Provided are methods for surface-modifying a rubber vulcanizate and surface-modified elastic bodies, which can cost-effectively provide a variety of functions, including sliding properties, liquid leakage resistance, and protein adsorption resistance. Included is a method for surface-modifying a rubber vulcanizate as a modification target, the method including: step 1 of forming polymerization initiation points A on the surface of the modification target; step 2 of radically polymerizing a monomer starting from the polymerization initiation points A to grow polymer chains; and step 3 of adding a silane compound to the surfaces of the polymer chains, followed by reaction with at least a fluoroalkyl group-containing silane compound to form modified polymer chains.

In view of the importance of sealing properties (liquid leakage resistance), elastic bodies such as rubber are used in parts which slide while maintaining a seal, e.g., a gasket which is integrated with a plunger of a syringe to form a seal between the plunger and the barrel. Unfortunately, such elastic bodies have a slight problem with sliding properties (see Patent Literature 1). To address this problem, a sliding property-improving agent, for example silicone oil, may be applied to the sliding surface; however, a concern has been raised over the potential adverse effects of silicone oil on recently marketed bio-preparations. On the other hand, gaskets not coated with a sliding property-improving agent have inferior sliding properties and therefore do not allow plungers to be smoothly pushed but cause them to pulsate during administration. This can result in problems such as inaccurate injection amounts and infliction of pain on patients.
To satisfy the conflicting requirements, i.e. sealing properties and sliding properties, a method of coating surfaces with a self-lubricating PTFE film has been proposed (see Patent Literature 2). Unfortunately, such PTFE films are generally expensive and thus will increase the production cost of processed products, limiting the range of application of the method. Moreover, products coated with PTFE films might be unreliable when they are used in applications where sliding or similar movement is repeated and durability is therefore required. Still another problem is that since PTFE is vulnerable to radiation, PTFE-coated products cannot be sterilized by radiation.
Consideration may also be given to the use in other applications where sliding properties are required in the presence of water. Specifically, water can be delivered without a loss by reducing the fluid resistance of the inner surface of a pre-filled syringe or of the inner surface of a pipe or tube for delivering water, or by increasing or markedly reducing the contact angle with water thereof. Reducing the surface resistance of the internal/external surface of a catheter tube may facilitate insertion of the catheter into the body or introduction of a guide wire through the catheter. Increasing the contact angle with water of the surface of a medical device may reduce adhesion of specific cells (blood cells) and proteins in blood or body fluid. Drainage of water on wet roads or of snow on snowy roads can be improved by reducing the fluid resistance of the groove surfaces of tires, or by increasing or markedly reducing the contact angle with water thereof. This can result in improved grip performance and hydroplaning performance and thus better safety. In addition, less adhesion of dirt and dust can be expected when the sliding resistance of the sidewall surfaces of tires or the walls of buildings is reduced, or when the contact angle with water thereof is increased.
Further advantageous effects can be expected, including, for example: less pressure loss upon delivering liquid such as water or an aqueous solution through a diaphragm such as a diaphragm pump or valve; easy sliding of skis and snowboards achieved by enhancing the sliding properties of the sliding surfaces thereof; better noticeability of road signs and signboards achieved by enhancing the sliding properties thereof to allow snow to readily slide on the surface; reduction in water resistance or drag on the outer peripheries of ships and less adhesion of bacteria to these outer peripheries achieved by reducing the sliding resistance of the outer peripheries or by increasing the contact angle with water thereof; and reduction in water resistance or drag of swimsuits achieved by improving the sliding properties of the thread surfaces thereof.

Surface modification method and surface-modified elastic body


A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes providing a semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor substrate includes a dummy gate structure formed thereon and an offset spacer formed on a sidewall of the dummy gate structure. The method further includes removing the dummy gate structure to form a gate trench, forming a high-k dielectric layer on the bottom and the sidewall of the gate trench, and forming a cover layer over the high-k dielectric layer. The cover layer has a thickness that is greater at the corners of the bottom of the gate trench than in the middle region of the bottom of the gate trench.

The present invention relates to semiconductor technologies, and more particularly to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device.
In the next generation manufacturing processes of integrated circuits, high-k (HK) dielectrics are usually used in the fabrication of gate structures in metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices. Whether in a HK-first or a HK-last scheme, aluminum diffusion is always a problem affecting a device's reliability and performance parameters, such as time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB), negative bias temperature instability (NBTI), positive bias temperature instability (PBTI), and the like. Aluminum diffusion may also degrade carrier mobility, which in turn affects a device's performance.
The inventors have observed that there are two paths for aluminum diffusion. One of them is through the middle region of a gate trench; and the other is through the sidewall of a gate trench. Currently, the negative work function (NWF) metal layer is formed by physical vapor deposition (PVD) of TiAl. Such NWF layer has a strong tensile stress. After deposition and the following thermal treatment, the NWF metal layer at the bottom of the gate trench has a "bow" shape. That is, the TiAl layer is thicker in the middle of the bottom of the gate trench than near the sidewall of the gate trench, as illustrated in FIG. 1. As a result, aluminum is more likely to diffuse downward through the sidewall than through the middle region of the bottom of the gate trench.
Therefore, there is a need for a better manufacturing method.

Method and device for high k metal gate transistors

Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Shanghai) Corporation


The invention is based in particular on the following concept: to gradually increase the power (power ramping) that is used to send a preamble, said power being limited by at least one extreme value, in such a way that the transmission is repeated with a power that corresponds to the extreme value.

The present invention relates to a method and a system for initiating a communication, particularly a communication link. Specifically, the present invention relates to the initiating of closed-loop power control and to a method and a system for controlling power.
In mobile communication systems, it is known to start the initiation of a communication by sending an initiation signal from a mobile station such as, for example, a mobile telephone (also called user equipment (UE)) to a base station (also called node B). The initiation signal can be a so-called RACH (random access channel) message or a preamble; i.e., a specific message preceding a possible RACH message.
A particularly important element of CDMA (code division multiple access) systems such as, for example, the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) is formed by the closed-loop power control. The closed-loop power control method used for the transmission of data here cannot be used for the initiating RACH transmission since it cannot be performed before the transmission begins. For this reason, a so-called open-loop power control method is used for the initiating RACH transmission. Since it is not possible with this method to determine the ideal uplink power (power of a signal which is sent from the mobile station to the base station and arrives at the base station with the power required for reception) with high accuracy, a so-called power ramping method is additionally used in which RACH messages are repeatedly transmitted by the mobile station with increasing power. If the power of the transmitted RACH message is too low, the message is not received by the base station and no acknowledgement message is transmitted from the base station to the mobile station and the transmission of the RACH message from the mobile station to the base station is repeated with higher power. When the power of the RACH message is high enough, the message is received by the base station and an acknowledgement message is transmitted from the base station to the mobile station. Instead of a complete RACH message, it is also possible to send only a shortened signal, a so-called preamble.
Such a method is known, for example, from EP 0917304 A2. In this method, the transmission of an initiating signal is repeated with increasing power, starting from a determined initial power, until either an acknowledgement message is received or the number of repetitions exceeds a threshold value. When an acknowledgement message is received, the transmission of data is continued. If the number of repetitions exceeds a threshold value, the method is begun again with the transmission of an initiating signal with an initial power.
A method of this type which has been developed further is known from "ETSI TS 125.214, V3.4.0-DRAFT (2000-09), UMTS, Physical layer procedures (FDD), (Release 1999)". In this case, the so-called random access procedure is described, in particular in Chapter 6.1, which procedure generally describes the initiation of the communication and, in particular in steps 4 to 7 and 9 to 10, describes the initiation of the closed-loop power control. The initiating message which is sent from the mobile station to the base station is called a preamble in this case. In the text which follows, this method will be explained briefly and, for the purpose of simplification, the steps which are not required for understanding the closed-loop power control method will not be mentioned; in particular, the allocation of various time slots or channels to various mobile stations will not be discussed in greater detail.
In step 4 of the method described in 6.1, a counter for counting the retransmissions of the preamble is set to the value Preamble Retrans Max.
In step 5, the power for the transmission of the preamble is set to the value Preamble Initial Power.
In step 6, a preamble with the "preamble transmission power" power is sent in an access time slot from the mobile station to the base station.
If, in step 7, the mobile station does not detect any acknowledgement message (neither a positive acknowledgement message ("positive acquisition indicator") nor a negative acknowledgement message ("negative acquisition indicator")), the power for transmitting the preamble is increased by ΔP0=Power Ramp Step [dB] in step 7.3.
In step 7.4, the counter for counting the retransmissions of the preamble is reduced by one.
If, in step 7.5, the counter for counting the retransmissions of the preamble is >0, the method continues at step 6 and, if not, it is found that no acknowledgement message has been received and the procedure is exited.
If a negative acknowledgement message is received, the procedure is exited in step 8.
In step 9, a random access message is transmitted to the base station in the case where a positive acknowledgement message ("positive acquisition indicator") has been received.
In step 10 it is found that the random access message has been transmitted.
In practice, however, the power with which a mobile station is allowed to transmit within a mobile radio system is limited by a maximum power and, when this is exceeded, it can lead to an impairment in the quality of transmission; for example, due to deteriorated phase accuracy or modulation accuracy. In addition, the power can be limited differently from cell to cell in order to reduce interference. Furthermore, the maximum power of a mobile station can be limited by rules of regulation or by a standard to be applied. In addition, mobile stations are not capable of transmitting at an arbitrarily low power. For this reason, minimum powers with which a mobile station must be able to transmit are defined in mobile radio standards.
The present invention is thus directed to a method and a system for initiating a communication, particularly a method and a system for controlling power via which the restrictions with regard to the transmitting power of mobile stations, given in practice, are taken into account in such a manner that, compared with the prior art, less energy is consumed and less interference is caused in the mobile radio system.

