The present invention provides a method of forming a bipolar transistor. The method includes doping a silicon layer with a first type of dopant and performing a first implant process to implant dopant of a second type opposite the first type in the silicon layer. The implanted dopant has a first dopant profile in the silicon layer. The method also includes performing a second implant process to implant additional dopant of the second type in the silicon layer. The additional implanted dopant has a second dopant profile in the silicon layer different than the first dopant profile. The method further includes growing an insulating layer formed over the silicon layer by consuming a portion of the silicon layer and the first type of dopant.

1. Field of the Invention
This application relates generally to bipolar transistors and, more particularly, to counter-doping collector regions of bipolar transistors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Bipolar transistors include an emitter region, a base region, and a collector region that are alternately doped with either n-type or p-type material. For example, an n-p-n bipolar transistor includes an emitter region that is doped with n-type material, a base region that is doped with p-type material, and a collector region that is doped with n-type material. For another example, a p-n-p bipolar transistor includes an emitter region that is doped with p-type material, a base region that is doped with n-type material, and a collector region that is doped with p-type material. The structure and operating parameters of a bipolar transistor are therefore determined, at least in part, by the dopant profiles that result from the specific process that is used to dope the emitter, base, and/or collector regions.
FIGS. 1A, 1B, and 1C conceptually illustrate a conventional technique for forming a collector of a p-n-p bipolar transistor. Initially, as shown in FIG. 1A, an SOI substrate 100 is used as the starting material. As depicted in FIG. 1A, the SOI substrate 100 is comprised of a bulk substrate 100a, a buried insulation layer 100b and an active layer 100c. Typically the bulk silicon 100a is comprised of silicon, the buried insulation layer 100b is comprised of silicon dioxide (a so-called "BOX" layer), and the active layer 100c is comprised of silicon (doped or undoped). Such SOI structures may be readily obtained from a variety of commercially known sources. Typically, the buried insulation layer 100b will be relatively thick for high voltage technologies, e.g., on the order of approximately 0.5-2 microns, and the active layer 100c may have an initial thickness of approximately 2 microns.
Thereafter, as indicated in FIG. 1A, a doped layer of silicon 105 is formed above the active layer 100c. The layer of silicon 105 is doped with an N-type dopant material, e.g., phosphorous, arsenic, such that it has a resistivity of approximately 1.6-4.5 ohm-cm which corresponds to a dopant concentration of approximately 1-3×1015 ions/cm3. The layer of silicon 105 is a layer of epitaxial silicon that is deposited in an epi reactor. In this situation, the layer of epitaxial silicon 105 may be doped by introducing dopant materials into an epi reactor during the process used to form the layer 105. However, the dopant material may also be introduced into the layer of silicon 105 by performing an ion implant process after the layer of silicon 105 is formed. Note that the distribution of dopant atoms within the layer of silicon 105 may not be uniform throughout its depth.
For purposes of explanation only, the drawings depict an interface between the active layer 100c and the layer of silicon 105. In practice, the distinction between these two layers may be very difficult to define. Nevertheless, the distinct layers are shown for purposes of explanation only. The layer of silicon 105 is relatively thick. In one illustrative embodiment, the layer of silicon 105 has a thickness that ranges from approximately 2-30 microns, depending on the particular application. Thereafter, an insulating or oxide layer 110 is formed above the layer of silicon 105 by performing, for example, a thermal oxidation process.
As shown in FIG. 1B a dopant implantation process (indicated by the arrows 115) may be performed to implant dopant species in the silicon layer 105. For example, the dopant implantation process 115 may be used to implant a p-type dopant such as boron into the silicon layer 105 to form a doped region 120. The doped region 120 may be referred to as a p-well. The dopant concentration in the doped region 120 is typically with in a range from about 3×1014 to 3×1016 ions/cm3. A portion of the implanted dopant species may also remain within the oxide layer 110.
FIG. 2A schematically illustrates the dopant concentration as a function of depth into the oxide layer and the silicon layer. The dopant concentration is indicated along the vertical axis (in arbitrary units) and the depth is indicated along the horizontal axis (in arbitrary units). The boundary between the oxide layer and the silicon layer is indicated by the vertical dashed line. The concentration of the n-type dopant species in the oxide layer and the silicon layer is indicated by the dotted line 205 and the concentration of the implanted p-type dopant species is indicated by the solid line 210. The concentration of the implanted p-type dopant peaks slightly below the interface between the oxide layer and the silicon layer and then decreases with increasing depth into the silicon layer. The concentration of the n-type dopant is approximately constant within the two layers.
Referring now to FIG. 1C, a thermal oxidation process can be used to grow selected portions of the silicon dioxide layer 110. The thermal oxidation process is used to grow the portions 125(1-2) and a masking layer is used to prevent the region between these portions from growing. Thermal oxidation and the consequent growth of the portions 125 consume a portion of the doped region 120. In some cases, the dopant species that is used to dope the doped region 120 may tend to segregate because the dopant species tend to redistribute so that the chemical potential across the interface between the silicon dioxide layer 110 and the doped region 120 is approximately constant. This phenomenon is conventionally referred to as dopant segregation. For example, thermal oxidation can cause boron to migrate from the doped region 120 into the portions 125 of the silicon dioxide layer 110 to equalize the chemical potential across the interface. The dopant segregation may result in the concentration of the p-type dopant falling below the concentration of the n-type dopant in the doped region 120, thereby creating an inverted layer. The resulting n-type inverted layer can degrade the performance of the devices formed using this technique.
FIG. 2B schematically illustrates the dopant concentration as a function of depth into the oxide layer and the silicon layer following the thermal oxidation process. The dopant concentration is indicated along the vertical axis (in arbitrary units) and the depth is indicated along the horizontal axis (in arbitrary units). The boundary between the oxide layer and the silicon layer is indicated by the vertical dashed line. Thermal oxidation has increased the depth of the oxide layer, as indicated by the shift of the vertical dashed line to the right relative to FIG. 2A. The concentration of the n-type dopant species in the oxide layer and the silicon layer is indicated by the dotted line 205 and the concentration of the implanted p-type dopant species is indicated by the solid line 210. The dopant segregation has increased the concentration of the p-type dopant in the oxide layer and decreased the concentration of the p-type doping in the silicon layer. The concentration of the n-type dopant has slightly decreased in the oxide layer and increased near the surface of the silicon layer. Consequently, an inverted region 215 has formed near the interface between the silicon layer and the oxide layer.
The disclosed subject matter is directed to addressing the effects of one or more of the problems set forth above.

Methods of counter-doping collector regions in bipolar transistors


An organic compound represented by formula (1) or formula (2) that is easy to synthesize, and has excellent chemical stability, semiconductor characteristics (high carrier mobility) and high solubility in a solvent.

In recent years, organic compounds having semiconductor characteristics have attracted attention. Among the organic compounds, a polyacene compound such as pentacene and tetracene has been known as an organic semiconductor material due to high carrier mobility thereof for many years. In addition, "carrier mobility" herein is used in a broad sense, including electron mobility and hole mobility.
However, publicly known polyacene compounds have low solubility in a solvent, and therefore film formation by an application process, a printing process or the like is difficult. Therefore, a device (hereinafter, also referred to as "device") having semiconductor characteristics is forced to be prepared according to a vapor deposition process requiring high manufacturing cost. Further, the publicly known polyacene compounds also have a problem on chemical stability such as oxidation resistance, and therefore is a difficult material from a viewpoint of industrial practicality.
Consequently, in order to improve the solubility and the chemical stability, study has been conducted on compounds in which various kinds of substituents are introduced on an acene skeleton (see Patent literature No. 1 and Non-patent literature No. 1, for example). Further, study has been already conducted on compounds in which chalcogen such as sulfur and selenium is introduced on a part of an acene skeleton, for example, dibenzothienothiophene (BTBT) and dinaphthothienothiophene (DNTT) (see Patent literature Nos. 2 to 3, for example).
According to the Patent literature described above, success has been made in improving the chemical stability in the compounds while high carrier mobility is maintained. However, the compounds are linear and have highly symmetrical molecular structure, and therefore have a problem of solubility being not necessarily sufficient even if a substituent such as an alkyl group is introduced thereon, or the like. Moreover, as the molecular structure becomes further complicated, the compounds can be barely synthesized using an expensive raw material or a reactant having a high environmental load, and through multi-step synthesis.
Thus, various kinds of organic compounds having semiconductor characteristics have been developed so far. However, development has not sufficiently been made yet for an organic compound having excellent chemical stability, high solubility in a solvent and high carrier mobility (material that can be applied or printed in a solution state, and can be applied to a wide range of uses, such as transistor preparation).
Therefore, organic semiconductor materials having as a basic skeleton a nonlinear molecule having low symmetry rather than a linear type have attracted attention in recent years. Specific examples include a compound having V-shaped or U-shaped structure, such as dinaphthofuran, dinaphthothiophene, dianthrafuran and dianthrathiophene. Basic skeletons thereof (unsubstituted compounds) have been already publicly known (see Patent literature Nos. 4 to 5, Non-patent literature Nos. 2 to 6, for example). However, while the compounds are excellent in chemical and thermal stability, the compounds have a problem of poor solubility in a solvent.
Several examples of compounds in which a substituent is introduced on the skeleton have been already disclosed (see Patent literature No. 6 and Non-patent literature No. 7, for example). Patent literature No. 6 refers to a dinaphthothiophene derivative on which four to twelve alkyl groups or phenyl groups are introduced, and an organic film including the derivative. However, Patent literature No. 6 discloses no synthesis example of the derivative at all, and has no description at a degree according to which a so-called person skilled in the art can understand a method for manufacturing the derivative, and thus the derivative is not substantially disclosed therein. Moreover, no verification has been made for solubility of the derivative in any solvent, application properties of a solution containing the derivative, and semiconductor characteristics of the derivative, and an effect due to introduction of the substituent thereon is also unknown. In addition thereto, no disclosure has been made on a compound itself for a dinaphthothiophene derivative on which one to three alkyl groups or phenyl groups are introduced. Further, Non-patent literature No. 7 discloses a dianthrathiophene derivative represented by the formula described below, but no verification has been made on the semiconductor characteristics in a similar manner.
wherein, Bu is butyl.

