixels into a plurality of sub-pixel groups; rotating said plurality of sub-pixel groups such that each said sub-pixel group is rotated as a pixel on a pixel-to-pixel basis. In another embodiment, the display upon which rotation is performed comprises substantially equal subpixel rendering addressability limits in horizontal, vertical and diagonal directions.

Computer displays typically are constructed in a manner to display text and other video information in a landscape mode. There have been, of course, some displays that are constructed to display video data in portrait mode. To bridge the gap between the two modes of displays, some have built software drivers to enable a display to be rotated between landscape and portrait mode (i.e. typically 90, 180, or 270 degrees) and then to hit a software switch (either automatically or under user-controlled input) in order to render the image "right-side up". Badger, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,973,664, describes such a prior software system that enables the mapping of pixel information from one mode to the other—and hence, enables a rotatable display for desired user control.
Badger describes his system succinctly in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3. FIG. 1 illustrates the modification of an image before it is sent to a rotated computer display. Computer display 100A is oriented in standard landscape mode, displaying an image which is taller than it is wide. The space on either side of the image is wasted. The user of rotatable display 100A can rotate it 90 degrees clockwise, which would result in computer display 100B. The image on display 100B appears rotated 90 degrees, however, because of the rotation of the display. In order to view the image upright as on rotated display 100C, the computer compensates for the clockwise rotation of the display by sending to the display an image which is rotated 90 degrees in the counterclockwise direction. The image sent by the computer to display 100C would look like that on display 100D if the display were left in the standard landscape orientation.
An illustrative embodiment of Badger's system is shown in FIG. 2. Computer display 216 exhibits image 218 based on display image information 210 stored in display memory 212, which is accessible by computer 220. This display memory 212 is organized into arrays of memory cells, and the organization of information in display memory 212 takes the form of contiguous blocks of memory which each represent a single horizontal line of pixels on the display. Video hardware 214 uses display image information 210 in display memory 212 to generate display signals for computer display 216. The appearance of image 218 on computer display 216 is determined by the organization of information 210 placed in display memory 212. When software application 200, such as a word processor or a drawing program, needs to put an image 204 on display screen 216, it typically places image information 204 in source memory 202. Application 200 then signals operating system 206 that image 204 in source memory 202 needs to be put on display screen 216. Operating system 206 then communicates this information to driver 208. Driver 208 is a small software program which performs the task of retrieving source image information 204 from source memory 202 and putting it into display memory 212. If any modifications to the orientation of image 204 are necessary, driver 208 performs these modifications while writing display image information 210 to display memory 212. Driver 208 performs all modifications to image 204 using a single parameterized method of operation that can be used to rotate image 204 for any of a number of orientation modes.
Referring now to FIG. 3, image 210 to be shown on computer display 216 is in the form of an array of display image lines 306, with each display image line 306 being an array of pixels 308. Driver 208 transfers image 204 line by line, pixel by pixel from source memory 202 to display memory 212. Computer display 216 shows what is in display memory 212, and driver 208 can change the orientation of displayed image 218 by changing the ordering of pixels 308 of image 210 in display memory 212. In FIG. 3, an image of an arrow is shown in source memory 202. Display memory 212 contains an image of the same arrow rotated counterclockwise 90 degrees. The mapping of pixels 304 from source memory 202 to display memory 212 is illustrated by the three pixels marked A, B, and C, which are mapped to the three pixels 308 marked A′, B′, and C′.
When a user wishes to change the orientation of images 218 on computer display 216, the user makes a selection of one of a variety of possible orientation modes. When this selection occurs, driver 208 is notified, and a setup procedure begins so that images 218 later drawn to computer display 216 will have the desired orientation. This setup procedure involves using information about the desired orientation to calculate two increment parameters, X.sub.—Increment and Y.sub.—Increment. The X.sub.—Increment parameter indicates the difference in display memory 212 between pixels 308 which correspond to adjacent pixels 304 of the same source image line 302 in source memory 202. For example, pixels A and B are adjacent pixels 304 of the same source image line 302 in FIG. 3. For display image 210, the values of these two pixels 304 are transferred to A′ and B′ in display memory 212. The difference in memory addresses between A′ and B′ in display memory 212 is the X.sub.—Increment parameter. The Y.sub.—Increment parameter is the difference in display memory 212 between pixels 308 which correspond to adjacent pixels 304 of different source image lines 302 in source memory 202. For display image 210, pixels A′ and C′ correspond to pixels A and C of source memory 202, A and C being adjacent pixels 304 of different source image lines 302 in source memory 202. The difference in memory addresses between A′ and C′ in display memory 212 is the Y.sub.—Increment parameter.
When driver 208 is notified that image 204 is to be displayed on computer display 216, driver 208 invokes a set of software instructions to transfer image information 204 from source memory 202 into display memory 212 using the X.sub.—Increment and Y.sub.—Increment parameters, which are modified depending on the desired orientation mode. As each pixel 304 in a source image line 302 is transferred from source memory 202 to display memory 212, driver 208 determines the new pixel 308 location in display memory 212 by adding the X.sub.—Increment parameter to the location of the previous pixel 308 from that source image line 302. Each time a new source image line 302 is begun, the Y.sub.—Increment parameter is added to the location in display memory 212 of the first pixel 308 of the previous source image line 302. After the location in display memory 212 of the first pixel is determined, the location in display memory 212 of each subsequent pixel can be determined from the two increment parameters. In this way, the same set of instructions can effect the transfer of image information 204 regardless of which orientation mode selected, merely by changing the values of the X.sub.—Increment and Y.sub.—Increment parameters according to the selected orientation mode.