Method and system for initiating a communication


A DAC (1) has a switched element capacitor (7, Cr) to which charge is delivered via switches (6, S1/S2) depending on required analog voltage level (Vref1, Vref2). An output switch (S3) is closed and a ground switch (S4) is opened to deliver charge to the output according to received bi-level digital inputs (+1, −1). The control block (2) has a memory and determines an inactive output level if there is an input digital transition from +1 to −1 or from −1 to +1. For the inactive level S3 is kept open and S4 is kept closed. Thus, for every clock cycle with one of these transitions there is no charge transfer and hence no thermal noise. Overall noise is therefore considerably reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a digital to analog converter (DAC).
2. Prior Art Discussion
Many known DACs use a capacitor as the switched element, and output a unit of charge which directly corresponds to the input signal. Consequently an N-level DAC has N input levels and N output levels, where there is a direct correspondence between each input level and an associated output level. In the single bit case, where N=2, the input levels are typically 1,−1 which correspond to a positive or negative unit charge being delivered to the output terminal of the DAC respectively. For such DACs the output noise is independent of the input/output level, i.e. each output level results in the same noise. Noise is represented as follows:
                                          I            eq            2                    =                      2                                                                                kTCfs              2                                                                  f                B                            /                              (                                                      f                    S                                    /                  2                                )                                                                                =                      4                                                                                kTCf              S                                                  f              B                                                (                  or                                                            V          eq          2                    =              kT        /        C              )  where K is Boltzmann's constant, T is the absolute temperature, C is the capacitance which is being switched, fs is the modulator sampling frequency and fB is the bandwidth of interest.
Thus, where there is a small output level the noise can be proportionately large.
A tri-level DAC is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,274,375, where N=3, there are three input levels 1,0,+1 and three associated output levels which have a direct relationship with a corresponding input level. Similar to the bi-level DAC described above, a positive or negative signal is delivered to the output terminal of the DAC, when the input is either 1 or −1. However, when a zero input signal is present a "do nothing" state is created whereby zero charge is delivered at the output terminal of the DAC, with zero added noise. Thus, because there is no noise introduced at each zero level overall noise is reduced. However, achievement of this requires provision of a "do nothing" instruction at the input.
Another DAC type exists in which there are two input levels and three output levels, such that only the average input signal is delivered to the output terminal in a given clock cycle. In this case, in the third level zero signal is delivered to the output terminal of the DAC when the input changes from one clock cycle to the next. However, noise is still delivered to the output, even in the presence of no output signal. This is achieved by the switched control block of the switched element. The references are: D. Senderowicz, G. Nicollini, S. Pernici, A. Nagari, P. Confalonieri, and C. Dallavalle, "Low-Voltage Double-Sampled Sigma Delta Converters" IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits, vol. 32, no. 12, pp. 1907–1919, December 1997, and H. K. Yang and E. I. El-Masry, "Double Sampling Delta-Sigma Modulators", Circuits and Systems II: Analog and Digital Signal Processing, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 43, no. 7, pp. 524–529, July 1996. This DAC ("bilinear DAC") differs from the tri-level DAC in that the "zero level" or "do nothing state" is not directly accessible at the input of the DAC. The output state results from a non-static input signal, such that the average charge outputted is zero. The DAC continues to output noise, even when a zero signal is outputted.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,750 describes a Sigma Delta DAC which detects a zero input signal, and reduces the noise within the Sigma Delta modulator for this input level.
The invention is therefore directed towards reducing the output noise of a DAC.

Digital to analog converter with reduced output noise

University College Cork - National University of Ireland


A method includes: forming a virtual tile cluster having tiles, wherein a tile comprises a processor and memory from a CPU device and a GPU device, and a tile in the GPU device further comprises subprocessors; forming a virtual unified memory that is accessible by the CPU and GPU devices; receiving a task; assigning the task to a tile of the virtual tile cluster according to a pre-defined rule. When the task is assigned to a tile in the GPU device, the method further performs: broadcasting the task to the subprocessors of a tile using a GPU shuffle instruction; and dividing data for the task and assigning the divided data to the subprocessors, wherein each subprocessor runs a codelet using the each of divided data. The task is executed by the at least one tile of the virtual tile cluster.

GPU devices are optimized for computational throughput as opposed to response time (i.e., latency). Conventional design choices in the architecture and associated software of GPUs are oriented towards high sustained throughput of arithmetic operations. In particular, GPUs have relatively small and simple caches and software-managed scratchpad memories which maximize chip real-estate for large numbers of arithmetic logic units (ALUs) for the parallel processing of massive data sets. However, the current bulk-synchronous programming model of GPUs limits their applicability to host a flexible application that requires a certain level of task scheduling. Known GPU scheduling policies are defined in hardware and do not allow manual algorithm placement on GPU multi-processors. For example, running an application that requires multi-processor synchronization, such as producer-consumer pattern, on the same multi-processors may lead to a deadlock. In conventional systems it is also difficult to provide an environment for processing tasks where similar tasks could be co-scheduled on the same multi-processor to get benefit from the locality, such as utilizing the local GPU cache better.
The Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) framework from NVIDIA CORP provides an ability to launch cooperative thread grids on a GPU which can be synchronized through a global barrier on the GPU itself (without having to synchronize with a barrier on the CPU). This feature allows the user to schedule a pipeline of kernels (i.e., GPU programs) to the GPU. However, the off-the-shelf GPU scheduler still schedules thread blocks in an undefined way across the entire GPU device which prevents manual placement of thread blocks on GPU multi-processors. This limitation may underutilize the GPU resources.

Accelerating dataflow signal processing applications across heterogeneous CPU/GPU systems