Chalcogen-containing organic compound and use thereof

Abstract: in formula (1), X is oxygen, sulfur or selenium; n is 0 or 1; R1 to R3 are hydrogen, fluorine, alkyl having 1 to 20 carbons, aryl, pyridyl, furyl, thienyl, thiazolyl or the like. However, except for a case where X is selenium, a case where all of R1 to R3 are simultaneously hydrogen is excluded, and a case where X is sulfur and all of R1 are simultaneously butyl is also excluded. In formula (2), X is oxygen, sulfur or selenium; n is 0 or 1; R1 to R2 are hydrogen, alkyl having 1 to 20 carbons, aryl, pyridyl, furyl, thienyl, thiazolyl or the like; however, a case where all of R1 to R2 are simultaneously hydrogen is excluded.


An adjustable stand is disclosed for raising and lowering a cantilevered load while reducing friction and preventing binding in the raising and lowering mechanism. A carriage for a cantilever arm, carrying the cantilevered load, rolls along a pair of parallel linear shafts by means of ball bearing bushings thus providing linear non-binding rolling motion therealong. In addition, an air clamp is provided for lockably positioning the cantilevered load in a desired rotational orientation with respect to the cantilever arm.

Numerous support stands for raising and lowering a load are known in the prior art. Some manually raise and lower the load by means of a rack and pinion as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,464,655 and 3,806,395, while others as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,655,426 and 5,337,678 utilize a manually operated screw jack to raise and lower the load. However, electro-mechanical actuators for raising and lowering loads are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,608,462; 4,557,454; 5,224,429 and 5,495,811, whereas U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,970 discloses an electrically operated rack and pinion for moving a framework back and forth in a horizontal direction.
Since most of the loads disclosed in the prior art were relatively light or were positioned immediately adjacent the raising and lowering column, the problems of a heavy cantilevered load and the locking of such load in a specific position on a cantilever arm were not fully recognized or properly dealt with. That is, as shown in the cited prior art, either multiple telescoping support columns or large heavy plates with long rollers on opposite sides thereof were utilized to compensate for the inherent binding effect produced with a cantilevered load. Further once the cantilevered load were raised on a cantilever arm, no convenient mechanism was available for locking the load in a desired rotational position on such arm.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved apparatus for raising and lowering a cantilevered load which prevents the cantilever arm from binding on the support post while reducing friction within the operating mechanism.
A further object has been to provide a unique remote controlled locking mechanism for locking a load in a desired position on a raised cantilever arm.

Adjustable stand for a cantilevered load


This invention provides a composition for anchoring materials in or to concrete or masonry. The composition comprises an alkylacrylate ester monomer, an alkylacrylate ester/methacrylic acid copolymer, a free-radical catalyst and a filler.

Many applications require that a material be anchored in or to concrete or masonry. For example, anchor bolts are employed in various fields of engineering as strengthening or reinforcing members in rock formations, or concrete or masonry structural bodies. The bolts, which are typically metallic, are inserted into holes in the rock formations, or concrete or masonry structural bodies, and are fixed or anchored therein by means of an anchor composition. Typically, the anchor composition cures or hardens (polymerizes) to form a strong bond between the rock formation, or the concrete or masonry structural body and the bolt. In concrete and masonry, anchor bolts are used for reinforcement. Anchor bolts are also used for attaching objects to concrete or masonry. Objects that have been attached to concrete or masonry using anchor bolts include, but are not limited to, electrical conduits, panels, piping and wall sections. Adhesive anchors are preferred over mechanical anchors for anchoring in soft concrete or masonry because adhesive anchors place less stress on the concrete or masonry. As used herein, the term "masonry" shall include, but is not limited to, stone, brick, ceramic tile, cement tile, hollow concrete block and solid concrete block.
A useful anchor composition should be inexpensive, provide for a strong bond between the concrete or masonry and the material to be anchored to the concrete or masonry, be easy to dispense at the location of use and have a long storage shelf life. Some anchor compositions that have been used include compositions based on aromatic vinyl esters, aromatic polyesters and epoxies. These compositions can be expensive or may not provide the desired bond strength between the concrete or masonry and the material that is anchored in or to the concrete or masonry.
An example of the anchor compositions of the prior art is found in Japanese Patent Application Sho59-122762 ("JP '762"). Generally, JP '762 discloses an anchor composition comprising a monomer, a polymer soluble in the monomer, aggregate and a hardening agent. With respect to the monomer component, JP '762 discloses a broad range of compounds which include methacrylate esters. With respect to the polymer component, JP '762 discloses a similarly broad range of compounds which includes methacrylate esters and acrylic acid, and further discloses the use of copolymers. Moreover, JP '762 discloses a composition comprising 70 to 95% by weight of the monomer and 5 to 30% by weight of the polymer.
Notably, however, JP '762 fails to recognize the unexpected and surprising properties of fast cure time and pull out strength realized by the selection of a methacrylate ester monomer and a copolymer of a methacrylic ester and methacrylic acid in the formation of an anchor composition as shown herein. The unexpected and surprising results achieved by this particular combination is shown in certain of the examples set forth below in which significantly shorter cure times and greater pull out strengths are exhibited by the compositions of the present invention as compared to other compositions which fall within the scope of the broad disclosure of JP '762. As a result, the composition of the present invention represent a novel and unobvious advancement over the prior art.

Alkylacrylate ester composition for anchoring materials in or to concrete or masonry


One embodiment of the present invention provides apparatus and methods for queuing access by large numbers of Internet or other network-based users to networked systems and resources with limited capacity. In one example embodiment, a queuing system provides user access to network resources, such as that of a ticketing system. A ticket queue queues a request received from a client system. A request processing module causes the client system to repeatedly transmit messages to the system during a first period, and in response to determining that the client system has ceased transmitting messages during the first period, the request is remove from the queue and/or cause the request goes unfulfilled.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to queuing, and in particular, to apparatus and processes for queuing access to network resources.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many online processes involve large numbers of users attempting to access networked systems and resources with limited capacity. For example, with respect to online auctions, there may be a limited number of items, such as tickets, being auctioned, and a large number of users that want to bid for such items at about the same time or within a short period of time. In many conventional systems, when such a situation occurs, the system may not be able to process all user requests, and so many users may be provided with an error message informing them that system access is not currently available and instructing users to attempt to access the system at a later time. This can cause user frustration and discourage many users from further attempting to access the system.
In addition, with some conventional systems, when large numbers of users attempt to access the system at about the same time, the system may disadvantageously fail to provide orderly or fair access to the system resources.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Systems and methods for queuing access to network resources


The present invention relates to a hydrocracking catalyst containing nickel, tungsten, fluorine, zeolite as well as alumina, said catalyst is composed of, based on the total weight of the catalyst, 0.5-5.0 wt % fluorine, 2.5-6.0 wt % nickel oxide, 10-38 wt % tungsten oxide, and a catalyst carrier. Said carrier is composed of 20-90 wt % alumina and 10-90 wt % zeolite wherein the zeolite is mesopore or macropore zeolite of an acidity strength value 1.0-2.0 mmol/g determined by NH.sub.3 -TPD, the alumina is the alumina of an acidity strength value 0.5-0.8 mmol/g determined by NH.sub.3 -TPD. Said catalyst possesses good desulfurization activity, denitrogenation activity, and higher selectivity with respect to middle distillates than that of the prior art.