As useful as the Badger's system is (as depicted in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3) and while it is clearly desirable to have such user-flexibility in a display, the main limitation to the system disclosed by Badger is that the mapping takes places at the pixel-level—and no finer level of mapping is described. Today's displays are taking advantage of sub-pixel rendering—methods and apparatus that allow for a finer resolution of video data (in particular, text). In fact, both Microsoft and Adobe have methods that allow for sub-pixel rendering using the traditional RGB stripe.
Part of the problem is that prior art displays (particularly those relying on the RGB stripe) suffer from a non-rotationally symmetrical Nyquist limit, addressability, and/or MTF response curve. When images are rotated on a display that is non-symmetrical, the direction that has the least performance limits the image quality as the image component requiring greater performance passes through that angle.
For example, many, if not most, western text (Latin & Cyrillic) have more high spatial frequency components in the horizontal than the vertical direction. These high spatial frequencies are spread over a range of frequencies and phases. On a display with fixed square pixels, only certain high spatial frequencies and phases can be displayed. On a prior art RGB Stripe panel, display sub-pixel rendering offers higher addressability, thus allowing higher spatial frequencies to have a greater range of phases, but only in the direction normal to the stripes. Thus fonts are best rendered using sub-pixel rendering with the stripes aligned vertically, in line with the majority of long strokes of most of the characters. Displays conventionally meet this requirement when the lines of text are aligned horizontally along the long axis of typical flat panel displays in the so called "landscape" orientation. But when the lines of text are aligned with the short axis, and the display physically rotated to the so called "portrait" orientation, desired to allow display of full pages of text, as they are usually printed on paper in the "portrait" orientation, the stripes are normal to the long strokes. Since sub-pixel rendering only increases the addressability normal to the stripes, the conventionally oriented striped panel is suboptimal for use in sub-pixel rendering text in the portrait orientation, as the text requires greater addressability in the 'wrong' axis.
For this reason, the stripes should be aligned vertically in portrait mode. This requires that the display be designated for use as a portrait display only. But many displays would benefit from the ability to be used in both modes. Many advantageous uses would abound—e.g. a flat panel monitor on a support that allows the user to rotate the display between portrait orientation for word processing and landscape orientation for other work; a so-called "tablet computer" or "Personal Digital Assistant" ("PDA") that allows the user to read an electronically stored book in portrait orientation and turn it to view it in landscape orientation to view a calendar. Thus, it is highly desirable to have a display that allows equal sub-pixel rendering performance in both portrait and landscape orientations.
For some uses of flat panels, images are rotated at any or even all angles. One such use is for navigation aids in automobiles and handheld devices such as Geo Positioning System (GPS) enabled map displays. As the car or user changes orientation with respect to the terrain, the map rotates in the counter direction on the display to keep the relative orientation of the displayed map image aligned with the terrain. On prior art displays, such as the RGB Stripe display, conventional whole pixel rendering allows higher spatial frequencies in the diagonal directions. Images that are rotated on the display change quality depending on whether the high spatial frequencies are in alignment with the diagonals or not. Thus, an image, such as a map, seems to shift in appearance (and, potentially, usability) as the image is rotated. Thus, it is highly desirable to have a display that has equal performance in any and all orientations. That is to say, its Nyquist Limit, addressability, and/or MTF response curves are equal in all directions. If these response functions were plotted for such a display, they would from a circle with the center at zero spatial frequency—as will be discussed in greater detail below.
The family of display architectures—disclosed in the commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/916,232, published as U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0015110 A1, and, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,903,754, to Candice Hellen Brown Elliott, entitled "ARRANGEMENT OF COLOR PIXELS FOR FULL COLOR IMAGING DEVICES WITH SIMPLIFIED ADDRESSING," and known under the trademark name PENTILE™—all share the common trait of a red and green sub-pixel checkerboard upon which luminance information is mapped using sub-pixel rendering. When these displays sub-pixel render images that are rotated about, the image quality and appearance remains substantially constant due to the symmetrical nature of the red and green sub-pixel checkerboard layout and the filter response of the sub-pixel rendering algorithms. If the Nyquist Limit, addressability, and/or MTF response curves are plotted for these display architectures, it is found that they are circles with the center at zero spatial frequency.
Since a display with a circular response has equal performance in all direction, it follows that it must also have equal performance in landscape and portrait orientations.
In addition to the problems mentioned above regarding the quality of text when sub-pixel rendered on said RGB Stripe displays, another problem occurs when the prior art RGB stripe sub-pixel rendering methods are followed by a pixel-to-pixel rotational mapping, such as e.g. taught by Badger. Typically, as is often attempted in commercial use, the sub-pixel rendering of text is performed by the operating system, and the screen image rotation and/or mirror performed by a 'driver' afterwards. The problem arises when the text rendering code assumes that the sub-pixel stripes are aligned normal to the line of text (aligned with the tall stems of Western fonts). The sub-pixel rendered data is then remapped, improperly, by the screen rotation method such as taught by Badger, which has as an internal assumption, that the data is conventional, non-sub-pixel rendered data. That is to say that each red, green, and blue data point per pixel represent a color sample that is coincident. In sub-pixel rendered data, this assumption is false. When rotated by the Badger method, the sub-pixel rendering is "scrambled".

Rotatable display with sub-pixel rendering