A method of fabricating a Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) Thin Film Transistor (TFT) using a reduced number of masks includes: forming a buffer layer on the entire surface of a substrate; forming polysilicon and photoresist layers on the entire surface of the substrate having the buffer layer; exposing and developing the photoresist layer to form a first photoresist pattern having a first thickness in a region where a semiconductor layer of a first TFT is to be formed, a second thickness in a region where a channel and a Lightly Doped Drain (LDD) region of a second TFT are to be formed, and a third thickness in a region where source and drain regions of the second TFT are to be formed; etching the polysilicon layer using the first photoresist pattern as a mask to pattern the semiconductor layers of the first and second TFTs; performing a first ashing process on the first photoresist pattern to form a second photoresist pattern where the region having the third thickness has been removed from the first photoresist pattern; implanting a first impurity into the source and drain regions of the second TFT using the second photoresist pattern as a mask; performing a second ashing process on the second photoresist pattern to form a third photoresist pattern where the region having the second thickness has been removed from the first photoresist pattern; and implanting a second impurity into the second TFT using the third photoresist pattern as a mask to perform channel doping on the second TFT.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of fabricating a Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) Thin Film Transistor (TFT), and more particularly, the present invention relates to a method of fabricating a CMOS TFT using a reduced number of masks.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) Thin Film Transistor (TFT) includes both a P-channel Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (PMOS) Thin Film Transistor (TFT) and an N-channel Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (NMOS) Thin Film Transistor (TFT). Therefore, the CMOS TFT is capable of implementing various circuits and systems that are difficult to be implemented using only PMOS TFTs or NMOS TFTs.
Since the CMOS TFT has a PMOS TFT together with an NMOS TFT, it is necessary for the PMOS TFT to have different channel characteristics than the NMOS TFT, i.e., a threshold voltage of the PMOS TFT has to be different from that of the NMOS TFT.
Therefore, in one method of fabricating a CMOS TFT, a predetermined dosage of impurities are implanted into a semiconductor layer of a PMOS TFT or an NMOS TFT to thereby perform channel doping on the PMOS TFT or the NMOS TFT. As a result, a threshold voltage of the PMOS TFT (or the NMOS TFT) is different from that of the NMOS TFT (or the PMOS TFT).
A method of fabricating a CMOS TFT, in which channel doping is performed only on a semiconductor layer of a PMOS TFT is described below with reference to FIGS. 1A to 1G.
Referring to FIG. 1A, in the method of fabricating a CMOS TFT, a buffer layer 10 and a polysilicon layer are formed on the entire surface of a substrate 1, and the polysilicon layer is patterned using a first mask process to thereby form a semiconductor layer 14 of a PMOS TFT and a semiconductor layer 24 of an NMOS TFT. Then, a gate insulating layer 12 is formed on the entire surface of the substrate 1 where the semiconductor layer 14 of the PMOS TFT and the semiconductor layer 24 of the NMOS TFT are formed.
Referring to FIG. 1B, in the method of fabricating a CMOS TFT, a photoresist pattern 50 covering the semiconductor layer 24 of the NMOS TFT is formed on the substrate 1 where the gate insulating layer 12 is formed by a photolithography process employing a second mask process. Then, a small quantity of impurities, such as phosphorus (P), boron (B), etc. are implanted into the semiconductor layer 14 of the PMOS TFT to form a channel-doped semiconductor layer 14b.
Referring to FIG. 1C, in the method of fabricating a CMOS TFT, a photoresist pattern 60 covering the entire region of the channel-doped semiconductor layer 14b of the PMOS TFT and covering the entire region of the NMOS TFT except for regions where a source region and a drain region are formed is formed on the substrate 1 where the channel-doped semiconductor layer 14b of the PMOS TFT is formed by a photolithography process employing a third mask. Then, N+ type impurities, such as phosphorus (P), arsenic (As), antimony (Sb), bismuth (Bi), etc. are implanted into the regions where the exposed source and drain regions of the NMOS TFT will be formed using the photoresist pattern 60 as a mask to thereby form source and drain regions 24a and 24c of the NMOS TFT. Afterwards, the photoresist pattern 60 is removed by a stripping process.
Referring to FIG. 1D, in the method of fabricating a CMOS TFT, a gate electrode 13 of the PMOS TFT overlapping a region where the channel-doped channel of the PMOS TFT will be formed, and a gate electrode 23 of the NMOS TFT overlapping a region where a channel of the NMOS TFT will be formed are formed on the substrate 1 where the source and drain regions 24a and 24c of the NMOS TFT are formed using a fourth mask process. The gate electrode 23 of the NMOS TFT is formed to have a narrower width than that of the photoresist pattern 60 for forming the source and drain regions 24a and 24c of the NMOS TFT. Impurities are then implanted into the exposed semiconductor layer 14b of the PMOS TFT and the exposed semiconductor layer 24 of the NMOS TFT using the gate electrode 13 of the PMOS TFT and the gate electrode 23 of the NMOS TFT as masks to thereby define the channel-doped channel 14b of the PMOS TFT overlapping the gate electrode 13 of the PMOS TFT and the channel 24b of the NMOS TFT overlapping the gate electrode 23 of the NMOS TFT. Afterwards, Lightly Doped Drain (LDD) regions 24d of the NMOS TFT are formed between the channel 24b of the NMOS TFT and the source and drain regions 24a and 24c of the NMOS TFT.
Referring to FIG. 1E, in the method of fabricating a CMOS TFT, a photoresist pattern 70 covering the entire regions of the semiconductor layers 24a to 24d of the NMOS TFT and covering the entire region of the PMOS TFT except for regions where a source region and a drain region will be formed is formed on the substrate 1 where the LDD regions 24b of the NMOS TFT are formed using a photolithography process employing a fifth mask. Then, P+ type impurities, such as boron (B), aluminum (Al), gallium (Ga), indium (In), etc. are implanted into the regions where the exposed source and drain regions of the PMOS TFT will be formed using the photoresist pattern 70 as a mask to thereby form the source and drain regions 14a and 14c of the PMOS TFT. Afterwards, the photoresist pattern 70 is removed by the stripping process.
Referring to FIG. 1F, an interlayer insulating layer 32 is formed on the entire surface of the substrate 1 where the source and drain regions 14a and 14c of the PMOS TFT are formed. Then, a source contact hole 36 and a drain contact hole 38 exposing the source and drain regions 14a and 14c of the PMOS TFT and the source and drain regions 24a and 24c of the NMOS TFT are formed through the gate insulating layer 12 and the interlayer insulating layer 32 using a sixth mask process.
Next, as illustrated in FIG. 1G, source and drain electrodes 15 and 16 of the PMOS TFT connected to the source and drain regions 14a and 14c of the PMOS TFT through the source and drain contact holes 36 and 38, and source and drain electrodes 25 and 26 of the NMOS TFT connected to the source and drain regions 24a and 24c of the NMOS TFT through the source and drain contact holes 36 and 38 are formed using a seventh mask process.
As described above, the method of fabricating a CMOS TFT, in which a predetermined dosage of impurities are implanted only into the semiconductor layer of the PMOS TFT requires seven mask processes. This is applied to the method of fabricating a CMOS TFT, in which a predetermined dosage of impurities are implanted only into the semiconductor layer of the NMOS TFT as well. The mask process includes a plurality of processes such as a photoresist photo process, exposure and development processes, an etching process, a photoresist stripping process, etc. Therefore, in the method of fabricating a CMOS TFT that requires the seven mask processes, manufacturing processes are complicated, and the CMOS TFT manufacturing costs are increased.

Method of fabricating complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) thin film transistor (TFT)