In recent years, the tendency of crude oil becoming heavier and worse is growing more significant day after day world wide. Meanwhile, the demand for middle distillates is continuously increasing. These lead to a rapid development of the hydrocracking technique for the purpose of the bettering ad the lightening of heavy distillate, while the hydrocracking catalyst is one of the most important and critical factors of the hydrocracking technique.
Hydrocracking catalyst is a bifunctional catalyst which possesses at the same time the cracking activity and hydrogenation activity. In other words, hydrocracking catalyst contains at the same time acidic component and hydrogenation component. The acidic component is mainly the refractory inorganic oxide and/or various zeolites, and the hydrogenation component is generally selected from the oxides of the metals selected from Group VIB or Group VIII of the Periodic Table. In order to obtain different hydrocracking products, it is required to regulate the cracking activity and the hydrogenation activity of the catalyst. Generally speaking, the hydrocracking catalyst ought to possess good performances of desulfurization, denitrogenation and hydrogenation for aromatic compounds. The catalyst used for producing middle distillates should further possess high selectivity to middle distillates and nitrogen resistant stability. In general, the selectivity and the nitrogen resistant stability of the hydrocracking catalyst re raised by means of regulating the acidity of the catalyst.
Chinese patent application No. CN 90102649.4 discloses a hydrogenation catalyst. Said catalyst contains 0.5-5.0 wt % fluorine, 2.5-6.0 wt % nickel oxide, 10-32 wt % tungsten oxide, mordenite having silica to alumina ratio of 9.5-10.5 or Y-type zeolite having silica to alumina a ratio of 4.5-5.5, as well as alumina. Said alumina is prepared by calcining hydrated alumina which is obtained by hydrolysis of alkoxy aluminum. The boehmite content of the alumina is greater than 65 wt %. Although said catalyst possesses high hydrogenation activity and cracking activity, it is merely used for producing raw materials for steam cracking process, while not suitable for producing middle distillates, and the cost of its carrier is rather high.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,142 discloses a mid-barrel or distillate hydrocracking process, wherein a catalyst containing metal components selected from Group VIB and Group VIII of the Periodic Table, refractory inorganic oxide and a Y-type zeolite is used. Said Y-type zeolite has a unit cell size of 24.20-24.40 Angstroms, the ion exchange capacity greater than 0.07 and tie acidity strength value determined by NH.sub.3 -TPD less than 2.00.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 4,419,271, U.S. Pat. No. 4,401,556 as well as U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,073 also disclose respectively hydrocarbon conversion catalysts or hydrocracking catalysts, characterized in that the Y-type zeolite possessing certain specific silica to alumina ratio and modified by various methods is used therein.
One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a hydrocracking catalyst which is suitable fo producing middle distillates and has high nitrogen resistant stability.
The other object of the present invention is to provide a process for the preparation of such hydrocracking catalyst.
As is indicated above, the selectivity to middle distillates and the nitrogen resistant stability of the hydrocracking catalyst are enhanced usually by means of regulating the acidity of the catalyst In accordance with the prior art the acidity of the catalyst is regulated mainly by means of changing the species, the content, or the properties of the zeolite used for the carrier of the catalyst. The inventors of the present invention found that a hydrocracking catalyst possessing high selectivity to middle distillates and excellent nitrogen resistant stability can be obtained by means of selecting the alumina and the zeolite of adequate acidities for the preparation of the carrier for the hydrocracking catalyst, i.e., the alumina possessing specific acidity strength value is made to be matched with the zeolite of a specific acidity strength value.

Distillate hydrocracking catalyst and process for the preparation of the same


A 2,3-dihalopropanol is made by reacting 2,3-dihalopropanal with molecular hydrogen in the presence of a transition metal-containing catalyst, under conditions such that 2,3-dihalopropanol is formed. The reaction is particularly useful, for example, as Step (3) in a process to make epihalohydrin which may be generally prepared by:. (1) reacting a 3-carbon hydrocarbon with an oxidizing agent to form acrolein; PA0 (2) reacting acrolein with a molecular halogen to form 2,3-dihalopropanal; PA0 (3) reducing 2,3-dihalopropanal with molecular hydrogen to form 2,3-dihalopropanol; and PA0 (4) cyclizing 2,3-dihalopropanol to make epihalohydrin.. The process produces epihalohydrin using only about one mole of halogen per mole of epihalohydrin. It also uses substantially less water than existing processes.

The present invention relates to making 2,3-dihalopropanols.
2,3-Dihalopropanols are usually represented by: ##STR1## wherein: each "X" is independently a halogen atom; and
each "R" is independently a hydrogen atom or an organic group. 2,3-Dichloropropanol is the most commonly used member of the class. PA1 each "R" is independently hydrogen or a lower (C.sub.1 to C.sub.6) hydrocarbyl group, is preferably hydrogen or a lower alkyl group, is more preferably hydrogen or a methyl group and is most preferably hydrogen.
2,3-Dihalopropanols are important intermediates in the manufacture of epihalohydrin. For instance, epichlorohydrin is usually made by a three-step process of:
(1) reacting propylene and chlorine to make allyl chloride; PA0 (2) reacting allyl chloride with hypochlorous acid to make a mixture of dichloropropanols; and PA0 (3) reacting the dichloropropanols with a strong base to make epichlorohydrin. PA0 (1) reacting acrolein with chlorine to form 2,3-dichloropropanal; PA0 (2) reacting 2,3-dichloropropanal with a secondary alcohol in the presence of a catalyst to form 2,3-dichloropropanol (transfer hydrogenation); and PA0 (3) dehydrochlorinating 2,3-dichloropropanol to make epichlorohydrin. PA0 (1) reducing 2,3-dihalopropanal to form 2,3-dihalopropanol as described in the first aspect of the invention; and PA0 (2) cyclizing 2,3-dihalopropanol to make epihalohydrin. PA0 G. E. Coates et al., Principles of Organometallic Chemistry, Methven & Co. Ltd, London, 1971; PA0 Charles M. Lukehart, Fundamental Transition Metal Organometallic Chemistry, Brooks/Cole Publishing Co., Monterey, Calif., 1985; George W. Parshall, Homogenous Catalysis, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1980; PA0 B. J. Huberoff, Homogeneous Catalysis Industrial Applications and Implications, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C. 1968; and Brian R. James, Homogeneous Hydrogenation, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1973; all incorporated herein by reference.
This process makes large quantities of halogen-containing waste. For each mole of epichlorohydrin which is produced, at least about two moles of molecular chlorine are required. Each molecule of epichlorohydrin contains one atom of chlorine, and the remaining three atoms of chlorine are lost in the waste stream.
It has been proposed to make epihalohydrins by processes which are more efficient in their use of halogen. For instance, Furman et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 2,860,146 (Nov. 11, 1958)) proposed to make epihalohydrin by a three-step process of:
However, the costs associated with this process are too high for it to be economically feasible, due to the cost of recycling coproduct ketone back to alcohol and regenerating catalyst. Furthermore, Furman et al. teaches that "ordinary methods of catalytic hydrogenation cannot be used successfully for the reduction step of the new process because of the poor yields and for high consumption of catalyst in the reaction."
What is needed is an economical process to make dihalopropanols with reduced production of halogenated waste.


A shift register unit, a gate driving circuit, and a display device are disclosed. The shift register unit comprising: a pull-up module for pulling up level signal at present-stage signal output based on a signal at a pull-up control node and a first clock input; a control module connected to a first voltage terminal and a second voltage terminal for controlling the level at the pull-up control node based on a signal inputted to a first signal input and a second clock input; and a reset module for resetting the level signal outputted from the present-stage signal output based on a signal inputted to a second signal input. Signal lines and TFTs integrated in the shift register unit may be reduced, thereby saving space occupied by the circuit and reducing product cost.

Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to the technical field of display, and especially to a shift register unit, a gate driving circuit and a display device comprising the same.
Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) has been broadly used in an electronic device, such as a television, a mobile phone, a display, etc. due to its light weight, thin thickness, and low energy consumption.
The LCD is formed with Pixel arrays arranged transversely and longitudinally. When the LCD is in operation, inputted display data and timing sequence of clock signals can be latched by a date driving circuit, and the inputted display data is converted into analog signal to input to a data line of a liquid crystal panel. The inputted clock signal may be converted into a voltage by a gate driving circuit to control the ON/OFF states of a pixel and applied to gate lines of the liquid crystal panel line by line.
In order to further reduce product cost of a LCD, a Gate Driver on Array (GOA) design is usually adopted in existing gate driving circuits, in which a gate switching circuit based thin film transistor (TFT) is integrated on an array substrate of a display panel to form a scanning drive for the display panel, such that the integrated gate drive circuit can be omitted, the product cost can be reduced in aspects of material and manufacturing process, and the display panel may have symmetrical edges and aesthetically narrowed frames. Meanwhile, the omission of the process of Gate Orientation Bonding can improve productivity and the rate of qualified product. The gate switching circuit integrated in the array substrates by GOA technology is also called as a GOA circuit or a shift register circuit. A large number of signal lines and TFTs are integrated in existing shift register unit, such that the space occupied by the gate switching circuit is increased, thereby increasing the product cost.

Shift register unit, gate driving circuit, and display device comprising the same

HEFEI BOE OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


Optical communication systems and their method of operation are disclosed. In some embodiments, one or more images of one or more optical transmitters may be collected with an imaging device during relative motion between the imaging device and the one or more optical transmitters. The one or more optical transmitters may transmit bit stream segments as a pattern of sequential modulation cycles. The relative motion between the imaging device and the one or more optical transmitters may be sufficiently fast and an image integration time of the imaging device may be sufficiently long such that one or more bit stream segments transmitted by the one or more optical transmitters may be captured as one or more data traces in the images for subsequent decoding.

Optical communication systems typically utilize light emitting diodes (LEDs) or laser diodes as optical transmitters and the signals are typically received by receivers including photosensitive detectors such as photodiodes and CMOS cameras. At the most fundamental level, successful data transmission uses line of sight (LOS) between detector-receiver pairs and sufficient contrast in brightness, polarization, and/or color values to represent data. Smartphone CMOS cameras provide a powerful and nearly ubiquitous mobile receiver for free-space optical communications. As such, there are a number of efforts to use commercial lighting infrastructure to transmit data to smartphones for indoor positioning as may be used in retail and general data telemetry applications. Approaches using commercial lighting are called visible light communications (VLC) as the lights are often in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum and serve the dual purpose of providing lighting and data transmission.
Depending on the particular encoding scheme, the modulation (e.g. ON/OFF) cycles of a light source may result in flickering that is observable to a user which may be undesirable in certain applications. For example, applications utilizing smartphone cameras are bandwidth limited by the frame rate of the camera which is typically limited to about 30-240 frames per second (fps) which overlaps with flicker frequency ranges observable by the human eye. This frame rate limitation also limits the rate of data transmission to a maximum of 120 Hz if the frames alone were used to decode the data. In addition, tracking transmitters in motion using these types of transmission strategies also typically involve computationally expensive motion tracking algorithms that may further reduce the useable frame rate for data decoding and ultimately the bandwidth of the system as well. Therefore, typical optical communication systems strive to eliminate the relative motion between a transmitter and receiver as much as possible. Due to the difficulty and cost associated with increasing the frame rate of an imaging device, meaningful improvement in data transmission speeds using direct frame encoding are unlikely.
In contrast to using individual frames to transmit data, prior approaches to free space optical communication have also leveraged the rolling shutter effect to increase data rates and avoid observable flicker. For example, when using a rolling shutter encoding scheme, an imaging device may populate a single frame where individual rows of pixels are imaged individually before a full frame is integrated. If an optical transmitter were blinking at a rate slower than the row-imaging rate, a single frame may show a banded structure that represents periods of time where the optical transmitter is in its ON state and periods of time where it is in its OFF state. These states may occur on a time scale much faster than the frame rate of the camera. Such an approach may increase the bandwidth of the system while also eliminating observable flicker of the optical transmitter to an observer when using visible light sources. However, the relative size of the optical transmitter within the imaging device's field of view must be large as the number of bands present in the image represent individual bits. Therefore, typical rolling shutter encoding schemes attempt to have the optical transmitter occupy as much of the field of view of the imaging device as possible which limits the rolling shutter method to only transmitting single data streams at a time. In addition, optical communication systems using the rolling shutter method do not easily tolerate relative motion between a transmitter and receiver which results in the use of computationally expensive processing algorithms to handle distortions from the relative motion. Therefore, communication systems using the rolling shutter method, and other typical communication methods, tend to maximize the size of a transmitter within a field of view to increase the data rate transmission and accuracy while minimizing the relative motion between the transmitter and receiver.

Optical communication methods and systems using motion blur

Advanced Functional Fabrics of America, Inc.


A method for bisformylation an arylamine compound by reacting an arylamine compound with an alkyleneamine in a reaction mixture while refluxing an acid in the reaction mixture.

Disclosed is a process for the generation of arylamine compounds. More specifically, illustrated herein are methods for bisformylating arylamines for synthesizing arylamine which can be incorporated into photoconductive imaging members as hole transport components.
Arylamines can be selected as hole transport molecules in organic photoconductors. Examples of arylamine hole transport molecules include a siloxane-containing hole transport molecule illustrated with reference to Compound I:
wherein R1, R2, R3 R4, R5, R6, and R7, independently represent an alkyl or hydrocarbon radical of for example 1 to about 20 carbon atoms, such as methyl, ethyl, propyl, butyl, pentyl, stearyl, and higher analogs thereof.
Processes for preparing Compound I wherein R1–R6, are hydrocarbon radicals and more specifically where R2 and R6 are methyl, ethyl or isopropyl may be lengthy and involve reagents that may be considered not "environmentally friendly." For example, processes for preparing Compound I may entail as many as six distinct synthetic manipulations with up to 30 days to complete such manipulations, including a Vilsmeier reaction for the bisformylation of an intermediate Compound II (N,N-diphenyl-4-aminobiphenyl) to its bisformylated form.

The Vilsmeier reaction can be used to introduce aldehyde or formyl groups onto an aromatic ring to yield a formylated-aryl moiety. An example Vilsmeier reaction entails the formation of a Vilsmeier reagent which may be formed by reacting N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) with phosphorous oxychloride (POCl3), phosgene (COCl2) or thionylchloride (SOC12) of which phosphorous oxychloride is preferred. The preparation of the Vilsmeier reagent is normally done in-situ. The Vilsmeier reagent then reacts with the aromatic ring of an activated molecule such as a phenol or aromatic amine. The introduction of such a group into a generic triarylamine is shown as the reaction sequence below:

Compound II may be bisformylated by way of a Vilsmeier reaction as illustrated herein after. While monoformylation of Compound II may be achieved with relative ease by way of a Vilmeier reaction, bisformylation may be more difficult and may require that the reaction be accomplished at elevated temperatures of from about 90° C. to about 110° C., temperatures above the decomposition of the Vilsmeier reagent (Td˜81° C.). Another disadvantage to bisformylation of Compound II by the Vilsmeier reaction is that the reagents such as phosphorous oxychloride used in such a process may be considered to be hazardous and toxic.


In one embodiment, a universal media server (e.g., a set-top box) has zero or more physical audio and/or video (A/V) inputs configured to receive A/V data, and at least one Internet Protocol (IP) input configured to receive IP data. In particular, the universal media server has one or more virtual A/V inputs, each virtual A/V input corresponding to an IP-based A/V source device having a corresponding IP source address and configured to receive IP-based A/V data from the IP-based A/V source device on the at least one IP input. The universal media server also has at least one A/V output configured to selectively output A/V data according to a selected input of the physical and virtual inputs.

Generally, in the field of audio and/or video (A/V) media, there is a divide between conventional analog/digital media and Internet Protocol (IP)-based media. For instance, conventional A/V media has commonly been used for televisions (TVs), set-top boxes, etc., such as through various cable/satellite provider networks. However, it is somewhat difficult/complex to manage conventional (analog/digital) video so that it may be viewed by IP-based receivers, such as Personal Computers (PCs). Conversely, IP-based media is becoming more prevalent, such as with the transmission of music and videos directly over a computer network to a PC (or other IP-based devices), but again, it may be difficult to manage the IP-media so that it may be viewed/heard on non-IP-based output devices such as TVs, etc.
The divide described above is particularly noticeable in the area of video surveillance. For example, more and more homeowners and homebuilders are deploying security cameras into the home for enhanced security applications. These enhanced security applications may be used to provide access to live and recorded security video, both while in the home (locally) and away from the home (remotely). In one solution, analog cameras and radio frequency (RF) converters may be used to deliver the video to TVs for in-house viewing (e.g., on "channels" not used by other broadcasts). However, such a solution may be difficult for the average consumer to set up, and is generally not accessible remotely, e.g., only viewable from the TVs in the house. More advanced users, on the other hand, can readily purchase a range of wired and wireless IP cameras and then view the IP-based video from an IP-based receiver device, such as a PC having special surveillance software (or with access to a registration site receiving video signals from the IP-based cameras). While various PC-based software applications may be used to encode analog video and record it to local hard drives inside the PC, such solutions may be expensive and beyond the skill of the average consumer (and generally limited to in-home video surveillance). Further, neither PC-based solution leverages the TV, a device located in nearly every consumer's home, and a device which is far more easily operated for the average consumer than a PC (particularly the complex arrangements required for video surveillance described above).