San #24 Nongseo-Dong, Giheung-Gu, Yongin, Gyunggi-Do


In a lead frame board, while a heat radiation wall member formed by a resin having a relatively high thermal conductivity is provided in a low heat-resistance heat generating component mounting region where a low heat-resistance heat generating component is mounted, heat block wall members formed by resins having relatively low thermal conductivities are provided in a high heat-resistance heat generating component mounting region where a high heat-resistance heat generating component is mounted and in a non-heat generating component mounting region where a non-heat generating component is mounted. Thus, heat block is performed between the low heat-resistance heat generating component mounting region and the high heat-resistance heat generating component mounting region and non-heat generating component mounting region, and a heat radiation function is enhanced in the low heat-resistance heat generating component.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a component mounting board structure having a heat radiation or heat block function and a production method thereof. The component mounting board structure is configured such that heat generated from a heat generating component, e.g., a heat generating element of an electronic device such as a switching regulator and a thermoregulator is efficiently radiated while does not have an influence on other components through a component mounting board.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in the electronic devices such as the thermoregulator, development focuses on high functionality. However, heat radiation measures obstruct miniaturization and high performance of the electronic device.
In the heat radiation measures of the electronic device, there is a problem that electric power consumption of the electronic device is increased due to the high functionality of the electronic device, and thereby a temperature of an electronic component is increased to exceed a heat-resistant limitation temperature of the electronic component, namely, the temperature of the electronic component is increased not to be able to exert predetermined performance. From the standpoint of a demand of the miniaturization of the electronic device, there is also another problem that, because the same amount of heat is required to be radiated in an area smaller than ever, the heat is easy to accumulate in the device and thereby the temperature of the electronic component is increased to exceed the heat-resistant limitation temperature of the electronic component.
In the electronic devices such as the thermoregulator, plural components having large heat generation amounts are used in a power supply portion, though the power supply portion generates the largest heat generation amount. In order to eliminate the influence of the heat between components, it is necessary to increase a distance between components. Therefore, it is difficult to achieve the miniaturization of the electronic component. Further, because the heat radiation measures are achieved to all the plural components having large heat generation amounts, a production process becomes complicated, which obstructs improvement of production efficiency.
Therefore, in order to eliminate the influence of the heat generated by the heat generating component on other mounting components, there is a problem that heat block on a component mounting board is efficiently achieved while the miniaturization is realized. Under the situation that the modularization of the component mounting board is widely performed, in modularizing the component mounting board, it is necessary to develop the component mounting board from the viewpoint of controlling a heat radiation function.
Currently, in the case where the electronic components are mounted on the component mounting board and used in modules, a printed wiring board and lead frame board are frequently used as the component mounting board.
As is well known, the printed wiring board has a structure in which a metal thin plate formed by a copper plate or the like is laminated on a surface of resin board made of one kind of resin and a circuit pattern and the like are printed on the metal thin plate.
In the conventional heat generating component (heat generating element) in which the printed wiring board is used, there is a radiation structure in which the heat generated from the individual heat generating element is separately radiated through each radiator by providing the radiator in each heat generating component mounted on the printed wiring board.
For example, in the electronic component mounting, a through hole and plural screw holes are made in the printed wiring board, the heat generating element is mounted on one of surfaces of the printed wiring board corresponding to the through hole, a projection portion having a perforation and a screw locking hole are provided in the radiator, the projection portion is inserted into the through hole to arrange the radiator in printed wiring board corresponding to the position of the heat generating component, the screw inserted through the screw hole is fixed in the screw locking hole to attach the radiator to the printed wiring board, and a gap between the projection and an element package of the heat generating element is filled with a thermally conductive adhesive through the perforation using a syringe (for example, refer to Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. H06-45393).
The lead frame board in itself is formed by the metal thin plate such as the copper plate and an aluminum plate. The metal thin plate is punched to integrally provide a circuit pattern and a connection terminal by a pressing machine, the mounting components are soldered onto the circuit pattern, and the circuit pattern and the mounting component are sealed by an insulating resin layer made of one kind of insulating resin.
In the conventional heat generating component (heat generating element) in which the lead frame board is used, there is a radiation structure in which, while the high heat radiation function of the lead frame board is utilized to enhance the heat radiation function, similarly to the printed wiring board, the heat generated from the individual heat generating element is separately radiated through each radiator by providing the radiator in each heat generating component mounted on the lead frame board if needed (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2003-347509 and 2003-243562).
Accordingly, in the configuration of the conventional techniques, both in the printed wiring board formed based on the resin board and in the lead frame board formed by sealing the circuit pattern and the mounting component with the insulating resin, the gap between the circuit patterns is insulated using one kind of resin, the heat generating components which generate the heat by themselves are treated irrespective of the different heat generating temperatures, and only the radiator is separately provided in each heat generating component to separately radiate the heat generated by the heat generating component using each radiator.
However, for the heat radiation problem of the electronic device having the configuration in which the mounting components are mounted on the component mounting board, it is necessary to manage design such that the temperature of the heat generating component does not exceed a heat-resistant limitation temperature of the heat generating component in consideration of the heat generated by each heat generating component. In addition, it is necessary to consider the following situation in order to completely solve the heat radiation problem.
That is, it is necessary to consider that the heat generated by the heat generating component has an influence not only on itself but on other mounting components.
In consideration of the above, for example, in the conventional techniques, there is known a technique in which a mounting area for the electronic components such as CPU having the large heat generating amount in the component mounting board and a mounting area where an imaging optical system and a solid-state imaging device are mounted are separated from each other by a notch, a metal member is inserted into the notch, and thereby the heat from the electronic components such as CPU is absorbed and radiated by the metal member inserted into the notch. There is also known a technique in which an electronic device housing is divided into a matrix, simple computation is performed by substituting attribute values (degree of heat generation, heat resistance, and criticality) for incorporated substances, and the result is compared to past successful records to determine arrangement of the incorporated substances in the electronic device housing (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. H8-237525 and H9-230963).
However, in the conventional techniques, the arrangements of the heat generating component and the non-heat generating electronic component are designed on the component mounting board or in the electronic device housing by separating the heat generating component and the non-heat generating electronic component. That is, the mounting components having the functional correlations with one another are arranged in separate mounting areas in the component mounting board or electronic device housing, because mounting components differ from one another in the thermal property. Accordingly, in order to respond to the current demand of the high-density packaging, it is obvious that the conventional technique has a limitation.
In the conventional technique, the heat generating component is individually treated, and the radiation structure is formed for each heat generating component. Therefore, in the case where the heat generating components are collectively mounted in one area, it is not considered that the heat generated by one heat generating component has an influence on other heat generating components through the component mounting board.
The inventors do not focus on the heat radiation measures according to the arrangements of the mounting components mounted on the component mounting board, but the inventors focus on separate treatment of the heat generating component and the non-heat generating component. The heat generating component largely generates the heat by itself, namely, the heat generating component has a large self-heating characteristic. The non-heat generating component has no self-heating characteristic or hardly has the self-heating characteristic. The inventors also focus on a difference in heat-resistant limitation temperatures among the heat generating components and the non-heat generating components depending on the characteristics of the heat generating components and non-heat generating components.
The heat generating component is divided into a low heat-resistance heat generating component and a high heat-resistance heat generating component. The non-heat generating component is divided into a low heat-resistance non-heat generating component and a high heat-resistance heat generating component. In the radiation structure of the heat generating component, not only it should be considered that the heat generated by the heat generating component is not radiated only by the radiator individually provided in the heat generating component unlike the conventional technique, but also it should be considered that the heat generated by the high heat-resistance heat generating component has an influence on the low heat-resistance heat generating component through the component mounting board or the heat generated by the low heat-resistance heat generating component has an influence on the low heat-resistance non-heat generating component through the component mounting board.
In the case where the printed wiring board is used as the component mounting board formed by the high-density packaging, particularly in the case where the lead frame board is used as the component mounting board, the heat generated by the heat generating component is transferred to the lead frame board, so that the heat is easy to have an influence on other mounting components.
In view of the foregoing, an object of the invention is to provide a component mounting board structure having a heat radiation function or a heat block function. In the component mounting board structure, the mounting components mounted on the component mounting board are divided into the heat generating component and the non-heat generating component by distinguishing the heat generating components having large self-heating characteristics from the non-heat generating components having no self-heating characteristic or hardly having self-heating characteristics, the heat generating components are also divided according to the heat-resistant limitation temperatures, and thus various kinds of mounting components are separately treated. That is, the low heat-resistance heat generating component on which the heat has the largest influence is not affected by the heat generated by itself, the heat generated by the low heat-resistance heat generating component does not have an influence on the non-heat generating component, the heat generated by the high heat-resistance heat generating component does not have an influence on the low heat-resistance heat generating component, and the heat generated by the heat generating component, particularly by the low heat-resistance heat generating component is radiated by efficiently leading the heat to a point where the heat does not have an influence on neighbors, or the transferred heat is blocked, thereby suppressing the temperatures of all the mounting components to the heat-resistant limitation temperature or less.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method of producing a component mounting board structure having a versatile radiation structure according to the component mounting boards such as the printed wiring board and the lead frame board. In the component mounting board structure production method, the component mounting board structure is produced at low cost and improvement of assembling productivity is achieved. In the component mounting board structure, the mounting components mounted on the component mounting board are divided into the heat generating component and the non-heat generating component by distinguishing the heat generating components having large self-heating characteristics from the non-heat generating components having no self-heating characteristic or hardly having self-heating characteristics, the heat generating components are also divided according to the heat-resistant limitation temperatures, and thus various kinds of mounting components are separately treated. That is, the low heat-resistance heat generating component on which the heat has the largest influence is not affected by the heat generated by itself, the heat generated by the low heat-resistance heat generating component does not have an influence on the non-heat generating component, the heat generated by the high heat-resistance heat generating component does not have an influence on the low heat-resistance heat generating component, and the heat generated by the heat generating component, particularly by the low heat-resistance heat generating component is radiated by efficiently leading the heat to a point where the heat does not have an influence on neighbors, thereby suppressing the temperatures of all the mounting components to the heat-resistant limitation temperature or less.

Component mounting board structure and production method thereof


A method, an apparatus, and a system for speech recognition are provided. A third-party application corresponding to a speech signal of a user can be determined according to the speech signal and by means of semantic analysis; and third-party application registry information is searched for and a third-party program is started, so that the user does not need to tap the third-party application to start the corresponding program, thereby providing more intelligent service for the user and facilitating use for the user.

In the prior art, a user can flexibly and independently download various applications for an interaction device (User Equipment, UE for short). However, not all these applications are provided by terminal manufacturers. An application that does not come with an interaction device but is acquired by a user is referred to as a third-party application, for example, applications in the App store of Apple and the Android market. A third-party application may also be a program that is not authorized to start by means of speech before delivery of a device. A third-party application is a program set or an instruction set that is independent of an operating system but can be invoked and executed in an operating environment of an operating system. With a large number of third-party applications, applications available for users to select are enriched significantly. Currently, two most common operating systems of interaction devices are the Android operating system and the Apple operating system (iOS for short), both of which can support third-party applications. On the Android platform, a third party can upload a developed application to the Android market for sale; on the iOS platform, a third party can upload a developed application to the App store for sale.
A user of an interaction device can download applications in the Android market or the App store to the interaction device by connecting to a network, where these applications may be free of charge or chargeable, and these applications include the most common software, for example, map, social messaging software QQ, instant messaging software Skype, or shopping software Taobao. The foregoing applications are presented on a terminal as icons. When the user needs to start a third-party application, the user taps a corresponding icon on the touchscreen to trigger starting of the third-party application.
For the interaction device, how to start a third-party application more intelligently by means of speech recognition without tapping a corresponding icon but is a difficult problem.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method, interaction device, server, and system for speech recognition


The invention includes optical elements for applications in regions with stringent fire safety regulations, whose color rendering index Ra is at least 97 at a thickness of 4 mm, and which are flame-retardant according to DIN 60332 and are mainly composed of a plastic having at least one structural element selected from the group consisting of sulphones, sulphides, ethers, esters, ketones and imides.

The invention relates to optical elements composed of plastics and suitable for applications in regions with stringent fire safety regulations, and to uses of the optical elements of the invention. These regions with stringent fire safety regulations are in particular aircraft interiors or else ships, where it can usually be difficult for the passengers to escape in the event of a fire. Components used in such conveyances are therefore subject to particular fire protection regulations, set out in the corresponding standards or specifications. Particularly relevant standards for aircraft are JAR/FAR 25.853a, JAR/FAR 25.869 and ABD0031.
Plastics resistant to high temperatures are known from the prior art, an example being polyphenylene sulphide, which is said to be stable in prolonged use at temperatures up to 200° C. and to withstand brief exposure to temperatures of up to 240° C. It is flame-retardant to the German DIN 4102 standard, i.e. it is self-extinguishing once the source of ignition has been removed.
DE 39 00 674 A1 likewise describes plastics resistant to high temperatures and based on copolymers of polysulphone and polyimide, these being suitable for prolonged exposure in the range from 150° C. to 180° C.
However, an intrinsic feature of all of these plastics is that although they are to some degree transparent they have a yellow colour clearly discernible by the naked eye, and cannot therefore be used as material for optical elements for passage of light in the visible region for spectrum. For this reason, by way of example, the outer panes of aircraft windows are manufactured from polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), for which exceptional approval has been given, this material also being known by its trade name Plexiglas. This is a transparent material which is substantially colourless, but not flame-retardant. This compromise is accepted because windows with a clearly discernible colour are considered likely to be unpopular with passengers.
The mirrors in aircraft bathrooms are moreover not currently manufactured from plastics, but from polished aluminium, an attendant disadvantage of which is that the actual polishing process has high production cost. A polished aluminium surface is also susceptible to scratching, and the mirrors in aircraft bathrooms therefore require frequent replacement. This replacement is another noticeable adverse feature of airline operating costs.
Glass cannot be used as material for these applications in passenger aircraft, because laminated glass would be required in order to meet requirements for preventing injuries caused by glass splinters, and this type of glass is heavy, and reduce payload, or would undesirably increase operating costs.