Virtual IP-based A/V inputs for universal media servers


In an image forming apparatus, plural apertures are formed in a row in an insulation sheet of polyimide and control electrodes for the respective apertures are formed on the insulation sheet. The operation portion of each control electrode is directly contacted with the insulation sheet and the wire portion (non-operation portion) of the control electrode is disposed to face the insulation sheet through a second insulation sheet. A shield electrode is further provided between the two insulation sheets to prevent the occurrence of an electric field between the toner carry roller and the wire portions of the control electrodes.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an image forming apparatus which is suitably usable for a copying machine, a printer, a plotter, a facsimile, or similar printing apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventionally known image forming apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,689,935. The apparatus uses an electrode having plural opening portions (hereinafter referred to as "apertures") and a voltage is applied to the electrode in accordance with image data to control passage of toner particles through the apertures, whereby an image is formed on a supporter (image receiving medium) with the passed toner particles.
The image forming apparatus includes an aperture electrode unit comprising an insulating flat plate, a reference electrode formed continuously on one surface of the flat plate, plural control electrodes formed on the other surface of the flat plate are electrically insulated from one another, and at least one row of apertures are formed, with an aperture in correspondence with each control electrode, so as to penetrate through the flat plate, the reference electrode and the control electrodes; means for selectively applying a voltage across the reference electrode and the control electrodes; means for supplying charged toner particles so that the flow of the toner particles passed through the apertures is modulated in accordance with the applied voltage; and means for moving a supporter and the aperture electrode unit relative to one another to position the supporter in a particle flow passage.
Further, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,743,926, 4,755,837, 4,780,733, and 4,814,796 disclose image forming apparatuses having an aperture electrode unit disposed so that control electrodes face a supporter and a reference electrode faces a toner supply side.
On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 4,912,489 discloses an aperture electrode unit disposed so that the reference electrode faces the supporter and the control electrodes face the toner supply side. In the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,912,489 it is described that a voltage to be applied to the control electrodes at an off-time can be reduced to about a quarter of that of the image forming apparatus as disclosed in the above U.S. patents.
The term "off-time" means a time when no toner particle is attached onto the supporter, that is, when a blank portion of an image is formed on the supporter and, conversely, the term "on-time" means a time when a toner image is formed on the supporter.
In the image forming apparatus as described above, a reference electrode is provided on one surface of the flat plate while plural control electrodes are provided on the other surface. An electric field for controlling movement of charged toner is formed by applying a prescribed voltage across the reference electrode and the control electrodes. Accordingly, in order to control the movement of the charged toner supplied to the vicinity of the aperture electrode unit from the toner supply means, a strong electric field must be formed between the reference electrode and the control electrodes. In order to form the strong electric field between the electrodes, a voltage supply means for applying a high voltage must be used so that the total manufacturing cost of the apparatus is expensive.
In order to solve this problem, there was proposed an image forming apparatus as disclosed in European Unexamined Patent Publication No. 587,366. This image forming apparatus includes an aperture electrode unit 101, as shown in FIG. 4, which is capable of controlling the movement of toner even using a low voltage. The aperture electrode unit 101 of the image forming apparatus comprises a flat plate 102 which is formed of an insulation member and has a thickness of 25 .mu.m, plural apertures 106 each of which is formed in the flat plate 102 and has a diameter of about 40 .mu.m, and control electrodes 104, a control electrode 104 being independently provided for each aperture 106 and having a thickness of 1 .mu.m. Each control electrode 104 comprises an operation portion 104A, which is disposed in such a way as to surround the corresponding aperture 106, and a wire portion (non-operation portion) 104B, which is disposed in such a way as to extend from the aperture 106 to the end portion of the flat plate 102. The plural apertures 106 are provided in such a way as to penetrate through the flat plate 102 and the control electrodes 104 and are arranged in a row in the longitudinal direction of the flat plate 102.
The aperture electrode unit 101 is slightly pressed against a carry roller (not shown), so that it is brought into slight contact with the carry roller, and a voltage is applied across each of the control electrodes and the carry roller. When the aperture electrode unit 101 thus structured is used in the image forming apparatus, an electric field is formed between the control electrodes 104 and the carry roller (not shown) carrying charged toner thereon upon application of a control voltage to the control electrodes 104. As a result, toner flow (movement of the toner) occurs between the control electrodes 104 and the carry roller (not shown), and the toner on the carry roller passes through the apertures 106 and moves to a supporter side (not shown).
With this structure, the movement of the toner can be controlled with a far lower voltage as compared with the conventional image forming apparatus.
However, in this case the voltage is applied to the whole of the control electrodes 104 and, thus, the electric field is formed between the carry roller (not shown) and the wire portion 104B, which is not directly associated with the movement of the toner, so that the toner is electrostatically attracted and adheres to a part of the flat plate 102 which is located below the wire portion 104B. By this phenomenon, the toner adhering to the flat plate 102 is deposited between the control electrodes 104 and the carry roller, the flat plate 102 is pushed up by the deposited toner, and the distance between the carry roller (not shown) and the flat plate 102 is gradually increased. Therefore, the electric field for controlling the toner flow is gradually weakened, and the toner is not sufficiently moved to the supporter side, so that there occurs a problem that a image formed on the supporter is blurred.
Particularly when the wire portions 104B of the control electrodes 104, which are not associated with the toner movement, are disposed at the upstream side of the rotational direction of the carry roller (not shown), the following problem occurs. If the toner adheres to the flat plate 102 side below the wire portions 104B, the toner supply amount to the apertures 106 would be temporarily reduced by the amount of the toner adhering to the flat plate 102, when continuous dots are printed as an image on the supporter, so that the image formed on the supporter is blurred.
On the other hand, the electric field which is formed between the control electrodes 104 and the carry roller (not shown) by the control voltage, that is, the electric field for allowing the toner to pass through the apertures 106, and the electric field which causes the toner to adhere to the flat plate 102, extinguishes when a non-control voltage is applied to the control electrodes 104 to stop the occurrence of the toner flow (movement). As a result, the toner adhering to the flat plate 102 is released to return to and be fed by the toner carry roller. Accordingly, the toner carry amount on the toner carry roller is partially (locally) increased by the toner returning to the toner carry roller. Thus, the toner is nonuniformly carried on the surface of the toner carry roller (that is, unevenness of the toner amount occurs on the toner carry roller).
If the control voltage is applied to the control electrodes 104 to induce the toner flow when an area having a larger toner amount carried on the toner carry roller is located below the apertures 106, the toner supply becomes excessive, and the toner flow amount to the supporter side is excessively increased so that fog occurs in the image formed on the supporter. Furthermore, if the non-control voltage is applied to the control electrodes 104 when the larger toner amount area is located below the apertures 106, the force of the toner flow drives the toner to be emitted from the apertures 106. As a result, the toner adheres to a non-image portion on the supporter and high image quality cannot be obtained.
Lastly, if the toner repetitively adheres onto the surface of the flat plate in the vicinity of the control electrodes 104 of the flat plate 102 and the adhering toner repetitively returns to the toner carry roller as described above, the distance between the control electrodes 104 and the carry roller is varied so that the electric field for inducing the toner flow is not stabilized and the image quality is not stabilized.

Image forming apparatus having toner flow control which shields extended portion of control electrodes from toner carrying mechanism


When a screw 14 is driven into workpieces 61 and 62, it is possible to reduce any reaction that a driver bit 11 is raised so as to obtain fast and reliable screw driving. In the screw driving method of the present invention, the screw is advanced with a strong pressing force of 7-10 Kg during a period from disengagement step of the screw from a carrier strip 14 to driving step of the tip of the screw to the predetermined depth (the lower surface) of the workpiece 61. When the screw is screwed into the workpiece 62, the driver bit 11 is advanced with a weak pressing force of 2-3 Kg. In a screw driving apparatus of the present invention, the fitted screw is disengaged from a screw carrier strip by means of a forward stroke force of the driver bit. The tip of the screw is driven to a predetermined depth in a workpiece. During the term between the disengagement and the driving of the screw, the driver bit is advised with a strong pressing force by a primary piston 26. Then, the screw 14 is screwed into the workpiece 62 by advancing the driver bit 11 with a weak pressing force by a secondary piston 27 which passing through the center of the primary piston 26. The driver bit 11 is rotated by an air motor 31.

An apparatus for fitting the tip of a driver bit into the groove on the head of a screw, disengaging the fitted screw from a screw carrier strip by a forward stroke force of the driver bit and driving the screw into a workpiece while rotating the driving bit is publicly known as Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-171770 (JP-A-7-171770). In this screw driving apparatus, in order to solve the problem such a reaction that the driving apparatus is raised when the screw pressed against the workpiece is driven, a moving piston for advancing a driver bit is connected through a spring to the driver bit. The piston can move forward in the way that it compresses the spring even when the driver bit abuts against the workpiece to resist further advance, thereby it preventing the reaction in the direction that the apparatus tends to be raised.
Nevertheless, the above screw driving apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-171770 (JP-A-7-171770) causes additional reaction if a strong spring to meet a strong pressing force is used for high-speed pressing and high-speed driving of screws because a greater pressing force is required for screwing them in after they abut against the workpiece. On the contrary, the use of a weak spring decreases the speed of pressing screws to slow the driving operation. It is also feared that failure in disengaging screws from a screw carrier strip or in fitting of the tip of the driver bit into the groove on the screw head may arise to hinder the driving operation.

Screw driving method and screw driving apparatus

c/o Kanematsu-NNK Corporation, 2-12, Shinkiba 3-Chome


A controller for a communications system comprises an input and an output for communicating with nodes connected to the communications system. The controller is provided with a processor for determining presence of an address translator entity between a first node and a second node. The controller is further configured for generating an indication of the presence of the translator entity for sending to another node.

A communication system can be seen as a facility that enables communication sessions between two or more entities such as user equipment or other nodes associated with the communication system. The communication may comprise, for example, communication of voice, multimedia content, and other data. A session may, for example, be a telephone call type session between two users, a multi-party session, for example a conference call, or a data communication session between at least one user and a node such as an application server (AS).
A communication system typically operates in accordance with given standards and/or specifications, which set out what the various entities associated with the communication system are permitted to do and how that should be achieved. For example, a standard or specification may define if the user, or more precisely, user equipment is provided with a circuit switched service and/or a packet switched service. Communication protocols and/or parameters, which shall be used for the connection may also be defined. In other words, a specific set of rules on which the communication can be based is defined to enable communication. A communication system may provide fixed or wireless access for the user equipment. A communication system may include various entities for controlling and/or carrying communications between two or more communicating parties. Different control entities may be interconnected. One or more gateway nodes may be provided for connecting various networks, for example for connecting a public switched telephone network (PSTN), a public landline mobile network (PLMN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN) and/or other communication networks such as an IP (Internet Protocol) and/or other packet switched data networks to each other. A communications network the user is connected to is understood as providing an access system enabling a user to access other networks, hosts, or services offered by specific service providers.
In a packet data network, a packet data carrier may be established to carry traffic flows consisting of data packets over the network. Each data packet is provided with appropriate routing information, such as destination address and port information so that the various entities in the route to the destination know where the data packet shall be forwarded.
Various types of services can be provided to the users of a communications system. A type of possible services is commonly referred to as multimedia. An example of multimedia services is where multimedia content, such as images, videos, audio files or other data, may be downloaded from an application server to a user equipment. Users may also send data to other entities via a communication system. For example, a user may create something, such as take a photo or make a video, and send his creation in a digitized form, i.e. as content data to a multimedia server. The work may then be downloaded from the server by other parties interested of the same subject. Data communications for enabling communication of multimedia may be provided by an appropriate data communications system, for example an Internet Protocol Multimedia system.
A multimedia data communication system may comprise an addresses translator node, for example a network address translator (NAT). Use of an address translator results a situation where a pair of a private Internet Protocol (IP) address and a port that belongs to an internal node behind an address translator node translates to a different pair of a public IP address and a port.
In an IP multimedia session (IMS) the IP address and port used for sending and receiving a media packet is usually different than the IP address and port used to send and receive the signalling traffic. The presence of the address translator node therefore may cause certain problems for a node that is located behind the address translator node. For example, because of the intermediate address translator node such a node may not know the translation of private and public IP address and port pairs for incoming media traffic in advance, for example before it sends a media packet through the address translator node.
An element known as the media proxy may also be provided in a multimedia system. The function of a media proxy is to force the media traffic between parties, e.g. a user and an application server, to traverse through it to provide the network operator with a better control on the media traffic. The media proxy reserves a pair of public IP address and port to be used by a node for the media traffic, and maps this pair of reserved public IP address and port to the IP address and port of the node.
The presence of a media proxy may complicate the already complicated situation caused by an address translator node even further. If one of the parties is behind an address translator node, the media proxy must map the public IP address and port of the party to the reserved IP address and port. The presence of an address translator node would require the media proxy to map the translated IP address and port for media packets instead of the private IP address and port of the party to the reserved IP address and port reserved by the media proxy. However, this translated IP address and port is not available in the media proxy at the time of IP address and port reservation.
On the other hand, if no address translator node is present, the media proxy can instantly map the IP address and port of the node to the IP address and port reserved by the media proxy. In other words, the presence of an address translator node necessarily affects the behavior of a media proxy.
A problem is the lack of a proper mechanism to inform and/or control the media proxy in this regard, and it is the aim of the embodiments of the present invention to address or at least mitigate this and other problems caused by the presence of an address translator.

Address translation in a communication system


An apparatus and a method for massaging audio signal perform interpolation, dynamic filtering, and panning on the audio signal represented as a matrix of input values. In the interpolation process, the input values are loaded into first and second vector registers, while fractional coefficients are loaded into a third vector register. Next, the first vector register is subtracted from the second vector register. Additionally, in a single operation, the routine performs a vector multiply operation between the second and third registers and accumulates the result of the vector multiply operation in the second register. The results are saved and the process is repeated until all input values in the matrix have been processed. In the dynamic filtering process, after the data loading step, for each slot in said vector register, the routine performs a multiply operation between the filter coefficient and the slot of the vector register and accumulates the result of the multiply operation in the slot of the second register in a single clock cycle while it retains data of the remaining slots in the vector register in the same clock cycle. The results are saved and the process is repeated until all input values in the matrix have been processed. In the stretching process, after loading data in the appropriate vector register, the routine copies the content of each slot of the vector register into consecutive pair of slots on a second vector register and when the second vector register is full, copies the content of each of the remaining slots in the first vector register into consecutive pairs of slots on a third register. In the panning process, the routine performs a vector multiply operation between the first vector register and a coefficient vector register for each slot in the first vector register. This vector multiply operation is preferably a 32-bit vector multiply operation which is broken down into a low order extended precision multiply accumulate operation and a high order extended precision multiply accumulate operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to performing wavetable processing using a processor, and more specifically, to a method and an apparatus for performing wavetable processing using a vector processor with routable operands and independently selectable operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
The pursuit of higher performance has long been a defining feature of the computer and microprocessor industries. In many applications such as computer-aided design and graphics, higher performance is always needed to quickly translate users' commands into actions, thereby enhancing their productivity. Currently, the IBM PC computer architecture, based on Intel Corporation's X-86 family of processors, is an industry-standard architecture for personal computers. Because the IBM PC architecture is an industry standard, the architecture has attracted a broad array of software vendors who develop IBM PC compatible software. Furthermore, competition within the industry standard architecture has resulted in dramatic price performance improvements, thereby leading to a more rapid acceptance of computing technology by end users. Thus, the standardized nature of the IBM PC architecture has catapulted IBM PC compatible machines to a dominant market position.
The standardized nature of the IBM PC architecture is also a double-edged sword, for if the computer is not PC compatible, the sales potential for the computer becomes severely diminished. The reason for the limitation is that much of the existing software that runs on the PCs make explicit assumptions about the nature of the hardware. If the hardware provided by the computer manufacturer does not conform to those standards, these software programs will not be usable. Thus, PC system designers are constrained to evolutionary rather than revolutionary advances in the PC architecture in order to remain compatible with earlier IBM PC computers. However, it is desirable to take advantage of the semiconductor industry's ability to integrate large numbers of transistors per chip to satisfy the pent-up demand for more computing power in communication, multimedia and other consumer products.
The trend toward multimedia such as audio and image processing has increased the need for a processor capable of performing audio processing. Traditionally, the definition of multimedia on personal computers has meant the incorporation of a compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM) drive and a sound board with frequency modulated (FM) audio synthesis. However, such simplistic definition of multimedia is being rapidly altered by advances in IC technology. Modem consumers today demand real time multimedia, requiring compression and decompression capability for streams of video as well as sound. Additionally, the multimedia systems need to generate realistic sounds on a real-time basis.
Sound is produced by vibrations called sound waves which are transmitted over a media such as air. In their natural state, sound waves are analog, which rise and fall, changing in frequency and amplitude in smooth progressions. Normally, sound waves can be represented as a collection of sine or sinusoidal waves. The sine wave is a pure tone, such that only a single note can be heard without any undertones or overtones. When a sound wave is produced repeatedly and regularly, the sound acquires a fixed pitch, just like a musical note. However, when a sound wave is an irregular pattern, it has little or no pitch and produces an irregular sound, such as a loud bang. The frequency of a sound is determined by the number of times the wave is repeated during a given period. Furthermore, pitch is determined by frequency. As frequency rises, the pitch goes higher.
Generally, most natural sounds are much more complicated than a conventional sine wave. These complications make up the timbre, or characteristic tonal quality of the sound. Timbre is made up of several elements, including the shape of the envelope of the sound wave and the complexity of the frequency pattern within the envelope. Thus, although a sound wave is fundamentally a sine wave, the representation of real sounds can be quite complex.
A number of different technologies can be used to create sounds in music synthesizers. Two widely used techniques are frequency modulation (FM) synthesis and wavetable synthesis. FM synthesis techniques generally use one periodic signal which is derived from a modulator to modulate the frequency of another signal (the carrier). If the modulating signal is in the audible range, then the result will be a significant change in the timbre of the carrier signal. FM synthesis techniques are very useful for creating expressive new synthesized sounds. However, if the goal of the synthesis system is to recreate the sound of some existing instrument, this can be done generally more accurately with digital sample-based techniques.
Digital sampling systems store high quality sound samples digitally, and then replay these sounds on demand. To capture the analog sound waves, the computer system typically employs an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), which converts the analog audio signal into digital values suitable for processing. Digital sample based synthesis systems may employ a variety of special techniques such as sample looping, pitch shifting, mathematical interpolation, and polyphonic digital filtering, to reduce the amount of memory required to store the sound samples or to obtain more types of sounds from a given amount of memory. These sample based synthesis systems are often called wavetable synthesizers because the sample memory in these systems contains a large number of sampled sound segments and can be thought of as a "table" of sound waveforms, which may be looked up and then utilized when needed. Thus, the term wavetable synthesis is used to describe this audio generation technology.
Typically, in a wavetable synthesis system, the sample data is edited and processed before they become sample sounds suitable for use in the wavetable synthesis system. The requirements for editing the original sample data identifies and extracts the initial and looped segments, and further resamples the data if necessary to obtain a pitch period length that is an integer multiple of the sampling. When all the sample processing has been completed, the resulting sample sound sequence for the various instruments are tabulated to form the sample memory for the synthesizer.
To maximize memory utilization, one primary technique used in wavetable synthesizers to conserve sample memory space is the looping of sample sound segments. For a large number of instrument sounds, the sound can be modeled as consisting of two major section: an attack section and a sustain section. The attack section is the initial part of the sound, where the amplitude and the spectral characteristics of the sound may be changing very rapidly. The sustain section of the sound follows the attack section, with the characteristics of the sound changing less dynamically. Consequently, a great deal of memory can be save in a wavetable synthesis system by storing only a short segment of the sustain section of the waveform, and then looping the segment during playback.
Although the sample memory could simply be indexed to using a sample memory address pointer which is incremented using an integer number of samples, this setup allows only a limited set of pitch shifts. To provide a greater range of pitch shifts, the memory pointer is provided with an integer part and a fractional part such that the increment value could be a fractional number of samples. The integer part of the address pointer is used to address the sample memory while the fractional part is used to maintain the frequency accuracy. In such an arrangement, when non-integer increment values are utilized, the frequency resolution for playback is determined by the number of bits used to represent the fractional part of the address pointer and the address increment parameter.
When the fractional part of the address pointer is non-zero, then the desired value falls between available data samples. A number of interpolation approaches can be used. The solution might be as simple as ignoring the fractional part of the address. However, such solution limits the pitch range of the synthesizer. A slightly better approach would be to use the nearest available sample value. The more sophisticated system performs interpolation between available data points in order to obtain a value to be used during playback. These systems interpolate between two points A and B, with fractional value X, using the equation: EQU Vx=A+X(B-A)
As can be seen, each interpolation requires an addition operation, a multiply operation and a subtract operation, not counting the data load operations which can add as many as three operations to the total computational complexity.
In addition to the interpolation, an envelope generator function is provided to create an envelope appropriate for the particular instrument. The envelope generator controls the shape-the rate of the attack, decays, sustain, and release. For many acoustic instruments, the character of the tone which is produced changes as a function of the amplitude level at which the instrument is played. Hence, velocity splits which utilize different sample segments for different note velocities can be implemented to simulate this phenomena. Alternatively, a digital low pass filter for each note with a cutoff frequency which varies as a function of the note velocity can be implemented to dynamically adjust the output frequency spectrum of the synthesized sound as a function of the note velocity. This solution allows a very effective recreation of the acoustic instrument timbre. Filtering operation can also be used to help eliminate noise which generated during the pitch shifting process.
One barrier to providing high fidelity multimedia audio is the available processing power of the computer. High fidelity audio boards such as Sound Blaster Pro boards can sample at rates as high as 44,000 times a second. Even at more typical sampling rates of 16,000 times a second, a stereo sampler can capture as much as 32,000 16-bit samples in a second. The interpolation of each sample requires an addition, a subtraction, a multiplication, and three load operations and thus can add about 200,000 extra operations per second for each sample point to the processing load. This rather significant processing load is incremental to existing load on the processor. Additionally, this increases with multiple instruments, or voices. Twenty-four instruments is common, thus requiring 32,000.times.24 samples/second. Further, the interpolation process requires 32-bit multiply operations to preserve the fidelity of the interpolated sound. Additionally, since sound has to be generated continuously, sufficient reserve processing capacity is needed in order to manipulate or process sound in real-time.
Not surprisingly, the ability to generate quality sound once required special purpose digital signal processing (DSP) devices so that the processor could focus on solving problems on the desktop. However, as such DSP-based solutions add cost, the availability of quality multimedia audio sound has not been a standard part of today's desktop environment.
Due to cost and compatibility reasons, it is an undesirable to add a digital signal processor or a custom processor to the personal computer to perform wavetable processing. Thus, a fast and efficient apparatus and method for performing wavetable processing on a general purpose processor is desired for many applications. Furthermore, it is desirable to accelerate the speed of performing various wavetable processing operations without adversely affecting the compatibility of the personal computer with the installed software base.