Optical elements composed of flame-resistant plastics


A microprocessor (5) including a plurality of arithmetic logic units (42) is disclosed. At least one of the arithmetic logic units (42) includes a shifter circuit (50) for executing logical and arithmetic shift, rotate, and rotate-through-carry instructions in both the left and right directions, on data words of various lengths. The shifter (50) includes a series of input multiplexers (72, 74, 76, 78) for presenting the data word, carry bits, and extended sign bits to a first funnel shifter stage (80). Each of the multiplexers (72, 74, 76, 78) and first funnel shifter stage (80) are preferably realized by AND-OR-INVERT logic, to allow for 0 logic states and don't cares to be presented by the nonassertion of a control signal thereto. The shifter (50) is implemented as a right funnel shifter, with left shifts and rotates performed by presentation of the data word to the most significant bits of the first funnel shifter stage (80), followed by a right shift of the logical complement of the shift count. The first funnel shifter stage (80) is controlled by logic (84) that enforces a single bit position shift if the shift or rotate is in the left direction, contemplating at least the least significant bit of the shift count. A second funnel shifter stage (82) is provided to complete the shift or rotate execution by the most significant bits of the shift count, presented as the logical complement if the shift is in the left direction.

As is fundamental in the field, conventional microprocessors of both the general purpose and application-specific types are called upon to perform certain arithmetic and logical operations upon digital data words. Arithmetic operations include typical addition and subtraction operations, for which conventional adder circuitry is provided. Other common operations in modern complex instruction set microprocessors include integer multiplication and division. As is well known in the field, multiplication and division by powers of two may be readily performed merely by way of shifting a digital data word to the left or right, respectively, by a specified number of bit positions. Non-power-of-two multiplication may, of course, be performed by the addition of the results of powers-of-two multiplication operations. In addition, arithmetic and logical operations of other types are also commonly performed by conventional microprocessors, typically indicated in the instruction set for the microprocessor. For example, microprocessors of the well-known x86-architecture type perform logical and arithmetic operations such as logical shifts (in both the left and right directions), arithmetic shifts which retain the sign information (in the right direction only, which is toward the least significant bit), rotates, and rotates which involve the carry bit (i.e., the carry bit, or flag, is rotated along with the data word).
As is also known in the art, in x86-architecture microprocessors of the so-called Pentium-class, which refers to microprocessors compatible with PENTIUM microprocessors available from Intel Corporation, may perform these types of logical and arithmetic operations may be performed on data words of varying length. Typically in these microprocessors, logical and arithmetic shifts, and rotates, may be performed on data words of eight, sixteen, or thirty-two bits in width. Shifter circuitry of the so-called "barrel shifter" type conventionally performs operations of these types. However, conventional barrel shifters typically occupy a large amount of integrated circuit chip area, dissipate a relatively large amount of power, and involve substantial propagation delays.
By way of further background, funnel shifters are known circuits for performing operations such as shifts and rotates. However, conventional funnel shifters are also quite inefficient in performing many of these operations, especially when the shifter must operate on data words of different lengths.
By way of still further background, funnel shifters for performing logical shifts and rotates in both directions, for a fixed operand size, are known in the art. However, these conventional funnel shifters are inadequate to support some complex instruction sets, such as those used with x86-architecture microprocessors, considering that these instruction sets require support for multiple operand sizes, and also for rotate-through-carry operations.

Shifter circuit for an arithmetic logic unit in a microprocessor


A plaster comprising pranoprofen, a hydrophilic or hydrophobic base component, and an absorbefacient is disclosed. The plaster is effective for curing arthritis deformans, muscle ache, distention after external injuries, and aches. Since pranoprofen is administered away from gastrointestinal tracts, application of the plaster is not accompanied by side effects such as peptic ulcer, bleeding in constipation, and diarrhea. It can release pranoprofen constantly over a extended period of time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plaster preparation, and, more particularly, to an analgesic, anti-inflammatory plaster preparation comprising pranoprofen.
2. Description of the Background
Pranoprofen is popularly used in clinics in forms such as tablets, capsules, and the like as a non-steroidal antiinflammatory and analgesic drug due to its excellent antiinflammatory and analgesic activity.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs usually exhibit a strong action to digestive organs after oral administration and, if dosed in a large amount, may cause side effects such as peptic ulcer and the like. Since pranoprofen exhibits such side effects only in a very limited degree, it is frequently used in clinics. However, pranoprofen is not always without risks of side effects; it is sometimes accompanied by side effects in digestive organs, such as peptic ulcer, bleeding in gastrointestinal tracts, constipation, diarrhea, and the like.
A cutaneous application of pranoprofen can reduce the side effects in digestive organs, since pranoprofen is administered away from gastrointestinal tracts where major side effects take place. In particular, for diseases involving local pains, such as arthritis deformans, muscle ache, distention after external injuries, aches, and the like, local administrations such as the cutaneous application are more advantageous for avoiding side effects and for maintaining a higher pranoprofen concentration at injured areas than the case where pranoprofen is dosed via circulating blood. Because of this, an ointment composition comprising pranoprofen and an organic solvent such as alcohol has been proposed in Japanese Patent Publication (ko-kai) No. 7115/1984. Pranoprofen can be well absorbed by the application of an ointment. The ointment, however, requires frequent applications, e.g., several times a day, in order to maintain its effects for a long period of time. In addition, the use of organic solvent is undesirable from the aspect of safety to the skin.


A fastening system comprises a housing having a closed end and an open end. A first mixable fastener component is disposed within the housing at the closed end and defines a first volume, the first volume being substantially devoid of gas. A rupturable skin overlie the first component proximate the open end for maintaining the first component within the housing.

Mechanical fastening systems employing two fastener elements, such as a nut and bolt, can become loosened due to vibration, temperature changes and the like, with the result that the connection may fail or not be satisfactory for the intended purpose. It is known to provide an epoxy adhesive system on at least one of the fastener elements, in order to adhesively secure the connected elements and thereby prevent unintended loosening. Mechanical fasteners are normally manufactured by someone other than the ultimate user, and it is desired that the adhesive system be applied by the manufacturer so that complications for the ultimate user are minimized. The epoxy adhesive components are normally applied in an uncured condition, and interconnection of the elements, such as by threading the nut onto the bolt, has the effect of mixing the resin components and thereby permitting them to react and cure.
Various means have been disclosed for permitting the adhesive components to be applied to the mechanical fastening elements in the uncured condition. It is known, for example, to apply in spaced relation both components of an epoxy resin system to a single one of the elements of the mechanical fastening system. Means are provided to maintain the epoxy system components separated so that unintended or accidental mixing and resultant curing is prevented. It is known, for example, to provide each of the components of the epoxy system with a photocurable additive which forms a frangible skin. The skin has sufficient structural integrity to withstand the stresses which may arise during shipment and handling, but yet will be readily ruptured and thereby allow the components to be mixed and ultimately cured when the fastener elements are combined.
Formation of the rupturable skin by the addition of a radiation curable film forming material is known, and the film forming agent may be the same for both components of a two-part epoxy resin system comprising a resin and a hardener. A photoinitiator is also customarily provided in order to enhance formation of the skin upon exposure to ultraviolet radiation.
A wire connector is a well-known means for securing together the ends of wires. A wire connector typically comprises a plastic or like insulating housing which is open at one end. A coil spring of somewhat hourglass shape is typically provided in the cavity of the housing and has the purpose of grasping the usually twisted together ends of the wires in order to draw them into the wire connector. A wire connector, like the other mechanical fasteners earlier discussed, may permit the wires to become loosened from within the wire connector, thereby permitting them to be pulled apart or to be exposed. Exposure of the wires may cause damage to the user or otherwise, and is to be avoided. For this reason, it is well-known to wrap the wire connector and a portion of the wires with an insulating adhesive tape, normally of a coated cloth or plastic composition, so that the wire connector will remain secured to the wires. Application of electrical tape is, however, a time consuming, expensive, and unreliable process.
Co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 655,854, filed Feb. 15, 1991 by Mark Thurber and Richard M. Wallace for Adhesive systems, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, is directed to certain improvements in adhesively secured mechanical fasteners, including wire connector. That application discloses a two-component epoxy resin adhesive having an improved film-forming material for creating the frangible skin. Use of the epoxy resin adhesive with a wire connector is also disclosed.
We have found that the use of two-component epoxy resin adhesives in wire connector fasteners does have various advantages over the previous use of electrical tape. Because of the frustoconical shape of a wire connector, however, certain new problems have arisen which may adversely affect the use of the wire connector, its manufacture, and its shipability. We have discovered, for example, that filling the wire connector with the epoxy resin causes an air pocket to be formed within and/or about the spring. As discussed in the referenced application, the resin is separated from the hardener by a rupturable skin, and we have found that the relatively weak bond between the rupturable skin and the wire connector may be broken by the air pocket as it migrates within the chamber of the wire connector. It is not unusual for wire connector to be shipped by airplane, with the result that the air pocket may become relatively more mobile on account of the reduced atmospheric pressure around the connector, thereby being able to more readily separate the rupturable skin from the wire connector and permit the hardener and resin to mix and begin to cure. Once the integrity of the bond between the skin and the wire connector has been broken, then curing will begin, and the wire connector may eventually be unusable.
Yet a further problem which we have discovered concerns the deterioration in the cure speed which may occur in the event the hardener is exposed to moisture coming from the air pocket. Relatively moist air, such as may occur during the warm, humid summer months, will be dispersed within the hardener as it fills the wire connector, with the result that the cure of the resin by the hardener may take longer than desired. The rupturable skin overlying the hardener prevents it from being exposed to the ambient air, but the entrainment of moist air during the filling process still allows water to be introduced into the hardener.
Those skilled in the art will understand that a commercially acceptable adhesively securable wire connector must be able to be shipped from a remote manufacturer to the ultimate user without concern that the epoxy resin adhesive components will interact and cure during shipment, handling, and storage. The disclosed invention relates to a wire connector assembly and its method of manufacture which avoids the noted problems by filling the wire connector with the epoxy resin in an environment which is substantially devoid of air and water vapor. Substantially all of the air is evacuated from the wire connector by means of a vacuum applied prior to filling with the epoxy resin, thereby substantially eliminating the air pocket which may lift the skin and permit the introduction of moisture into the hardener.