Enhanced wavetable processing technique on a vector processor having operand routing and slot selectable operations


A vehicle approach informing device includes: an informing sound output unit to output informing sound for informing to a pedestrian outside a vehicle that the vehicle is approaching when a predetermined condition is satisfied; a sound volume control unit to control the volume of the informing sound outputted by the informing sound output unit; and a shield detection unit to detect a shield present on any side ahead in a running direction of the vehicle. When a shield is detected by the shield detection unit, the sound volume control unit reduces the volume of the informing sound which is outputted by the informing sound output unit.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vehicle approach informing device configured to inform pedestrians and the like outside a vehicle that the vehicle is approaching.
2. Related Art
Conventional vehicles are primarily a gasoline powered vehicle which runs using an engine as a drive source, and so a pedestrian can identify the presence of a vehicle by the engine sound generated by the vehicle when the vehicle is approaching from the rear or a blind spot of the pedestrian. However, no engine sound is generated by a vehicle such as an electric vehicle and a hybrid vehicle which run using an electric motor as a drive source, and it is difficult for a pedestrian to recognize whether the vehicle is approaching, by the sound of the vehicle.
Thus, vehicles equipped with an informing device have been proposed, the informing device being configured to output sound for informing people outside the vehicle such as pedestrians that the vehicle is approaching. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-40318 discloses a vehicle approach informing device configured to output simulated sound of tire noise from a speaker provided at the front end of a vehicle when the vehicle is running at a speed lower than or equal to a predetermined vehicle speed, the simulated sound having the same tone as that of the actual tire noise.
However, in an area such as a residential area or a tunnel where a shield such as a wall is installed. on each side of a road, sound reverberates through the shield and tends to be amplified. When informing sound for informing vehicle approach. is outputted in such an area, the informing sound reverberates and is amplified. The amplified informing sound may not only give discomfort to a driver, but also become annoying noise to the surroundings.


A system for sensing the position of a movable object includes a polarization maintaining fiber configured to receive light from a light source; an optical system configured to rotate an angle of polarization of the light by a first predetermined angle; a low birefringence fiber connected to the optical system at a first end and having a mirror connected to a second end configured to reflect the light and rotate the angle of polarization at a second predetermined angle, the second end being configured to overlap a magnetic field of the a magnet attached to the object. The angle of polarization is rotated to a third predetermined angle proportional to at least one of the strength of the magnetic field and an amount of the overlap. The optical system is configured to decompose the third predetermined angle into a first component and a second component. A detector is configured to detect a differential between the first and second components indicative of the amount of the overlap.

The present technology generally relates to the use of fiber optics to measure position. More particularly, the present technology relates to magneto-optic position detection in aviation environments.
Conventional methods of measuring position include linear variable differential transformers (LVDT), laser vibrometers, optical gap sensors, Hall-effect sensors, etc. Some of these techniques are mature but cannot be used in some harsh environments such as experienced by aviation controls. Other techniques such as the LVDT are currently used in measuring position, but have a certain space and weight limit associated with them. Current position measurement systems that rely on linearly variable differential transformers are relatively bulky and require heavy shielded wiring from the measurement point to the full authority digital engine control (FADEC). The number of sense points on an engine may number in the hundreds. The relative size and weight of these sensors and their wiring becomes a significant issue. Hall-effect sensors are currently being looked at as potential replacement for LVDT based sensors, however they are still in the development/test phase.
Although there have been several approaches to magneto-optic position sensing, most of them are limited in range as they use the magnitude of magnetic field as a mechanism. As magnetic field decays rapidly away from magnet, this approach has a limited range. One approach uses a magnetic encoder plate but it is limited by the complexity of multiple fibers. Another approach uses multiple magnets to create a relatively large length over which the magnitude of the magnetic field remains relatively constant.