Wire connector and method of manufacture


The identity of an individual (known or unknown) is determined by a sonic profile of sounds issued through his oral-nasal passages. The sounds are converted to digital electrical signals and produce a three domain format of frequency, amplitude and time samples to produce an array of peaks and valleys constituting the sonic profile of an individual. A source or library of a sonic profiles in the same format of a known individual have the interrelationship including relative positions of said peaks and valleys of said sonic profile of the known individual with that of said unknown individual compared and a utilization signal is provided upon a detecting or non-detecting a correlation between said sonic profiles.

The present invention is directed to an improved method and apparatus for identifying human sonic sources.
There are many situations where it is desirable to make a substantially positive identification of sounds originating through the mouth (oral-nasal cavity) of a human. In banking and credit card situations, correlation of the identity of the person presenting the card and the owner of the card requires some form of corroborating identification. As a further example, in police work, threatening, harassing and obscene telephone calls require substantially positive identification of the caller in conjunction with other evidence, before making an arrest of a suspect. As a further example, in extending credit over the telephone, vendors, in addition to credit card number verification, sometimes require caller correlation of fact indicia by voice with stored fact indicia, particularly where there is a controversy over whether or not certain goods were ordered.
The present invention is distinguished from speech recognition systems where spoken words are attempted to be identified by machine to produce a machine translation or identification thereof. In fact, in practice of the present invention, recognizable vowels, consonants and syllables, etc. sounds, making-up recognizable speech (which may be disguised by the suspect) are discarded and only the non-audible (typically infrasonic or sub-aural) portions or orally emitted sound through a human mouth are utilized in making a substantially positive recognition or identification of a suspect. The invention is based on the fact that while the voice may be disguised, certain physical structures in the voice box of a suspect, are for all practical purposes, not controllable by humans and that an initial rush of air develops an inaudible sound usually in the infrasonic range and that such sounds, although inaudible (below the audible frequency range) are unique to each individual. Thus, while audible portions of the sound emission from the human mouth or oral cavity may be used for identification purposes, the present invention is concerned with the low energy level portion of sound emitted by the human in making speech or other sounds emitted through the oral cavity.
According to the invention, sound recordings are first digitized (e.g., sequential samples of an analog wave are converted to binary words which may then be manipulated to first delete (in this preferred embodiment) the audible portion of the sound recording. Then the remaining portion is analyzed time-wise, frequency-wise and amplitude-wise (three domains), and displayed both on an electronic display and, if desired, a printed display. The signals from which the display is prepared can be electronically compared to find points of correlation or visually compared to find points of correlation with a suspect recorded rendition of the same sound emissions.
Where telephone lines form a part of the path to the medium used to capture the voice sound pattern, because of the sharp spectral cut-off due to telephone bandwidth filtering, the voice sound wave to be recognized should be passed through essentially the same or similar paths before the comparison process of the present invention.
Mouth shapings, tongue, lip and other physical structures which affect the "sound" of speech can be used as by training various muscles and control to disguise a voice. However, those situations which are responsible for forming the inaudible sounds at the front or leading or trailing portion of an audible speech wave are generally not subject to such control and are involuntary, and essentially the same and unique for a given person. The frequency band under about 500 Hz is found throughout the speech spectrum and the infrasonic and sub or inaudible portions of the speech spectrum are particularly useful according to the present invention.
Typically, most tape recorders are relatively good at recording the inaudible sounds emitted orally through the mouth and not so good at the high frequency ranges. Thus, while high quality recording equipment can be used in the practice of this invention, one of the advantages and features of the invention is that inexpensive magnetic tape recorders (VARs), and low cost sound processing equipment can be used in practicing the invention. Moreover, for acoustic surveillance of business establishments which are subject to robberies (banks, convenience stores, gas stations, etc.), low cost voice activated recorders, which are on continuously during normal business hours with automatic reversing tape cassettes, endless loops, etc. or digital recorders wherein large scale FIFO memory arrays are used to capture the infrasonic sounds. It will be appreciated that, if desired, the recording can be timed and dated and stored in a permanent memory. It will also be appreciated that photographic evidence such as video cameras may be used to record the transaction and used in conjunction with the present invention to obtain a positive identification of a suspect.
The digitized portions of the card owner's name (for example) voice samples, prepared as described herein, are recorded on the magnetic strip of a credit bank, or charge card. At the point of use, the card holder is requested to speak his or her name which is transduced to electrical signals, digitized and compared against a stored digital rendition using the principles of this invention.
According to one aspect of the invention, sound or voice activated recorders are located at a bank teller's window, for example, to record the infrasonic acoustical emissions from a bank robber and the recording later used to assist in making a positive identification of the bank robber. Each teller is equipped with an inconspicuously located voice activated recorder (VAR) or microphone of a VAR. Each VAR records for 1/2 or 1 hour continuously recording over and over use an endless loop--15 minutes or automatic tape reversing machine. It could also be a digital recorder, or a solid-state memory which includes an analog-to-digital to FIFO memory. Then when there is a bank hold-up, the VAR is activated by the bank robber stating, for example, "This is a hold-up--put all of the money in the bag", "I have a bomb", etc. These short, commonly used vocalizations of the bank robber are recorded in the event of a robbery, and are saved and given to the police for analysis according to the invention, to identify possible suspects.
As a further use of the invention, prerecorded samples of the inaudible sounds produced by a bona fide telephone customer may be used to validate further telephone orders by that customer. The invention can also be used to identify persons at banks or for admittance to protected or restrictive areas.
The invention system involves first acquiring and storing a digitized voice sample. This is accomplished when a human subject speaks into a microphone connected to an analog-to-digital (AD) conversion circuit. Such AD circuit must be capable of sampling the analog input from the microphone at a rate of about 5,500 samples per second (or at least twice as high as the highest frequency needed) and must provide operator controls which permit precise selection of the sampling rate. The AD circuit is connected to the data bus of a computer which can retrieve the resulting stream of digital values for storage. The voice sample, thus converted, is stored on magnetic disk in which may be called a voice file.
The data in the voice file created by the above procedure is then imported by computer software capable of translating it into two types of on-screen graphic display. The first display type is a two-axis graph representing time (x) and amplitude (y). The software must permit selection ("marking") of a portion of the data thus visually represented using a pointing device such as a computer mouse. The software then translates that portion of the data represented by the selected ("marked") section of the visual display into a second type of on-screen display.
The second display type is a three-axis graph representing time (x), frequency (y) and amplitude (z). The selected portion of data is charted as multiple samples or "slices" of the original voice sample data. The number of slices charted is controlled by the software which selects the values of each nth sample from the selected portion of the voice file data to create a display group of the multiple slices separated by equal time intervals. By spacing each slice equidistant from the previous and the next slice, a cascade pattern is created in the display which, when complete, provides a three-dimensional visual array. For our purposes we term this display a "digital acoustic hologram" which becomes a digital hologram.
The juxtaposition of the lines and curves in any one slice to those of its neighbors, disclosed by the cascade pattern of the acoustic hologram, constitutes the fabric of the processed voice sample which is the basis for voice comparisons in the present invention. The contours and trends evident in the hologram are the "marks" by which a voice sample can be identified.
The voice identification system of this invention for police use is intended for comparison of a voice sample recorded on magnetic tape, obtained from a human subject either by telephone or microphone. A digitized sample is acquired and stored when the taped sample is replayed and the analog signal thus created is connected to an analog-to-digital (AD) conversion circuit. Such AD circuit must be capable of sampling the analog input acquired from the tape at a rate of at least 5,500 samples per second (or twice as high as the highest frequency needed) and must provide operator controls which permit precise selection of the sampling rate. The AD circuit is connected to the data bus of a computer which can retrieve the resulting stream of digital values for storage. The voice sample, thus converted, is stored on magnetic disk which may be called a voice file.
The data in the voice file created by the above procedure is then imported by computer software capable of translating it into an on-screen graphic display. The display generated by the computer software is a two-axis graph representing time (x) and amplitude (y).
The software also provides for the simultaneous display of a second two-axis graph beside the first graph. The second graph is generated by the software from a second voice file containing the digitized values from a voice sample of a person of known identity. The two voice samples thus displayed side-by-side can be compared visually by the operator who then forms a judgment as to whether the two voice samples are sufficiently similar tentatively to be considered a match.
In order to obtain two graphs with comparable data samples, the software must permit editing of each sample to delete from the displayed graph extraneous noises, excessively long spoken phrases and periods or gaps of silence. Through such editing, each sample can be reduced such that it represents only a sound known to have been produced by the subject's vocal cords, exclusive of any irrelevant sounds such as coughs, sneezes, breathing, etc., and reduced to approximately the same length of time as the other sample. Editing the samples can best be achieved through the use of a pointing device such as a computer mouse which can allow "marking" and subsequent deletion of a portion of the data. The software then retraces the display showing the remaining data.
It should be noted that the voice identification system of this invention is not intended to provide police agencies with a voice analysis for use as evidence in a criminal proceeding. While it may be possible that voice analyses could be accepted as evidence in the future, the purpose of the system as herein disclosed is to provide a tool for police use. It would be considered successful if, for example, it allowed officers to concentrate their efforts in an investigation on only a few suspects by eliminating dozens of others through the use of voice analysis.
It is to be clearly understood that, as discussed above, the invention does not require the use of the audible portion of recorded speech for identification purposes, but it may be used in conjunction with other speech recognition methods and apparatus.
The system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,804 submits the analog voice signal as received by telephone to a process wherein numerical values are assigned to the differences between analog soundwave features. Although the language in the patent includes the term "digitize", it is referring to the arithmetic value assigned to the difference in waveform features, and not involve digitization of the voice sample itself.
This invention differs from the model in U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,804 in that the voice samples are digitized prior to comparison. This allows a more precise measurement of waveform features, storage of the digitized sample on magnetic media, and manipulation of the sample to optimize the comparison process. Also the system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,804 because it is intended to acquire a voice sample from telephone lines which clip frequencies below 500 hz, ignores the sub-aural portion of the frequency spectrum containing the waveforms most important in this comparison scheme.
The scheme disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,518 includes digitization of voice samples and extraction of characteristic features from an articulated phrase. However, acknowledging that variations will occur from one voice sample to the next, it requires storage of a "plurality of cepstral coefficient sets" taken from multiple samples, apparently so as to match the one most similar to that from the test sample.
The present invention system differs form this scheme in that the patent method computes "closeness metrics" from multiple samples and bases its "decision" on those metrics. The system of this invention has no need to reference multiple samples because it analyzes only the sub-aural portion of the frequency spectrum, recognizing that activity in these lower frequencies does not change substantially from one voice sample to the next among samples taken from the same subject.
Although the system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,518, like the present system, provides digitization of its voice samples, it fails to acknowledge the limitations imposed by the Nyquist Effect which limits the highest frequencies of the digitized sample to a value that is one-half the sampling rate. By failing to specify that samples must be acquired at a sample rate sufficient to produce at least all frequencies within the aural range of the spectrum (which is purports to measure), and that each of two samples to be compared must be acquired with the same sample rate, the system reduces itself to a level of performance that can never be of practical benefit.
Another feature of the system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,518 is that voice features are stored on a card. However, the system of the present invention proposes storing the digitized data on a magnetic strip mounted on a card similar in size to a credit card, whereas the card of U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,518 would actually contain printed circuits which would interact with the user interface terminals.
The system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,833,713, like the U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,518 system, submits an analog voice signal for comparison. The device recognizes that the waveforms comprising a spoken word or phrase will not be precisely the same from one sample to the next. It purports to compensate for this, not by storing multiple samples, but by storing a consolidated voice pattern created from the superposition of "a plurality of voice patterns". The present invention does not denigrate or blur the stored voice sample by superimposition of multiple samples.

Acoustic method and apparatus for identifying human sonic sources


An apparatus for applying labels from a label web to moving articles such as a form web includes a moving belt, through which is applied a vacuum force, which successively receives a non-adhesive side of each label as they are removed from the backing web. A control system accelerates the belt in order to place the label onto a moving article located beneath the belt. The control system the decelerates the belt in order to receive another label and repeat the process of applying the label.

Machines have been developed in order to apply labels to a moving form web. This is desirable where one wants to apply labels to a large number of articles such as catalogs or other printed forms. Typically, the label is shorter than the form. For example, the form may be eleven inches long and the label two inches long. Accelerating and decelerating the labels to match the form speed allows for continuous label placement on the moving forms. Applying the labels to the forms by hand labor would be time consuming and expensive.
An example of such a device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,294,644 to Anderson. This machine uses a motor to pull a label web around a curved edge. The label web includes a series of adhesive labels on a web backing. At the edge, the labels are separated from the backing and applied to a moving form web positioned beneath the curved edge. The device uses sensors to detect a position of a form to receive a label and uses that information to calculate when to apply the label to the moving form web.
The machine described in the '644 patent has limitations, however. For example, there is a limit to the speed at which the motor may pull the label web around the curved edge. Accelerating the label web to match the form web moving at higher speeds may cause the label web to break at the edge due to the increased tension resulting from the higher speed. Therefore, as the speed of the form web increases due to advances in printing technology, this machine will not be able to keep up with those increased speeds. In addition, this machine requires a high degree of accuracy in placing the labels at a particular position onto the moving form web. Since the form web is moving at a high rate of speed, the particular position which is to receive the label is only beneath the curved edge of the machine for a very brief instant. The machine must, therefore, be very accurate when applying the label to the moving form web in order to place the label in a precise position on the form web.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved apparatus and method for applying labels to moving articles and in particular for increased speed and accuracy for applying the labels. Such an apparatus and method would allow for label application at increased form web speeds, such as from increased printer speeds.