A method of treating cancer including administering to a subject in need thereof an effective amount of a compound of the formula 1:

Cancer is the leading or second most common cause of death in advanced countries. Despite continuing advances in both diagnosis and treatment regimens, most existing treatment methods have undesirable side effects and limited efficacy in treating and curing the cancerous diseases of solid tumors. Treatment of cancer is complicated by the variety and number of mechanisms involved in the formation and metastasis of tumors, many of which are still not well understood. Chemotherapy is, however, still one of the major options available for the first-line treatment in cancers such as leukemias and second-line treatment for refractory solid tumors. The mechanism of action of some effective anticancer agents remains unclear. Most of the currently used anticancer agents are small molecule chemicals and need to be administered into patients via a parenteral infusion or bolus injection. Clinical complications with the parenteral administrations have been documented and thus extra cares and cost for hospitalization are essential. Recent efforts in the discovery of anticancer drugs have been focused on finding orally active anticancer agents.
Angiogenesis refers to the generation of new blood vessels into a tissue or organ. Under normal physiological conditions, humans or animals only undergo angiogenesis in very specific restricted situations. For example, angiogenesis is normally observed in wound healing, fetal and embryonal development and formation of the corpus luteum, endometrium and placenta. The control of angiogenesis is a highly regulated system of angiogenic stimulators and inhibitors. The control of angiogenesis has been found to be altered in certain disease states and, in many cases, the pathological damage associated with the disease is related to uncontrolled angiogenesis. Thus, methods and compositions are needed that are capable of inhibiting angiogenesis and which are easily administered. A simple and efficacious method of treatment would be through the oral route, which could be distributed in a form that the patient could self-administer.
The invention presents heterocyclic compounds that exhibit cytotoxic and anticancer activity and that inhibit angiogenesis.

Use of 1H-indol-3-yl-2-oxoacetamide compounds

Abstract: wherein R1, R2, R3, R4, and n are as defined herein.


Novel nano-sized rare earth metal oxide prepared from aqueous reverse micelles is provided. The engineered nanoparticles have large surface area to volume ratios, and sufficient oxygen vacancies on the surface of each particle, so that when mixed with carbon-containing combustible fuels, the particles remain suspended indefinitely; there is a significant reduction in soot and other by-products of combustion, an increase in engine efficiency and less fuel consumed per mile traveled in various vehicles, such as, but not limited to, automobiles, defense vehicles, airplanes, ships and other surface or air-bearing vehicles.

Partial or incomplete combustion of hydrocarbon fuels results in atmospheric pollutants, such as soot, as well as carbon monoxide, and other gases considered toxic and mutagenic, such as the nitrogen oxides. The carbon-containing fuels form soot during the combustion process and are released as emissions, which are harmful to the environment and the health and safety of living beings.
A wide variety of approaches have focused on reducing the emission of such condensed particles, hereinafter designated as "soot," whether carbon-based or other type of condensed material. One approach has been to develop a comprehensive emission control system involving the combustion and fuel injection process, the fuel composition, and the overall control strategy for the combined operation of the engine that inhibits the formation of unacceptable emission products. Another approach has been to develop devices, such as catalytic converters, particulate traps, filters and systems that treat exhaust products after their formation. Thus, the challenge is viewed as preventing the formation of soot or collecting and destroying soot after it has formed.
With regard to the use of additives or materials, including rare earth metal oxides and particularly ceria (cerium oxide), in emission control systems, U.S. Pat. No. 6,093,223 to Lemaire et al. discloses burning a combustible material or fuel after the addition of a concentrated solution of cerium compounds in ranges of from 50 to 150 parts per million (ppm) to reduce the formation of soot, or alternatively, producing aggregates of ceric oxide by burning a hydrocarbon fuel in the presence of a seed amount of ceric oxide crystallites.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,680,279 B2 to Cai et al. discloses a method of dispersing nanosized catalyst particles on the surface of larger catalyst carrier particles, which include cerium oxide mixed with alumina to increase oxygen storage capacity, for automotive exhaust gas treatment or for a fuel cell reformer. U.S. Pat. No. 6,660,683 B1 to Yaluris et al. describes a particulate composition comprising acidic metal oxide, alkaline earth metal, an oxygen storage component, such as cerium oxide, and a noble metal component for the reduction of nitrous oxides in refinery processes. U.S. Pat. No. 6,588,204 B2 to Hirota et al. describes a particulate filter in an exhaust system wherein a noble metal catalyst and an active oxygen-releasing agent (such as ceria) are used to oxidize and remove the particulates trapped in the filter. There is also a method for treating the atmosphere to remove pollutants as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,616,903 B2 to Poles et al. Poles et al. equips billboards, solar panels or similar outdoor devices with catalysts on ceria support to convert pollutants to non-objectionable materials or adsorption compositions to collect pollutants for later destruction.
However, the above-mentioned references use ceria crystallites, aggregates, particles and nanoparticles of a different size and oxygen storage capability than the ceria nanoparticles of the present invention. The ceria nanoparticles disclosed herein have been engineered for use in a liquid, gaseous or solid fuel and prevent the formation of soot or other objectionable pollutants during combustion.
Governmental concern for the harmful effects of soot on the environment, including the health and safety of all life forms, leads to worldwide regulations enacted to reduce both particulate matter (soot) and nitrogen oxides. In the United States alone, there are regulatory measures mandating a 98.3% reduction in 1990 allowable levels for particulate emissions from on-road vehicles by the year 2007. Smog and particulate matter account for 15,000 premature deaths and 400,000 asthma attacks annually in the US.
There is a need to identify the best technology to address emissions reduction, engine efficiency and fuel consumption issues. None of the prior art methods, processes, and devices is deemed satisfactory. Prior methods have difficulty when combining the emissions-reducing additive with the fuel due to incompatibility and settling issues.

Use of oxide nanoparticles in soot reduction

Research Foundation of the University of Central Florida, Inc.


A method is used to restore the security of a secure assembly such as a chip card, after the contents of its second memory zone have been read by a third party. The method is for generating a security key implemented by a secure module comprising a central unit, a first conditional access memory zone and at least one second memory zone containing all or part of the user program. The method includes reading of all or part of the second memory zone, and generation of at least one root key based on all or part of the second zone data and on at least one item of secret information stored in the first memory zone.

Units are used in operations implementing cryptographic systems and are given in monolithic form. They are either produced on the same silicon chip or they are assembled on a support and embedded in a resin or protected by a sheet covering the different elements and acting as a fuse in the case of an attempted intrusion.
These security processors have a first memory zone called a bootstrap that is executed during the activation of the processor or at each resetting to zero. This memory is of the ROM type, namely that it is Read Only Memory.
During the execution of the start-up program, this program verifies the second memory zone that is of the rewritable type, usually of the EEPROM, NVRAM or Flash type. This verification is important as it serves to ensure that the data in this second zone is valid, namely that it is definitely a program (at least in part). This verification can be carried out in various ways such as the calculation of an imprint (CRC, Hash) and the comparison of this imprint with a value stored in the same zone.
Once the master program that has been initially started completes its verification, it connects with the second zone and begins the execution of the user program at a conventional address.
The particularity of this type of processor is that at the time of the execution of the program in the second zone, it does not have free access to the memory of the first zone. This access is either definitively prohibited or is subject to a verification mechanism (password for example).
This offers important security because the verification means, as well as the start-up data, are not accessible to the user program. All the data contained in the first zone is thus protected from any intrusion.
It is possible that this first bootstrap zone, in addition to having a part in read-only memory (ROM), includes a rewritable part of memory that is subjected to the same security conditions.
When the first zone is of a very limited size, the execution of the verification program can be carried out from the second zone. The latter is divided into a verification part and a user part.
Therefore, the verification of the user program is carried out on the basis of the data of the first zone. Namely, it is carried out on the basis of a first key that is generally stored in the first zone and which allows the verification of the data imprint of the second zone.
The second zone contains data constituting the program and a signature that is encrypted by this first key.
The verification program that can either be in the first zone, or in a verification part of the second zone, calculates a unique imprint (Hash, CRC) on the data to be verified.
To verify that the data is correctly validated, the second zone contains the imprint encrypted by a key that is initially stored in the first zone. This key is used to decrypt the encrypted imprint and the result obtained is compared with the calculated imprint.
This key can be in the first zone either in a definitive form (ROM) or in the programmed form (EEPROM or Flash for example). In this second case, programming is carried out in a machine or in an authorized centre for example. The program of the first zone accepts this program as long as no other key is already found in this memory location.
This key can be of the symmetrical type and thus secret or it can be of the asymmetrical type. In this second variant, this key can be found in a memory zone other than the first zone because even if a third party discovered this key, the third party would not be able to identify a modified data set because he must have the corresponding private key to identify the data. Obviously, this key is not issued from the management centre that is responsible for preparing the updating of the data.
The data of the second memory zone can represent either one or several programs, either important data such as rights or decryption keys, or a combination of both.
One of the known types of attacks used to discover the contents of the second zone is to search a security defect such as a memory overflow that allows control to be taken of the processor. Once control has successfully been taken, a third party transfers the contents of the second zone towards the exterior and is able to analyse the security mechanism and the keys used.
Using the knowledge of the contents of the second memory zone, the third party has the keys serving to manage the different rights and access to services that control this processor.
Therefore, if a change of keys takes place, managed by the management centre, this change command will be encrypted by a key present in the second memory zone. The third party, who has knowledge of this key, can decrypt this message and also update the contents of this new key.
Therefore, it is apparent that while a secure mechanism has been used to verify the contents of the program zone (second zone), once security has been violated, none of the changes initiated by the management centre have an effect on security because the changing means (new transmission key for example) use keys that the third party already has in his possession. He can thus decipher the updating message and also change its transmission key. The breach cannot be stopped even if the security breach has been corrected in the application.

Generating a root key for decryption of a transmission key allowing secure communications