Provided is a process for the production of a loop-shaped flame in a glass furnace. The furnace includes, in a rear part, a glass melting zone heated by injecting through at least one port a fuel gas and an oxidizer gas having more than 50 vol % of oxygen and, in a front part, a glass refining zone. The process involves defining a stoichiometry coefficient Ks of the flame in the melting zone or the refining zone according to the following formula: ##EQU1## The oxidizer gas and the fuel gas injected through at least the first port are adjusted to obtain a stoichiometry coefficient Ks in the glass melting zone equal to at most 0.8. A fuel-oxidizer mixture is injected into the refining zone to obtain a stoichiometry coefficient Ks in the refining zone which is greater than the stoichiometry coefficient Ks in the melting zone and which is between 0.8 and 1.5. An oxidizer gas is injected into the melting zone in the vicinity of a fume discharge zone to obtain a quantity of oxygen in the fumes of between 0.5 and 3% by volume. The invention has particular applicability to end-fired furnaces with recuperators in which the blocking of the recuperator makes it necessary to employ ports with oxygen during the blocking of the recuperator, to maintain output at an acceptable volume.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to glass furnaces, especially end-fired furnaces with a recuperator or with regenerators. It relates more particularly to a process and a system for a glass furnace, especially an end-fired furnace provided with a recuperator which makes it possible to maintain the output efficiency of the glass furnace when there is a failure of the recuperator or of the regenerator and throughout the period of its blocking.
(2) Description of the Related Art
A glass furnace is usually supplied with energy through the intermediary, in particular, of so-called "air-fuel" ports into which a mixture of air and of fuel, such as natural gas, fuel oil or the like, is injected. These furnaces usually have at least one recuperator or regenerator which allows air to be preheated before it is injected into the ports. When the recuperator or regenerator of the furnace is defective or damaged, this furnace being normally heated with air ports, it is no longer possible to preheat sufficiently the air injected into these ports, and the energy consumption in the ports increases. Sometimes the energy contributed by the flame is no longer sufficient and cold spots are found on or in the bath of glass, which are highly detrimental to the quality of the glass produced and to the yield of the furnace.
The blocking of a recuperator in a furnace can demand several weeks or several months and during this period of blocking the production of glass in the furnace must be continued. The problem presented consists therefore in finding a means for replacing the function of the recuperator while employing, if possible, less energy than when the furnace is in normal operation with its recuperator.
Glass furnaces can be classified into various categories according, in general, to the type of glass manufactured and its use downstream of the melting and refining furnace. Glass furnaces for the manufacture of glass fibers generally comprise one or several recuperators which recover heat from the fumes by heat exchange with the air entering the furnace to feed the ports. These furnaces are generally furnaces in which the heating/melting of the glass charge takes place by virtue of a plurality of ports arranged in the side walls of the furnace.
Another type of furnace consists of so-called regenerative furnaces, which comprise at least two regenerators operating alternately in time:
Before being discharged to the atmosphere, the fumes pass through these regenerators and transfer part of the heat to refractory walls placed as a chicane in the regenerator. Every 20 to 30 minutes the ports and the regenerators are generally switched so that the regenerator which previously carried the hot fumes from the ports carries the cool air which feeds the ports and vice versa. This cool external air is thus heated in contact with the walls of the regenerator.
There are essentially two types of regenerative furnaces: those of the type with transverse ports which comprise series of ports in the side walls of the furnace with a regenerator facing each of them, and those of the end-fired type, which comprises two adjacent regenerators situated in the upstream part of the furnace (in relation to the flow of the glass charge), generally with one or more fuel injectors situated under the opening of each regenerator which opens into the furnace, with the result that the fumes from the flames produced by the burning of the fuel and of the preheated air are recovered in the other regenerator, and vice versa when the switching from one system of ports to the other takes place (every 20 to 30 minutes).
The present invention relates essentially to these latter regenerative furnaces of the end-fired type.
More details on glass furnaces can be found, for example, in the work entitled "Glass Furnaces--Design, Construction and Operation"--Society of Glass Technology--1987--by Wolfgang Trier.
Many documents in the art describe the use of oxygen-fuel ports in glass furnaces, either supplementing existing ports, or as a replacement for said ports.
For example, European Application EP-A-0,447,300 in the name of the Applicant Company, discloses a process for melting and refining in a glass furnace of end-fired type, in which at least one port of oxygen-fuel type is added in the glass refining zone, said port being of the type in which a so-called "pulsed" combustion is performed on the fuel or the oxidizer, so as to reduce the production of NOx in the fumes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,116,399 describes a process for melting glass in an end-fired furnace which comprises only one oxygen-fuel additional port situated in the glass-refining zone in the middle of the front wall of the glass furnace, pointing toward the melt, so as to keep the unmelted material substantially on this side of the array of the bubblers which separate the melting zone from the refining zone. For this purpose the gases of the flame issuing from this additional port must have a speed of at least 100 m/s, which makes it a so-called "high-impulse" flame which has, in particular, a major disadvantage, when thrown forward at the limit of the melt, of causing the projection of unmelted glass particles.
Among the documents cited above and relating to regenerative glass furnaces of the end-fired type, none relates to the operation of such a furnace without regenerators, that is to say none concerns in particular the problem of the operation of this furnace during the blocking of the regenerators.
Similarly, the publicity document entitled "Glassman Europe '93--Presented at Glassman Europe '93 Lyon--France--Apr. 28, 1993" by G. B. Tuson, H. Kobayashi and E. J. Lawers is completely silent on this problem.
In particular, the problem which the inventors have had to solve, after having contemplated employing flames in which the oxidizer contains more oxygen than air does, and preferably more than 50 vol % of oxygen, consisted in keeping the flame loop-shaped, that is to say heating substantially the whole surface of the bath of glass: this loop shape is relatively easy to produce when air is employed, but this is found to be difficult when the oxidizer is pure or substantially pure oxygen (that is to say containing preferably more than 88 vol % of oxygen) and when the speed of injection of the oxygen or of the oxidizer gas remains low and generally does not exceed 60 m/s (for example in the case of oxygen supplied either from a stock vessel of liquid oxygen or from a low-pressure adsorption system of the VSA (Vacuum Switch Adsorption) type), but when the speed of the fuel gas is high (that is to say in particular when the ratio of the speeds of the fuel and of the oxidizer is higher than 1). The speed of the fuel gas, often higher than 100 m/s, then causes rapid oxidizer/fuel mixing and hence a shortening of the flame which then loses its loop shape. (The higher the speed of the fuel gas is than that of the oxidizer gas, the more the mixing of the two tends to take place rapidly).

Process for the conversion of a glass furnace with the aid of a combustion with oxygen

L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme pour l'Etude et Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude


An optical waveguide layer in a semiconductor photodetector includes a first interface in contact directly with a first insulation layer and a second interface in contact directly with a second insulation layer, wherein each of the first and second insulation layers is much lower in refractive index than any parts of the optical waveguide layer so that a light being propagated through the optical waveguide layer reflects at the first and second interfaces without any permeation into the first and second insulation layers.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor photodetector, and more particularly to a silicon-based semiconductor photodetector having a thickness-reduced optical waveguide layer including an optical absorption layer.
A conventional mesa-structure Si-based semiconductor photodetector will be described with reference to FIG. 1. A first Si cladding layer 11 is formed on an n-type silicon layer 3. The first Si cladding layer 11 has a recessed portion surrounding a mesa-portion. An optical absorption layer 4 is formed on the mesa-portion of the first Si cladding layer 11. A second Si cladding layer 11 is formed on the optical absorption layer 4. A silicon oxide film 7 is formed on the recessed portion of the first Si cladding layer 11 and the vertical side walls of the mesa-structure as well as a peripheral region of the top surface of the mesa structure. An aluminum electrode 9 is provided on the top surface of the mesa structure except for the peripheral region of the top surface of the mesa structure. This mesa-type Si-based semiconductor photodetector is disclosed in Journal of Light Wave Technology Vol. 12, No. 6, 1994, pp. 930-935.
A difference in refractive index between the n-type and p-type silicon layers 11 acting as the cladding layer and the Si/SiGe optical absorption layer 4 acting as a core layer is small. Silicon has a refractive index of about 3.5, whilst SiGe has a refractive index of about 3.6. Such the small difference in refractive index between the core layer 4 and the cladding layers 11 allows a remarkable permeation of the light into the cladding layers 11 in accordance with Goose-Henshen Shift Phenomenon. The depth of the permeation of the light into the cladding layers 11 is about 1 micrometer. In order to prevent the optical loss, each of the cladding layers 11 must have a thickness thicker than the depth of permeation of the light into the cladding layers 11, for example, more than 1 micrometer. This means that the optical waveguide layer comprising the cladding layers 11 and the optical absorption layer 4 must have a large thickness. This means that the mesa-structure has a large height or a large step.
A conventional planer Si-based semiconductor photodetector will be described with reference to FIG. 2. A silicon oxide film 2 is formed on an insulation substrate 1a. An n-type silicon layer 3 is formed on the silicon oxide film 2. A trench groove 10 is formed in the n-type silicon layer 3. Silicon oxide films 6 are formed on vertical side walls of the trench groove 10. An optical absorption layer 4 is selectively and epitaxially grown on the bottom surface of the trench groove 10 so that the optical absorption layer 4 is buried in the trench groove 10 except for an upper region of the trench groove 10. A p-type silicon layer 5 is subsequently and epitaxially grown on the optical absorption layer 4 so that a top surface of the p-type silicon layer 5 has the same level as the top surface of the n-type silicon layer 3. A silicon oxide film 7 is formed over the top surface of the n-type silicon layer 3 and a peripheral region of the p-type silicon layer 5. An aluminum electrode 9 is provided which extends over the p-type silicon layer 5 except for the peripheral region thereof. This planer-type Si-based semiconductor photodetector is disclosed in the Japanese laid-open patent publications Nos. 7-231113 and 7-52700 as well as in IEDM Technical Digest 1995, pp. 583-586.
A difference in refractive index between the n-type and p-type silicon layers 3 and 5 acting as the cladding layer and the Si/SiGe optical absorption layer 4 acting as a core layer is small. Silicon has a refractive index of about 3.5, whilst SiGe has a refractive index of about 3.6. Such the small difference in refractive index between the core layer 4 and the cladding layers 3 and 5 allows a remarkable permeation of the light into the cladding layers 3 and 5 in accordance with Goose-Henshen Shift Phenomenon. The depth of the permeation of the light into the cladding layers 3 and 5 is about 1 micrometer. In order to prevent the optical loss, each of the cladding layers 3 and 5 must have a thickness thicker than the depth of permeation of the light into the cladding layers 3 and 5, for example, more than 1 micrometer. This means that the optical waveguide layer comprising the cladding layers 3 and 5 and the optical absorption layer 4 must have a large thickness. This means that it is difficult to do an epitaxial growth of the thick silicon layer.
In the above circumstances, it had been required to provide a novel mesa-structure Si-based semiconductor photodetector free from the above problems and also provide a novel planer Si-based semiconductor photodetector free from the above problems.

Silicon-based semiconductor photodetector with an improved thin optical waveguide layer